Spatha

I'm building a new machine upgrading from my 1.8 GHz, ya I know itÂ’s a little late, I won't even mention the graphics card out of sheer embarrassment. I'm essentially piecing all the parts together right now. I am looking at over clocking an E6600 and I have a Silverstone TJ09 case . I haven't chosen a motherboard or any of the other components yet but I have an eventual idea of what I'm going to use. I do want to water cool which as this would be my first time (with pumps and tubes anyways) may be a very stupid decision on my part as this is a lot to risk for a first time with such pricy components, and this case is specifically designed for air cooling (dose have predrilled holes in back for water tubing however).
My main question is whatÂ’s better to use for graphics cards for SLI, ATI or NVIDIA.
IÂ’ve been told that ATI is better because it can send information both ways to and from the GPU at the same time, and with NVIDIA it has to take turns sending the information, making the ATI cards faster. I was eye balling the Visiontek Radeon HD 2900 XT / 512MB GDDR3 and the Nvidia EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked / 640MB GDDR3 although I donÂ’t think IÂ’ll go EVGA. IÂ’m not sure which way to go and I couldnÂ’t find the answers anywhere on the forms. If ya have any suggestions as far as the graphics card or any of the other components let me know. One thing thatÂ’s nice is that I know Danger Den carries the water blocks for the HD 2900. If anything I may just do a simple water cooling setup with only the processor water cooled, let me know.

IÂ’m not sure what goes on PcApexÂ’s forms but IÂ’m thinking I will possibly create a work log so I can get feedback on parts or general setup as I have a few things I want to do that are quite different. IÂ’m not sure, I feel I should ask permission for something like a work log as IÂ’m very new to the whole posting thing.

Thanks

$SOLID$ Necro

See..it's like this.

Most video cards will OC pretty decent on just air cooling alone, so the gains from water are somewhat marginal.

One of the big problems of watercooling a vid card, is todays CPU's run pretty cool, so when you add the video card into the same loop, it warms up the CPU!

I would just do the CPU myself.

If you are not overclocking, and looking to get maximum lifetime (10+ years) from your hardware (Wich is silly, since it will be outdated in 2-3 years) then watercooling the card it isn't a bad idea.

I would get the 8800GTS 640MB, it performs as good or better than the 2900XT for less money...evga is a great brand, and is what I am going with, Cpt Planet works tech suport for them too!

For a motherboard, I would look at ASUS SLI boards.

Newegg.com - Buy Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!=

The P5NE-SLi is about 130$ and is a great budget overclocker board, the deluxe version is more money and basicaly gives you more sata ports and stuff like that.

Newegg.com - ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

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Zaltan

HD2900XT is the card that I would get out of those (partly due to fanboyism, partly due to it being better with new drivers, and in the UK there cheaper than a GTS 640MB).

I agree with Necro on just Water-Cooling your CPU though, its the way I work it.

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reflux

I'd avoid getting an E6600 though Spatha, the newer steppings are really poor overclockers. Instead, I'd get an E6750 which launches on the 23rd of July. You should be able to do 3.6ghz easy on WC - there are a couple of people with engineering samples over at the Xtreme Systems forums who have got to 4ghz.

I would second Necro's recommendation of Asus boards - I've got a P5N-E SLi which rocks for the price, but if you want to spend a bit more, the P5N32-E is a good board, although is strangely only nForce 4 not 6 so you lose the 6-series' newer features. And if you've just won the lottery, the Asus Striker Extreme is sweeeeeeeeet.

Get yourself some nice PC2-6400/PC-8500 memory and you're set

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Spatha

Thanks guys I didn't think about the video card hindering on the cooling of the processor if placed on the same loop as the processor, however I would definitely put the processor first to get the cooled water. Since this is my first time water cooling IÂ’m going go ahead and go with your advice Necro and Zaltan as to just water cooling the processor, besides this my case was design specifically for keeping the graphics cards cool so IÂ’m sure theyÂ’ll be just fine.
As for the processor IÂ’m actually looking at quad cores seeing as the price is going to droop on the 22nd. If I could squeeze 4Ghz out of one of those processors, dam that would rock.
the ram I was going to go with a pair of dims of the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2048MB PC8000 DDR2 1000MHz Memory but IÂ’ve been hearing bad things about current crucial ram. I do have a pair of 800 MHz 1gigs in my current office machine and it seems to be working pretty well but IÂ’ve only had them for about a month so not sure how long they last, let me know what you think.
When it comes to motherboards IÂ’ve been eyeing the XFX NFORCE 680I SLI although I canÂ’t seem to find it anywhere, I do like AsusÂ’s version of their 680is especially the sata config with all six sata ports facing the side so theyÂ’re not blocked by the monstrous graphics cards. I seem to be taking a liking to the 680i series. I will also agree with you guys ASUS has always been high on my list when it comes to parts. I have never owned anything from EVGA. I never did really think of them as good but IÂ’m assuming thatÂ’s my bad.
How dose EVGA rate with XFX and ASUS?
Lastly what the hell is a PCI-Express x1 slot for, ya itÂ’s a stooped question that I should know but I literally havenÂ’t seen a thing for them.
Thanks again.