new system

[Ernie51]

Need your help on my next planned system is this overkill as I would only run a 20" or maybe 21" monitor.I am looking to buy around Oct time from Cybersystems to scared to build myself

The Specs
NZXT ZERO CASE
QX6700 CPU
8800GTX
EVGA NFORCE 680I MOBO
PC6400 DDR2/800 CORSAIR XMS2 EXTREME RAM
500GB 2X250 RAID 0 H/D
TAGAN 800W SLI PSU
ASUS SILENT PRO CPU COOLER

any feedback greatly received from an old pc gamer

[alsenior]

swap out the 680i board and go for a 965 chipset board.965 chipset boards are generally cheaper and better

[NightshadowUK]

Ditto what alsenior said and I'd be tempted to go for a different CPU cooler if you planned on overclocking.

The PSU might be a bit overkill too but then I'm not very clued up on quad-core power consumption.

As for the GTX being overkill for a 21" display, at the minute I'd say it was but then as more taxing DX10 games come out who knows. I'd be tempted to wait until ATi release their DX10 cards, even if they're not better prices will certainly drop across the board.

[Clunk]

If you really want quad core, consider the q6600 instead of the qx6700 for around half the price with very similar performance.

Drop the EVGA board, they are riddled with problems. As alsenior says, go for a 965 board.

Instead of Tagan, have a look at the Enermax Infiniti or Seasonic offerings.

Cooler wise, have a look at the big thermalright coolers.

[redddraggon]

As for the GTX being overkill for a 21" display, at the minute I'd say it was but then as more taxing DX10 games come out who knows. I'd be tempted to wait until ATi release their DX10 cards, even if they're not better prices will certainly drop across the board.

I wouldn't even say the GTX was overkill even at the moment, sometimes the FPS with the GTS drops when playing with a 20" the GTX would give that extra bit of headroom.

[aidanjt]

800W is major overkill, a 500W will easily run that system, 600W if you plan on overclocking and do some GPU physics some time in the future. The TDP of the Q6600 is 105W if anyone's interested, so basically P4 Prescott power consumption.

Also Clunk has very good points on the CPU, heatsink and motherboard. As far as PSUs go, Tagan Dual Engine PSUs are as efficient and as solid as the other main PSU manufacturers, and it's fan configuration works great with Thermalright Ultra 120 heatsinks.

[Ernie51]

Thanks if I change to 965 and q6600 I save enough I could up my ram to 4gb if needed
I dont think I will do any overclocking so would the cooler I picked do?
(on overclocking see my thread in help pages)
I picked the 800 w in case I upgrade in future

[redddraggon]

Thanks if I change to 965 and q6600 I save enough I could up my ram to 4gb if needed
I dont think I will do any overclocking so would the cooler I picked do?
(on overclocking see my thread in help pages)
I picked the 800 w in case I upgrade in future

If you were thinking of x64 Vista 4GB of memory won't be a waste.

[Clunk]

Ive just noticed that it says that you are looking to buy Oct time, do you mean this coming october? If so, theres really no point in speccing any parts now, because pretty much all of it will be old/replaced by then.

[aidanjt]

Not to mention another price drop by Intel, and ATI might even have released their R600 chip on the market by that time so we'll probably see a bit of a DX10 GPU price/feature war going on.

Although honestly, the 800W will always be overkill, you wouldn't leave your hob turned on 24/7, but you may as well if your computer ever needed 800W input energy.

Also, if you're not overclocking, even the stock cooler that comes with your CPU will do the job without much noise thanks to speedstep and fan throttling, although for that extra bit of cooling even the Zalman CNP9500 will keep it chilly and quiet without adding a huge amount of weight to the motherboard.

[Ernie51]

thanks for the input yes to x64 vista,I went away from stock cooling as I read it can get noisey (wife complains about my noisey pc)
Yes this october I know i'm a little early but you already seem to have put me on the right path no doubt I'll be back with more questions later in the year.

[s_kinton]

Ive just noticed that it says that you are looking to buy Oct time, do you mean this coming october? If so, theres really no point in speccing any parts now, because pretty much all of it will be old/replaced by then.

Agreed. Speccing a PC anthing more than 2 weeks ahead of ordering is pretty much a waste of time.