Spec'd out PC...

J

Jordan

After spending the last few days re-familiarizing myself with the
latest and greatest gaming hardware, this is what I've spec'd, posted
for your comments / suggestions:
From NewEgg.com:
Click to expand...
Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive -
OEM
$204.99 (- $30 mail in rebate = 174.99)
From ClubIT.com:
Click to expand...
EVGA GeForce 8800Ultra 768MB 384bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video
Card Retail 768-P2-N881-AR
$589.99 (- $30 MIR = $559.99)

Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W Power Supply - Retail
$137.85
From MWave.com:
Click to expand...
CRUCIAL BALLISTIX TRACER 2GB PC28500 1066MHZ 5-5-5-15 240-PIN DDR2
$147.00

ASUS P5K DELUXE
$218.40

INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 2.4GHZ
$289.00

ANTEC NINE HUNDRED (BLACK) ATX TOWER CASE
$106.00

SONY AWG170S-B2 SATABlack 18X DVD RW 12X RAM DRIVE
$31.90

Vista 32bit Home Premium
$105.90

Total is $1771 (after mail in rebates).

Suggestions?

- Jordan
 
J

Jordan

Jordan:


Switch to XP unless you are a glutton for punishment. Vista is not quite
ready for prime time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I specifically want Vista so I can stay up to date for
Windows app development purposes. If it's that bad for gaming I can
setup dual booting to XP.

Jordan
 
P

Paul

Jordan said:
After spending the last few days re-familiarizing myself with the
latest and greatest gaming hardware, this is what I've spec'd, posted
for your comments / suggestions:

Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive -
OEM
$204.99 (- $30 mail in rebate = 174.99)

EVGA GeForce 8800Ultra 768MB 384bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video
Card Retail 768-P2-N881-AR
$589.99 (- $30 MIR = $559.99)

Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W Power Supply - Retail
$137.85

CRUCIAL BALLISTIX TRACER 2GB PC28500 1066MHZ 5-5-5-15 240-PIN DDR2
$147.00

ASUS P5K DELUXE
$218.40

INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 2.4GHZ
$289.00

ANTEC NINE HUNDRED (BLACK) ATX TOWER CASE
$106.00

SONY AWG170S-B2 SATABlack 18X DVD RW 12X RAM DRIVE
$31.90

Vista 32bit Home Premium
$105.90

Total is $1771 (after mail in rebates).

Suggestions?

- Jordan
Click to expand...

The only thing that comes to mind, is the dimensions of the video card.
The Newegg review for the card, says it is 12" long. I don't know if that
is true or not. The Antec Nine Hundred is 18.4" deep. I measured a new
hard drive I got yesterday, and it is roughly 6" long. I think I'd look for
some comments from users of the 8800 family, as to how hard they are to fit.
Maybe the drive tray has to be removed, or no drives installed opposite the
video card.

Second fit issue, is the end of the card, will cover two or maybe four
of the six SATA connectors on the motherboard. I don't know if a
right-angle or left-angle SATA cable is squat enough to fit underneath
the EVGA "box" around the video card or not.

The hump on the EVGA card, probably won't interfere with your side
panel, since the side panel doesn't appear to have a fan mounted on it.
If the computer case has a side fan, there is a small danger that the
fan will bump into the "hump".

Another thing I'd want to look into, is the cooler on the card. It looks
like some air exits through the dual slot exhaust port. But some air also
recirculates inside the computer case, as there are vents on the face of
the card. It would be nice to duct that air outside the case as well, but
I don't know if you can buy a solution at retail to do that or not.

Paul
 
E

Ed Medlin

Paul said:
The only thing that comes to mind, is the dimensions of the video card.
The Newegg review for the card, says it is 12" long. I don't know if that
is true or not. The Antec Nine Hundred is 18.4" deep. I measured a new
hard drive I got yesterday, and it is roughly 6" long. I think I'd look
for
some comments from users of the 8800 family, as to how hard they are to
fit.
Maybe the drive tray has to be removed, or no drives installed opposite
the
video card.

Second fit issue, is the end of the card, will cover two or maybe four
of the six SATA connectors on the motherboard. I don't know if a
right-angle or left-angle SATA cable is squat enough to fit underneath
the EVGA "box" around the video card or not.

The hump on the EVGA card, probably won't interfere with your side
panel, since the side panel doesn't appear to have a fan mounted on it.
If the computer case has a side fan, there is a small danger that the
fan will bump into the "hump".

Another thing I'd want to look into, is the cooler on the card. It looks
like some air exits through the dual slot exhaust port. But some air also
recirculates inside the computer case, as there are vents on the face of
the card. It would be nice to duct that air outside the case as well, but
I don't know if you can buy a solution at retail to do that or not.

