New system build help wanted plz

Hi there fairly new to these forums but loving the smartshopper section and everyone seems really friendly and helpfull so if i could indulge you all for a few minutes.

Basically i had one build in mind and then thought if i tinkered it i could make it alot more futureproof.

The build

Total = Around £1200 (after google checkout offers)

Case - Antec Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU £67.99

Mobo - Asus STRIKER EXTREME 680I SLI Socket 775 onboard Audio ATX – £200

cpu – 6600 – £150

Psu - Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU - With 3x 12v Rails and 120mm Fan - £70

Sound Card - £50 – Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme
Music OEM Soundcard

Ram – crucial ballistix 2.0GB PC6400– 90

Monitor - Samsung SyncMaster SM226BW 22" 2ms LCD Flat Panel Monitor – 240

2 x cheapo 120mm fans to go with the case from ebuyer

Cpu cooler : Zalman CNPS7500-CU LED – 32

BFG 8800GTX OC version 768MB 2xDVI GDDR3 PCI-E – 360 (which im hoping will go down to about 300 after the r600 comes out)

Now basically comments on the build would be appreciated first. The two main things ive changed from my original idea is the mobo and gfx. The reason for this is originally i was gona go with the p5b dlx as everyone raves about it, but its not sli compliant. The gfx i was going to go for a 8800 gts as i wouldnt normally spend more than that on a gfx card.

That is till last night and i was thinking how could i make this future proof. Now im not the most knowlegable about this kind of stuff so thats why i need a little advice. The idea is by spending more on the gfx and mobo a few years down the line i will be able to buy a new psu , a new 8800 gtx for sli, a quad core and some more ram. That way having a lot faster spec for half the price of the upgrade later. This will also leave me with quite a best currently as well :).

Anyway if your still reading a this point and arent saying who is this guy i hate him already the main points id like to focus on.

1. Will this idea actually work?

2.Is it worth splashing out on this mobo for the next 5 yrs use(this build and next) or buy the p5b for less and get another one next time?

3.What about the rest of the build any ideas ? this is a few weeks research so i think ive got it quite good.

4.I am new to ocing but plan to do some on the cpu, not majorly but upto 3ghz and maybe over, am i right in thinking this setup should accomplish this easily ?

Sorry for rambling on, but if u cant tell im excited (who isnt building a gaming pc) and i go on when im excited. Thanks for any and all help.

ps thanks to clunk for the oc guide very nice will be using it mate.

That motherboard is a waste of money. Best bet is to get a quality P965 board such as the Abit QuadGT of if you want SLI get an nforce 650 based board

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nvening

That motherboard is a waste of money. Best bet is to get a quality P965 board such as the Abit QuadGT of if you want SLI get an nforce 650 based board

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agreed, P5b Delxue & AB9 quadgt are cheaper and better (IMO)

if i was you id get a low end/medium end card now, and when r600 comes out you could save a few notes on your gfx card, but im not sure what would be best for you:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blood

Total = Around £1200 (after google checkout offers)

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If you can make many separate orders over £30, & preferably over £89 for the free delivery (if ordering from eBuyer), you can get £10 off each time ;). G

I also would say to dump that motherboard, its overpriced. if you have to have an SLI board, the P5N32-E SLI is almost identical to the striker, with a few of the bells and whistles chopped out and is around £60 cheaper.

I would still go with a 965 board though.

It was never my intention to buy a mobo in that region of price like i said it was only because the p5b doesnt support sli and that was the only mobo i could find that would actually fit two 8800 gtx's in it(sizewise).

Looking at Asus P5N32-E SLI, looks a nice board and only 123 on aria so thats 113 with google woohoo. Much better price.

Not too keen on the whole sli idea then clunk ?

2x8800GTX's are a complete and utter waste of time (and more importantly, money), the drivers don't work with SLi yet, and there's no game on earth that taxes 1 8800GTX yet.

I know that, that's why i said the idea would be to get one now and then another in a few years. Making it a cheaper upgrade next time than a whole new system.

