Sir Arun

Hello, fellow tech enthusiasts!

This is the rig I want to purchase this summer:

Tower: NZXT LEXA, black, blue lighting

Power Supply Unit: Corsair 750 TX, 750 Watts

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 9650/3.00 GHz, 12 MB Cache, Quad Core

Cooling: Zalman CNPS-9500 AT, Copper Heatpipes

Motherboard: Asus P5QC (DDR2 and DDR3 compatible)

RAM: 8GB Samsung DDR2-RAM (4x 2GB), 800 MHz, CL6 (64-Bit OS required)

Graphic Card: EVGA e-GeForce GTX295, 1792MB

Hard Drive: 1,5 TB Hard Drive

Disc Drive (read + write): LG GH-22NS30, DVD writer, SATA, black

Disc Drive (read only): LG-GGC H20L BD-ROM, SATA, black

Soundcard: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy SE

Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit


My budget is 1800 Euros. This baby costs 1804,10 Euros, no keyboard, no monitor, no mouse, but I guess that's about as far as I am willing to cross the limit. So what do you think? Essentially I want to couple this rig with a 24'' or 26'' monitor and play Crysis with everything set to Very High (including 2x Anti Aliasing) at minimum 25 FPS at a resolution of 1920 x 1200.

Is the 750 W PSU sufficient?

Is the cooling fan good enough?

Is the motherboard the right one?

Bottomlime: Will it work? And is it a good deal or overpriced? The guys from the website where I will be buying this will build it for me, so I guess that's the reason why it is a little costlier than if I bought all the components separately.

Cheers

wrench97

I think it's over priced about $2500 U.S. or L1550 British you could build an i7 system for less. and I'm not a fan of dual ram support for the Q9650 DDR2 is all that's needed.

Tyree

The Asus P5Q would be a better choice for the Mobo.
A Dual Core CPU would better suit your needs for a gamer.
4GB of RAM is plenty. Filling all of the RAM slots can also cause voltage issues.

Sir Arun

Here are the other choices for motherboard:

IntelDP43TF

ASUS P5N-D
ASUS P5Q
ASUS P5QPro
ASUS P5QDeluxe

EVGA n-Force 780i SLI For The Win
EVGA n-Force 780i SLI

ASUS Maximum II Formula

...the ASUS P5Q you guys suggested (instead of the P5QC) is just 1 euro cheaper at that website, so I thought I might go with a DDR3 possibility for future just in case...what do you guys think about the other motherboards?

Is one of the EVGA mobos needed if I want to SLI sometime in the future?

And regarding the downgrade from 8 GB RAM to 4GB RAM: I reckoned having 8GB RAM would come in handy for demanding games like Crysis? Or is there no difference?

Cheers

wrench97

ASUS P5Q or Pro would be my choice, Forget SLI of 2 lower cards are never faster or cheaper then one more powerful card and a lot more troublesome.
Even Crysis will not use all of 4Gig so 8Gig at this point is a waste.

Sir Arun

Alright thanks for the help; I still have 3 questions:

1) Okay, I'm scrapping the 8GB and I'll run 4GB instead. Do you think at this point it is a better choice to lower the ram to 3GB and buy a 32-bit OS instead?

2) What does the Pro offer that the regular ASUS PQ5 doesn't?

3) And my reasoning for considering the EVGA SLI mobo is because if I want to buy a second GTX 295 sometime in the future (looking at 2 years or so) then I can SLI them both - until then, one GTX295 will be enough.

I'm assuming you need an SLI motherboard like the EVGA n-Force 780i to SLI cards in the first place, right? And until then, I can run the SLI motherboard with just one card?

