[Arther]

Hello, I was looking for some feed back on a few items. It has been about 5 years since I build my last gaming system. This time around I am letting some one else do the work. This is what I was thinking so far..let me know what yall think. NZXT TANK GAMING TOWER CASENZXT PRC-750 POWER SUPPLY SLI READYAMD 64 X2 6000 DUAL CORE COOLERMASTER LIQUID CPU COOLING FAN SYSTEM KIT (UN SURE IF I SHOULD GO WITH THIS OR THERMALTAKE V1 CPU COOLING FAN SYSTEM KIT)???????GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4 NFORCE4 SLI CHIPSET W7.1 AUDIO DUAL GIGABIT ETHERNET (OR GO WITH: GIGABYTE GA-M59SLI-S5 NFORCE 590-SLI)???????2048MB (1024MB X2) DDR2-800 PC6400 CORSAIR XMS2 XTREME WHEAT SPREADER2X NVIDIA GEFORCE 8500GT 256MB (OR 2X NVIDIA GEFORCE 7950GT 512MG) ?????? Decided to go with X-2 8800GTS 320mb cards :-)320 GB HARD DRIVE SERIAL ATA II 3GB, 7200RPM 16M CACHE18X DUAL FORMATDOUBLE LAYER DVD RRWSONY Q170A DUAL FORMATDOUBLE LAYER 18X DVD RRW600W PMPO 3 PCS SUPER BASS SUBWOOFER SPEAKER (ALL READY HAVE A NICE SET OF MY OWN THAT I WOULD TRANSFER TO THIS SYSTEM)INTEL PRO-101001000 NETWORK CARMITSUMI 1.44 INTERNAL FLOPPY DRIVELOGITECH DELUXE KEYBOARD (ALL READY HAVE THE G15 AT HOME)LOGITECH G5 GAMING LASER MOUSE12-IN-1 INTERNAL FLASH MEDIA CARD READERWINDOWS VISTA HOME PREMIUM (UNSURE ABOUT THIS, MIGHT GO WITH XP AGAIN) WORRIED THAT SOME GAMES MIGHT HAVE TROUBLE WORKING ON VISTA??? EXAMPLE EQ2?????UNSURE WHAT OR HOW A FIRE WIRECARD MIGHT HELP MY SYSTEM??? THEY HAVE THE IEEE-1394 FIREWIRE PCI CARD????IS IT WORTH IT TO PAY EXTRA FOR ROUNDED CABLES FOR FLOPPYHDDCDDVDCD-RWDVD-RW???? AND IS IT WORTH IT TO PAY EXTRA FOR PROFESSIONAL WIRING FOR ALL CABLES INSIDE THE SYSTEM TOWER??????PLUS STANDARD 3YR WARRANTYTHE MAJOR QUESTIONS I HAVE ARE WITH THE VIDEO CARD, MEMORY, OS, COOLING.I HAVE ALWAYS USED ATI CARDS BUT IT SEEMS THAT MOST OF THESE SITES HAVE VERY LIMITED SELECTIONS WHEN IT COMES TO ATI. SO I AM FORCED TO PICK FROM NVIDIA. THE STANDARD SYSTEM I AM PICKING FROM COMES WITH NVIDIA 8500GT 256MB BUT I AM UPGRADING THAT TO THE ONE YOU SEE ABOVE (NVIDIA 7950GT 512MG) WITH A SYSTEM SET UP LIKE THIS DO I HAVE DO GO WITH LIQUID COOLING TO BE SAFE OR WOULD THERMALTAKE V1 CPU COOLING FAN SYSTEM KIT BE SAFE AS WELL???I AM GOING WITH THE 2048MB DDR2-800 CORSAIR XMS2 XTREME. IS THIS ENOUGH MEMORY OR SHOULD I SHELL OUT MORE MONEY FOR MORE MEMORY?????I KNOW THERE ARE A LOT OF ??'S ABOVE BUT I AM ABOUT TO DROP ALMOST $2K ON A NEW SYSTEM THAT I WANT TO BUILD TO LAST. MY CURRENT SYSTEM HAS LASTED ME ABOUT 5YRS AND STILL DOES FINE I JUST WANT A NEW SYSTEM. SO ANY FEED BACK WOULD BE GREAT.OH YEA ...I CURRENTLY HAVE A DELL 21INCH FLAT PANEL DESK TOP AND I RUN IT AS 1600X1200AGAIN THANKS FOR ANY FEED BACK

