About to purchase an upgrade...

[XJnine]

My upgrade schedule just got moved up since my wifes mobo decided to bite the dust today. She gets my old system and I get some new stuff.

I'm currently looking at the following:

Intel Core2 DUO E6600

2GB of Corsair XMS2 8500 ram

EVGA nForce 680i mobo

XFX 8800GTX video card


Any suggestions as to any changes?

Thx for your input.

[DragonMaster]

Sounds good, try to look for known problems with the mobo(And choose a PSU and see if it's OK with it), I got problems and bad surprises twice with the two only Athlon 64 systems I built. (MSI RD480, poor overclock, DFI RS482, great overclocker apparently, but a real lemon, very picky with PSUs, CPUs and RAM)

[XJnine]

I got too impatient and placed my order before I got too much feedback. I wanted to make sure I got it in before things sold out. Here's what I eneded up buying.

80860 Intel® Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe Processor 2.4GHz, 1066FSB, LGA775, 4MB Cache Retail ***Free Shipping*** $310.50 1 $310.50

85026-3 Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 2GB Kit DDR2-1066 XMS2-8500 Memory Retail ***Free Shipping*** $361.00 1 $361.00

246707 EVGA 122-CK-NF68 nForce 680i SLI Socket 775 1333MHz DDR2 - 1000 Extreme Overclocking Motherboard Retail ***Free Shipping*** $259.99 1 $259.99

321102 XFX PVT80FSHF9 GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB Extreme GDDR3 PCI Express Video Card w/Dual-DVI, HDTV-Out Retail ***Free Shipping*** $649.99 1 $649.99

101258-9 Western Digital RE2 WD5000YS 500GB Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer ***Free Shipping*** $169.00 3 $507.00

373519 Zalman CNPS9700 LED Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler w/Super Thermal Grease ZM-STG1, Fan Speed Controller FAN MATE 2 Retail ***Free Shipping*** $64.99 1 $64.99

370008 Antec 120mm SmartCool Case Fan Retail ***Free Shipping*** $18.99 2 $37.98

173451 Plextor PX-755SA-BP/BL 16X Internal Dual Layer DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW Bare Drive ***Free Shipping*** $84.99 1 $84.99

610757 Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter PC Retail ***Free Shipping*** $0.00 1 $0.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sub Total: $2276.44
Discount: $0.00
Sales Tax: $0.00
Shipping: $44.70

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ORDER TOTAL: $2321.14

I decided to buy some new HD's even though I didn't need them. It'll make it much easier to get my information onto my new machine since they're currently set up in a RAID 0 array on my old system. I plan on setting these 3 drives up in a RAID 5 array.

I also added in a Plextor SATA DVD-RW and a decent HSF to keep things cool.

[Scott]

Dang, wished you would of talked to me about the drives. I moved to a RAID 0+1 and it freaking screams. I will have a review up of RAID 5 versus 0+1 with the 4 Seagate 320GB's coming up.

There is a very noticeable difference in REAL Life use of the RAID 5 over the 0+1.

[Scott]

Also did you use the Bjorn3D codes?

[XJnine]

Thx for the advice with the HD's. I'll order one more up and go that route. Looking forward to seeing your write-up on it.

I ordered through ZipZoomFly. I didn't think you had any codes for them. Newegg didn't have the memory I wanted in stock and it was a couple bucks cheaper at ZZF. Sorry!

[Kougar]

I didn't see a PSU listed anywhere in that mess... I hope it's beefy with active PFC ;) I see you found the "upgraded" Zalman cooler... that one seems to have kept under the radar... From what you did post, it looks like one incredible build. I'd go to heaven with it, after getting a pair of Seagates in place of that massive WD, but that's just me. :mrgreen:

[XJnine]

There's actually 4 HD's. I bought 3 initially to go with RAID 5 but Scott talked me into buying a 4th and going with RAID 0+1.

[liqnit]

Congrats on a great Rig!

[werty316]

Damn fine choices there NJnine; be sure yo update us on the build

[XJnine]

I'm off all week and I got overnight shipping. Hopefully everything will be here on Tuesday. I'll definitely let you all know how everything goes.

I'm anxious to see how games play on this thing. Neverwinter Nights 2 is killing my current machine, so much so that I don't even want to play it. I even put off finishing up Oblivion for a while because the performance was so slow at times.

[Das Capitolin]

What were you planning on housing this beast in? Those HDD's are going to warm things up, so add additional cooling.

[XJnine]

My current case is an older Antec full tower model that has held my current config with 5 HD's running at the same time and it stays nice and cool. A bit noisy with all of the 80mm fans it uses though.

I have another case here I may use that uses 120mm fans, that's why I grabbed a couple of those. I'll have to see how everything goes together before I decide which case I put it all in.

[werty316]

I'm anxious to see how games play on this thing. Neverwinter Nights 2 is killing my current machine, so much so that I don't even want to play it. I even put off finishing up Oblivion for a while because the performance was so slow at times.
An 8800GTX should help in that department.