Paul
Click to expand...
I wouldn't worry too much about the heat getting into the case. I run two
8800 GTX cards in SLI and am able to maintain a case temp (measured with
thermistor in center of case) of 26c so the vast majority of the heat is
exhausted out the back. The size of the cards is another matter. They will
barely fit into a Lian Li PC 60 series case with no room to spare at all. I
use the Swiftech QuietPower which is a liquid cooled Antec P180 case modded
by Swiftech and they fit fine. The actual size of my 8800 GTX cards is more
like 11" than 12" so the Ultra may be slightly larger and if so, I would
definately take some time to pick out a proper case.

Ed
 
J

Jordan

The only thing that comes to mind, is the dimensions of the video card.
The Newegg review for the card, says it is 12" long. I don't know if that
is true or not. The Antec Nine Hundred is 18.4" deep. I measured a new
hard drive I got yesterday, and it is roughly 6" long. I think I'd look for
some comments from users of the 8800 family, as to how hard they are to fit.
Maybe the drive tray has to be removed, or no drives installed opposite the
video card.

Second fit issue, is the end of the card, will cover two or maybe four
of the six SATA connectors on the motherboard. I don't know if a
right-angle or left-angle SATA cable is squat enough to fit underneath
the EVGA "box" around the video card or not.

The hump on the EVGA card, probably won't interfere with your side
panel, since the side panel doesn't appear to have a fan mounted on it.
If the computer case has a side fan, there is a small danger that the
fan will bump into the "hump".

Another thing I'd want to look into, is the cooler on the card. It looks
like some air exits through the dual slot exhaust port. But some air also
recirculates inside the computer case, as there are vents on the face of
the card. It would be nice to duct that air outside the case as well, but
I don't know if you can buy a solution at retail to do that or not.

Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments. One of the reviews I read on newegg was from
a user that had the same Antec Nine Hundred case that I have spec'd,
and he didn't say anything about having to remove a harddrive.
However, I will have to look into the SATA connector issue you pointed
out.

Another issue that I am undecided on is the DDR2. I went with DDR2
because I can currently get faster RAM in DDR2 than DDR3. One
strategy might be to go ahead and get the DDR3 version of this
motherboard with some slower DDR3 with plans to swap out when faster
DDR3 comes out, but I don't forsee myself selling 2GB of DDR3 to
upgrade to slightly faster DDR3... thus, I went with the faster /
cheaper DDR2 RAM for now. Thoughts?

Finally, I understand that the nVidia G92 cards are coming out this
year that will be 2 - 3 times faster than the current 8800 crop. As
much as I'm itching to pull the trigger on a system now, I'm
contemplating waiting.


Jordan
 
M

MikeB

After spending the last few days re-familiarizing myself with the
latest and greatest gaming hardware, this is what I've spec'd, posted
for your comments / suggestions:


Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive -
OEM
$204.99 (- $30 mail in rebate = 174.99)


EVGA GeForce 8800Ultra 768MB 384bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video
Card Retail 768-P2-N881-AR
$589.99 (- $30 MIR = $559.99)

Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W Power Supply - Retail
$137.85


CRUCIAL BALLISTIX TRACER 2GB PC28500 1066MHZ 5-5-5-15 240-PIN DDR2
$147.00

ASUS P5K DELUXE
$218.40

INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 2.4GHZ
$289.00

ANTEC NINE HUNDRED (BLACK) ATX TOWER CASE
$106.00

SONY AWG170S-B2 SATABlack 18X DVD RW 12X RAM DRIVE
$31.90

Vista 32bit Home Premium
$105.90

Total is $1771 (after mail in rebates).

Suggestions?

- Jordan
Click to expand...

I've an observation. You spec'd a drive that has a 150Mb/s transfer
speed, there are many drives at 3Mb/s transfer speed. I don't know how
much of a difference that would make, but th eprice diff isn't that
big when I looked.
 
P

Paul

MikeB said:
I've an observation. You spec'd a drive that has a 150Mb/s transfer
speed, there are many drives at 3Mb/s transfer speed. I don't know how
much of a difference that would make, but th eprice diff isn't that
big when I looked.
Click to expand...

The Raptor is for reduced seek time. More I/O operations per
second. The straight line speed isn't that much greater, but
a reduced seek, makes the search command run faster. Even 150MB/sec
is sufficient to handle the best case 88MB/sec sustained read speed
of the Raptor.

Paul
 
J

Jordan

Suggestions?

Just to follow up, I assembled this rig over the weekend and am quite
pleased with it! I spent many hours playing Quake 4 yesterday with
all graphic setting maxed out and it was very smooth.

Jordan
 
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