# How does this build look?(and some other questions)



## CDdude55 (Aug 28, 2008)

I am going to be keeping this system for a long time.(Nehalem isn't anything to go nuts over for gamers)

Now, i am still deciding whether to keep my 680i system(the one in the system specs) or to just upgrade it all and get more up to date. So do you think i should change out my rig?

I am going to get a job sooner or later and am going to save up, so how is this system looking?

BTW: I am using the same OCZ 600W PSU i have now, and i am using my same monitor, speaker and CD drive and case.(in my sig)

Specs for new system are:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16Ghz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036

Asus Maximus II Formula
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131319 

2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145153(getting another)

HIS HD 4870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236

WD Caviar 500GB SATA HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit(System Builders version)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116485

Total Cost:$978.95

wow, its under $1000


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## aharvey (Aug 28, 2008)

bump up to 64bit so if you decide to upgrade ram down the road, you will be ready for it.


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## shrimpius (Aug 28, 2008)

I suggest you to chagne hdd to WD Cavier SE16 640GB, because it's a new one, with 320Gb platters. And you get more room with only 2 platters. Also it's quieter, cooler and last but not least faster. You won't ger more fps (maybe few more maximum), but you'll get faster level boots, faster system boot. IMO 2 platters are optimal for system hdd (because quantity of platters affects noise and temperature of your hdd). And all this for only 10$ more 

Also few other bucks aren't a problem to you as I can see, so take DHX corsair memory, I don't know, the look of its cooler just makes me more comfortable.

I agree with *aharvey*, 64bit OS would be much comfotable. And if so, take 2x2Gb memory (50$ more after rebate). Modern games require 2Gb of RAM so leaves almost no room for background tasks (messangers, antiviruses, trackers and etc.). And you can latter upgraid it to 12Gb RAM (with 2x4) and get rid of the pagefile.

Board and CPU is good, but (there's always one hairy there  ) quad is more convenient for game+background tasks in long-time (as you've said) period. Also upcoming games and few already published are optimized for at least 4 cores (UT3, Lost Planet...). Q9550 ,for example, will cost you around 130$ more.

And last about video card. 4870 is fine, er, not fine, it's great for low resolutions (like 19"). But you going to buy a very nice CF board and I suppose you are going to expand your graphic system in few months, maybe half a year. But in my opinion 4870x2 for low resolutions (1440x900 and lower)  is a waste. You need a 1920 (24") one to unleash it's power. But at that points VRAM becomes its bottleneck. So I just want to say, that it'll be better to take a 1Gb variant. But again it's my opinion and maybe one thousand bucks is all you can afford...


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## mullered07 (Aug 28, 2008)

yea why downgrade from 4gb to 2gb  if your not going to oc then that proc should be fine, but you really should look at overclocking, you could get an e7200 or similar and hit 3.6-4ghz easy with little voltage increase, aside from that it looks good, and theres cf if you wanted that perf boost in the future


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## cdawall (Aug 28, 2008)

i vote e8200, 4GB of ram and Vista 64bit


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## CDdude55 (Aug 28, 2008)

Do you guys think i should go with an X48 board? Or i could get a lower end Asus board and get a 45nm Quad.


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## niko084 (Aug 29, 2008)

I seriously wouldn't waste your money on that board...

Get like a P5Q-E and I would stick with the e8500 if you want bang/buck.


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

Or should i pick up another Nvidia chipset, like a 780i,750i or should i get 790i Ultra, but then i would have to go a bit cheaper on the CPU.


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## niko084 (Aug 29, 2008)

CDdude55 said:


> Or should i pick up another Nvidia chipset, like a 780i,750i or should i get 790i Ultra, but then i would have to go a bit cheaper on the CPU.



NO.... I picked up a XFX 780i SLI board which runs over $200 and it doesn't even come near to being able to compete against my P5K-E..

Nvidia can't make a chipset in comparison, but is needed for SLI, hopefully not for long.


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

As for OS, should i get Vista? If so i will just get the Home Basic 64-bit system builders. But i hear Vista is garbage but i am thinking about it since its DX10. But it take alot of RAM so i might need 4GB.


