Looking for Second Opinion on Custom-Built Rig

[Ronnie]

a good 500-600 watt psu will do yo good
i recomend an antec true power trio 550watt

zipzoomflyis also another good site

 

[Cunjo]

Have a 600W Apevia PSU in the list... hope that works.

Found a case I like (Cooler Master Stacker), bit on the expensive side, especially after a window mod (though I'm still looking for a window mod that matches the Black model, without the blue tint) and fans. Looking good so far, but my bottom line just keeps getting bigger! I'm up to $1,818.27 now!

 

[Sora]

Have a 600W Apevia PSU in the list... hope that works.

NEVER trust Apevia PSU's. They may look nice and have good reviews but trust the community on this and look for another.

There is a Hiper Type-R 580w Modular PSU. Look for that onbe, it's 89.99.

That's one thats good.

 

[Cunjo]

Thanks! I was just looking at that... read the PSU thread, and found a good Corsair, but still rather pricey. I'll look into it.

By the way, what are the opinions on this Motherboard: Newegg.com - ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

I keep seeing it mentioned for the Conroe on OC sites, but not much as far as details... does it support SLI? I see nothing about that in the description.

EDIT: Ok, I'm not finding the one you mentioned... but for ~$40 more, I'm thinking a Corsair 520W is a safe bet.

 

[Sora]

The Corsair PSU's are very very good becuase the rails are so rock solid but I prefer this one for the money.

Newegg.com - HIPER HPU-4K580-MS ATX12V v2.2 580W Power Supply 100 - 120V - Retail

It will easily handle an 8800GTX.

Trust me....the Hiper will not dissapoint. The Corsair is so good becuase the rails are so rock solid but it doesn't matter really when you have amps to spare.

What is your total budget now?

EDIT: That board is good overclocker but pricey...there are boards that will overclock just as well for almost half that. No it does not support SLI but rather crossfire. SLI is not worth it anyway though.

I suggest one of these boards for an overclocker going from cheapest to most expensive

Biostar P965, S3, MSI P6N, DS3, P5B-E. All of those will do what you will need them to do Im sure.

Once again though give us your total budget and what you need and what you will be using for and we can better help you.

 

[Cunjo]

Total budget is... variable. I'd like to keep it under $2000 if possible. I don't have the money right now anyway, so this is kinda future planning. I hope to be buying within the next couple months if my budget affords.

For a Mobo, I definately want overclockable, and it has to be sturdy, preferably easy to install. I want to put a very tall, very heavy CPU cooler on it, so I don't want it cracking or some nonsense... as for SLI/Crossfire, I don't intend to put dual cards on it right now anyway, but I'd like to have that capability if ever such an option became viable and I wanted to upgrade like that. I need to have wireless to connect to my LAN, and a good soundcard, so at least 2 PCI ports or built-in wireless is important.

 

[alexsabree]

take a look at the gigabyte DS3 motherboard.. its exactly what your looking for

 

[Cunjo]

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail unless you mean a different DS3, then no, because I want SATA RAID5 and SLI/Crossfire capability if possible. At least it has a good OC rep and supports the Quad Core, so I'll keep it in mind.

The Mobos I'm looking at right now if you exclude the ASUS Striker Extreme and abit IN9 32X-MAX because they're way too expensive are (from most expensive to least):
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe/WiFi-AP
ASUS P5N32-E
ASUS P5B Deluxe
MSI P6N Platinum
ASUS P5B-E
and now the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3...

the ASUS P5N32-E and ASUS P5W DH Deluxe/WiFi-AP are the same price, look to be about the same value, but each has different benefits/drawbacks that make choosing difficult. On the one hand, the P5N32-E has the nForce 680i chipset, supports SLI and has 3 PCIEx16 ports but only 2 PCI, 1 PCIEx1 and 1 PATA/IDE. On the other, the P5W has Onboard Wireless, 2 PCIEx16 ports, 2 PCIEx1 and 3 PCI and 2 IDE, but uses the Intel chipset with Crossfire rather than SLI and has more limitations on FSB speed.

The one I have in my list right now is the MSI, which I think is pretty well-rounded in spite of having the nForce 650i chipset when I would prefer the 680i. That, and I'm not entirely sure how well it overclocks... I'm aiming for 3.4GHz out of my 2.4GHz Conroe E6600 with air cooling.