Thread: Hardware suggestions?

Basically I am building a gaming rig completely off of a nVidia nForce 790i Ultra mobo and a 2.4 intel quad core 6600. I also have a 550 watt power supply (I seriously hope it is enough...)
(This is the case I have currently if you're interested

Now, I am looking to actually work on getting a tri-SLI setup going. 9800's maybe? I'm not sure? Basically some sort of cards that will stack well enough to last a couple of years and still be compatible with high end games (I can dream...) And I will be having a dual monitor setup.

So now what I'd like to ask is what sort of solutions anyone may have in terms of cooling and possibly if I will need a larger power source. If it is helpful to know, this will run for long periods of time [4-5 days at a time] under as much stress as I can figuratively put it under.

Money is not really an issue, but I would like to keep it reasonable.

What games, what monitor, how many months of future-proofing do you want? SLI doesn't work with multiple monitors.

Anyway, here's what I say.

That case is awful. Get a Thermaltake Armor or Antec P182.
SLI is pointless if you are not using a resolution above 1920x1200. Even at 1920x1200, a single 9800GTX will suffice.
You need a 750W+ PSU if you still intend to go for SLI. Otherwise, a Corsair HX620W will be enough for a C2Q + single high end video card. If you are using another brand of power supply that's not Corsair and not Enermax, OCZ, PCP&C or Thermaltake, just get a new one.
C2Q Q6600 is outdated now. Just get a 45nm C2Q and overclock it.
Air cooling is enough as long as you use a good case (not the piece of crap you have) and proper after market coolers.


Get 4GB of RAM and Windows Vista and you are good to go.

When I told you I was using a Thermaltake Armor, you would't stop talking about how "extremely loud" it is.

Personally, I don't think it's that bad. Not any worse than the numerous other computers I've built over the years anyway, as long as you use the front HDD mounting spots and get rid of the 80mm HDD cooling fan from next to the PSU. I wouldn't even be able to use those mounting spots if I wanted, as they'd block off my PSU's fan opening.

I agree that the current case doesn't look very a good. The side ventilation holes and duct won't be useful with any current HSF, as most of them have the fan facing the front of the case and blowing hot air to the back of the case (better because it doesn't fight against the case airflow by blowing hot air onto the motherboard in every direction, but rather sends it straight out the ventilation holes at the back of the case). Not only that, but 80mm intake fans at the front? That will be pretty loud.

I'm against water cooling for now. I take my gaming rig to LANs with my friends, so mobility is an issue. Water cooling would make things more difficult for me. Also, I believe that even with water cooling on all of your main components (CPU and video cards) you'd still need to use a case fan or two anyway to keep ambient case temperatures and other components like HDDs cool.

As for the hardware specs themselves, I haven't been keeping up with recent developments... one thing I did notice though is that neither of you specified whether this would use a DDR2 or DDR3 mobo. I wonder if it's worth buying DDR3 for the extra data transfer speed until they start lowering the timings? It's something you should research (unless someone here has some good benchmarks that show the impact of speed vs timings).

Originally Posted by MadDogMike

one thing I did notice though is that neither of you specified whether this would use a DDR2 or DDR3 mobo.

Doesn't matter. Whether you are using DDR2-800 or DDR3-1600, the performance gains at stock is negligible.