High end gaming rig...

[b0redom]

Hi All,
I am planning on getting:



and fitting it in this prebuilt case:

http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/cata...roducts_id=861

So please can someone recommend me a motherboard and a PSU?

Anything else people would change?

[staffsMike]

Are we looking for big overclocks with than E8600 then?

You get a crazy tweeking board like the DFI X48, I assume it does have a typical DFI bios making it much harder than typical boards to overclock for people with more limited knowledge (such as myself)
http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=787773

A slightly more sensible and probably easier to overclock (without being a guru), P5Q
http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=818509

Or you could stick with the boards known to be awesome clockers like the Abit IP-35PRO (or XE version) or the Asus P5K Deluxe. Only problem there is you lose PCIe 2.0 but I don't thing that will matter.

Are you sure about taking the dive to solid state. I mean a 640GB Western Digital AAKS is an awesome drive in terms of speed and I don't think you're too power concious considering the rest of your build

[shadowcreaper]

the graphics set-up total overkilll.

id personaly get a single 4870 with maybe 1 gb memory version, sinse 2 in crossfire are EXTREAMELY hot,

also are you planning of building this yourself?

Sinse i looked at watercase site, and it seems they only do the watercooling, nothin else.

how are they going to do the watercoolign without motherboard or CPU ect?? do you buy it then send it to them, how does it work?

seems a wied arrangement

Motherboard id personaly get a ASUS x38 intell ddr2. it one of the most stable boards out there.

PSU maybe corsair 820 or coolmaster 820.

[b0redom]

Originally Posted by shadowcreaper

the graphics set-up total overkilll.

id personaly get a single 4870 with maybe 1 gb memory version, sinse 2 in crossfire are EXTREAMELY hot,

It's not crossfire it's a single board - just released today. I play games @ 1920x1200 and I want this to last a fair while.

also are you planning of building this yourself?

I was planning on building most of it.

Sinse i looked at watercase site, and it seems they only do the watercooling, nothin else.

Yes, I don't want to go through the hassle of building a watercooled case myself.

how are they going to do the watercoolign without motherboard or CPU ect?? do you buy it then send it to them, how does it work?

They build the cooling loop into the box, fit the rads etc and test it, then send it to me and I fit the hardware and attach the waterblocks.

Motherboard id personaly get a ASUS x38 intell ddr2. it one of the most stable boards out there.

PSU maybe corsair 820 or coolmaster 820.

Cool - I'll take a look. Thanks.

[shaithis]

Personally, I would either spend a little more and get the Q9550 or save a wedge and get the E8500. SSDs are still not good VFM (at least IMO) and the technology is constantly getting better, I would save some money and just get a nice high density hard drive for now and wait 6-12 months before jumping on the SSD bandwagon.

PSU: Seasonic or Corsair ~700W should be more then enough.

Motherboard: Asus P5Q Deluxe seems like a nice board, considering it myself atm

[shadowcreaper]

by the way i just got hold of released info about that new card the 2x, and they all said same thing,

heres a quote, which sums it up, and you might find it usefull.

Our performance evaluation shows that the HD 4870 X2 only comes into its own when the resolution is cranked up to 2,560x1,600, along with serious image quality; anything lower and it's sat there, twiddling bemused transistors.

So maybe GTX260 might be better suited for you, the CPU you got, i hear is very good for overclocking, but maybe hold off the SSD sinse the tech on them is very new and they most likely going to rocket down in price and get better over next year or less, have you thought of getting a T1 spinpoint samsung hard drive? they extreamely queit and very fast

[shaithis]

GTX260 in a "high end gaming pc" at 1920x1200 is really a no-no IMO.

The GTX280 drops off in a lot of games at anything above 1920x1200 and that's with today's games.

4870x2 gives considerably more future-proofing for high-res gaming.

[shadowcreaper]

GTX260 in a "high end gaming pc" at 1920x1200 is really a no-no IMO.

you should replace high end with super high end

Just so you know remember what the quote said about 4870x2,you will need a pretty dam good monitor to get the most out of it,also you may want a good case with non stock coolers to keep it all running queit and cool.

[Mithrandir]

Whoah!

For the parts you're planning I think nothing less than an X48 motherboard

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by staffsMike

Are we looking for big overclocks with than E8600 then?

You get a crazy tweeking board like the DFI X48, I assume it does have a typical DFI bios making it much harder than typical boards to overclock for people with more limited knowledge (such as myself)
http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=787773

A slightly more sensible and probably easier to overclock (without being a guru), P5Q
http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=818509

Or you could stick with the boards known to be awesome clockers like the Abit IP-35PRO (or XE version) or the Asus P5K Deluxe. Only problem there is you lose PCIe 2.0 but I don't thing that will matter.

Actually, the DFI LT or UT X48-T2R is pretty user friendly with a good set of auto settings, and there are a shedload of settings you can tinker with if you want to explore further.

I did the one in my sig with that

[Webby]

On the Watercooling you could save yourself ~£70 by putting it together yourself, I realise that budget is probably not the driving force here but still £70 is £70 that additional money could be spent on water blocks to cool the 4870 x2 (oh and my price has a better Radiator included in the price as well )

[jgm]

A word on the SSD - I have one of the 64GB OCZ drives and although everyone says that they aren't great value for money I'm having trouble finding ways to make it read at less than 80MB/s regardless of the access pattern (unless I max out the CPU with something stupid like individual 1-byte reads).

So are they expensive? Yes. Are they too expensive? Depends on how much you value your read speed...

[shrek101]

So a 4870 would be fine on most games at that resolution then?

I am just planning on a new rig

Originally Posted by shaithis

GTX260 in a "high end gaming pc" at 1920x1200 is really a no-no IMO.

The GTX280 drops off in a lot of games at anything above 1920x1200 and that's with today's games.

4870x2 gives considerably more future-proofing for high-res gaming.

[staffsMike]

Originally Posted by shrek101

So a 4870 would be fine on most games at that resolution then?

I am just planning on a new rig

It's plenty for 1920 x 1200 yeah. HD4870X2 is either serious "future proofing", replacing your central heating or a waste lol 260GTX is OK but generally beaten by the HD4870 which beats the 280 in some games I believe.