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## niko084 (Aug 29, 2008)

CDdude55 said:


> As for OS, should i get Vista? If so i will just get the Home Basic 64-bit system builders. But i hear Vista is garbage but i am thinking about it since its DX10. But it take alot of RAM so i might need 4GB.



You could go 4gb but 2gb is fine to be hoenst if you clean it up a bit.

Get 64bit, get home premium or business.


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## DrunkenMafia (Aug 29, 2008)

As shrimpius said about the hdd's I just bought 2 of those 640gb WD's and they are great. very quiet,cool and light(not that that matters lol).

Definietely get the 64bit vista, it is same price.  and get home premium, basic is well basic!!  

I would go for a good 4gb kit of 1066 ram.  I just bought the g-skill PI series and they are very nice.  I would reccommend them.  I think that 2gb of ram is getting out of date now. 2gb sticks are the way to go.

The cpu, well - there will always be much debate here, most of the E8*** series cpu's all oc very well so I reckon any one of those would be good.  I would recc the E8400 the E8500 is only 160mhz quicker and $20 more. 

If you are keeping your 19in monitor then the hd4870 is probably going to be a little overkill.  A 4850 will be fine.


And the mobo is expensive!!!  I would prob go for either a p5Q or a GA-EP45.  both great boards and good oc'in potential.

good luck with it.


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

DrunkenMafia said:


> As shrimpius said about the hdd's I just bought 2 of those 640gb WD's and they are great. very quiet,cool and light(not that that matters lol).
> 
> Definietely get the 64bit vista, it is same price.  and get home premium, basic is well basic!!
> 
> ...




Ya i am going to go with a Asus P5Q Pro and a E8400. And i more likely will get a 4850 like ya said. Just need to go fine 4GB of RAM.


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## DrunkenMafia (Aug 29, 2008)

^ good move, like I said that g-skill PI series of ram is really good.  I have read some pretty good review on it.  Most kits seem be able to reach around the 1150mhz mark which is pretty good for a 2gb stick.  I believe they use elpida i.c's.  And I am pretty sure the p5Q is on their QVL list as well.  see how you go though, there are a lot of good ram kits out there.


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

I found 4GB of Corsair Dominators, they run at 1066(PC2 8500), but the Voltages is 2.1V how would they run? (the RAM i have now is 1.8V)


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## mlee49 (Aug 29, 2008)

Hey I like you build, it looks exactly like mine:
e8200, P5Q-E, 4-GB Dominators@1066; 
I'm gonna go with the 3870x2 and my 8600 gts for phsx card though.  It will be nice to see how these mobo's can oc with this ram. 

Surely will be a nice set up


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

So this is the system:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz

Asus P5Q Pro

4GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066

Visiontek HD 4850 512MB

WD Caviar HDD(forgot how maybe GB's)

Windows Vista 64-bit system builders-OEM.


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## DrunkenMafia (Aug 29, 2008)

CDdude55 said:


> I found 4GB of Corsair Dominators, they run at 1066(PC2 8500), but the Voltages is 2.1V how would they run? (the RAM i have now is 1.8V)




Thats cool, you can adjust the ram voltage in bios.  The ram you have now will run at 2.1v as well.  

usually when oc'in ram you put the voltage up slightly, ddr 2 ram is fine @ 2.1v.  Anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong though


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## DrunkenMafia (Aug 29, 2008)

CDdude55 said:


> So this is the system:
> 
> Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz
> 
> ...




that look good man.

Just be careful with that dominator ram. I am pretty sure it comes in 2 kinds of 4gb kits - 

4 x 1gb sticks 
2 x 2gb sticks


I would get the 2 x 2 gb kit.  

Otherwise your a go'er..  

will be a fast system


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## mlee49 (Aug 29, 2008)

I think 2.1 is just fine as well.  I think the biggest issue that I have found is the 1066's run unstable over 1200 so you have to set them at 800 MHz and clock back up to 1000MHz.


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## Deimos (Aug 29, 2008)

Hahaha! Seems you like that board as much as i do xD.


