Ello everyone! Help me out with my pc build.

[BoboOfTheHobos]

Hi guys I've been visiting this forum for a while and finally got around to signing up, YAY!!

So i figured I'd kill two birds with one stone by saying hi and getting everyone to help me out with my pc build.

I'm relatively new to this and most of my choices have been made from research i've done so far but i am very open to suggestions as i assume most of you if not all of you know far more then i do.

Ok so here we go:

Lian Li PC-V2010B Black

ASUS Maximus II Formula Motherboard

Intel Core2 Quad Q9550

Radeon HD4870 X2 (does it make a diff if it's asus or gigabyte etc)

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium FATAL1TY Champion PCIe (good, bad ugly? No clue on sound cards. Also i play guitar and would probably be doing some recording i know theres specific preamps and stuff that can be built into the PC but I'm just wondering if anyone knows anything in regards to standard sound cards and how perform in terms of recording quality with good mics)

OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC 2x2GB (OCZ2RPR10664GK)
vs
G.Skill PI Series DDR2 PC2 8800 CL5 4GB (2x2GB)

(I've tried to find a comparison between these two but haven't come up with anything, what are you're thoughts.)

Western Digital Caviar 750GB GP WD7500AACS (This was on the recommended pc build list on these forums and i have always used WD)

Last but not least the power supply, i chose OCZ GameXStream 1010W SLI but after reading the psu thread am i better off with something like a Antec TruePower Quattro 850W. Also do these have enough juice for the parts I'm getting?

Oh yeah and the rom would be Pioneer DVR-216 20X DVDRW SATA

Like i said I'm very open to suggestions and am eager to hear of your experiences with parts/brands listed as well as a comment on the overall build.

Thanks in Advance

Bobo

 

[[Judge]Iceman]

I'm not certain on this, but I believe that the Lian Li cases have you mount the motherboard inverted. So with that board having heat pipes connecting the north and southbridge chipsets, you are gonna overheat something in there. I've not fully read up on the board and how it works but from the first website that shows pics and how it works, to me it seems like a poor match to the case.

IIRC, in a heatpipe setup, the heat from the northbridge travels up the pipe towards the southbridge, dissipating along the way. If it were inverted, which I believe the Lian Li cases do, the heat from the northbridge wont go anywhere and the heat from the southbrige will travel up to the northbridge and overheat it.

The board looks really nice, and if you want to get it I would find another case. There are lots of cases out there, I'm sure you can find another one you like.

Hope I helped you, and not confuse you.

 

[BoboOfTheHobos]

Man i hope you're wrong lol i'll have to check this out as i spent a while looking at cases and the lian li ones seemed best to me so if its a trait common to all of them ill have to spend a while more looking i guess.

What about the rest of the system any more thoughts. Also can anyone confirm that due to the inverted setup will cause heat problems?

 

[[Judge]Iceman]

I talked with one of my buddies who built his PC and used a Lian Li case and he had a hard time finding a board that he liked and met his needs without heatpipes. From the research he did, heatpipes and inverting=death for computer. He built an AMD system so the board selection might have been slimmer. But I'm starting to stray. From what he told me, the inverted board WILL cause heat transfer issues. Sorry.

One minor thing that you might want to look into is:
The HDD cache, you have a 16MB chosen. If you can find one with a 32MB and can afford it, get it. It shouldn't be that much more.

Never used an ATI card, but this is from their website.

ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 4870 X2 System Requirements

* PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
* 650 Watt or greater power supply with one 2x3-pin PCIe® power connector and one 2x4-pin PCIe® power connector is required (1K Watt with two 2x3-pin and two 2x4-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)1
* Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to Certified Power Supplies for a list of Certified products
* Certified system cases with good airflow and cooling are recommended. Refer to Certified Cases for a list of Certified products
* Minimum 1GB of system memory
* Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
* DVD playback requires DVD drive
* Blu-rayâ„¢ playback requires Blu-ray drive and full 1080p display requires a 1080p-capable monitor
* For a complete ATI CrossFireXâ„¢ system, a second ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 4870 X2 graphics card, an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable per graphics card (included) are required


The power supply is a certified component listed on ATI's page. So you are good on that front. The link above in the specs brings you to a full list if you want to shop around a little more.

The RAM you chose isn't the board's standard. The board uses DDR2 1200 (PC2 9600) You have a slower speed in your list. Also with RAM, once you select the board, do a search for compatibility. Some boards just don't like some RAM. I've never seen it, but I've heard it from some people.

To summarize, shop around a little more on cases if this is the board you are set on getting. Look for a HDD with a 32MB cache. Change the RAM in your list.

Also, if you don't mind saying, what is the budget you are trying to fit into? Or are you maxed out with these selections? Just curious.

Ok, I think I got everything. :nerd:

 

[BoboOfTheHobos]

Um as far as the ram goes u got any suggestions?

And also with the case as i only chose lian li because i liked alot of the features the main one being a detachable motherboard tray. Don't like squeezing to put on things. If there were others with similar features i wouldn't mind changing. But then again if theres a better motherboard option i wouldn't be too fussed with that either.

Any reason you never used ATI is Nvidia better? I've read a whole heap of stuff and well ultimately come to the conclusion that i would rather someone just said this is better buy it.

Ugh the ram thing sucks looks like ill have to go looking i guess. But about the brands among ram is there a difference? I'm mainly looking for reliability above all else so it doesn't crap out on me a month after i get it.

I've got some room to move on the budget i'll give you my exact budget but well im in australia and the dollar and prices are diff here, although even when out dollar was like 98 us cents the prices were still like double but anyway that's a whole other story. Currently its sitting at about $3036 if there is better bang for buck so to speak im opn to going up.

If u wanna get a general idea of the prices you can check here

PC Case Gear, Quality case accessories and components

http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf

There's always the comp market which is cheaper but not too sure by how much though.

One last thing about the HDD should i go for something like Samsung 1TB 7200rpm SATA II HD103UJ which has the 32mb and is only like 10 bucks more or just go to Western Digital 1TB WD1002FBYS which is like 100 more. I can afford it but is it worth it?

 

[BoboOfTheHobos]

Well it seems i'll be scratching the whole build at this point as the i7 core is going to be used from now on im just wondering if i should then wait a while to buy the pc considering its kind of pointless to buy things when they first come out. Once again thoughts and answers man i really hate this you have to read so much crap just to avid buying a piece of crap aRghhhhhhhhhh.