Need advice from the Gurus!

[cincybengal]

First time build
I have purchased the following already:

Lexa Blackline ATX Tower- http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0263624
Cooler Master 650w psu http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0265147
EVGA e-GeForce8800Gt http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0279319
Samsung 20X dvd burner
2 sets (4gb) Corsair ddr2-800 Two 1GB 240-pin DIMMs http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0245599
FDD + multicard reader

Planning on getting Q9450 if it ever comes out.

My questions are these:

I am thinking x-38 board to upgrade in the future to ddr3 and sli. Which one? Some boards seem to be a nightmare getting set up properly and would like to minimize difficulty.

Raid or no raid? What setup do you recommend?

Sound Card?

thinking of this monitor, what do you think? http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11236988&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&lang=en-US

Should I get aftermarket cpu cooler if I will OC in the future?
Tear it apart and let me know what you think!

Thanks

 

[keakar]

i would not get that ram and everything on your list is cheaper at newegg

get this ram instead but before you buy it wait to make sure the motherboard you buy with work ok with it.

this is the same 2gb set of ram you wanted for $35 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145034

and here is a 4gb set for $75 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184


the monitor from costco looks like a very good price so that would be good but why so big?

 

[cincybengal]

Yeah,

I started this process out at my local store. Then started looking online at forums and stuff and read about newegg. Had never heard of it before.

Anyways, what about the mobo
and to RAID or not

Thanks

 

[btarunr]

Answers chronologically:

1. SLI and DDR3....nope none of the nForce 700 series boards take this unless of course you're willing to shell out for the Intel Skulltrail.

2. RAID, RAID 0 of four disks with stripe size of 64 KB. a fifth large disk that's not part of the array.

3. Assuming you're not using a second/third video-card, buy at least a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer for ~$80, it's worth it. If you're using multiple video cards, the PCI slots are anyway blocked.

4. Nice, but your 8800 GT (that you're planning to buy) will make a joke out of this monitor (at its native resolutions) when gaming unless you've got two of these doing SLI.

5. Yes, You can't go very far with stock-cooling unless you undervolt, risky. Get a Zalman CNPS 9700 NT at least....it compliments the NVidia setup and keeps things really cool.

 

[t_ski]

Some of the reviews I've seen with DDR3 boards don't show any better results than DDR2, especially considering the extra cost associated with DDR3. That being said, if you're looking to save some money on a future upgrade, Foxxconn makes an X38 board that supports DDR 2 and 3:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186134

Still won't get you SLI though, as btarunr said.

 

[ktr]

Some of the reviews I've seen with DDR3 boards don't show any better results than DDR2, especially considering the extra cost associated with DDR3. That being said, if you're looking to save some money on a future upgrade, Foxxconn makes an X38 board that supports DDR 2 and 3:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186134

Still won't get you SLI though, as btarunr said.

Isnt that the board that does both crossfire and sli?

 

[keakar]

unless you really plan to have the monitor on the other side of the room i would say you dont need to go any bigger than a 24" monitor is the best choice and personally i recommend the 22" because it just gives you the most for your money in my opinion. brand wise i recommend getting a SAMSUNG but if not then a HANNS-G or CHIMEI

SAMSUNG http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001240

HANNS-G http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254020

CHIMEI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824252008

 

[cincybengal]

The only reason I was thinking about that monitor was so my kids could hook up their X360 or PS3 to it. Also I was thinking of using the media features in Vista Premium.

So scrap the notion of DDR3 and get x38 with SLI.

Cool

 

[btarunr]

The only reason I was thinking about that monitor was so my kids could hook up their X360 or PS3 to it. Also I was thinking of using the media features in Vista Premium.

So scrap the notion of DDR3 and get x38 with SLI.

Cool

If media is all you want, you can scrap a lot of other things as well like the RAID, just bring in one or two large drives 750GB / 1 TB, scrap the Q9450, bring in a E8400 ($190).....save some serious money buy them X-360 games instead

 

[cincybengal]

Good suggestion on the larger hd. I was thinking that myself, rather than RAID. However, media isn't all I am after. I want to set it up as a decent gaming rig, for me, not the kids until they're older, and get into home video editing kind of stuff.

I've needed a laptop for my business for several years. This will be my first desktop in probably 10 years, so I want as many features as I can cram in on a reasonable budget
<$2000 excl monitor.

 

[btarunr]

Stick to your original plan, just replacing the Q9450 with the E8400, stick to the single hard drive, a decent Intel P35 based board, a single Geforce 8800 GTS (G92) and you'll get things done way below the $2000 mark.

 

[t_ski]

Isnt that the board that does both crossfire and sli?

The thing with SLI working on CrossFire boards (AFAIK) is just from hacked drivers, and it only applies to 7000 series (maybe older). The newer 800 series drivers were ecrypted (if what I read was correct), and can't be hacked.

BTW, here's a link I just saw on DDR2 vs. DDR3:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles3/cpu/ddr2-800-vs-ddr3-1333.html

Maybe a 1% gain, if that. IMHO not worth it right now considering the premium price tag. Oh yeah - and they used that Foxxconn board for the testing.

 

[cincybengal]

How do you evaluate an LCD monitor's quality?

 

[t_ski]

Usually it is best to observe the qulaity in person. If buying online, you can look at the specs and find ones with high specs in your price range. The next step would be to google reviews for that monitor. Then, if you find one that you think will work for your situation, find a decent price from an online retailer that has a decent return ploicy.

 

[cincybengal]

Thanks

 

[keakar]

for me, not the kids

i didnt think that was even possible

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

If you are going to do SLi or Crossfire, that 650 watt PSU wont do the trick. The Yorkfield CPUs will be out in the next month or so and the Wolfdale's are coming out on Sunday. (York is quad Wolf is dual)

I have 2x80GB hard drives in a RAID 0 array and I forget what the cluster size is. I wanna say 128k. I can move about 11GB in ~3 minutes.

DDR3 is too expensive right now and it isnt justifiable over DDR2.

I second, third, and forth the idea of an X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card. I have one and love it. Great sound comes from it. Great price too.

 

[cincybengal]

We have 2 X360's, PS3, Wii, 2 PSP, 2 DS's, and three laptops. They'll live!

 

[cincybengal]

what wattage to you recommend?

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

I would say anywhere from a 700 to 900watt. Because you will have two cards in SLi that require at least a 400watt PSU and you will need at least 26A on the 12v rail. You will have a quad core, 4GB ram, and a 28 inch LCD. Not to mention the hard drives and optical drives. Best thing you can do is go here (http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp) and have that calculator figure out how much power you are going to draw. If the 9450 is not an option yet, use the Q6600 as an estimate.

 

[cincybengal]

Thanks! I am looking at the e8400 rather than the q9450. What do you think?

 

[btarunr]

go go go!

makes more sense.

 

[strick94u]

Bad ass monitor !!

 

[cincybengal]

Just picked up an E8400 at Microcenter ($189). What do you think about a BloodIron MoBo?

 

[candle_86]

Some of the reviews I've seen with DDR3 boards don't show any better results than DDR2, especially considering the extra cost associated with DDR3. That being said, if you're looking to save some money on a future upgrade, Foxxconn makes an X38 board that supports DDR 2 and 3:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186134

Still won't get you SLI though, as btarunr said.

thats true, but it was about DDR2 also. The last time we had a move to new ram that made a diffrence was when Athlon went DDR because speeds where already 266.