Hey guys I'm looking at doing a

xeon 3220 quad core 2.4
xfx 780i board
xfx 8800 gt 670mhz core
PSU 1000w I think?
g.skill ddr2 800 1gx4
2x western digi 500gb sata (I was searching for 250gb do they have something like that?)

Does this look like a pretty good setup?
I have the cpu I got it for free so..

Also can I use vista 64 with this xeon 3220 2.4 8mb cache chip?

What resolution do you want to run Crysis at? It is without a doubt the most strenuous game engine currently available, and if you want a smooth experience at anything above 1680x1050 you're going to need a Geforce 9800GX2 or SLi 9800GTXs.

The 3220 will run Vista fine. Are you intending on SLi? If not, you can probably get a cheaper/better performing Intel P35/X38 board instead.

Power supply is overkill.
A pc and power silencer 610 psu will be plenty for any single vidcard., or a silencer 750 for SLI.
Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling S75QB EPS12V 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, ULC, CE, CB, RoHS - Power Supplies

I would recommend a 9800gtx vidcard they are priced really well ($300ish) ,and later you could add another if it suits your needs.
Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

2 -2 GB sticks of ram are preferable to 4 -1 gig sticks,especially if overclocking.

the 3220 will work fine with vista, but a 9300 yorkfield will yield higher clocks and only costs alittle more.
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors


otherwise an E8400 wolfdale will be just fine and costs alot less.
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

Quote: Originally Posted by RBIEZE Power supply is overkill. A pc and power silencer 610 psu will be plenty for any single vidcard., or a silencer 750 for SLI. Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling S75QB EPS12V 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, ULC, CE, CB, RoHS - Power Supplies I would recommend a 9800gtx vidcard they are priced really well ($300ish) ,and later you could add another if it suits your needs. Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards 2 -2 GB sticks of ram are preferable to 4 -1 gig sticks,especially if overclocking. the 3220 will work fine with vista, but a 9300 yorkfield will yield higher clocks and only costs alittle more. Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors otherwise an E8400 wolfdale will be just fine and costs alot less. Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

A 9300 Yorkfield won't yield higher clocks; because of the lower multiplier they are very difficult to overclock. Additionally, they have a smaller L2 cache than the Q6600/3220 He has a CPU anyway.

9800GTXs are nice, but basically just 8800GTS 512mbs with slightly higher clocks. The OP needs to give us a budget really.

PSU recommendation is spot on though, I meant to put that in my first post but forgot.

wd makes 250gb sata drives........at least the 2 i run are
the customer loyalty upgrade program doesn't have them listed at the moment though.

amd 6000+, 4x1gb gskill, tagan 700watt, 8800gts(640mb),ASRock ALiveNF7G-HD720p, samsung 223bw, wd 2x250gb, xp 32bit........crysis on high and tweaked from there

ok thanks so much guys!

I'm trying to budget this all within 1000 bucks, and yes within the next 6 months I will be buying another video card (exact same) to turn pc over to sli.

so this is why I'm going with xfx 780i board.

I do already have a cpu the x3220 will be the onboard brain =)

I've heard g92 8800gts is best bang for buck in numerous places, and that even a 8800gt 512mb would perform very well and sli would be great for that card.

I'm looking to buy the windows vista, so I just buy the Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit one.. not the upgrade one that is 122 bucks, the other one that is 222 bucks from newegg?

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 English NA DVD - Operating Systems


**EDIT

Also this is for the ram.. should I spend extra money to get g.skill 2x2gb 4-4-4-12 as opposed to 2x2gb 5-5-5-15 ram?

Should I pay the extra money to have a higher cas latency? Or can I just get the CAS 5 and just overclock the **** outta it.. because I've only heard great things about g.skill and overclocking.

The power supply I wanted to get is the
Newegg.com - XION Supernova XON-800R14N ATX12V / EPS12V 800W Power Supply 115/ 230 V CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, C-tick, CB, BSMI - Power Supplies
It has a 50 doller rebate so it's only 139 bucks at the end.. I really like this psu with the plug in power lines etc.. and since the price is cheaper than the one posted from RBIEZE..
If anyone has heard anything bad about these psu lemme know? But I would rather pay less price for more power, and I have the option with this psu until 4/28 to buy it for mail in rebate.


Thanks for all the help!

Don't go for that xion power supply. The PC power and Cooling is a much better quality power supply. It also has a single 60 amp 12 volt rail opposed to the multiple 12 volt rails on the xion which is better.

Never skimp on the power supply. It is vital that the unit you choose is stable, cool-running and efficient.

As for SLi, the "I'll upgrade in six months time" option is usually a poor one. By that time, you'll probably be able to buy a single card cheaper, that runs just as fast as two older cards in SLi, and you won't have driver issues or power/heat troubles that you might have with SLi.

