Will this be an awesome gaming rig?

[Matilda]

Hi all

I am buying these parts for a self build project next week but before i get my order in, I thought I should check with the knowledgeable ones on this forum!!
My rig will be predominantly for gaming, and I will be overclocking soon maybe to just 3ghz on air.

Does this system look like it will be a good one, clockable, fast, glittery, etc, etc etc, for games like Crysis, Bioshock, Alan Wake (the biggies)

Antec 900 case
Corsair hx620w
Asus striker Extreme
Q6600 CPU 90w G0 stepping
4x1GB Corsair TwinX DDR2
XFX Geforce 8800 GTX XXX (the factory clocked one)
Zalman CNPS 9700led CPU cooler

I have a HP T490.uk which I will use 2x120GB HDD, DVD Burner, Harman/Kardon speakers, Philips 19" LCD Monitor, Floppy drive (will remove when stable to make way for more through air on case!)

Will be controlling everything with a G15 Keyboard and G5 Mouse to go with it

If anyone has any better/cheaper/different suggestions please let me know. As you can see I have some cash to spend but this all totals my top budget, really.

Please also let me know of any compatibility issues. I've tried to make sure its all OK, but, experience of others may prove me wrong.

Lastly, any guesses on potential benchmark scores?


Thanks Guys

[Airlemental]

whats os are you going to use? i ask because from what i understand you can't use more than 2gb of ram in 32 bit versions of windows

[directhex]

whats os are you going to use? i ask because from what i understand you can't use more than 2gb of ram in 32 bit versions of windows

you can't use more than 2gib per app, or 4gib overall (without dirty hacks), but that 4gib includes memory-mapped devices, so real-world limit is about 3gib

give or take. the extended version is more than 1 line long, and is more or less as above

[staffsMike]

Do you need SLi?

If not then you don't need the striker.

get a P35 based board.

And crucial ballistix RAM

And a thermalright extreme or scythe ninja HSF

then it will be awesome

[shadowmaster]

It looks like a very nice system spec to me, however will you be using the philips 19inch as your monitor?

It would be a bit pointless to pair up an 8800GTX with a 19inch monitor that can only handle upto 1280*1024. If you want to play at that res, then an 8800GTS 640 would be more then adequete and plus you would save a bit of cash.

Otherwise your system spec looks fine to me.

Oh yes, and what windows will you be using 32bit, or 64 bit?

[Pie_uk]

Do you need SLi?

If not then you don't need the striker.

get a P35 based board.

And crucial ballistix RAM

And a thermalright extreme or scythe ninja HSF

then it will be awesome

+1 for that

[daza]

Erm no, like said before ram is fine at 2gb unless your using a 64bit OS you wont notice the difference.

Do you really need the motherboard especially when the X38 boards are coming out soon (they dont have SLI but are meant to be very good overclockers.)

And why the hell a 8800GTX with a 19" monitor a 320mb 8800gts will be fine or a 640mb if you really want to spend your money.

[neonplanet40]

use xp pro and 2gb or ram

[Matilda]

Thanks for swift responses guys. My Monitor is 19 atm, but will get 22" in january so figure may as well buy now to be ready.

Chose the Striker as it has lots of nice clocking features. looks tasty and has heat pipes etc etc. SLi maybe in the future, i figure no point buying a Mobo now for £100 then another in a yrs time for £100 as i need more features then... may as well do it all at once now, for less?

i figure i want Vista64 Ultimate but a few people have said go 32 as 64 is not ready yet.

hmmm x38 boards?

I heard ram will be ok. you cant install Vista with more than 2gb but when its running you can add it later. Apparently.

surely you cant too much ram? The demo rig they used to show off Alan wake was 4gb on clocked quad core to about 3.0 ish (i think?) I want a system that can clock eventually to at least 3.5, plenty of ram to handle mental games, and something that will last a while!

RAM is about £230 for the 4x1gb (surely ram is important?) this is my first build so want to do something pretty special, you know, its like having a child i guess... I want something to be really proud of. and blow the socks off anything!!

[Matilda]

oh, any ideas on the benchmarking scores id be looking at?
also, looked at WD raptor @ 10k rpm. Are they much better in the real world over 7200 rpm?

[peterb]

Will it be an awesome gaming rig? Depends if it is an awesome player using it!!

[0iD]

Vista Ultimate x64 is fine, using it now & no real probs. Few older games don't work, but apart from that, fine.

Go for a p35 board too with the G0 Q6600, the striker's far too flaky. Also, overclocking? get a good cooler, I have a Tuniq Tower 120 & I can highly recomend it.

[dannyboy83]

why 4 x 1Gb and not 2 x 2Gb?

[GSte]

Do you need SLi?

If not then you don't need the striker.

get a P35 based board.

And crucial ballistix RAM

And a thermalright extreme or scythe ninja HSF

then it will be awesome

Another vote for taking this advice.

[Matilda]

The oldest games I play are Steam games CS (+other Half Life engine) Also HL2 engine games mainly. I like the look of Antec 900

x64 is fine with 4gb of ram? For older games, i presume people have used dual boot with xp or even Linux with wine?

whats the best board for Overclocking, SLi potential, All the bells and whistles? As I said, I'm happy to pay now for something that will last a while!!

And PeterB, fancy a game? we can find out?

[staffsMike]

why 4 x 1Gb and not 2 x 2Gb?

tighter latencies, cheaper, not going to need more than 4GB of DDR2..take your pick