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

mlee49 said:


> I think 2.1 is just fine as well.  I think the biggest issue that I have found is the 1066's run unstable over 1200 so you have to set them at 800 MHz and clock back up to 1000MHz.



I won't be OCing my RAM. But i have never own 2.1V RAM sticks, but the BIOS should automatically run them at 2.1V right?


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## shrimpius (Aug 29, 2008)

WD Cavier 640Gb (WD6400AAKS) is the best choise for that amount of money.

P5Q Pro is also very good. 7 sata's, 1 e-sata (that's essential for me, as I run 4 hard drives + ODD), 1394. Just put some copper on north mosfets, add wi-fi pci card and it'll be solid as a rock  Personally, I'd add an x-fi card (I use one, and it's much better than mb's audio, especially if you are owner of some hi-fi 100$+ headphones).

As for the memory, actually I think you don't need anything else than 800Mhz one. Good timings and faster clock will add you maximum 5%, but'll cost you more. Just get 4Gb and that would be fine. So, IMO, don't buy Dominator, make it simple DHX and save some money (or throw it into something else). On a good memory controller (Athlons or P35/45) you don't even need dual channel, really. Check THG if you want. The difference between single and dual channel on a p35 mb was like 3-5%.

E8400, I think, is the best dual-core cpu. But maybe you'd like to throw in bucks you saved on mb to get a quad one? In a long-time period it'll be more advantageous. (Quad + 4Gb of RAM - that's what Vista is dreaming of)

As for Radeon, I suggest you to take this one this one. It has much better cooling system - keeps card cooler and extremely quiet, just check an article about it here, on techpowerup. Also it's already oc'ed a little. And only for 5$ more. But as for me, if you aren't going to buy you rig in a few days, but in a few weeks, just wait for this variant of a card with 1 gig of memery. That means you'll be able to throw in a 4850x2 in few months and get all it's power (because 4850x2 contains 2x1Gb of memory, if you add it to 512Mb 4850, 4850x2 will behave like it has only 2x512Mb of VRAM).


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

DrunkenMafia said:


> that look good man.
> 
> Just be careful with that dominator ram. I am pretty sure it comes in 2 kinds of 4gb kits -
> 
> ...




Ya, i am getting the 2x2 kit.


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## farlex85 (Aug 29, 2008)

Since your primary use is gaming and your not looking to upgrade for a while, I'd look at a more powerful card than a 4850. It'll do everything right now max, but that won't last for too long. I'd go for the 4870/gtx 260 at least. There are good deals on the 9800gx2 right now as well, and the 4850x2 should be out soon I believe. If you don't think you'll need the 640gb, you could drop down to a 320gb SE16 or 7200.11, which would be nearly as fast (no noticeable difference).


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

farlex85 said:


> Since your primary use is gaming and your not looking to upgrade for a while, I'd look at a more powerful card than a 4850. It'll do everything right now max, but that won't last for too long. I'd go for the 4870/gtx 260 at least. There are good deals on the 9800gx2 right now as well, and the 4850x2 should be out soon I believe. If you don't think you'll need the 640gb, you could drop down to a 320gb SE16 or 7200.11, which would be nearly as fast (no noticeable difference).



Ya the GX2 looks good, but i hear of microstuttering and driver problems(crashing and what not)


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## farlex85 (Aug 29, 2008)

CDdude55 said:


> Ya the GX2 looks good, but i hear of microstuttering and driver problems(crashing and what not)



Yeah, that certainly is a drawback, but the price/performance is so nice on a couple of those right now. You could get the evga one which is like $280 I believe, then bide your time for the gtx280 to come down in price. You have 90 days to do the step up, and in 2-3 months the gtx 280 may be down to ~$300, or at least close, or perhaps the rumored g200b will be around. Either way, then you can move to that for minimal cost. That would be the hope anyway..........


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

Also, should i stick with 800mhz RAM or go with 1066?

