Newbie building a high end gaming rig

[Prophet]

Hey guys i'm new to the forums and need some help building a new high end gaming rig. My current Budget it 3000 $ CDN but i am willing to higher if necessary. I have been reaseaching this for about a month but still need help narrowing down my choices.

So far i have decided on a Cool Master stacker 830 case, i have read a lot of reviews on it and to me it looks the most aesthetically pleasing. So far thats the easy part. For the processor i am looking at either the Q6600 or Q6700 quad core, i am planning to do a lot of overclocking and am wondering what kind of performance the Q6700 will give me over the Q6600 since its double the price.

For motherboards i know very little, i have heard a lot of good, as well as bad things about the Striker extreme. For now i will be using DDR2 ram so i dont need a MB with DDR3, however i would like my computer to be semi future proof as well as stable.

I havent looked too much into Ram yet but as i said 2 gigs would work great for me now.

Being semi new to computers i dont know much about RAID. My two main choices for HD's are the raptors, of course, and the western Digital 750 gig HD. Again this is 90% about gaming so yes i can sacrifice the extra money for the 10 000RPM.

Video cards is another issue as i have a 32" LCD widescreen TV. i like my games to look pretty so my choices would most likely include 8800 GTX SLI or Ultra's SLI. 2 GTX would probably do the job i know, but i like my games to run very smoothly and have no problem coughing up 400$ more for the ultra setup.

As for the rest of the components i am looking at water cooling because of all the over clocking and looking at a 3x ultra 1000W power supply. If anyone has anything extra to add i would love to hear it as i know very little thus far and would love the input

 

[b1gapl]

Hey Prophet

...nice name, by the way.

With that huge budget, it's not necessary to spend even more.

The case is an excellent choice. Great airflow, huge case.

Get the Q6600. The only thing the Q6700 has on the Q6600, is the higher multiplier, which enables the Q6700 to overclock higher, but it's not worth double the price over the Q6600. The Q6600 is a great overclocker.

For the motherboard, the Striker Extreme is too overpriced for what it offers. I would suggest either the ASUS P5N32-E SLI 680i, if you're wanting to SLI. Or the ASUS P5K Deluxe, which doesn't support SLI. I'll explain later.

For a 2GB set of RAM, I suggest either the Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800s, or the Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2-800. Both with 4-4-4-12 timings.

Raptors are not worth the price for the amount of space they offer. The WD 750GB is a better choice, because it's near the speeds of a Raptor, and offers much more space. Even though this is a gaming machine, a 10k rpm hard drive won't affect gaming performance. It will only load games faster, not get you more framerates, or make gameplay more smooth.

I can tell you that your 32" LCD TV, has a small resolution of 1366 x 768, as that is the most common resolution for 32" LCD TVs. In which case, GTXs or Ultras in SLI is useless, and all that power is wasted, because of such a small resolution. Even a GTS can handle games with that res, smoothly. So at this point SLI is not worth it, unless you play on a huge resolution, such as 1920 x 1200 or 2560 x 1600. Which is usually on a 24" or 30" LCD monitor, respectively.

A 1000W power supply is highly unnecessary. Even for two Ultras in SLI. I recommend the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610w. It's has more than enough power for any high end gaming system. Even with SLI. The amount of power is not determined by the amount of wattage, but the amount of amps on the +12v rails. And the PC P&C 610w, has 49A.

 

[snypercore]

with a decent budget why go 4GB ram

 

[b1gapl]

with a decent budget why go 4GB ram

He won't need that much RAM, unless he's into heavy editing programs. Such as AutoCAD, 3ds Max, or Adobe Premiere Pro.

 

[Invisible]

i would suggest a 24'' monitor if you want your games to look pretty
q6600
8800 ultra (x2?)
Danger Den Watercooling
Crucial Ballistix
p5k Deluxe
2 x 750gb Western Digital
CM Stacker 830

 

[b1gapl]

i would suggest a 24'' monitor if you want your games to look pretty
q6600
8800 ultra (x2?)
Danger Den Watercooling
Crucial Ballistix
p5k Deluxe
2 x 750gb Western Digital
CM Stacker 830

I would add a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610w to that. How can you forget the most important part?

I think two GTXs is enough for 24". Well a single highly overclocked GTX or Ultra, should be able to handle a 24".

 

[Prophet]

Thanks for your input b1 you were just the kinda i guy i was hoping to run into. I had a feeling the Q6700 wasnt worth it just needed to know why. I guess the only real question i have has to do with resolutions. Your right that my 32" has a 1366 x 768 max reso but i thought that was for my desktop. In games couldnt i crank it up to resolutions like 1920 x 1200 and 2560 x 1600? As for the power, i read that a power supply works best when operating at its sweet spot, something about delivering the most amount of clean voltage, and a 1000 W power supply's sweet spot is around 600w, which is probably what i would need right? In the future i will add another card to the mix and maybe upgrade my monitor to a gaming monitor, So SLI is definitly still a possibility.

 

[b1gapl]

Your 32" LCD TV's native resolution is 1366 x 768, and that means it's the only resolution, where you'll get the best picture. Cranking it up, will just make the picture look blurry.

I still think a 1000W power supply is unnecessary. I don't know about sweet spots, but I'm trying to save you a little money here, for future upgrades. If you want the middle man, I'd suggest the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750w. It can handle any high end system, you throw at it. Like I said before, the amount of wattage is not where the power is at. It's the amperage on it's +12v rails. The PC P&C 750w, has a monster 60A on a single rail.

I'd also like to point out, that in the future, we're heading towards components that consume less power. So I doubt we'll need 1000W power supplies.

 

[veg1992]

I'd go with b1gapl's build he's the forum's build master... Sora's your second placer.. me and Peter are tied for third... but most of the time Peter will be the third placer

 

[mgcook]

i'd get a Mountain Mods U2-UFO Case and a nice watercooling setup.

and you're gonna need at least 4-20amp rails to power 2 GTX's or Ultras. so you need something with 80amps on a 12v rail. or a PSU with 4 separate 12v-24A rails like mine.

the Striker is a great overclocker for the 680i chipset. it will OC just as well as a p5k Deluxe and you can run SLI with it.

i also recommed at least a 24" monitor for a high end SLI setup. you wont benefit any from a SLI GTX or Ultra until you get into 1900x1200 or 2560x1600

If you plan to stay below 1680x1050, then i'd get a P5K Deluxe and a single Ultra and watercool them in a big enough case.