Reflux speaks the truth. SLi is only really a decent option if you can afford to splash out on two high end cards in the first place.

The "upgrade in 6 months" thing that nVidia like to tout very rarely pans out and seems to be just more marketing BS to tempt you from ATi, as card prices fall making a second card of your now outdated variety, pointless.

I appriciate all of the opinions, perhaps hardware selections to go with the opinion would be nice =)

Should I stick with that power and cooling power supply, for my psu

and I wanted to do xfx 780i board with 8800gts g92 what do ya'll say is better?

*** EDIT:

Look I want to spend somewhere around 1000 bucks

and I have a quad core x3220 chip

so I want to do a 780i board with 2x2gb ram

If you all have suggestions for hardware, please let me know, tell me what motherboards best price/performance in this class and what video card to go with? etc.. please and thanks!

Right, here we go:

Motherboard: Newegg.com - ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

RAM: Newegg.com - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Graphics card: Newegg.com - MSI NX8800GTS 512M OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

PSU: Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling S75QB EPS12V 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, ULC, CE, CB, RoHS - Power Supplies

= $778.97

I really would encourage you to get an Intel board instead of an Nvidia 780i. The 780i is a good choice but X38 boards are better. If you really want an Nvidia board you may as well get a 790i as they are better, although this means you will need DDR3.

Newegg.com - EVGA 132-CK-NF79-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI DDR3 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

Newegg.com - Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Is this corsair ram considerablly better than the g.skill that everyone rages to me about saying that it has superior overclocking abilities?..

Just asking if spending the money on corsair is worth it.. I have corsair in my old rig and it's never let me down and it was stock 4-4-4-12 which I've ran @ 2-3-3-5 so I won't complain that it doesn't overclock.

Thank you so much reflex I appriciate you picking out some hardware for me, I will definatly be going with your choice of mobo, gpu, and psu. Just want to be certain about the ram, though I'm not at all against what you chose. The price is very nice, just need to add 2 drives and windows vista another 350 bucks on top, before I was looking around 1250 I think you've saved me a couple hundred and probably given me better performance options.

Quote: Originally Posted by Demalii Is this corsair ram considerablly better than the g.skill that everyone rages to me about saying that it has superior overclocking abilities?.. Just asking if spending the money on corsair is worth it.. I have corsair in my old rig and it's never let me down and it was stock 4-4-4-12 which I've ran @ 2-3-3-5 so I won't complain that it doesn't overclock. Thank you so much reflex I appriciate you picking out some hardware for me, I will definatly be going with your choice of mobo, gpu, and psu. Just want to be certain about the ram, though I'm not at all against what you chose. The price is very nice, just need to add 2 drives and windows vista another 350 bucks on top, before I was looking around 1250 I think you've saved me a couple hundred and probably given me better performance options.

I've heard people having good results with G.Skill memory - never owned any myself, but they seem a decent brand. If you want to know exactly what chips your RAM uses, check this page out:

DDR2 RAM List

It needs a little updating, but most stuff is on there. Basically anything that uses Crucial D9GMH is the utter bomb and will overclock to the moon. Bear in mind that the Dominators have the added benefit of built in heatsinks; the best chips often put out a hell of a lot of heat so these are useful.

Regarding the motherboard, there is crowded space around the CPU socket so make your choice of cooler carefully.

Hope that gets you a really decent PC

if the g.skill you were looking at originally was the 2x1gb 6400cl5 kit(red heat spreaders) , then over-clocking is probably out.with my setup under xp, i'm running 4x1gb @4-4-4-10 (1.9v as recommended by g.skill)
the 2x2gb kit (blue heat spreader) supposedly o/c's better, but i would go with corsair or crucial for safety's sake.


*on a side-note.....if you don't mind editing files, it is possible to run dx9 mode and have(nearly) the eye-candy of dx10.in other words,vista is not needed for crysis.......halo 2 is another story.

If your wanting SLI in the future then you should buy one of the EVGA mobo's. I have the EVGA 780i mobo and it overclocks pretty good. Not as well as an Intel board, but it's still a good board. I haven't heard about any other company making a better board than EVGA on the Nvidia front. The 780i will save you $100 over the 790i. And it's uses DDR2 memory.
Newegg.com - EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

For your memory I have to recommend something like these Patriot modules. I'm using some with no problems.
Newegg.com - Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

The 9800GTX's are priced pretty resonable. I have 2 now and a third on the way. When the 9900GTX's come out I'll have a few for sale cheap :-)
Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

And I have to agree with the others on the Power Supply, get a good one. I would get the PC Power & Cooling 750 watt model they have listed.
Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling S75QB EPS12V 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, ULC, CE, CB, RoHS - Power Supplies