Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

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SkeeteRX7
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Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by SkeeteRX7 »

Hey, I'm trying to build a decent gaming computer to supplement my T61p...here are the specs so far which I have decided, since I don't need the most amazing performance, I configured the most budget 512 MB 8800 GT setup that was possible..

Motherboard: XFX nForce 680i SLI
Graphics Cards: 2x XFX Geforce 8800 GT SLI (512 MB x 2), 640 MHz DDR3
Memory: Kingston HyperX 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, 2 GB dual-channel @ 800 MHz
Power Supply: BFG Tech BFGR800WPSU 800W

total= $1015 USD

Does anyone have any suggestions for inexpensive low-mid range cases and fans/cooling systems..my budget is $1600 USD.
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by Jmac- »

I would bump that up to 4 GB of RAM as prices on 4 GB kits have come down significantly in the past month.

Have you considered an HD 3870 Crossfire setup ? From the benchmarks I've seen, the HD 3870s in crossfire are neck and neck w/ 8800 GTs in SLI, but they're cheaper and easier to get a hold of.

What will the rest of the system comprise of ?
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by ImJ »

No point getting 4GB Ram, the 1 Extra GB will be wasted since the max you can use on windows or lets say vista is 3GB Ram.
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by SkeeteRX7 »

I've heard more reviews about the 512 MB 8800 GT, and prefer NVIDIA in desktops.

However, a Crossfire Xpress motherboard is my alternative.

Does anyone have any good cases and cooling systems for the setup that I have listed?
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by Jmac- »

ImJ wrote:No point getting 4GB Ram, the 1 Extra GB will be wasted since the max you can use on windows or lets say vista is 3GB Ram.
First, he never specified whether he was running a 32-bit or 64-bit OS. Secondly, 3 GB of RAM on 32-bit Vista performs WAY better than 2 GB of RAM.

As for cooling systems, what size case are you after ?
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by SkeeteRX7 »

It will be running a 32-bit Vista Business partitioned to a 32-bit Ubuntu 7.10....so 2 will be good enough.

I'm looking at a full-sized desktop case, one that has 2 hard disk slots and 2 optical drive slots..
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by ImJ »

You should buy the USB External HDD now, i mean they're pretty cheap for 500 GB USB ones ^_^
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by snoopdogg879 »

ImJ wrote:No point getting 4GB Ram, the 1 Extra GB will be wasted since the max you can use on windows or lets say vista is 3GB Ram.
not for me because im running ultimate 64 bit with 4GB RAM
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by SkeeteRX7 »

I think I have a case that I could use.I have an old (2000) IBM Intellistation M Pro Type 6849. Since the IBM motherboard is shot, I'm thinking of putting the EVGA motherboard inside of the care. It's an ATX full-sized tower (originally meant to be a workstation), will it be able to hold the XFX 680i motherboard and dual 8800GT cards?
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by snoopdogg879 »

every motherboard they have now are SLi or CrossFire ready, you can get a mid-sized tower and all you need is a power supply that is more than 500W and the 2 graphics cards and to put them both on the motherboard and the sometimes you need a cable to hook them both up to the power supply and really thats all you need to do to hook up the 2 graphics cards
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by S2000_Skyline12 »

And you brought this old topic up...why?
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by setsunakute »

Am I the only one who has noticed the absence of a processor?
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by SkeeteRX7 »

No.....I (back then) was set on the E6850...

However, I've rethought what I wanted since then:

-Case: NZXT Apollo Black
-Motherboard: ASUS Striker II Formula (nForce 780i)
-Graphics Cards: 2x 512 MB PNY Geforce 9600GT
-Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
-RAM: Corsair XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 w/heatsink
-PSU- Silverstone ST1000 ATX
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by Stereo »

The SLi 9600's are good, however you could get the quad-core Q6600 for only $50 more.
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by Carcrazy »

It's worth it, if you plan on overclocking...
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by SkeeteRX7 »

Thanks so far for your suggestions, I have a few more questions:

Do i need the 1000 watt PSU?......It's going to be in sli, but I'm not going to need any super-high overclocks, and I'm using a 45nm CPU, so that wont generate as much power usage and heat.....There will also be many fans in the case...What do you guys think?
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by baumaxx1 »

Hey, don't bother with SLI. Get 4gb of ram instead, and get a 9800 1gb card. It'll work out cheaper with the mobo and only one card. You're better off going up a model rather than SLI-ing 2 lower cards.
It'll probably use less power and run cooler too. I mean, for the price of 2x9600s, just get a 8800 or 9800.

You may want to check out PCI-E 2 boards, but they may be pricey.

1000 watt PSU may be excessive ATM, but it is future proof.