Cheers

wrench97

Yes you need a Nvidia chipset board to run SLI, unless you go the X58
i7 route, yes you can run a single card on a SLI board.
Nvidia chipset are buggy, EVGA makes great video cards and has very good support but the MB's are not so hot.
Unless your gaming on a 60" plasma 2 GTX295" are a waste.
In two years you can buy a single high end card that will out perform 2 295's just ask anyone who has a 7950GT SLI setup today a 9600GT will out perform them on less power, 2 for 2 GTX295's your going to need at least a 1k PSU and for the single 295 I would consider a 850TX.

Sir Arun

Alright, motherboard problem solved, thanks!

As for the 850TX PSU...I thought 750 was enough...is it really true that 750W is not enough to power Q9650 + GTX295?

Oh and could you please tell me the difference between Core 2 Duo and Dual Core?

wrench97

A 750TX will run it but for the price difference the 850TX will run cooler and allow future up grade possibilities.

C2D is Intel name for their end chips the Dual core Intels are the lower end chips without EMT64, lower Cache, usually lower power they are built from the same die but have less features. They can also be Pentium D dual core or AMD Athlon dual core.

Sir Arun

sry for double post

Sir Arun

Alright then, my specifications have been updated:

Tower: NZXT LEXA, black, blue lighting

Power Supply Unit: Thermaltake Touchpower 850 Watts

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 9650/3.00 GHz, 12 MB Cache, Quad Core

Cooling: Zalman CNPS-9500 AT, Copper Heatpipes

Motherboard: Asus P5Q

RAM: 4GB Samsung DDR2-RAM (4x 2GB), 800 MHz, CL5 (64-Bit OS required)

Graphic Card: EVGA e-GeForce GTX295, 1792MB

Hard Drive: 1,5 TB Hard Drive

Disc Drive (read + write): LG GH-22NS30, DVD writer, SATA, black

Soundcard: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy SE

Operating System: -

Price: 1564,50 €


moving on:

Are the Zalman CNPS-9500 AT, Copper Heatpipes good enough? Can it be considered "an aftermarket cooler" so if I ever overclock my CPU or GPU, it will still be able to cool it?

And is the Creative SoundBlaster Audigy SE for 7.1 only or can it also run with 5.1?

What's the difference between CL5 and CL6 RAM? Is it noticeable in game performance?

Cheers

Tyree

The build looks good.
CL is the delay time which elapses between the moment a memory controller tells the memory module to access a particular column in a selected row, and the moment the data from the given array location is available on the module's output pins.
The lower the Latency number the faster the RAM.

wrench97

The sound card will run all configurations however for 5.1 I would give the onboard a try they are really quite good these days.

The 9700 would be a better choice for Overclocking but the 9500 works well, and it only cools the CPU not the GPU.

Sir Arun

Aye, the GPU has its own fans, doesn't it?

One more thing: When I buy an OS from - say amazon - (while this rig is shipped without installed OS) and proceed to manually install it, I just start up my new system and then put the Disc in the DVD drive and then just run through the installation process, right?

wrench97

Start up put the DVD in the drive. reboot so the installation will start on boot.
After installing Windows, then you have to install the motherboard drivers(chipset) then Video, then any other drivers needed.

Yes the Video card has it's own fan for the GPU.

Sir Arun

How do I install the motherboard/chipset and video drivers? Do I log in to the internet and search for the newest drivers of the companies of my hardware?

wrench97

The motherboard will come with a Driver CD, however I often find that it's best to D/L the latest from the manufactures web site however. If you have access through an other PC D/L them to a CD or thumb drive and install that way.

Sir Arun

I see. One more thing I noticed is that the GTX295 uses DDR3...so is the ASUS P5Q DDR3 compatible or is there no need for it to be?

I have the option of having either

4GB RAM 800MHZ and CL4

or

4GB RAM 1066 MHZ and CL5

...which is better and does the 1066 MHZ give me more FPS in games?

grimx133

It doesn't matter what the ram is on the video card, doesn't have a bearing on system ram. The graphics manufacturer's should label it properly, GDDR3 so as to avoid confusion, but they don't.

wrench97

1066 is better if you plan on overclocking, for stock settings 800 is just fine.