New Gaming PC. Thoughts?

[Cazanator]

Just ordered my new gaming system today... any suggestions would be appreciated.

Processor (CPU)
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Quad Core Processor LGA775 Yorkfield 3.2GHZ 1600FSB 12MB 45NM Retail Box

Motherboard
EVGA Nforce 790I Ultra LGA775 ATX DDR3 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard

Memory
Corsair XMS3 DHX TWIN3X4096-1600C7DHX 4GB DDR3 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 7-7-7-20 Dual Channel Memory Kit

Video Cards
EVGA E-GEFORCE 9800GX2 SSC 675MHZ 1GB 2.1GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDMI HDCP Video Card X 2

Case
Coolermaster CM Stacker 830 E-ATX Black Aluminum Case 9X5.25 4X3.5INT 1000W W/ 2X120MM Fan

IDE Hard Drives
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000GB 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive X 2

Operating System
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 32BIT DVD OEM

Blu-Ray Writer
Liteon LH-2B1S 2XBD-R/E 12X8X4 DVD+-RW SATA Black BLU-RAY Burner

DVD Writer
Liteon LH-20A1L DVD+RW 20X8X16 DVD-RW 20X6X16 DL 8X SATA Lightscribe Black DVD Writer OEM

 

[stalin90]

welcome to tech-forums
i would say that quad sli isnt worth it, vdub tryed quad sli and hes selling his cards now... i would think it would be better to 3way sli 9800gtx's.

expencive build man it will be awesome. you might look into some different memory but thats really up to you. also get the 64bit edition to you os or you wont be able to use all 4 gb your getting.

w/ that build are you gonna get any water cooling or are u gonna run air?

 

[Cazanator]

Looking at air cooling for now.

The total cost on everything is about 6500 CAD... my hardware supplier recommended the build. It's a write off through my company so I'm not worried about cost, I'm more looking for the best gaming machine I can build.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Pinscher]

DDR3 isn't worth it at all, even if youre not paying for it, theres no point. You get a couple percent increase in performance at best. I suggest a 780i board and some nice DDR2. I might also suggest throwing in a raptor to run your OS and games on. Do you really need 2 TB of space?

Anyways, thats my 2 cents but either way thats gonna be a kick*** build. Good luck and welcome to TF!

 

[TheOtis]

EDIT: ALMOST FORGOT!!! MOST IMPORTANT!

Get Vista 64-bit!!! NOT 32-BIT! If you get 32-bit you're not going to be able to use much RAM at all. With all of that memory from the video cards, you'll be even more limited by how much RAM Vista 32bit can use. GET 64-BIT! That way you'll be able to use every last KB of memory you have on that thing



I somewhat agree with Ferarri, with that said-

DDR3-1600. You are going to notice a performance increase in games over DDR2-1066. Up to 10 frames per second most likely. That could be the difference between a game being playable and not. You could probably overclock those sticks to at or around 1800mhz, which would yield an ever nicer performance increase.


I suggest doing one of two things video card wise-

Keep the 9800GX2's and have quad sli. It'll be a straight up power house and it will eat any game you throw at it, even Crysis on High at higher resolutions, computer monitor max resolution permitting.

However, it's not near cost effective, but going by your build that's obviously not a huge concern of yours haha. The other option is to SLI 2x 8800GTX'2, 2x 9800GTX's, or Tri-SLI one of the two. It'll still be a power house, you'll get near the performance of quad sli, and it will have a much better price/performance ratio.

Besides that, great build, congradulations. Make sure to post pics of the beast

 

[stalin90]

already said get 64bit in my post and ferarri if he ant payin for it then **** ddr3 is worth it haha

 

[Mark Waterhouse]

Good choice of video card there definately. But it depends what game you wanna get, if your gonna get one that needs proper good stats such as say, Crysis, you might want to think of getting some RAM. You can normally buy sticks of 1GB for around $20.00-$25.00, but if you would get more RAM its better off getting them in sticks of 2GB. if you want to find out what RAM is compatible for your computer put in your details into Memory upgrades, flash media, and usb storage at Crucial.com

 

[Pinscher]

haha ya i guess if he's not paying for it, why not

I think, with all of those card suggestions, I would just stick with 2x 9800GX2's. I would think that tri-sli GTX's would create ALOT of heat. I heard the 9800GX2's are hot but 3 cards just seems like a ton of heat. Plus then there's no room for peripherals.

 

[TheOtis]

Good choice of video card there definately. But it depends what game you wanna get, if your gonna get one that needs proper good stats such as say, Crysis, you might want to think of getting some RAM. You can normally buy sticks of 1GB for around $20.00-$25.00, but if you would get more RAM its better off getting them in sticks of 2GB. if you want to find out what RAM is compatible for your computer put in your details into Memory upgrades, flash media, and usb storage at Crucial.com

 

[grasswater]

Generally that's a good gaming set up.