Hello PCAPex!
Long time since I posted on here (was probably shortly after the PR->PCA change and the start of Gameapex).

Anyways, coming back from a 6 month deployment where 5 of it was tax free and have some money to build a computer. Here's what I got so far:

Case: Cooler Master Cosmos: $189.99
Mobo: ASUS P5N-T Deluxe LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI: $249.99
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield: $254.99 or Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale: $239.99
GPUs: 2x EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB: $459.98
PSU: Enermax Galaxy 1000W $319.99
RAM: 2x 1Gb Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066: $114.00
Hard Drives: 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB: $539.98
Optical Drive: Samsung 20x DVD+-R SATA DVD Burner: $27.99
Sound Card: Creative Labs Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer: $135.99
Monitor: Gateway XHD3000 Black 30": $1,699.99

OS: Windows XP Professional

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

edit: Updated due to suggestions.

You can not use SLI on that motherboard. You should look at the P5N-T 780i

Holy crap, thats more than a little bit of spare cash.

Everything looks great, but I vote PC Power and Cooling for the PSU, Raptors, and possibly a different monitor. I don't like Gateway.

My Vista Ultimate has both x64 and x86 discs.

*what Killer T said.

Keyboard, speakers, mousie?
-MF

64 bit Vista Ultimate might not be a bad idea if you ever plan to get more than 2 gigs of RAM. 32 bit Windows only supports a max of about 3 gigs of RAM.

Welcome back bro!

No point downgrading to Vista, even less point dual booting it. Surely dual booting is only a good idea when you need two operating systems for very distinct tasks. As is known by all, (but unfortunately not admitted by a select few...) Vista is totally pointless. Don't waste your money or hard drive space on it.

And yeah, to run SLi graphics, you'll need an nVidia chipset board. Intels P35, X38 and X48 only support ATis crossfire. That board Killert suggested is a solid choice.

As for the Raptors, unless you really must have a window in your drive, I think some of the new Seagate drives can match them performance wise at 7200rpm, so no need for them I don't think (don't quote me on that, im just pretty sure I read a benchmark where a normal 7200rpm drive was up there with the Raptors)

Also, if it was my money, I wouldn't buy the quad core. Theres not a great deal that supports 4 cores efficiently (quad core owners will tout a few games that make use but its not much). Id go with the Core 2 Duo E8400 or E8500, which can be clocked well over the 4Ghz mark on air cooling, with very little voltage. That'll give phenomenal performance in everything you can think of, and the apps that are multithreaded at the moment tend to be optimized for dual cores anyway (WinRAR for example has excellent multithreading). So two running over 4Ghz will scream.

Quote: Originally Posted by Master Yunk Holy crap, thats more than a little bit of spare cash.

That's what happens when the Navy sticks you in a tax free zone for around 6 months with barely any place to spend it except at bars in liberty ports (and I barely drink . ..).

Quote: Originally Posted by Master Yunk Everything looks great, but I vote PC Power and Cooling for the PSU, Raptors, and possibly a different monitor. I don't like Gateway. My Vista Ultimate has both x64 and x86 discs. *what Killer T said.

While I know Gateway has had a bad rep from their previous owners, from what I've read up on, the monitors they're producing are actually fairly good now. Any specific reason for not Gateway or have a suggestion for another 27" or greater monitor that has similar inputs?

So far I'm leaning more towards the 2x 1TB drives.

For PSU, what minimum wattage do you think I should be getting? I had selected the Enermax Galaxy based on a good review on PCA here.

Quote: Originally Posted by Monsignor Funkibut Keyboard, speakers, mousie? -MF

Already got them. Still going to be using my current G15 keyboard, Z-5500s, and MX Revolution though I might be doubling up on the keyboards and mice soon to support the other computers while I game.

Quote: Originally Posted by Romeo21779 64 bit Vista Ultimate might not be a bad idea if you ever plan to get more than 2 gigs of RAM. 32 bit Windows only supports a max of about 3 gigs of RAM.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex Welcome back bro! No point downgrading to Vista, even less point dual booting it. Surely dual booting is only a good idea when you need two operating systems for very distinct tasks. As is known by all, (but unfortunately not admitted by a select few...) Vista is totally pointless. Don't waste your money or hard drive space on it. And yeah, to run SLi graphics, you'll need an nVidia chipset board. Intels P35, X38 and X48 only support ATis crossfire. That board Killert suggested is a solid choice. As for the Raptors, unless you really must have a window in your drive, I think some of the new Seagate drives can match them performance wise at 7200rpm, so no need for them I don't think (don't quote me on that, im just pretty sure I read a benchmark where a normal 7200rpm drive was up there with the Raptors) Also, if it was my money, I wouldn't buy the quad core. Theres not a great deal that supports 4 cores efficiently (quad core owners will tout a few games that make use but its not much). Id go with the Core 2 Duo E8400 or E8500, which can be clocked well over the 4Ghz mark on air cooling, with very little voltage. That'll give phenomenal performance in everything you can think of, and the apps that are multithreaded at the moment tend to be optimized for dual cores anyway (WinRAR for example has excellent multithreading). So two running over 4Ghz will scream.

