system advice?

[Moshi]

Hey guys!

I tried to read as many threads on here as I could and have assembled a newegg cart but before I take the plunge I was hoping for some last minute warnings from people who have perhaps seem the following parts have conflicts or such? Any good stories or blessings would be cool too

Intel E8500 3.16GHz 45nm Wolfdale
-New price seems marginal compared to E8400?

Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4
-Cheaper X48 board, good for Crossfire? DQ6 has gotten great results which just supports DDR3 and 2 more sata ports?

OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2x2GB ) PC2 8500
-Seems to be popular, and heatsinks are friends?

Xigmatek HDT-S1283 Rifle CPU Cooler
-Also has gotten some good reviews

Antec TPQ-850 850W Power Supply
-Modular might help cable clutter, overall efficiency seems good, beefy enough to handle what I plan. (4850 Crossfire, 4 HD's, 1-2 optical drives)

Sapphire Radeon HD4850 512MB x2
-Increase fan speed, maximize case airflow, worst case scenario use vga coolers, but hard to beat right now as long as you manage the insane heat? lol

Antec Nine Hundred Case
-I know it's whored out..but honestly it seems like a good case with good airflow for the above parts...

CPU Fan + extra 120mm Case fans
-I can't figure this out for the life of me, so many fans have so many good reviews lol

Thanks in advance for any input guys
P.S. I'm finally upgrading from a P4 2.4C and I hope this will be worth all the hype, and the financial sacrifice lol

 

[Nickel020]

Looks good, but a smaller PSU will do, 600W is enough:
http://www.computerbase.de/art...nitt_leistungsaufnahme
"Last" means load, a quad at 4GHz and a 4870 CF "only" draws 511W, so 600W will be fine for you.

 

[perdomot]

I'd stick with the 850 just to allow for more headroom.

 

[DSF]

CPU: The E8500 is definitely a much more attractive buy now than it was at $280, but I'd still go with the E8400. That's just my opinion - I never spend more than I need to on computer stuff. Frankly, since you're overclocking (at least I assume you are, based on your RAM and CPU cooler choices) I would go with the E7200. Low cost and a very capable overclocking that can hit as high as 3.8GHz.

Motherboard: X38 and X48 are your two choices if you want to go full Crossfire. Personally, I'd go with whichever you can find for less money. You won't be missing much if you get X38 instead of X48. Avoid DDR3 - the price has come down, but the performance benefit just isn't there on Core2 systems and never will be. Until DDR3 is as cheap as DDR2, it's just not advisable.

Memory: Heatsinks on memory are overrated. Heatspreaders are nice, but the contrived nonsense on kits like the Reaper is just silly. It can get in the way of your CPU cooler and becomes a pain. A nice DDR2-1000 kit like this G.Skill 2x2GB will give you enough headroom for any overclocking you care to do, and be less expensive. If you go with the E7200, DDR2-800 is really sufficient thanks to the chip's high multiplier, and I'd go with something like this Mushkin 2x2GB kit.

PSU: It is more than you need, but that's not the end of the world. I'd personally probably go with the Corsair 750TX, but the Antec is a good unit.

Case: Let's be honest here. Don't buy a case if you're putting a frowny face next to it. If you don't like the way it looks, don't buy it. There are plenty of cases with good airflow. If you do like the way it looks, then don't apologize about it being whored-out. You're the one that has to look at it, not us.

The Scythe Slipstreams make good relatively inexpensive case fans, but they're meant to be used on a CPU cooler.

 

[karna]

Reviews have indicated that hte X48 advantage in Crossfire is not really there. An 8x by 8x does almost as well as a 16x by 16x.

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=761

I went with the Gigabyte EP45-DS3R and E8400 CPU (mainly for the extra 6Mb cache over the E7200). For now just one HD4850 but later plan on upgrading to another one once I get a new PSU.

 

[DSF]

Interesting. What surprises me is that the difference is smallest at the highest resolution, but I'm sure there's a reason for that. I guess maybe it takes the cards longer to render each scene, reducing the amount of communication they need to do within a given amount of time.

 

[Moshi]

Thanks for the great input guys!

Karna:
I Wasn't aware that the P45 performed so strong with 8x/8x....hmm!

DSF:
And hmm yeah a E7200 is a great choice as well with DDR800! I'll see how much money I can save by reducing things just a bit here and there on several parts. The Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 just seemed like it offered a really good price just slightly above what other mfg's were asking for X38.

In light of the the review we saw posted, my normal gaming resolution would be 1920x1200 just like the review (24" LCD). So if I went with:

P45: Asus P5Q Pro / Gigabyte EP45-DS3R ?
X38: ???
X48: GA-X48-DS4 (still seems like best value for this chipset)

 

[nyker96]

I like your selections, I think a few opinions:
1. a nice P45 over X48 which presents little real advantage
2. if you OC, get E8400 which comes out the same as E8500s. However, E8500s might be E0 stepping which slightly better. If you game a lot, E8xxx over E7xxx is preferred.
3. PSU maybe I'd get PC power and cooling, Silencer 750W slightly better.

that's it.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: nyker96
I like your selections, I think a few opinions:
1. a nice P45 over X48 which presents little real advantage
2. if you OC, get E8400 which comes out the same as E8500s. However, E8500s might be E0 stepping which slightly better. If you game a lot, E8xxx over E7xxx is preferred.
3. PSU maybe I'd get PC power and cooling, Silencer 750W slightly better.

that's it.

The only thing I would say about P45 and X48 is that that gap is likely to get larger, not smaller, in a couple years as the bandwidth required creeps up with each generation of graphics card. Something to think about if you plan to keep the computer for a while, but it's only speculation on my part.

The 7xxx series are fine for gaming. Heck, I can run Crysis smoothly on an overclocked E4500. Cache makes a difference in games, but not so much that I'd worry about it when you can overclock the chip as high as 3.8GHz potentially.

The Corsair is a great PSU - it's high quality just like the PCP&C, but it will be quieter due to the "Silencer"'s smaller, noisier fan. As much money as PC Power & Cooling charge for their PSUs, I don't understand why they don't put larger fans in them.