My second gaming rig =)

[mrchewy]

Hey folks, just recently registered after being a lurker for a while ^-^. Anyway, I'm planning on getting a new rig, and so far I've come up with this.

Monitor - Asus 22inch 2MS 5000:1 1680x1050
Case - Thermaltake Soprano DX Steel
Motherboard - XFX nForce 780i
Memory - G.Skill DDR2 2x2G 1066Mhz DDR2
Hard Drive - Seagate SATAII 500GB
CPU - Intel C2Q Q9550 2.83GHz 12MB
PSU - Thermaltake 850W 4x12V (62A)
GPU - BFG GTX260 896DDR3 OCX
Sound Card - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme
DVD Drive - LG H22NS30 Super Multi DVD Rewriter
Operating System - Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit

*All links go to Umart, where I plan on buying them. Total cost = $2537AUD

Basically, I've built this to last more than anything else. My last rig was a bit of a disaster (incompatibility with my motherboard meant I had to pair up an AMD Athlon X2 4200 and an 8800GTX; super CPU bottleneck) and I'm hoping this one will actually last me a long time.

If anyone could offer any suggestions, that would be much appreciated. Particularly, I'm a little uncertain about the mobo, GPU and DVD drive, and whether or not I'll need to purchase extra cooling (case comes with one frontal and one rear fan). If anyone could point out any incompatibilities aswell, I'd be very grateful. =)

Thanks,
Mrchewy =)

 

[Evolv]

Switch that motherboard for a Biostar I45. Nvidia chipset motherboards are pretty good but not great, a P45 board will complement that Q9550 nicely, especially for overclocking.

If you plan on overclocking a lot, then invest in a good CPU cooler such as the Xigmatek Rifle S1283 or a Sunbeam Core Contact.

And that 850 watt PSU is a little overkill, you could settle for a Corsair 750 and will be plenty of power for that system.

If you get a GTX260, on that Umart site is says they're out of stock. Make sure you get one with the 216 processing cores.

 

[DawnOfDoom]

you could even go for a corsair 620hx and be fine.

 

[mrchewy]

Thanks for the help folks ^_^. Yeah, didn't notice that the GPU was out of stock, so I was thinking this would be a good replacement. It's got the 216 cores, but I've never heard of or ever used the brand before.

As for the motherboard, I've got rather slim pickings (link) and couldn't find any Biostar ones. I don't plan on doing too much overclocking, so as far as that goes it's not a major concern.

 

[Evolv]

I've heard of that brand before. Don't know much about them though. At least they offer a 12 month warranty.

The P5Q-E would be a good choice too:
Umart Online
It's a good motherboard just as good as the Biostar I45.

 

[mrchewy]

I've heard of that brand before. Don't know much about them though. At least they offer a 12 month warranty.

The P5Q-E would be a good choice too:
Umart Online
It's a good motherboard just as good as the Biostar I45.

Woah, it's nearly half the price of the XFX 780i. I'm not very technically inclined to motherboards, so is there any major difference or is the 780i just largely a rip-off?

Also did some research on that Zotac card. After reading this review, well... it's really quite amazing performance wise. In most cases, it also scored considerably better than the normal 260GTX.

 

[Evolv]

Um yea, I think the 780i is mostly overpriced. You can get the same performance out of a cheaper motherboard. The P5Q-E is a very nice board. It has better cooling, quality parts, and it has 8 phase power which allows more stability within the system.