What about HDDS (320GB offer good bang for buck, but gaming would fill it up quick)? Monitor (22" widescreen will take advantage of such a good rig)? Inputs (keyboard and mouse)? And also, about the case... haven't heard of that one, but I know Antec 900s are good, 2 friends have them and they run very cool and silent.
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by SkeeteRX7 »

For inputs, I'm going with the Logitech G11 keyboard, and Razer Diamondback mouse. As for the PSU...I decided on an Antec TPQ-850 instead of the Rosewill, because of the modular cabling...Also, the Striker II Formula has two PCI-E 2.0 slots.
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by baumaxx1 »

Still, why bother SLI-ing 2 96s, when you could get a 98 1gb? SLI usually costs more... if this costs less for better performance I'd be surprised.
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by SkeeteRX7 »

I've read slightly better reviews of configs with dual 9600's, and my friends with 9800s complain all the time about driver problems...

As for hard drives, I was going to get dual 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA drives (one for Complete PC Backup), but I've seen good reviews of the Western Digital Raptor 500s, which are available for lower prices and aren't much less powerful.

By the way....should I buy longer SATA Cables?
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by baumaxx1 »

I've read slightly better reviews of configs with dual 9600's, and my friends with 9800s complain all the time about driver problems...
Driver problems get fixed quite quickly remember.
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by oshaylinux »

Ultra Black Aluminus ATX Full-Tower Case with Clear Side is the case that will fit all your needs and look good at doing
www.tigerdirect.com for about $100
http://www.tigerdirect.com/include/AddC ... gcounter=3
Form Factor: ATX Full-Tower
removable motherboard tray
Compatible Motherboards: ATX
Micro ATX
Mini ATX
Bezel Type: Swing Out
Side Panel Type: Clear, Vented, Quick-Release
Power Supply: Not Included
Material: Aluminum
External 5.25" Drive Bays: 5
External 3.5" Drive Bays: 2
Internal 3.5" Drive Bays: 5
Expansion Slots: 7
Front USB Ports: 2
Front FireWire Ports: 1
Front Audio Ports: 2
120mm Fan Ports: 2
120mm Fans Included: None
Depth: 19"
Width: 8.75"
Height: 21"

newegg.com is the best place to buy
go with the 4gig of rams it cheap
get 3 seagate 500 gig hd $221

get just one video card you can all ways upgrade later
BFG Tech BFGE98512GTXOCXE GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $300

Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support - Retail - Retail $200
2 dvd burners $60
so far just $901 $700 to go

i hope this been helpfull!
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by Koenigsegg_Rox »

SkeeteRX7 wrote:For inputs, I'm going with the Logitech G11 keyboard, and Razer Diamondback mouse.
To be quite honest IMO thats not the best bang for your buck UNLESS you are a leftie with your mouse. For that same money I got the Logitech VX Revolution. Laser technology, better dpi, hyper scroll, zoom and one touch search for when you're not playing games, and every button can be mapped to a keyboard button for when you are. Technically its not supposed to be a gaming mouse, but I find that it is.
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by SkeeteRX7 »

Ok....looong time no post (college applications and stuff)...but since I now have a PS3, I decided on a more modest configuration...I also have a monitor, an Acer P243w with DVI (going to be for my computer), HDMI (reserved for my PS3), and VGA (for my semi-gaming laptop which has an 8600M-GT GDDR3)...I'm not going to go for SLI at the moment, so I'm looking to get a decent high mid-range GPU with a good amount of ports, as well as a quiet mid-tower PC that I can easily unplug and bring around to LAN parties and use as an all-around decent PC. Here is what I'm getting (has one funny component):

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition for system builders.
Case: Antec Sonata III 500
Power Supply: Antec Earthwatts 500
Motherboard: ASUS P5N-D (NVIDIA NForce 750i SLI chipset, support for dual PCI-E X16)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0 Ghz x2, 1333Mhz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache)
Memory: 4GB (2 x 2 GB) Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800
Graphics Card: Palit Geforce 9600GT 1GB Sonic (1GB GDDR3, 256-bit memory bus, 700MHZ core clock, 1000MHZ memory clock, DVI/HDMI/S-PDIF/DisplayPort connectors)
Hard Drive: 500GB SATA 3.0Gbps Western Digital Caviar SE16
Optical Drive: Samsung 24x DVD+/-R IDE CD/DVD burner
Card Reader: Rosewill RCR-IC001 52-in-1 Internal USB card reader
Floppy Drive: Samsung 3.5" FDD
Keyboard: Logitech MX 3200 (RF wireless)
Mouse: Logitech MX 600 (RF wireless)

All this amounts to about USD $1250.....what do you guys think?
Last edited by SkeeteRX7 on 14 Oct 2008, 05:02, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Building a medium-to high spec gaming desktop...

Post by Koenigsegg_Rox »

Waait a sec....you can get USB toasters now? Wtf were they smoking when they thought that up??

As for the mouse, I'd still say go for the VX Rev, but the MX600 is def. an improvement. Logitech IMO are the major leaders in mice. The laser ones are fantastic.
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