BleepingComputer.com: New gaming rig suggestions

Hi all

I have had my dell 8300 P4 3.2GHZ for over 5 yrs years now and upgraded it over time with new memory, graphics and PSU but its getting old so I need a new one as it cant play any new games without juttering and the fans working overtime and making such a noise.

Can you have a look over my spec below and let me know what is good and what I should change, Money isnt a problem as I want to make it future proof as much as possible and try get it top of the range as possible.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Processor Extreme Edition i7-975 (3.33GHz) 6.4GTs/8MB Cache

Memory (RAM)
6GB DOMINATOR GT DDR3 1866MHz (7-8-7-20) - LIFETIME WARRANTY (is this better or worse than 12GB CORSAIR XMS3 1600MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (6x2GB))???

Motherboard
ASUS® RAMPAGE || EXTREME: DDR3, 3-Way SLI & CrossFireX on Demand

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-bit + Windows 7 Upgrade Voucher (£86)

USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
300GB WD VelociRaptor® SATA 16MB CACHE (10,000rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
300GB WD VelociRaptor® SATA 16MB CACHE (10,000rpm)

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)
RAID 0 (STRIPE) (£9)

1st CD/DVD Drive
6x BLU-RAY ROM & HD-DVD ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£69)

2nd CD/DVD Drive
8x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£125)

Graphics Card
1792MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX295 PCI EXPRESS (is this the best card to get just now)

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Sound Card
ASUS XONAR HDAV1.3 - Enjoy 100% Blu-Ray Quality Audio (£129)

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities
KillerNIC M1 Gigabit Desktop PCI Network Adapter (£189)

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER BLACK GAMING PC CASE (suppose to have 4 fans will this make alot of noise?)

Power Supply & Case Cooling
1200W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£165)

Processor Cooling
ASUS TRITON 81 PURE COPPER BASE ULTRA COOLER (£49) (will this be enough cooling or will I need liquid cooling??)

Firewire & Video Editing
1 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD


Will all this work together well or will something slow down something else?

I will be getting a new HD monitor so with the graphics card will it display the blu-rays in HD etc.

Any info you can give me would be great.

thanks
J

Just opinions:

Anything more than a 920 at this point is a waste. The i7 1366 CPUs all overclock really closely at this point. The extra cash you burn on a 975 will haunt you when the new 6 core Gulftowns hit in early 2010.

6gigs of memory is enough. 12 gigs can be unstable. Memory manufacturers make no speed guarantees with all RAM slots filled.

If you need Velociraptors, I guess you need them. On continuous reads, the Black editions are as fast and a heck of a lot cheaper. If you have to run a RAID 0, then I guess you have to.

I haven't bought a soundcard in a long time. I use the onboard 7-1, no complaints.

Complete and total waste of money for a seperate NIC.

The 1200 watt PSU is overkill. A new Corsair HX750/HX850 will do the trick. JonnyGuru for PSU reviews.

Ok CPU cooler. Liquid is silly. (Like I said......just opinions)

Remember as well, the new generation of videocards hit the shelf in about a month.

Thanks alot for the info, thats the kind of thing im looking for, I know very little about whats worth it and what new things are coming out so the input is great.

what new graphic cards are coming out? do you have a link to them?

I agree with dpunisher. Are you building this yourself or are you going to have a company do it for you?

The i7 line is very nice, and fast, but anything above the 920 is a bit of a waste. Plus, the i7 920 and the Phenom II X4 965 are close in terms of performance, yet one costs much less. If you see yourself wanting to get i7 CPU's, or any other CPU using the LGA 1366, in the future, you may be better off purchasing an i7 now and upgrading later. Though, there is no guarantee the prices will be coming down any time soon.

As for the RAM, faster memory is always a good idea, but there are no guarantees on speed. I usually buy the least expensive RAM I can find that has the features I want.

The motherboard is nice, but ridculously overpriced. There are less expensive options that do pretty much the same thing.

The optical drives are another thing, a drive that can write Blu-Ray's can also read them and can read and write to DVD's. You only need one. However, you may want to get a drive that can handle the writable CD formats. Come to think of it, most people don't need a Blu-Ray drive in their PC unless they watch movies on their computer or want the ability to backup to the high capacity Blu-Ray disc.

The graphics card is one of the best, it is also very overpriced. The HD 4870 X2 is much less for a slight reduction in performance. I don't think the $500 price tag for the GTX 295 warrants the $150 price difference between it and the 4870 X2. Since you're using GBP, the price difference may be more or less.

I do agree with dpunisher with the sound card. Unless you listen to a great deal of music, have a high-quality theater or headphone setup, or make music, the sound card is not needed. Though, I do have and enjoy the Xonar line of cards. I have the Xonar D2 and the D2X.

That Killer NIC is also totally unnecessary.

Below are links to reviews to the GTX 295, it is compared against several other GPU's.

Guru3D - GeForce GTX 295 review - BFG
TrustedReviews - nVidia GeForce GTX 295 Review

Thanks DJBPace07

I wont be building this myself i'll be buying it from a company.

Is it worth waiting till the Gulftowns come out, I read alot of things dont even use quad core so probably nothing will use 6 cores for a while?? but I dont have a clue.

Is the RAM I picked above better than this one - 6GB CORSAIR XMS3 1600MHz (3x2GB) - there is about £90 of a difference between them.

I watch alot of movies on my computer and listen to alot of music so thats why I picked the sound card (i'll hopefully be getting a surround sound system also to add to it) and blu-ray drive and also for the backup ability, I picked 2 drives as they will come region 2 and I was hoping to lock one of them to region 1 for my american dvds/blurays that arnt region free but not sure if that is possible? (I have a dvd drive and a dvd writer on my computer at the moment and the writer is locked to region 1 for my american dvds so i hope its the same as blu-ray drives)

the other motherboards I can pick are -
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R:DDR3, 2-Way SLI & CrossFireX
ASUS® P6T: DDR3, 3-Way SLI & CrossFireX on Demand
ASUS® P6T DELUXE V2: DDR3, 2-Way SLI & CrossFireX on Demand

There is only £100 difference between picking the GIGABYTE one or the ASUS® RAMPAGE || EXTREME with the rest coming inbetween so if its going to be worth it I dont mind paying a little extra.

thanks for the help!

A large number of games don't use four cores, so six is unlikely. Basically, the Gulftown, or the i9, is a 50% increase across the board on the i7 specs with a 32nm process. If Intel really wanted to impress people, they should offer these new CPU's, when they come out sometime next year, at the current i7 pricepoints and drop the price on those by about $50. As for the optical drive issue, there are region-free drives on the market. You don't need a drive that can only play Blu-Ray and HD-DVD's along with a drive that can burn Blu-Ray's. The drive that writes discs can both read and write, so long as you're willing to give up HD-DVD which no one uses. You won't notice the high def goodness that much unless you have a large monitor or are planning on connecting the PC to a large television. If you burn music CD's you may want to get a cheap recordable CD drive. I suggest not getting that Gigabyte motherboard since it uses triple channel memory with four RAM slots as opposed to six. Either of the Asus P6T boards are good.

Moved to a more appropriate forum. Tw