New rig configuration -- accepting suggestions

[HarvesteR]

hello,

i'm currently planning the config of my new rig i'm gonna be building in the coming months, i want this to be a top-notch rig, and i would like it to remain that way for a while...

my budget can extend to as high as US$4000, but i would prefer to keep it a tad lower than that (at about 3 grand)
i dont know if my choice of parts will put the price tag so far up, but anyways, i really want this pc to be on top of the food chain

well, here are the specs i've come up with:

Mobo: Asus Striker II Formula
CPU: Intel Core2 Quad Extreme Edition QX9650
RAM: Corsair Dominator 4GB PC2-8500 DIMM Memory Kit 2GBx2
HD: 2x 500GB (make and model not chosen yet)
GPU: 2x geforce 8800 GTX Black Pearl (water cooled) + Water cooling kit to match

and to top it off, a Saitek X52 Pro HOTAS stick + Pro flight Pedals

about power supply, i believe my recently purchased PSU will handle it just fine... (Seventeam thundering 700W RMS)

well, that's mainly all the parts that matter... the rest i already have, or are cheap anough to buy some other time if i feel the need to...

i am accepting suggestions... especially about the HDs which i'm not sure what to get, but it needs to be really fast

let me know what you guys think

Cheers

HarvesteR

[ThatOnePerson]

No way 700w will be enough, your looking at at least a 1000w.

[Slotback]

If you're spending that much on memory then you may as well get DDR3.

Review this thread:
http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2 ... 1207153686

Change mobo to a DDR3 supporting X38 or X48 , but, these are crossfire only. Or change to a DDR3 Nvidia SLI board if they're out yet. 8800GTX is still fast but you can get as fast or faster for cheaper with the 8800GTS 512 or 9800GTX. Also, look into the Radeon 3870x2.

SLI and crossfire don't take advantage of fsx, so you only get an increase in performance if you run at really high resolutions and high AA & AF settings.

[rikm12345]

I agree about the DDR3 Ram.

For a Hard Drive i would recommend getting a 10,000 RPM Drive with a fast seek time and large Buffer Cache.

This drive is good, but its only 150gb, which might be enough for you!?
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Qu ... 4294959438

For the CPU i would go for one of the new Quad cores.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Qu ... 4294958803

[HarvesteR]

DDR3 is way too expensive right now... and as you said it yourself, the new boards with DDR3 support are Crossfire boards... and i want my Geforces (i've had ATI cards before and i had some bad experiences with them)

about the PSU, the 8800GTX draws around 150W on it's own, so even with 2 of them, there should still be enough power to keep the rest of the pc going (actually i bought this PSU for it's 8800-SLI-making capabilities)

about the CPU, i will be going with the new quad cores, but i have to find the most appropriate model for my rig, and for my wallet  ;)

i figured the QX9650 would do fine, since it has the same FSB as the board and a 3.0ghz clock, plus it's Core 2 Extreme architecture
but the one Rikm12345 pointed out would also work very well... it has nearly the same specs, but it's not Extreme Edition, which makes it much cheaper... hmm now i have to find out the difference in performance between those 2


about the GPU model, that was some interesting bit of information there, i'm gonna look into the nVidia website and find out their specs (they have a very handy comparison chart there)

another option for me would be to buy just one 8800GTX, since i already have one installed, but it would have to be the exact same card, and i fear the 8800 chipset may have been revised already, and that would really limit my options

also, i think SLI could be just the thing for me, even in fsx, because i am running a Triple Head setup here, and that's a lot of pixels for just one 8800 to draw...  (3840x1024 )

also, i'm thinking about water cooling for the GPUs, but i dont have any particular kit in mind yet... i heard there were some really good ones from ThermalTake, but i still don't know much about it... i mean, are they worth the money, and does it need a lot of maintenance?

thanks for the replies guys

Cheers

HarvesteR

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EDIT: just took a look at some HD prices there and whoa! fast drives are freaking expensive!! a 400GB 10000Rpm drive comes out for over 1000 dollars

hmm, maybe i'll stick with 7200rpm drives and a lot more storage space

i wanted 1TB of HD space, on 2 drives, one of which would be partitioned 2 ways so i could have a dual boot of winXP 32 and winXP 64, the other would be for safekeeping of my projects and other stuff that can't be easily reinstalled in case i ever have to format a partition (and we all know someday we will have to  ::))

[HarvesteR]

found this HD, seems alright... and quite cheap actually
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard- ... /st=query/

hmm... now i'm thinking... maybe i should get the big and slow drives AND a fast and smaller drive just for the operating system...

although it won't make games load any faster, since they'll have to be installed on the big drives, but windows would load in like 20 seconds

hmm 1150GB of drive space... not too bad ey?

