Guys!!! Opinions please

[halutzparilla]

here it is my rig that i've been waiting for time memorial...
i'm about to buy it next saturday as soon as i get my salary from my boss...
need suggestion... :D :D :D :D :D

[gvblake22]

Well, I'm assuming you are talking about the rig in your sig?
If so, it looks like you will have a very nice setup for sure! However, it would help if you would give us some idea as to what your primary uses plan to be. If you want a gaming machine, then the 7900GS is a great choice. That 7900GS is a great bang for your buck card at right around $200.

Your processor choice is definately a good one too. There is little arguing that the Conroe processors are at the top of the performance charts lately. You might consider going with an E6400 and overclocking it to get the performance of the E6600. True, you halve the L2 cache going from the E6600 to the E6400, but I find it hard to justify spending an extra $100 for the small boost in clock speed (which can be easily gained back by overclocking an E6400) and twice the cache (which in and of its self really doesn't yield very much of a performance boost overall). So basically it comes down to whether you want to spend an extra $100 for twice the L2 cache...

The motherboard, although very nice, may be a little overkill for you. Do you ever plan on utilizing the SLI? If you have no plans for a dual graphics setup (SLI/CrossFire is over rated anyway), then you could save yourself a lot of money on the motherboard by going with something like the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 that we reviewed HERE.

I have nothing to say about your RAM choice, it looks like a solid decision. I am curious though, is it CAS 4 or CAS 5?

The power supply is good, but there are better. Particularly the NeoHE 500W or NeoHE 550W from Antec. They have more 12v power, Active PFC (Power Factor Correction), and a modular cabling system for about the same price. The Enermax Liberty 500W and PCZ GameXStream are good alternatives too.

Also noticed you don't have a hard drive listed at all. What do you plan on using?

Finally, not sure what speaker system you are running on, but if you have (or think you might eventually need) digital audio out, then the Chaintech AV-710 might be a good alternative to Creative products for the same price as that Audigy SE.

[Capper]

Very solid rig.... Bo liked the Gigabyte board very much.....the only other board I'd really consider right now is the Intel BOXD975XBXLKR (BADAXE), its seeing some incredible results, and INTEL boards are well supported and very stable.

As to memory, you could never go wrong with Corsair, but could probably get comparable performance with a slightly cheaper OCZ or G.Skill kit.

[halutzparilla]

Here is the comp list as of now...

ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe MoBo
eVGA 256-P2-N624-AR Geforce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO
Core 2 Duo E6400
Zalaman CNPS 9500
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Chaintech AV-710
Antec NeoHE 500
RAIDMAX Smilodon
Acer 19"widescreen
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3120811AS 120GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s


at $1,671.14

and yes i am considering sli in the long run maybe in a month or two...

[halutzparilla]

primary plan of this is major multitasking, gaming, and some photo/video editing along the run if i find time to squeeze it in my busy life...

i'm planing to use is mainly for games like CS:S, Hitman, and etc...

[RangerXLT8]

Don't buy a C55 or whatever. There is not a NVIDIA Intel chipset I can remember that OCed well. Buy an Intel 965\975 board. For SLi, there are hacked drivers that work perfectly right now, and who knows what nvidia will allow in the coming months.

For Intel boards I recommend either the Gigabyte 965 DS3(150.00 at newegg), or the Asus P5W DH(975X)(more expensive as in like 225.00+). The DS3 can run SLI, but not full 8x, 8x. P5W DH will run 8x 8x SLi.

If you need the SLi drivers, I have them.

[Capper]

Originally Posted by RangerXLT8

Don't buy a C5 or whatever. There is not a NVIDIA Intel chipset I can remember that OCed well. Buy an Intel 965\975 board. For SLi, there are hacked drivers that work perfectly right now, and who knows what nvidia will allow in the coming months.

For Intel boards I recommend either the Gigabyte 965 DS3(150.00 at newegg), or the Asus P5W DH(975X)(more expensive as in like 225.00+). The DS3 can run SLI, but not full 8x, 8x. P5W DH will run 8x 8x SLi.

If you need the SLi drivers, I have them.

That ASUS board is running $265 right now, way too much.
Honestly, SLI is overblown and a waste of money......Get a single GOOD card, and you'll be more than happy, and easily play the games and run the apps you want to.
There are a lot of good sub-$200 boards out there.
As to the C55 chipset, every new chipset has issues for the first revision or two, so why wait 3-4 months for a new chipset, only to get some board that has issues....why not buy a good stable board right now that will last you for as long as you need it?

[halutzparilla]

if i wouldn't consider sli... what Mobo and Video Card would be a good back to back...

i'm only considering SLI for well the games at a High Res in long run...

[Capper]

Something else you could consider is 1GB of memory, and upgrade the processor to the E6600, you get the 4MB of cache and a processor that easily O/Cs to EE levels, on air

[Capper]

I'd recommend the Gigabyte board Bo reviewed, or I'd consider other i965 boards.....plenty of features, and good stability