Will it all work?

[Videochd]

Hey everyone, pretty new to the PC building scene, and happy to be here. Long story short, I was curious if this collection of pieces would all work together and play nice (I'm especially concerned with the cooling, tell me if I am missing anything there). I've done my research but please, make any compatibility related fixes :). ANY help is greatly appreciated.

Case

Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850: (quad core processor)

Motherboard: XFX - NVIDIA nForce 680i Ultra MCP SLI ATX Motherboard (Socket 775)

RAM: HEWLETT PACKARD / HP - HP 4GB DDR2 SDRAM Memory Module - 4GB - ECC - DDR2 SDRAM (MEMORY / RAM)

Video Card: GeForce 8800 Ultra (Times 2)

Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card

Hard Drive: Hitachi - DeskStar 1TB Internal Hard Drive

ROM : GSA-E60L DVD writer

Operating System: Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium Version

Power supply: SilverStone Strider 1000w Modular Power Supply

Sound System: Creative Inspire P7800 7.1 Speaker System

Monitor: E228WFP 22-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor

CPU Cooling: Blue Orb II CPU Cooler

Case Fan: 60MM Case Fans (Times 2)

[Jamie Nixx]

The PSU is really not very good.

The CPU cooler is very bad.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD do not SLi 8800 Ultras, you will regret it BIG TIME.

The Ram should be Corsair or similar.

[The Wise Monkey]

What is wrong with SLIing ultras? Apart from the huuuuuuuuuuuge waste of money...

I recommend the Tagan 1000W PSU btw. :)

[Jamie Nixx]

LOL :D

Tagan, Seasonic and Corsair are the best for PSU's at this moment in time.

The first two are extremely expensive brands, while the Corsair is the best priced for performance value.

The Corsair HX620 will run a setup like that without even breaking into a sweat.

Personally, if you want to SLi cards, you should go for 8800GT's, for a start, two of those won't even equal the price of one GTX and two, they will be a hell of a lot more powerful, by miles infact.

Plus, they do not require a lot of power, so you could even go for a Corsair HX520w and even that would fall asleep powering your rig, they just do not get stressed.

[Videochd]

Thanks everyone, this has been a huge help. I've modified everything a bit so it would be a bit better. Instead of the 2 ultras, I'm gonna go with Nvidia geforce 8800GT and SLI them. Also, I'm going with the Corsair QUAD2X4096-8500C5DF (4gb Kit) for RAM. Finally, I switched out my old power supply for the Corsair HX620 HW620W 620 watt Quiet Power Supply PSU.

All I need now is
1.Will this setup be able to run video games at the highest settings (ex: Crysis)?
2.For SLI, do I need to do anything special? Any software? or just hook up the two cards as normal?
3.I still need a good CPU cooler.
4.Would it be wise to use the RAM I listed above, or use 2 Corsair TWIN3X2048-1800C7DF G's?

Once again, any help is greatly appreciated!

EDIT: also changed the motherboard to a BFG - NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Motherboard (Socket 775). As this is made by NVIDIA and SLI ready, I'm guessing that it will come with all parts necessary to set up SLI?

[Jamie Nixx]

If you want a professional opinion, i am about to throw a spanner in the works here.

What i would do is totally scrap any ideas you have here, and listen to me :D

Wait until the 19th of November, until the new 8800GTS is out, it is going to be awesome.

ONLY opt for one card, SLi is too much trouble.

Motherboard wise go for the Asus Maximus formula SE, it is probably the best motherboard in the world, it sports the new X38 Intel chipset and it is backwards compatible with both DDR2 and DD3 memory, it also comes with a brilliant sound card and it looks wicked.

If you have the money by all means go for the QX6850, personally i would wait until the new Intel quad cores are released and get one of them, you will save yourself a lot of money over not a great deal of performance loss.

Get the highest speed DDR2 memory you can, 1066Mhz, go for Corsair Dominator, DDR3 is just not worth it for the price it is.

Stick with the Corsair PSU.

I didn't see a case on the list, the Antec 900 or the Antec 182 are the hot ones out now.

For the CPU cooler i would go for an Arctic freezer 7 pro, in one of my many rigs :p i have one, it cools my E6400 at 28DegC and it is overclocked to 3.1Ghz. You seem to have money to burn, so you may want to invest in water cooling, but this will take a lot of time and research, there is simply too much info for me to write it all down here.

Soon i am going to be investing in Dry Ice cooling, -40DegC CPU wooo :D

Hope you haven't fallen asleep reading all that, your Rig will cost a lot of money for what you want, so you should have all the options.

[Videochd]

Thanks a bunch Jamie you've been a great help. I'm gonna go with that mother board you suggested, as well as only one video card (although I'm gonna go with the GeForce 8800 Ultra now). I'm also going to use the Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro CPU fan. Finally, I'm gonna use Corsair TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF (DD2) for RAM. I just have 3 final questions.

1. Using the above corsair for RAM, could I install 2 sets and have 4gb RAM total?

2. With only 1 GeForce 8800 Ultra video card, would that be sufficient to run games like Crysis at maximum setting?

3.Anything I'm really missing? anything essential?

Once again you've been a great help. Thanks so much, and here's my current set up for the time being.

Case: Haven't decided yet

Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850: (quad core processor)

Motherboard: Asus Maximus Formula (Special Edition) Core 2 Quad/ Intel X38/ DDR2-1200/ CrossFire/ A&2GbE/ ATX Motherboard

RAM: Corsair TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF (times 2)

Video Card: GeForce 8800 Ultra

Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card

Hard Drive: Hitachi - DeskStar 1TB Internal Hard Drive

ROM : GSA-E60L DVD writer

Operating System: Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium Version

Power supply: corsair HX620 HW620W 620 watt Quiet Power Supply PSU

Sound System: Creative Inspire P7800 7.1 Speaker System

Monitor: E228WFP 22-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor

CPU Cooling: Freezer 7 Pro

Case Fan: 60MM Case Fans (Times 2)

[Jamie Nixx]

Well its up to you on the card front, but if you wait, you will save yourself some money, the Ultra is basically an overclocked GTX anyway whereas the new GTS has a new 90nm core and is going to be very good.

The system spec you have there, will easily play Crysis maxed out, enabling AA is a different matter though.

To answer your questions.

1) yes
2) yes, SLi is a con, check out my thread in the video card section, its stickied.
3) nope not that i can see

[acidfire]

If you plan to play Crysis maxed out, you might want to check out Tom's Hardware. They are building a computer for Crysis right now to see what is required to run all maxed out. You can read about it at:
Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/us/)
Here is the latest Crysis computer update:
Building a Crysis PC, Part 2 (http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2007/11/02/crysispc_part2/)
Hope that helps you out :)

[Jamie Nixx]

Trust me acid, the rig i helped him put together will eat Crysis for breakfast ;)

[Videochd]

Great Jamie, thanks. I'm gonna use that setup the way I have it listed above. Once again, thanks a bunch!

[Jamie Nixx]

No worries.

[snugz13]

how much did that system cost without the speakers and without the monitor

[Jamie Nixx]

Over $2000.