Yeah, you would probably be able to get one on fleabay by then :)

But honestly, a new mid-range GPU by then would probably see a better performance gain, assuming the whole 'fusion' thing doesn't pan out by then.

Thats what i was thinking. So what do you think of the actual idea ?

Unless you have a display with a massive resolution, SLI is always going to be a waste of money. In a few years, most of your system probably wont be able to run the latest windows, so, buy for now, and not for in a few years.

In a perfect world SLi would be great, unfortunately the world isn't perfect, and nvidia's development resources are finite, and it's busy working on hardware research, chances are good that stable 8800 SLi drivers will never appear.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clunk

Unless you have a display with a massive resolution, SLI is always going to be a waste of money. In a few years, most of your system probably wont be able to run the latest windows, so, buy for now, and not for in a few years.

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QFT++

In regards to your post -

* Pc specs are moving so quick it is hard to future proof a system
* get a board that best suits your needs today - tomorrow a whole new range of cpu may be out

as for specs not a bad system will deal with any game out on the market....

What's In My Cart?

Antec Nine Hundred/Ultimate Gamer Case- no PSU
YOYO Code - 80346 £65.50
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer
YOYO Code - 83540 £56.11
Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU Cooler
YOYO Code - 31718 £34.76
Mirai 22" 5ms Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor
YOYO Code - 80120 £183.54
XFX GeForce 8800GTX XT 768MB SLI HDCP Enabled Dual DVI PCI-E Graphics
YOYO Code - 3139 £398.09
Coolermaster iGreen 600W ATX Active PFS Powersupply
YOYO Code - 31833 £60.81
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache CPU - Retail
YOYO Code - 5142 £145.21
Abit AB9 QuadGT Intel 965 Socket 775 Dual DDR2 800 PCI-E 7.1 Channel Motherboard
YOYO Code - 6730 £107.18
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 800Mhz PC6400 Gold Memory
YOYO Code - 74232 £99.79

Sub-Total: £1,150.99
Handling/Shipping Charge :£16.99
Total :£1,167.98

hope this helps and good luck with your new Pc

mark
www.yoyotech.co.uk
:juggle:

dont bother geting a 650 chipset they only support 8x pci-e in sli afaik and they are old and naff imo.

The cheaper asus board (680i) isn't a great overclocker but will serve your purposes quite well i think.

The gtx wouldn't be getting my money..the thought of having to buy another to sli would drive me insane. I'd consider backing it down to a GTS and see how you get on. If you get an evga gfx card you can do their 90 day step up as Blitzen on here has done where you can upgrade to a GTX if you aren't happy. It's worked out quite a bargain as i'm sure he will tell you.

Blood as the monitor you intend to run this system on @ 22 inch a single GTX card will be under worked.
So as everybody has been suggesting sling the idea of SLi out of the window. I have run a system in the past with 7900 GTX Sli and it was a big big waste of money. Very few games I played supported SLi and the single GTX was enough to cope easily on a 20 inch monitor.

As Mark has already pointed out there is no such thing as future proofing, but think on this, no DX10 games yet, the single GTX dosent even break into a sweat on current games and thats on a 24 inch 1920 x 1200 and above.

Mark has quoted a real decent system, if you look at my system spec's its virtually the same.
Secondly the Core 2 cpu's are easily overclocked to ridiculous levels so you are not going to run out of grunt.

In 5 years or even 2 years, you cannot guarantee what will be forthcoming, however game developers are usually far behind hardware developers so in one sense you are future proofing for a while at least.

Thanks for all your help guys. The sli idea was just an idea really, thanks for pointing out the actual chances of it being worth it.

Managed to pick up a 6300 for cheap to oc and went with the evga superclocked 320mb 8800gts in the end. Thanks to staffsmike for the recommendation there. Swapped the mobo for my original idea the asus p5b deluxe. Kept pretty much everything else the same. It now came to £950 altogether with a slightly slower gfx and cpu (after oc) so im quite happy.

Thanks again, havent ordered the monitor yet just allowed for it so will make final decision on that in next few days. Strongly leaning towards the samsung 22 inch syncmaster SM226BW.