Help with new system

[nets]

I was keeping up with every new piece of technology and reading every review everywhere up until a few months ago when I got disappointed with the performance of SLI, Vista, and DX10.

I plan on buying a Maingear and I trust the knowledge of the users here, so with Crysis and Bioshock looming I would like suggestions on the ULTIMATE gaming rig with a max budget of $5500

Thanks!

[theDreamer]

I am going to make the assumption, if this is wrong it will probably change things, that this does not include a monitor, mouse, speakers, keyboard, etc. This 5k will only be used for the box?

Well with that said lets get our options on board.
Basic options straight forth are:
~Quad core for best performance & "future" proof for future games that take advantage of multi-core systems.
~8800, tough choice though here, because the GTX is very good, but the Ultra is better yet for a price. SLi if you want, but I would always wait to see how your system performances on the games you mentioned so you do not go to far overboard and then when you want to upgrade you are throwing out "wasted" parts that you never got to take full advantage of. Though when your games come out you have the option of just throwing in another card for SLi to give you that added boost of FPS/etc., which can increase 10%+.
~RAM, this is a tough choice since only 4gbs of RAM can be read in a 64bit OS, so if you really want 4gb you need to use the 64bit OS, but many people are unhappy with the performance and stability issues with 64bit Vista currently.
~Sound card, that is a bit out of my league (even though I am an audiophile) I do not use my PC or laptop for listening to music much. Though the sound cards and Vista performance have been getting better and shown improvement.
~Hard drives, this is a simple, but tough choice. You can do a single raptor for your OS & programs to load and run off of, but for added performance you can add another raptor and through in RAID 0. Though by doing this you risk the failure of the system, but if you only throw on the OS & programs then you never have to worry about loss of data, since only you do is have to get a new HD and re-install the programs/OS.
~With all these parts, there is no question you will need the 1k power supply, might be overkill for the system off the start, but if you say add another GPU you will need or add RAM, etc.

If you have any other questions just let us know, also let us know what exactly you are looking for specifically so we can help narrow your choices down.

[nets]

I am going to make the assumption, if this is wrong it will probably change things, that this does not include a monitor, mouse, speakers, keyboard, etc. This 5k will only be used for the box?

Correct. I basically wanted advice on the best CPU and GPU combo, I can handle the rest. My main questions are what is the best CPU to use and is SLI worth it?

I was planning on 32 bit Vista and 2 gig RAM

Thanks!

[theDreamer]

Well, SLi is nice, though depends on what size monitor you plan on running. Though if your games do not plan on coming out anytime soon, you could always just pick up a single GPU and then if you are felling the lack of performance later you can just throw another one in there.

CPU matched with GPU really is only a choice on the CPU. The CPU choice will be the harder choice, where you have to decide on dual or quad core. Dual is great performance, but quad is a bit more "future" proofed, yet it does not matter if you games do not even take advantage the dual or quad core.

[nets]

Ok, to help things out a bit I configured a system. Tell me what you all think.

EPHEX INTEL/NVIDIA (pc-ephex-Intel-NVIDIA)
$1,983.47 $1,983.47
Customizations:
Exterior Automotive Color: Black Brushed Aluminum Finish
Power Supply: 1000W Enermax Galaxy Power Supply
Motherboard: NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
Processor: QX6850 Core 2 Extreme Edition (3.0GHz x 4)
CPU Cooling: Zalman Ultra Quiet CNPS9500 LED 92mm CPU Cooler w/ Copper Base
Memory: 2GB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2-1066
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Raptor Enterprise 150GB 10K RPM 16MB Cache - SATA
Hard Drive Two: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
Optical Drive One: 16X DVD-ROM - Black
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB PCIe
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi™ XtremeGamer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32-Bit)
Warranty: 1 Year Maingear Warranty
Reconfigure EPHEX INTEL/NVIDIA
Product Subtotal: $4,655.19

$1,000 under budget and I could go SLI easily if I need it!

[Eternal]

Hey there. That is actually very close to what I plan to order when I finally get my new rig. The only things I would change would be to get watercooling for both the CPU and the GPU so you can get them Redlined, 4gb of RAM and a 3 year warranty (better safe then sorry =p). Also, from all the benchmarks and reviews I have read (Hard OCP in particular) I would just hold off on getting Vista as your main OS for a while. Their recent tests regarding DX10 cards vs DX9 was just...not good. If anything maybe get XP Pro as your main OS and Vista 32 or 64 as a secondary OS so you can switch to it once in a while and as the updates keep coming and performance gets better you can start using that as your primary. There are always debates over 4gb and 2gb of RAM, but my preference is 4gb. Everything else looks good, good luck on your system. Keep us updated :).

[blindem]

You could save even more (and thereby add either another Raptor in raid, go ahead with the SLI now, or just save the cash for the future) if you change to water cooling, get a slightly slower CPU than the top-of-the-line (3.0ghz) max that they have, and redline the slightly slower one to improve its performance. (For instance, I went with the 4x2.4 ghz redlined with the water cooled instead of 3.0 w/ Zalman -- price difference: $1050.)

[RottynDawg]

Good call blindem! Not a big performance difference, maybe none at all with the Redline, but a big cash savings.

[blindem]

Thanks. :) I figured even if someone was well off, $1k is a pretty big savings/chunk of change. And as you said, there's not much of a performance difference. He'd really just be paying because the 3.0gHz is the "new thing."

[theDreamer]

My choices would be to pick up the WC, as other have mentioned, have the system Redlined for top performance. Take the CPU down a notch, and maybe even the GPU (might want to call and find out about GTX OC v. Ultra (non-OC) to see benefits) or if you just want to OC the Ultra.

2gb v. 4gb really depends on what OS you want to get, and what you think your games will be needing to take down the road. Most games right now eat up 1.5 gb of ram max, but with a higher resolution monitor (any thoughts on what you are using yet?) that 2gb could be gone quickly though. Then again you will have to take the 64bit OS to play those games, but you can always dual boot with XP or 32bit Vista if you want to do other things the 64bit is having problems with.

Overall a good solid system.

[nets]

Thanks for all the advice! As for the monitor, right now I have the Dell 24" LCD, but I plan on upgrading to 30" LCD, either Dell or Samsung.

[Eternal]

With a monitor that big I think you would really benefit from an SLI setup.