1st Gaming Machine, Need Adivice

[kurokiX]

Hello, this is my first time ever trying to make my own gaming desktop, I havn't actually ordered the parts yet, but I have chosen them. I believe it should all work, but I could do with some expert/wise responses to my questions. (I don't want to spend all that money and then find out it doesn't work! ) I really nervous about it to be honest, so your advice would really help, thankyou.
I just want to know a phew things, such as:

1) Would it all work and play for eg: Crysis on basically full graphics and performance?

2) Can Vista Run on it?

3) Is the power supply enough?

4) Can I downgrade it to save money, but it'll still play the top games on full graphics and performance?

That is all, the parts and specs are below, I have linked them for more detailed spec.

Motherboard - Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI ATX, 650i SLI, GLAN, SATAII+RAID, DDR2 800

Ram - OCZ 2GB KIT (2x1024MB) DDR2 800 (PC6400) Platinum XTC Memory

CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Energy Efficient 95W edition Socket 775 (2.40GHz) G0 Stepping CPU - oem

CPU Cooler - Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower Cooler, Copper

Graphics - XFX PV-T80F-SHF9 8800GTX 768MB DDR3 Directx 10 575/1800MHZ Dual DVI PCI-E Graphics Card

Hard Drive - Hitachi 320GB SATA2 7200rpm Hard Disk Drive

DVD-RW - Pioneer DVR-112DBK Black 18X DVD +/-R/RW DL - oem

PSU - Ezcool 700W Infinity ATX Powersupply SLI Ready, Dual 12V Rails

CASE - Antec Nine Hundred/Ultimate Gamer Case- no PSU

Thats all, if there are any parts missing, please tell me
Is there any Sound Card which can run on Vista?

 

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

1) Nothing can play Crysis maxed out at this point. Even 3 8800GTX in SLI can only hit a little less than 40 fps at 1920x1200 1xAA and 1xAF. It's a poorly optimized game and a little too ahead of its time.

2) Sure Vista can run on it, but I suggest sticking to XP for now, especially since you can hack DX10 features to work under DX9 with Crysis (ie. get 'Very High' settings under XP) and it looks identical! And XP runs a lot faster than Vista does.

3) The power supply is 'enough' but I would NOT trust that company. If you want modular get a Corsair 520HX or Antec Neopower 500 HE. Non-modular, go with a Corsair 550VX. Check out other companies like Seasonic, Enermax and PC Power & Cooling. As long as you're over 500W and have good amperage (above 36A IMO) you should be alright. You can find this out by looking at the stat sheets that most sites offer. Some PSUs will have multiple 12V rails so you multiply based on how much amperage each rail supplies. But be careful as some power supplies will be restricted, like the 520HX only supplies 40A, not the 54A most would believe from it's triple 12V rails with 18A each.

4) As for saving money...The GTX is not a good investment at the moment. The 8800GT performs almost as well and is much cheaper. For a little more than the GT a 512MB 8800GTS with G92 core (not the 320MB and 640MB versions) will beat a GTX and still be plenty cheaper.
Also, consider getting a board that doesn't have SLI if you don't plan to use it, or RAID for that matter. You can save A LOT of money by cutting down a little on the motherboard by eliminating the extra features. Cut out RAID, SLI, WIFI, extra ports and 1394/firewire and you'll get something much cheaper that will still overclock amazingly and run everything more than fine. For this, I either recommend the Asus P5K, Abit IP35 or Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L.

So change that motherboard. If you want to stick with SLI, get a 680i board, as 650i is older. But also remember that 680i is not compatible with the Intel Yorkfield processors (ie the future Q9450).

Get a pair of Crucial Ballistix instead of the OCZ. They just overclock so much better and outperform ram twice the price and beyond.

Change your heatsink/fan to either a Tuniq Tower 120 (comes with a fan) or change it to a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and get a Scythe S-FLEX 120mm fan to go with it.

As I said before, go with an 8800GT or 512MB 8800GTS instead of that GTX.

For hard drive, go with a Seagate Barracuda.

PSU: Antec Neopower HE 500, Corsair 520HX or Corsair 550VX.

Case is good, but consider the Coolermaster CM 690, Centurion 534 or NZXT Apollo, Lexa Blackline or Alpha for something a little cheaper but still good.

