Looking to build a gaming rig...advice/critiques welcome

[cyclohexane]

First off, I'm new to the forums. Name's Chris, I'm 21. I am in the Air Force, it's alright here.

I've been doing a bit of research to help me understand how a computer is built, what exactly I would need to get to build one. I just wanted to have some opinions on the parts that I picked out. Critiques are always welcome. I do agree that the item(s) that I picked out are rather expensive but I am looking forward to the future and being able to upgrade with ease was something that I had in mind.

I'm not going to build the rig for a little while (the wife said that we didn't need to be making payments.) So looks like I need to save

All from newegg.com, haven't had the time to shop around much:

CD DRIVE: Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-115DBK $29.99

CASE: COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail $189.99

HARD DRIVE: Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $169.99

MONITOR: SAMSUNG 2253LW High-gloss Black 21.6" 5ms (2ms GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail $269.99

POWER SUPPLY: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Red) 750W Power Supply - Retail $139.99

SPEAKERS: Logitech S-220 17 Watts 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System - OEM $20.99

KEYBOARD: Logitech G11 Silver & Black USB Standard Gaming Keyboard - Retail $58.99

MOUSE: Logitech G5 2-Tone 7 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Laser Mouse - Retail $49.99

RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - $132.99

MOTHER BOARD: ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $269.99

VIDEO CARD(S): 2x SAPPHIRE 100247L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail $569.98 ($284.99 each)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail $169.99

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD for System Builders - OEM $179.99

SOME EXTRA CRAP: Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 Licensed for 3 PCs - Retail $84.99

Grand Total: $2,390.20 (with shipping)

Thanks for any advice/critiques you might have.

 

[JogaBonito1502]

To be honest with you the PSU is way over the top. I think an 800W would be fine. Other than that everything looks fine together. If you really want to be future proof wait until the Nehalem processors are released.

 

[cavemangrinder]

Thats gonna be a nice rig

 

[wuzupmcs68]

You could save some money by picking a cheaper mobo and PSU, those are a little more than you really need. And I usually get windows cheap as a student so if I were you, I would borrow windows from a friend or something (I just refuse to pay that much for software).

Other than that looks like an awesome build if everything ends up compatible. May want to think about another hard drive also as today's games fill up 150GB pretty quick.

 

[ryno502]

Very nice rig.

 

[cyclohexane]

You could save some money by picking a cheaper mobo and PSU, those are a little more than you really need. And I usually get windows cheap as a student so if I were you, I would borrow windows from a friend or something (I just refuse to pay that much for software).

Other than that looks like an awesome build if everything ends up compatible. May want to think about another hard drive also as today's games fill up 150GB pretty quick.

Do you have a cheaper mobo in mind that will support DDR3 ram? I see that DDR3 will more than likely become the "mainstream" ram in the near future. regarding the psu, it is a little intense. I was told by a couple of people to go for a 1000w psu (friends referred me to a 1000w) and I picked that one. It has 6 - 4+2 pin connectors, I am sure that's overkill. I was just a little worried about future power consumption and it is all modualr (which will be nice for airflow, using only the power cords I need)

Just a thought.

 

[wuzupmcs68]

Hey if you don't mind spending the $$$ for that PSU that's fine. But I can pretty much guarantee you won't be needing 1000w now or anytime in the near future. I've got a big case pretty much maxed out with RAM and HDD's right now running on 500w and I've never had a problem. Plus it has less power consumption and heat generation.

As far as the mobo, it looks like if you're stuck on DDR3 with SLI you're definitely going to be shelling out some money. But you will definitely be future proof for a while.

Long story short, if you don't mind shelling out the cash then that is definitely a very good build.

 

[disturbed13]

that thing will be a beast!
what a nice rig

 

[worshipme]

I think you should go with an X38 and CF HD 4850s. The HD 4850 is faster than the 8800GTS and the X38 is a more solid and reliable chipset than the 790i.

HD 4850

ASUS P5E

Intel chipset + Crossfire support is a far more potent combo than anything Nvidia has to offer with the recent release of the HD 4800 series.

I also agree that 1000W is way overkill. Under full 100% load, all those components together wouldn't be consuming more than ~400W-450W. So not only would you be wasting your money, but you're PSU would not be working at full efficiency. PSUs work at their maximum efficiency at 50%-85% load. Anything under or above that, and they produce more heat and draw more power than necessary.
The PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W is a reliable unit from probably the best respected power supply manufacturer with all the connectors you require plus plenty of power in reserve should you wish to upgrade in the future.

And as for DDR3, I've said this many times. DDR3 does not offer any performance increases over DDR2 on the current Intel FSB-based platforms because of the bandwidth limitations that the FSB poses. Memory bandwidth can never be higher than the bottleneck that is the FSB, that is why DDR3 cannot be fully exploited until Nehale is released, or AMD released a DDR3 supporting chipset.

 

[justinups]

i would agree with a few of the past post.you spent a little to much if you would have used newegg and geeks you could have saved about 600$ i am betting.