Need help finalising my new gaming pc

[bigpun69]

Ok i've got the spec sorted now which i'll be purchasing after July 22nd cuts...

Intel Q6600
Asus P5W Deluxe (I think this is what its called, the one with WiFi that Clunk uses) - are there any suggestions for a decent SLI enabled board that dont sacrifice the OC potential.
Thermaltake 120 Ultra
8800GTX
Antec 650Watt PSU - is this enough?
Antec P180 case - is there anything else that you guys recommend? I really like Antecs system builder focus and love working with their cases.
4Gb RAM - undecided which brand yet
320Gb SATA 7200 Raid Array with 500Gb sata extra drive

I want to ensure the case is as cool as possible without making a racket, and as I've ditched the idea of water cooling im going to need some decent case fans and a fan for the Thermaltake 120 so what do you recommend?

Is this setup going to be 'ample' for crysis when it comes out?

[s_kinton]

PSU = Change Antec PSU for a Enermax, Tagan or the like. And yes 650w will be enough
RAM = Crucial ballistix come highly recommended, but are a little pricey
Fans = Sharkoon golf ball 2000 120mm fans. They're nice and qiuet and have a decent cfm.
HDDs = Samsung
Case = If you like Antec, then also consider the P180, P180v2, 900

Crysis = That spec you listed is about as good as it gets at the minute, so it should be more than 'ample' to run Crysis, I would hope!

[EarlGrey]

sounds good - I wish I had that money to spend...

The power supply is enough - as long as it has 2 PCIe 6 pin power plugs. Many good power supplies come with just 1, and you need 2 for the 8800GTX.

You only need more power if you want to get SLI later - and going from your motherboard selection you might want to - so do some research... an overclocked quad core will be very thirsty.

Er, thinking about it, if you want to SLI 8800GTXs, you need a power supply with 4 PCIe power leads...! - Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

[staffsMike]

get the antec p182 not the p180.. new and improved, dont need to change the fans just get a quiet one for the TR 120 extreme

Samsung or WD for hard drives

Crucial Ballistix for RAM

MB is the asus P5K

[sutton]

Is this setup going to be 'ample' for crysis when it comes out?

Crytek have said that E6600 + one 8800 and 2Gb of RAM will run on Ultra settings.

Thats true btw, they said that in an interview with PC Gamer.

[kryptoman78]

wow thats powerful

[EarlGrey]

Taken from the blurb for 8800GTX on the scan.co.uk website

'NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX is the most powerful graphics card to date with performance up to 3x that of present high-end cards. To achieve such power in its next-generation design, NVIDIA has architected a graphics card that can require >150W at peak load, with power fed through twin 6-pin PCIe connectors. G80 cards, therefore, require a high-quality PSU that's capable of delivering clean current on the crucial 12V line. In keeping with a high-performance system built around G80, SCAN recommends 500W PSUs with, preferably, 4 individual 12V rails.'

So, for SLI you will need a motherboard with 4PCIe 6pin power plugs, OR 2 6pin plugs and 4 spare MOLEX connectors and some adapters (The adapters require 2 dedicated Molex connectors per PCIe channel...! )

Here you go http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=636375 cheap as chips...

[bigpun69]

some great thoughts and advice there, thank you very much

The ballistix ram seems a definite to go for, is there much point in going for 4Gb over 2Gb, or even 3Gb over 2Gb? It's mainly going to be used for gaming and Photoshop.

Also, the reason I wanted to go for an Antec PSU is that there's been issues with other brand PSUs not being long enough to fit inside the P180/182 due to its unorthodox location within the case. Am I right to be concerned about this?

Where can I purchase a set of the aforementioned fans? I've been pricing everything up on ebuyer at the moment. Does the P182 come with any case fans? Or are they not worth keeping anyway even if they do?

Also, with SLI - do both cards have to be identical? Or can I get any other 8800GTX later on to pair it up with?

[staffsMike]

you can SLi any brand of the same graphics card.. also you can SLi overclocked versions with non overclocked ( they take the lowest clock speed though)
I wouldn't bother with SLi though..I have an SLi board but i'll probably never use it...just like the otehr features it has.

the corsair HW whisper 520w/620w fit in the antec p182 because i have one in mine.

4GB is useful for xp/vista 64bit. 3gb would do for 32bit.