[Slotback]

Well if you must go Nvidia change the card to a 9800GTX. Same as 8800 but new manufacturing process and slightly slower memory, but faster core.

[HarvesteR]

yes, but the 9 series card tend to cost twice as much as the 8 series...

i compared specs and prices on those cards a while ago and found that the 9 series are simply not worth the money...

i could buy 2 8800s and make an SLI setup for the price of a single 9 series card... and get the same performance out of each one

[HarvesteR]

well i think i'm set about the hard drives:

this is what i've got:

2x Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA

PLUS

WD Raptor 150GB 10000RPM 32MB SATA II (for the OS and the most demanding games such as FSX)

comes out at around US$300

what do you guys think?

[Slotback]

BS.

9800GTX is cheaper  than 8800GTX.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... e+9+series

http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/sea ... 800GTX+768

http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/sea ... ?q=9800GTX

[HarvesteR]

i stand corrected then... they are cheaper...  :o

i wonder though... why did nVidia make those cards into series 9?

they're not even close to a technological breakthrough in relation to the previous models... and in some aspects, they are actually below...

they should have called them the 8900 models... which is basically what they are

well, this opens up possibilities for my rig... i believe the only way i'll stick with the 8800 is if i find one that matches the one i have right now, so i can put them in SLI buying just one card...
if i can't find it though... the 9800s are cheaper to buy as a pair

thanks for the new info

Cheers

HarvesteR

EDIT: i remember where i saw the 9 series prices... i was looking at the 9800GX2 model, which is basically 2 9800s stuck together, which explains why it cost double  ::)

[HarvesteR]

one more thing guys...

i've been looking at the Asus website, and i found a board that supports both DDR3 and 3-way SLI... it's the Striker II Extreme

it costs almost US$100 more than the Striker II Formula variant, but the main difference between those 2 is the memory support

being that there really is no way to dodge DDR3 anymore, i thought maybe i should go with this one... but i'm worried the added price of the board plus the DDR3 modules will put the price tag too high for me to reach

i know there is some crap DDR3 memory out there... and that's another point of concern for me... i need some help with this..

here's an overview of the board

let me know what you guys think... it can OC up to 2000mhz on the memory bus, but it's default is 1333mhz, which i'm not sure if it's any good

Sorry about the long stream of questions, but i really want this rig to be as good as possible... and that includes ease for upgrading in the future, so i know picking a good mobo is key

also, this may sound like a dumb question, to which i probably already know the answer, but anyways...
there's no way in hell i can put DDR2 memory on this, right?  :-X even if it's just for now...

anyways... now i need to find some decent DDR3 memory that fits in the now limited budget


EDIT: after reading up a bit on DDR3 memory, i realized that latencies are also a concern here, and there's also the matter of latency vs clock frequencies... so i have to swallow my pride on this one and admit that i am, indeed, stumped... please help   :-/

EDIT 2 (last one i promise): i found this memory kit here from corsair:
Corsair XMS3 DHX 2GB PC3-10600 DDR3 DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit
it has a 1333mhz bus clock, but it also has a CAS latency of 9, so... i don't know... what do you guys think?

also, i have to tone it down to only 2GB, as that DDR3 kit costs as much as 4GB of DDR2

Cheers

HarvesteR

[markag]

Yes DDR3 memory is the latest and greatest and it will eventually replace DDR2 memory. However, DDR2 will probably still be mainstream for another year or so.  DDR3 is still in its infancy, and it probably will take a while to completely take over.  There are differing opinions about the performance advantages that DDR3 actually brings over DDR2. Recently one of the major reviewing websites compared a DDR2 and a DDR3 system and found that DDR3 gave an average of 1 or 2 fps increase over DDR2.  If you are afraid of the price of DDR3, I would assume that you wouldn't be giving up a lot if you wen't with DDR2.

You may also like to know that the 8800GTX hasn't been changed since it was introduced 2+ years ago. They are all still G80 and will work in SLI with your card.

[HarvesteR]

You may also like to know that the 8800GTX hasn't been changed since it was introduced 2+ years ago. They are all still G80 and will work in SLI with your card.

oooh i did like to know that

nice... thanks for that info... and maybe i'll go with DDR2, if DDR3 is too expensive... but at least now i have an alternate configuration possibility

Cheers

HarvesteR