Hello everyone! I am a longtime lurker, finally decided to get more involved with the community. I am currently working on building myself a new computer system (I currently have to share with my family), and I was interested in the advice you all might have for me. Here is what I got: Processor - QX9770 Link Now, this part is non negotiable. Before everyone gets in a tizzy, I am getting this part for free. My father works for Intel and was on the team that tested that part, so they gave it to him. It's actually been sitting around for a year now, going without use, very sad really. Time to use it Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Link Graphics Card - eVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Link Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 Link Memory - OCZ Reaper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800 (CAS Latency 4) Link Optical Drive - Samsung SH-S223Q Link Audio Card - Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Link CPU Heatsink - OCZ Vendetta 2 w/ Retention Bracket and OCZ Freeze Compound Link Case Fans - Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F Link Monitor - LG L227WTG-P Link OS - Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit (Do you really need me to link that for you? ) Hard Drives - WD Caviar Black 500GB x 2 in Raid 0 Link GRAND TOTAL (So Far) - $1,298.86 I have switched to a P45 motherboard, upped the card to the 216 core version, and settled on my hard drives. Also looking at different memory, I didn't realize how bad the voltage was to get those timings, I'd rather get better overclockable memory. Just need a case now. Well thank you for spending the time to read this! Any comment/suggestion/flame is welcome.
Don't get an Extreme. Unless you are made of money, or some kinda crazy overclocker, it's a bit of a waste of $1000. Get a Core i7 920. ~$500? After that you're gonna need an X58 board ~$300? And some triple channel DDR3 ~$300 or less.
Dont make the same mistake as I did in regards to GPU and PSU. If you think that you will eventually SLi, then buy the PSU that you would need then now.
Realistically, what is your overclocking experience? Unless you know your stuff your gonna waste alot of that QX's potential and you'd be better off selling it for a huge amount, buying a Q9550/Q9650 and using the profit to boost your other hardware.
I would buy a better GFX card. To be honest, if you really have the money, buy 2x GTX 280, 790i MB, a better PSU and save money for a third 280 GTX ^^ And buy an 28" or something monitor, u can hold the power.
I don't like the motherboard. If ur not planning to SLI ever, then go for good P45 like a Gigabyte. If ur planning SLI spend a bit more and geta 790i board.
i second scurvy. atm i'd say speed and overclockability go for a E8600. i'd check out dfi boards and yep the p45 is the way to go unless you are getting one of latest processors. i had some issues with my 780iftw board and have seen quite a few people on the evga website moaning about the nvidia chipset. gigabytes and asus are good also. if you're below 1920x1200 260 is plenty and i would recommend evga bfg because you always step-up come january. dont bother with a huge screen 22 inch or 24inch plenty but get a good brand like samsung.
only major difference between the 780 and 790 chipset is 780=DDR2 and 790=DDR3. If staying with one GPU then also look at the X48 chipset.
ok you could sell your Q9700 and buy like a whole nehalem set up with that money. but if you don't/can't do that then your set-up looks fine.
Sell the QX9770 and buy an i7 920 (assuming these overclock as much as I think they do). You could have gotten a lot of money for it if you sold it before i7s were released.
No no no, selling my QX9770 is not an option. It is a gift, and that is the one non-negotiable piece! I have decided to switch to a P45 chipset, and WD Caviar Black hard drives, as well as the Core 216 version of the graphics card. I'm looking for a case now, as well as better memory (i.e. better timings with lower voltage). And again, no I am not going to sell it.
you can save $20 by getting the non-crossfire version of that board since your running a single 260. unless you plan on a low power card for physX. but then im pretty sure your gtx 260 becomes 8x pci-e lanes. change the ddr2-800 to ddr2-1066 @5-5-5 / 2.1v sticks
Thats what im doing.... Well did actually.. My trade off was more cash in pocket than going out for a new i7 rig.... I just couldn't wait till next year, as i know the parts i sold would be half of what I could get for them them today. Brown truck here next week... Hours are like seconds here...:bang:
I think you meant seconds are like hours... unless of course pass is timing quickly erm... I mean... time is passing quickly ?
Hmmm, you're heading in my direction with the build =) I got the WD Cav Black, 260 216, P45 and QX as well.. Why not go all the way and get a Cooler Master CM690 case like me as well =D
If you really want to enjoy your system, make sure you OC it to around ~7-10GHZ ( I believe it can be OC'ed up to 11ghz?) and have an SLi / Tri SLi setup. That way CPU and GFX will be on max performance and fast enough not to bottle neck each other