[gtgcoolkid]

I know you are trying to get your computer built but from the price it looks like you should be able to get a very good system from some companies also. I personally don't like Alienware or some of the other ones which seem to be more money than they are worth. I recently got my gaming PC from Carbonfrost Systems. I got their Defender Mark III and I got specifications very close to yours as well as two year service and parts warranty. They also overclock my PC while still keeping it under warranty for no extra charge. I am posting the the specifications below. My comptuer came to $2100.500 Gigabyte Hard Drive (fast rpm)2 GB RAM (up to 8 GB)AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Dual Core 2.8 GHz Processor (overclocked this while still under warranty)DVD R Burner 18XASUS AMD Motherboardpowercolor Radeon 512MB Video CardCreative Sound Blaster 7.1 Channels Sound Card (awesome sound card)600 watt power supplyWindows Vista Home BasicStarter PackageI also have a 21" monitor and the video card looks awesome on that. I mostly play FPS and Strategy games and so far its freaking sweet.

[redhead23]

graphics card SUCKS just spend the extra money to get the 8800 8500 SUCKS for gamming sorry to sayp.s. there is a review of the 8800 in the June Issue of PC WORLD on page 62

[Arther]

Thanks for the feed back so far. The system you see above is going to cost me @ $2100 walk out the door. I did decide to spend the extra money and go with two 8800gts 320mb cards. Going from the AMD 5600 to the 6000 was only $50 more so I am going with the 6000+The guy at this web site told me that I don't need to worry about liquid cooling, that I can just go with the stock cooling and I would be fine. Now from my understanding on these higher end systems heat is a issue so I think I will just spend the extra $30 - $40 bucks and get the cooling system upgraded. The reason I decided aginst upgrading the sound card was because this guy told me that the MB supports 5.1 and even 7.1 surround sound, so no need to spend money on a sound card. He did recommend that I up the power supply from the 650watt that I was going to go with to the 750watt...little bit of a price jump but better safe than sorry. He also did recommend the rounded cables because over all it is suppose to help out on the cooling. The only real thing I guess I am worried about is Windows Vistia ....I know it is still kinda new and as with all new things they are some times unstable...any one use Vistia and have any feed back?? The main game I play is EQ2

[spike]

This system you are buying is a Mid -priced system, and a very good one, but......if it were me,......I would skip the liquid cooling, and the 2 video cards, and go for one 8800 GTX with 768 MB of ram. And while the motherboard sound is generally ok........there will be times on some games and DVD's where a sparate sound card will be very necessary.

[Arther]

Yea I agree on the sound card, here are the ones they offer:Dolby Digital Surround 7.1 Sound Card [- $65] Creative Lab Sound Blaster Audigy SE [- $45] Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi ExtremeGamer Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatality [ $100] Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi [- $15] I was thinking the creative lab sound blaster x-fi extremegamer??? The reason I was going to go with 2 8800gts 320mb cards was for the SLI and in the future if need be I could add 2 more of them.....it seems that games in the future will start useing multi video cards?? is this correct. It would cost @ $1200 to go from the 2 8800gts 320mb to 2 8800gts 768 cards.And to go from 2 8800gts 320mb cards to one 8800gts 768mb card it would be @ $38 less. Would It not be smarter to get the 2 8800gts 320mb SLI and that way in the future if I feel the need to add more all I would have to do is add 2 more 8800gts 320mb cards vs very expensive 8800gts 768mb cards???Would there really be a big improvment going from 2 8800gts 320mb SLI cards to one 8800gts 768mb card???Even though it only cost @ $25 bucks to add in CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit I was going to go with [=== Silent ===] Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooling Fan System Kit Silent & Overclocking Proof = Ultimate cooling performance Smart CPU & System Thermal Management for @ $30

