Rig Advice.

[93rd.PanzerLehr]

I have a pretty good computer, but I'm thinking of getting another one because the one I own is several years old and is starting to have trouble running the more demanding of applications.

I would like an honest answer on some questions-

- If you have a liquid cooled PC is there any advantage in having extra cooling fans?

- No RAID 0 or 1 for me. Good Idea?

- Is there any advantage in having, say, two NVIDIA 8800 GTS 320MBs over just one 8800 GTS with 640MBs?

- What the hell is a data hard drive? :?:

- Western Digital hard drive at 10000rpm. Is the 2800rpm difference between a normal hard drive at 7200 that noticeable?

- 4GBs of memory. Is it better to have 4x1GB or 2x2GBs?

These are just a few questions I'd like to ask.

[93rd.PanzerLehr]

This is what I'm thinking about for my new Rig.


Case- NZXT Zero Aluminum Full Tower 420W Case

Cooling- CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling System

CPU- Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 CPU @ 3.00GHz 1333FSB 4MB L2 Cache 64-bit

Power- CoolerMaster Unit 600 Watts

Motherboard- Quad-Core FSB1333 Asus P5N-E nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard

Memory- 4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory

Video Card- (2) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB 16X PCI Express

Sound- Creative Labs X-Fi 24-BIT PCI Sound Card

Hard Drive- 150GB Gaming Western Digital Rapter 10,000RPM SATA150 16MB Cache WD1500ADFD

Network- Intel Pro Gigabite 10/100/1000 Network Card

Plus; Firewire card and driver, 22" LCD monitor, Modem, Vista Home Premium (64-bit), speakers, keyboard, (2) 18x DVD R/RW + CD-R/RW.


All this for only about $2500 (not including labor since i make put it together myself). Sounds pretty good no? :D

P.S. I would like to know if i should up the power supply to 700watts for $87.

[theDreamer]

Alright, first welcome.
You will always need fans even if you liquid cool. There are parts that can no be and usually need to have some air circulation. Plus liquid cooling only really cools the chip, but excess heat is still spread into the air & needs to be pushed out of the case.

I am not a fan of RAID, but that is personal opinion so I always say no.

One 640 is greater than two 320s, plus if you want to go SLi later down the road and you have a 640 you will be nicely setup. While SLi 320 will be lacking that extra push you might want, plus you can always get one 640 and do a step up from the manufacturer if you want later and pay the difference.

A raptor will benefit load times from the OS to each individual programs, plus it can help improve the snappiness of how things work.

About the RAM I have not seen any solid proof for which is better over the other, but if I had to choose I would take the 2x2gbs because that leaves me room for upgrade to more RAM later down the road if I feel it necessary. Though 2gb RAM pieces are a bit more pricey right now, do not know the exact differences.

The rig you have listed looks very solid, you probably should look into a 750 PSU just because, it never hurt to have more power, plus if you go with the 640 GTS and go SLi later, if will help in power management. Overall looking good for choices on what you want for your next right.

[93rd.PanzerLehr]

I looked into it and after shoping around i found that i can get one 8800 Ultra 768 16x PCI for just 80 somthing more dollars than two 8800 GTS 320s so im going to go with that. 8) (because its one hell of a deal, but if i want to go SLI its going to cost a sh*tload of $)


and is it possible to mix and match memory, like haveing 1x2GB and 1x1GB (or something like that)? I havnt ever tried that because im afraid its going to mess up my current pc. :?:

[theDreamer]

I believe you can, but you have to match certain things. Those are things I do not know.