Going into uncharted building territory

[bigfoot1291]

Hey guys, I came across this forum (google FTW), because I'm going to be upgrading soon. Building myself a new gaming rig.
Thing is, I'm going to be heading into uncharted territory for me, and have a few questions.

1. I'm going to be getting an NForce 780i MOBO, which is Nvidia's mobo (SLI ready), Newegg.com - EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards, but will this also work fine for CrossfireX? I've always went with Nvidia's graphics in the past, but wanna give ATI a chance with their new 4870's. Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H487F1GP Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

2. I've also been interested in liquid cooling, because well, running 2 GPU's I'm assuming can get pretty **** hot (room's already hot enough as it is LOL)
Thing is, I don't really know anything about liquid cooling, and found this: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GH-WIU02 3D Galaxy II Liquid Cooling - Water Cooling it seems to be a kit that comes with everything I'd need, and seemed pretty decent. Any personal advice you guys could give about liquid cooling would be awesome.

3. I've also in the past went with AMD processors, but I'm going to give Intel a chance this time. I don't really know anything about their architectures, so any advice that could be given on them as well would be great. Also, since this rig is going to be used for gaming, would quad core or dual be better? I've heard that a lot of games haven't really been made to use quad yet, so I'm not really sure. This is the processor I found: Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops It looks to run at a nice speed, and had good reviews too.

Thanks for any help you guys can give me

-Mark

 

[Thresh25]

I'd say go with a fast dual core for now, as programs don't utilize quad core right now. Then in the future as they become cheaper and games and programs utilize them, you can pick on up. I've also heard during some games, the quad cores can actually be slower, but I have no experience with them myself.

Get like a 3.0 ghz core 2 duo. As far as that motherboard goes, NO it will not run crossfire. You need a crossfire capable motherboard for that. You would however, obviously be able to SLI.

 

[bigfoot1291]

I'd say go with a fast dual core for now, as programs don't utilize quad core right now. Then in the future as they become cheaper and games and programs utilize them, you can pick on up. I've also heard during some games, the quad cores can actually be slower, but I have no experience with them myself.

Get like a 3.0 ghz core 2 duo. As far as that motherboard goes, NO it will not run crossfire. You need a crossfire capable motherboard for that. You would however, obviously be able to SLI.

Well see, in my CURRENT rig I'm on right now, I have the AMD X2 Windsor, 6000+. Runs at 3.0ghz / core I believe, so maybe I should just change motherboards to an AMD motherboard and stick with the CPU I already have?

Also I just now came across this MOBO Newegg.com - MSI K9A2 Platinum AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards which is Crossfire ready, and is significantly cheaper than the other MOBO I was looking at. I'm not sure why it's cheaper though, I'd need to change the memory I get from 800 to 1066. Anyone know why it's that much cheaper?

 

[Pinscher]

I would recommend you stick with that q9550 you originally found. I have heard good things about it. If a quad core performed worse in a game, it would be unnoticeable to you. The main thing that drives game performance is your graphics card.

Don't get a 780i board though. I have one, and even though it is a good board, it does have its annoying problems. I've heard alot of good things about the P45 chipset but I can't personally recommend any boards but many people here can.

As for watercooling, wait for Aspire to come around. He knows everything you will need to know about watercooling. Don't get that kit, just from the looks of it, it looks to be poor quality. You should take a look at Petra's Tech Shop they have some good kits or if you want, they have lots of good parts to put your own kit together. Aspire will be able to help you more with that.

 

[bigfoot1291]

I'll take a look at that link, thanks.
Also, since I can't crossfire on the original MOBO I was looking at, I changed to the MOBO in my 2nd post up there, which is for AM2 / AM2+ sockets, so if I were to upgrade I'd go Phenom I guess.
How often does Aspire come on?

 

[Pinscher]

Well I'm sure he is on every day but just hopefully he looks at this thread. If you don't get a response here, you should create a separate thread to get help with your watercooling.

I would recommend going intel but its up to you in the end. Either way, I would definitely upgrade that 6000+. There are much better cpus out now.

 

[bigfoot1291]

Well I'm sure he is on every day but just hopefully he looks at this thread. If you don't get a response here, you should create a separate thread to get help with your watercooling.

I would recommend going intel but its up to you in the end. Either way, I would definitely upgrade that 6000+. There are much better cpus out now.

Well that's the thing. I'd love to upgrade to a better one, but the only one higher I see from AMD is the 6400+, not a very big upgrade. (talking about dual core of course)

On a different note, I found Newegg.com - Swiftech H20-120 COMPACT 120mm Liquid Cooling Kit - Water Cooling on that website you gave me (it's cheaper and in stock on newegg), seems to be getting good reviews too, except for one guy.

 

[Pinscher]

Ya I'm telling you, when you build your new rig, don't keep your old 6000+. I'm recommending you get an intel q9550 and a motherboard with a P45 chipset.

As for watercooling, I would go for one of these two:

More expensive version:
Petra's Tech Shop

Cheaper version:
Petra's Tech Shop

Again though, you should ask Aspire.comptech before you buy watercooling. Also, looking back at your original post, you refered to the gpu's getting hot. Did you want watercooling for those or your cpu?

 

[Gustave5436]

Get a P45 motherboard (and, of course, an Intel processor), like this one: Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TPower I45 LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

You may want to wait for i7 though.

Aftermarket air cooling is a lot cheaper than water cooling, and water cooling will only be superior to air cooling if you're willing to spend a lot of money on it, money which could be saved or used to buy better components for the computer.

 

[bigfoot1291]

Get a P45 motherboard (and, of course, an Intel processor), like this one: Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TPower I45 LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

You may want to wait for i7 though.

Aftermarket air cooling is a lot cheaper than water cooling, and water cooling will only be superior to air cooling if you're willing to spend a lot of money on it, money which could be saved or used to buy better components for the computer.

Is that MOBO going to work with crossfire? That's the big thing I'm going for this time, is Crossfire. 2 cards, maybe a third in the future.
I didn't see where it said anything about crossfire ready, but it has 2 PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, so I'm not sure.

Basically, are there any MOBO's that will let me use socket 775 with that processor, but also let me crossfire with the 4870's?

EDIT: I typed in "LGA 775 Crossfire" and got three different motherboards, two I think were older chipsets, the last one was this Newegg.com - DFI LANPARTY DK P45-T2RS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
IDK if it would be a good choice, I haven't really heard of the makers before, and it's only DDR2 800 memory (granted, I could deal with that, but I'd rather have a bit faster.)