Help with New Gaming Rig Please

[creflo]

I've had this Dell computer for 8 years now. So I've decided to go all out on a new gaming rig. Let's get to the point, here is what I'm thinking for the basic components:

Coolermaster Cosmos 1000 Tower
EVGA 780i Motherboard
QX9650 Intel Quad-Core
2x Seagate 7200.11 in raid 0
2x2GB Corsair DDR2-1066
Coolermaster Real Power Pro 850W PSU
Xi-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card

Now I'm torn on what do do about the Video setup. Should I mess with SLI? Or just get the best single Nvidia card I can get?

I have about $3k budget, computer will run at stock speeds for a bit until I learn how to overclock it.

Also, should I go air or water cooling?

 

[darksideleader]

might wanna go 790i anyway, one of em faster hard drives and 2x 9800GX2 if it fits the budget.

 

[veg1992]

PSU is overkill, Corsair 650tx is enough

get a 780i or 750i FTW board with two 8800gt's or 8800gts' or get 1 9800gtx and move on to 2 or 3 later on

Go with Water Cooling assuming you know which kits are good (aspire.comptech will help you in that department)

 

[Prototype]

I've had this Dell computer for 8 years now. So I've decided to go all out on a new gaming rig. Let's get to the point, here is what I'm thinking for the basic components:

Coolermaster Cosmos 1000 Tower 1x Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Stacker RC-832-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
EVGA 780i Motherboard Newegg.com - XFX MB-N780-ISH9 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
QX9650 Intel Quad-Core get an q6700 oem not retail Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors
2x Seagate 7200.11 in raid 0 1x Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
2x2GB Corsair DDR2-1066 1x Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
Coolermaster Real Power Pro 850W PSU 1x Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC, CCC - Power Supplies
Xi-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card no need mobo has a good onboard sound card
2x Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N845-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) KO 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Now I'm torn on what do do about the Video setup. Should I mess with SLI? Or just get the best single Nvidia card I can get?

I have about $3k budget, computer will run at stock speeds for a bit until I learn how to overclock it.

Also, should I go air or water cooling?

PSU is overkill, Corsair 650tx is enough

get a 780i or 750i FTW board with two 8800gt's or 8800gts' or get 1 9800gtx and move on to 2 or 3 later on

Go with Water Cooling assuming you know which kits are good (aspire.comptech will help you in that department)

yeah vernong is right

mobo 780i SLI or 750i FTW SLI
gpu 8800GTS SLI, 8800GT SLI, or 9600GT SLI

with 2.5k you will get a very fast rig

this is around $1450 before shipping and mir

if you need anything else please feel free to ask

 

[PC_Caveman]

with your budget get a good case, CM stacker 830 would be great. Also try not to spend more than 1,500 on a PC as you will regret it when your parts get outdated in a few months. technology moves so **** fast these days.

 

[Redmo0n]

QX9650? Not to sure QX series.

How do they perform compared to a Q6700.

 

[Nagasama]

i would get an e8500 over the q6700. yes, i know it is a dual core. it is also a newer architecture and runs mucho cooler and overclocks mucho better and and will easily run anything you can toss its way presently. 8 years from now, i dont know. lol. if you wait that long to upgrade, you may want to go ahead with the quad. 8 years from now the machine you have built here wont run anything probably anyways, heh...except for like wordprocessing programs or solitaire.