About to start a new build, Is this a good start

[ptrkrsh]

Tell me what you think, just the barebone starting point for bigger and better things.

Asus P6T Motherboard
Chipset: Intel X58/ICH10R
Front Side Bus: Up to 6400 MT/s
Processor Interface: LGA 1366 / Socket B
Memory Supported: Triple Channel DDR3-800/1066/1333- 1600/1800/2000Mhz w/ Overclocking

Intel Core i7 920  
Processor Speed: Core i7 920 / 2.66GHz
Additional Technologies: Hyper-Threading
L3 Cache Size: 8MB
Processor Socket: LGA1366 / Socket B

OCZ Gold Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory
Memory Size: 12GB TOTAL (2 sets of 6144MB)
Memory Speed: 1600MHz PC12800
Memory Type: Triple Channel DDR3

Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB Hard Drive
Drive Capacity: 1.5 TB
Buffer Memory: 32MB
Drive Interface: SATA II

NZXT Tempest ATX Mid-Tower Case

Ultra LSP650 650-Watt Power Supply  

EVGA GeForce GTX 295 CO-OP Edition Video Card - 1792MB DDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, 480 Cores, PCI-Express 2.0, (2) Dual Link DVI, Quad SLI
Memory Interface:   896-bit
Stream Processors:   480
Core Clock:   576 MHz
Memory Clock:   2016 MHz
Shader Clock:   1242 MHz
Interface Type:   PCI Express 2.0
Interface Speed:   x16

I will be upgrading it further at the end of the year but for now I am going from and amd 5200+, 2 gigs ddr2 800 and an evga 8800 gt superclocked, what kind of performance gains am i looking at, and would you say this would be a solid foundation for a monster gaming rig?

Thanks all.

[SubZer0]

That's indeed a very strong system. I recommend you overclock that 920 to at least 3.8ghz to make it even stronger. Use this to keep it cool:

http://www.quietpcusa.com/Thermalright- ... 07C61.aspx

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... z%20freeze

I have my 920 @ 4.0ghz using those two cooling solutions

As for the RAM, make sure it's the fastest timing you can afford.. 6 is the fastest now I believe. If that's too much, then 7 is just fine:

CL 7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227381

CL 6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820226050

The GTX 295 is nothing but a heat producer and energy waster... Get the 285 instead

The power supply... you're going to have a strong quad core CPU with a 285 and 6GB of RAM with a huge HDD... Get at least a 750w:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817341011




I went from an AMD 4200+ dual core, to a Q6700 quad, and now an i7 system similar to yours, but on a GTX 260... It's a world of difference. You get what you pay for

[ptrkrsh]

What about swapping the cpu for the big daddy i7 with the unlocked multiplier, I have no experience overclocking, but want to learn how, would the premium price for that chip pay big dividends, or am I better of just sticking with the lower end models?

[SubZer0]

All in all, you get what you pay for. However, I recommend you just stick with the 920 or 950. I'm on a 920 clocked to 4.0ghz and it's doing its job damn well

Take the advice I said in my first post here. You don't want to buy an expensive i7 system and not get the right parts to do the job.

EDIT:
as for the overclocking... i7 chips are the easiest out there to overclock, so don't stress on that. when you get your parts and have the system set up and configured, let us know. overclocking is the LAST thing you do to a system... after the OS is set up correctly and FSX is set up with all its addons installed, tweaked, and your drives are defragged

[hhomebrewer]

The power supply... you're going to have a strong quad core CPU with a 285 and 6GB of RAM with a huge HDD... Get at least a 750w

Spend a few extra bucks, get the Thermaltake 850-watt modular and never worry about power problems again. It can't cost that much more and you will increase your power available by over 10%. This could come in handy when the new video cards and CPUs come out, and you want one, the other or both in a bad, bad, bad way...