Cause there is also some good 2x2 Gskill RAM @800mhz for cheap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122&Tpk=F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ


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## farlex85 (Aug 29, 2008)

CDdude55 said:


> Also, should i stick with 800mhz RAM or go with 1066?



Might as well do 1066, unless your budget comes into play. Might as well go w/ the fastest you can. Difference won't be that huge though either way, those g.skills would be solid also. Just be aware that depending on what 1066 you get you may have to manually set the voltages and speed in the BIOS, as some boards default them to 800 and 1.8v (or less, mine does this). Shouldn't have that on the p45, but I'm not sure....


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

farlex85 said:


> Might as well do 1066, unless your budget comes into play. Might as well go w/ the fastest you can. Difference won't be that huge though either way, those g.skills would be solid also. Just be aware that depending on what 1066 you get you may have to manually set the voltages and speed in the BIOS, as some boards default them to 800 and 1.8v (or less, mine does this). Shouldn't have that on the p45, but I'm not sure....



Thanks, Also do you think i should get a 780i or 790i chipset? I have had no problems with my 680i board, but i was thinking to just go P45.


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## farlex85 (Aug 29, 2008)

CDdude55 said:


> Thanks, Also do you think i should get a 780i or 790i chipset? I have had no problems with my 680i board, but i was thinking to just go P45.



There would be no reason to do that unless you are planning on having sli in the future. Intel's chipsets are generally more stable and cheaper. The 790i is way overpriced and only useful if doing ddr3, and the 780i is really only advantageous over the 750i if you wanting to do tri-sli. If you were going to do any nvidia chipset, I'd say 750i would suffice just fine. Honestly, since your not oc'ing, a simple and cheap p35 with all the features you are looking for would do the trick, the only reason to go for the p45 would be pci 2.0 support, which doesn't make much difference right now at all if any, but may down the road w/ later video cards. To sum it up, I'd say stick w/ the p45, maybe go to a cheaper one to make way for a better video card.


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

farlex85 said:


> There would be no reason to do that unless you are planning on having sli in the future. Intel's chipsets are generally more stable and cheaper. The 790i is way overpriced and only useful if doing ddr3, and the 780i is really only advantageous over the 750i if you wanting to do tri-sli. If you were going to do any nvidia chipset, I'd say 750i would suffice just fine. Honestly, since your not oc'ing, a simple and cheap p35 with all the features you are looking for would do the trick, the only reason to go for the p45 would be pci 2.0 support, which doesn't make much difference right now at all if any, but may down the road w/ later video cards. To sum it up, I'd say stick w/ the p45, maybe go to a cheaper one to make way for a better video card.



Good advice, thanks.


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## BarbaricSoul (Aug 29, 2008)

CDdude55 said:


> Ya the GX2 looks good, but i hear of microstuttering and driver problems(crashing and what not)




personally, I haven't had any microstuttering or any crashes not caused by OC'ing my GX2 too far(I haven't had a crash in months). It's been perfect for me on my EVGA 750ftw board.


Hey Farlex, don't you remember Pauliege saying the p45 has problem with OC'ing RAM? Wouldn't a P35 be a better intel chipset for him? While I've never had a p35 board, it's my understanding it's great for OC'ing.


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## CDdude55 (Aug 29, 2008)

BarbaricSoul said:


> personally, I haven't had any microstuttering or any crashes not caused by OC'ing my GX2 too far(I haven't had a crash in months). It's been perfect for me on my EVGA 750ftw board.
> 
> 
> Hey Farlex, don't you remember Pauliege saying the p45 has problem with OC'ing RAM? Wouldn't a P35 be a better intel chipset for him? While I've never had a p35 board, it's my understanding it's great for OC'ing.



I am not trying to OC my RAM tho. I could get a 750i board, but i am still not sure if i am going to go SLi. But i am still unsure about sticking with a Nvidia chipset.


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## BarbaricSoul (Aug 29, 2008)

well the chipset is your choice, it really boils down to preference. I can say this, with my e8400, ddr2 800 ram, and evga gx2, I have absolutely no complaints with the 750 chipset. You may not go SLI, but wouldn't keeping that option open for future choices in upgrades be handy?


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