Guess I'll consider the Dual Core. Though I wonder if having a quad core would help out if I open up 4+ Guild Wars clients on the same computer. Right now, I open up 6 clients total on 3 computers and it would be helpful if I could open up more on my main. (Yes I still play Guild Wars and yes I play all 6 accounts at the same time).

For the hard drives, if I was getting the raptors, I'll probably get the non windowed ones since I'm probably not going to be cutting up the Cosmos case though I'm leaning towards the terabyte drives just so I have more space for everything (Currently at around 1.6 tb of stuff already and rapidly approaching my current limit). Also kind of hurts that I backed up my ship's network on one of my hard drives since the Navy won't pay for what I need to back up everything.

As for operating system, guess I'll stick with XP Pro then. One of the reasons for wanting to get Vista Home Premium was the built in media center since I'll be tossing a TV card in here too. If I go with XP Pro, I'll just leave the tv card in a seperate PC that will become a dedicated media pc.

Just thought of it but I'll probably need a good UPS too as the short time I was in Norfolk, there were a ton of lightning storms.

Also am looking for a decent 50" plasma screen if anyone has any suggestions (though this will probably be another 3 or 4 months down the road). Was looking ath this one.

Quote: Originally Posted by Enko While I know Gateway has had a bad rep from their previous owners, from what I've read up on, the monitors they're producing are actually fairly good now. Any specific reason for not Gateway or have a suggestion for another 27" or greater monitor that has similar inputs? So far I'm leaning more towards the 2x 1TB drives. For PSU, what minimum wattage do you think I should be getting? I had selected the Enermax Galaxy based on a good review on PCA here.

My last (two)Gateway experiences were crappy ones. A laptop from 2005, and a Monitor from 2002. If they've improved, more power to them go for it.

If you're about to full up the a drive, then shoot for the 2x1TB. Consider RAID at all or no?

I haven't seen an updated PSU calc in a while, but doing the math it looks like something in the 800 range, so you should be good. (didn't you know had picked THE Galaxy).

Quad core FAH is nice with the SMP... Folding@home - Download

E

That monitor is actually one of the best ones around becuase it includes a dedicated Silicon Optix Video processor. Dell also makes a similar monitor but it's $400 more and not quite as good.


As for power supply wattage you would probably be just fine with PC&P's 860w model or the one you've picked. Both are really good psu's though that Ernemax may be a bit of overkill. .


OS wise there is nothing wrong with Vista. Yes it will be slightly slower in games (we're talking 3-4%) there are no gaping holes and it's actually quite stable. Plus SP1 is just around the corner and the fixes most of the niggling complaints left. Theoretically there will be DX10 games out that will take advantage of Vista, but so far all of the DX10 features have been hacked on to XP and developers don't seem too keen on DX10. Media Center on Vista is quite nice and I really like it. If you're going to get a TV Tuner Media Center is definitely the way to go---there simply aren't any real competitors to it. That being said you could always pick up a copy of Windows Media Center 2005 and things are just about the same. Keep in mind however that should cablecard tuners ever be released to the public you will need Windows Vista to use them.

Otherwise looks like a great computer. Enjoy it

Right now, looks like I'll be getting the Quad core and Vista. I already got a copy of XP Pro and Media center at home so I'll try out Vista and see how it goes. If it doesn't work out, I can always install a different OS and use Vista when things get better. For the dual core, I'll probably save that to upgrade another one of my computers.

Looks like I'll start buying everything now.

Now I'm looking for a UPS to defend against these nasty lightning storms. Never had to worry about that in California . ..

well bought all the parts and put it together.

now the problem is vista keeps locking up while trying to install it. not at the same point every time. just locks up randomly. so far its only been able to go through the install once, did its restart and then it locked up on the next step so i had to start over again.
usually locks up.

i've been loading the drivers from the motherboards cds for the sata raid as that's what other people said could have been the problem. now i just can't figure out what else to do.

By the looks of things the P5N-T doesn't like Vista, or the Q6600.

http://forum.ncix.com/forums/index.p...d=0#msg1574408

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...rk=False&Page=

Have you tried updating the BIOS?

thanks for the links. i'll try out that stuff first.

should've checked out the hardware before blindly trusting a suggestion. oh well. lesson learned.