 

[kurokiX]

Awsome, Thanks for the advice :happy:

Well I browsed some more, keeping what you wrote in mind and chose these different parts, how does this look:

Motherboard - Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

CPU - Which one would be better?
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66Ghz Socket 775 CPU (I believe the mother board can take 1333 MHz FSB) :freak:

or - Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600, S775, 2.40 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache CPU

CPU Cooler - Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)

RAM - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit

Graphics Card - Gainward BLISS GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

PSU - Antec NeoPower Neo HE 550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply 100 - 240V

Hard Drive - Seagate 320GB IDE 7200rpm 16MB Hard Disk Drive

DVD-RW - Pioneer DVR-112DBK Black 18X DVD +/-R/RW DL

Case - Antec Nine Hundred

I think thats all, should I bother with a sound card?
!! I get XP Pro? and then change the DX9 to work like a DX10

Well thanks again :happy:

 

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

CPU - Which one would be better?
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66Ghz Socket 775 CPU (I believe the mother board can take 1333 MHz FSB) :freak:

or - Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600, S775, 2.40 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache CPU

The Q6600 would be a much better investment IMO, but that's a matter of whether or not you're willing to pay that extra £40. I say it's worth it.

I think thats all, should I bother with a sound card?
!! I get XP Pro? and then change the DX9 to work like a DX10

Well, if you're not too picky about sound, then onboard audio should do you fine. I myself am not too big on audio cards because I'd rather use my money on other more important parts.

As for the whole DX9/DX10 thing and XP/Vista, a lot of people misunderstand this. What I was talking about was specifically Crysis. The developers/publisher (ie. Crytek & EA) decided to disable "Very High" settings under XP, implying that "Very High" settings were only possible under DX10, however, eventually people figured out that they could get "Very High" under DX9 in Windows XP with a very easy hack that anybody could do. There is 99.9% NO visual difference between "Very High" in XP and "Very High" in Vista. Most other games like Bioshock and Unreal Tournament 3 show no differences between DX9 and DX10. XP also runs a little faster than Vista does, because Vista is not optimized properly to take advantage of system resources. So under XP, you'll get an extra few frames per second that'll make gameplay smoother. That's why I suggest you just stick with XP, whether you get Pro or Home doesn't matter.

 

[Peter.Cort]

YOYOtech

thats a faster hdd and its a lot larger. but its a bit more expensive, BUT if you can afford it, it's a worth while investment.

 

[111sins]

Hi, I am new here but might have some advice..

1) Would it all work and play for eg: Crysis on basically full graphics and performance?

No

2) Can Vista Run on it?

Can, but why would you bother with Vista?
See this:
Vista named #1 biggest tech disappointment of 2007 -- by PC World - Engadget

3) Is the power supply enough?

It is.

Is there any Sound Card which can run on Vista?

Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer would be a best value pick both for Vista and XP
See this:
PC Buyer's Guide Christmas 2007

I'd say 4 gigs of RAM would benefit you more than the blows and whistles of the motherboard you have selected.

 

[Redmo0n]

Can, but why would you bother with Vista?
See this:
Vista named #1 biggest tech disappointment of 2007 -- by PC World - Engadget

Did you read the article?

Seriously though, can Vista get a break here? We mean, honestly, it ain't all THAT bad.

- As posted by the writer of the engadet article Ryan Block

 

[111sins]

OK, so Ryan Block says Vista is probably NOT THAT bad as PC World says.
Now, can you wholeheartedly recommend Windows Vista?
I can't and speak from experience.

 

[aaron09658]

vista from my expirence is way more stable than xp on everything besides gaming. but gaming on vista is still good and you lose only like 10fps. Not only that vista is very easy to setup raid and things. Downside with vista is some older games like need for speed lose 50% of performance with vista. Half life 2 works grand but one episode 2 I cant get past 1 level without it freezing. Just the game tho. And you cannon hibernate with vista when using a nvidia graphics card. it brings errors, other than that vista is way better than xp.

 

[kurokiX]

Guys look at the second post I made at the top of the parts of the PC, be (3rd post in this topic).

I need an Operating System, so you suggest Windows XP. That means I have to buy it.

Should I buy an OEM version? They are much cheaper, but I heard they were designed for computer manufacturers, so would it work if I tried to use it as my OS on the costum built Desktop?