[Knifeblade]

The 8800GTS is a decent card, DX10 capable, just a touch under performance of the GTX. It's also about $200 less. I really don't think you'd notice any difference for the $$$. If you really want it, get the 2 320's, although if I could, I'd opt for one 768 now, and go another later, invest the extra cash into cooling. You can always GTX later, and have the cooling already in place. I see no advantage in SLI'ing 2 320's at this time in your build. Now, 2 768's different story, 2 GTX's even more different.PSU's, the more the better. Allows for expansion easily, the system you are describing will grab power everywhere. Yeah, 750W may seem overkill right now, but you'll appreciate having the extra capacity later.RAM, Max it out, dude, spend it, get all the mobo will handle, and yeah, maybe overkill, but again, no worries for future.

[fishywishy]

a single 8800gt should be fine, tho 2 would be nice as well. the motherboard should already have a ethernet, firewire, and sound port on it, tho with such a high end build the soundcard may be worth upgrading. water cooling isnt neccessary as long as that case has at least 2 120mm fans, one to draw air in over the hard drives and 1 exhaust fan. 2 gb ram should be fine and i dont know if windows xp can support more. and i defantely wouldnt get vista

[spike]

[quote:cd489877ae]The reason I was going to go with 2 8800gts 320mb cards was for the SLI and in the future if need be I could add 2 more of them.....it seems that games in the future will start useing multi video cards?? is this correct. It would cost @ $1200 to go from the 2 8800gts 320mb to 2 8800gts 768 cards.And to go from 2 8800gts 320mb cards to one 8800gts 768mb card it would be @ $38 less. Would It not be smarter to get the 2 8800gts 320mb SLI and that way in the future if I feel the need to add more all I would have to do is add 2 more 8800gts 320mb cards vs very expensive 8800gts 768mb cards???Would there really be a big improvment going from 2 8800gts 320mb SLI cards to one 8800gts 768mb card???[/quote:cd489877ae]The only reason for SLI was to get 2 medium performance cards together that would almost be as good as one top of the line cardThere is no evidence that 2 cards are better than one, they only use up more power.However it's your system do as please

[Knifeblade]

Actually, I'm with spike on this. 2 medium range cards [though they good cards] won't be as good as one upper end to start with.For one, a single 768 already has more RAM than two 320's. You can SLI later, but if you do SLI now with 2 320's, then you have a useless [IMO] 320 or two cards that, well~~~~~~~~~Nuff said.

[Arther]

Well after reading as many reviews as I could get my hands on I diffrently agree with yall on the video cards. The reviews on the 8800GTX 768mb cards are awsome, and I sure am glad I asked before waisting money on two 320 cards. Just about every one I have asked said the same thing yall have been saying "GO with the 8800GTX"...the price diffrence going from two 320's to one 768 is really not all that much..so I am defiantly going with the 768..now I just have to decide if I want to shell out the cash and get two 768's ..hummm...about a extra $600..might have to hold off on that for a bit, unless I want to sleep on the patio for a bit :-)I have increasingly been hearing "STAY away from Windows Vista" so I think I will stick with Windows XP just to be safe. (does this sound like a good assumption?)Now I know yall said that 750-watt power supply would be enough, but will it also be enough when I decide to add a 2nd 8800GTX??

[spike]

[quote name='Arther']Well after reading as many reviews as I could get my hands on I diffrently agree with yall on the video cards. > > > > The reviews on the 8800GTX 768mb cards are awsome, and I sure am glad I asked before waisting money on two 320 cards. > > > > Just about every one I have asked said the same thing yall have been saying "GO with the 8800GTX"...the price diffrence going from two 320's to one 768 is really not all that much..so I am defiantly going with the 768..now I just have to decide if I want to shell out the cash and get two 768's ..hummm...about a extra $600..might have to hold off on that for a bit, unless I want to sleep on the patio for a bit :-)> > > > I have increasingly been hearing "STAY away from Windows Vista" so I think I will stick with Windows XP just to be safe. (does this sound like a good assumption?)> > > > Now I know yall said that 750-watt power supply would be enough, but will it also be enough when I decide to add a 2nd 8800GTX??A larger ( something in the 800-1000 watt and 38+ amps, and 4 , 6 pin connectors ) power supply , now, makes a lot of sense, while my specs may seem high, remember, you intend to add a second power hungry video card later, and you can never have too much power, this will let the PSU work eaiser, and with lower stress, and when you get that second card, you'll be ready to go, with no further upgrades needed.

[Arther]

Cool...think I will go with the 1000-watt power supply just to be safe.

[spike]

Make sure it has the proper connections and enough of them.

[Arther]

Ok thanks..now..how exaclty and what exactly am I looking for to make sure it has the right connections?

[spike]

24 , or 204 main connectorSATA connector(s)4 pin cpu connectorsand at least 4,.........6 pin PCI-E connectorsand the usual molex ( hard drive connectors )..............Also , remember this, especially with the video cardS , you intend on using, the AMPERAGE, of the power supply is JUST AS IMPORTANT, as the wattageMinimum of a 500 Watt power supply.(Minimum recommended power supply with 12 Volt current rating of 34 Amps.) Two available 6-pin PCI-E connectors.These are the requirements for ONE card, so you know that an additional card will REQUIRE, even more, so a 1000 watt and 42 amp PSU would be ideal

[Arther]

Thanks again for all the feed back ..I hope to order this new system next week some time and then it will take about a week for delivery..once I get it all set up and going I will post on here how it runs. By the way the one I finaly decided on is:Case ( [$20 OFF Mail-In Rebate] NZXT TANK Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Silver ) Case Lighting ( None ) Power Supply ( 1000 Watt -- NZXT PRC-1000 Power Supply Quad SLI Ready ) Processor ( Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6700 (2x 2.66GHz/4MB L2 Cache/1066FSB) ) Processor Cooling ( [=== Silent ===] Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooling Fan System Kit Silent & Overclocking Proof = Ultimate cooling performance Smart CPU & System Thermal Management ) Motherboard ( MSI P6N SLI-F nForce 650i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, PCI-E MB ) Memory ( 2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair XMS2 Xtreme w/Heat Spreader ) Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 768MB w/DVI TV Out Video ) Video Card Brand ( === High Performance === eVGA Brand Video Card Powered by NVIDIA ) Hard Drive ( 320 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] ) 2nd Hard Drive ( None ) External Raid Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None ) CD/DVD Drive ( [ Special !!! ] 18X Dual Format/Double Layer DVDR/RW CD-R/RW Drive Black ) CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( [ Special !!! ] 18X Dual Format/Double Layer DVDR/RW CD-R/RW Drive Black ) Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard ) Speaker System ( 600W PMPO 3 PCS Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System ) Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) ) Floppy Drive ( Mitsumi 1.44 MB Internal Floppy Drive Black ) Monitor ( None ) 2nd Monitor ( None ) Keyboard ( Logitech Deluxe Keyboard Black ) Mouse ( Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse ) USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in USB 2.0 Ports ) Meter Display ( Thermal Temperature LCD Display Black ) Flash Media Reader/Writer ( 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black ) Operation System ( MS Windows XP Professional w/ Service Pack 2 ) Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner ( None ) Case Round Cable ( Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower ) Case Round Cable ( Rounded Cables for Floppy/HDD/CD/DVD/CD-RW/DVD-RW Drives ) IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( None ) USB Flash Drive ( None ) TV Tuner ( None ) Video Camera ( None ) Headset ( None ) Power Protection ( None ) Printer ( None ) Printer Cable ( None ) :lol::lol::lol::lol:

[spike]

8) SWEET!!!!

[redhead23]

if i were you i would get the G5 gaming mouse it works great i love it i think its better then the mx518 and i have had both and sold my mx and kept the G5

[Jeeves]

You're gonna pwn