Building a new rig [New System Build]

[Eightball]

Yeah, Caff recommended I post my list of parts here for advice or just to check it over in general. So here we go:

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz Nehalem Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819115202

EVGA E758-TR 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813188046

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Kit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820145224 Check below

Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822136319

EVGA 896-P3-1265-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814130398

XCLIO GREATPOWER X14S8P4 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817189017 Check below

XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811103011

LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6827136152

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835103055

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders – OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6832116488

Anyone notice anything bad about this list? (other than manufacturer bias) The mobo is selling fast so I'm going to buy as soon as I can.

[Blues]

Anyone notice anything bad about this list?(other than manufacturer bias) The mobo is selling fast so I'm going to buy as soon as I can.

You're spending entirely too much money

You're buying first gen tech (problem here being price to performance is NEVER worth it on initial run until the next series up comes out)

SLI is useless in a new PC, the only reason to use it is as a cheap upgrade solution on a PC that already has it. It's not a "futureproof" because by the time you need SLI over single cards, PCI-E x16 will have gone the way of AGP. Single card solutions equivilent to an SLI are almost always cheaper or the same price, cooler, less power hungry, and easier to setup/deal with/maintain.

If you have the money and want to blow it, the setup is fine. You might as well up to a GTX295 if you're going to spend all that money to have that comp though.

If you'd like a comp that is a fuckload cheaper and will run everything out or projected for quite a while, go with a much cheaper build. E8500 C2D, 4GB DDR2 on a decent mobo, GTX260, 500-600W PSU, decent mid tower case.

Also, I wouldn't bother spending money on Vistaids with Win7 right around the corner. Pirate WinXP or even Vista and purchase Win7 when it drops if you're going to actually spend money on an OS.

[Eightball]

[quote author=Eightball link=topic=2935.msg84992#msg84992 date=1242955953]Anyone notice anything bad about this list?(other than manufacturer bias) The mobo is selling fast so I'm going to buy as soon as I can.

You're spending entirely too much money

You're buying first gen tech (problem here being price to performance is NEVER worth it on initial run until the next series up comes out)

SLI is useless in a new PC, the only reason to use it is as a cheap upgrade solution on a PC that already has it. It's not a "futureproof" because by the time you need SLI over single cards, PCI-E x16 will have gone the way of AGP. Single card solutions equivilent to an SLI are almost always cheaper or the same price, cooler, less power hungry, and easier to setup/deal with/maintain.

If you have the money and want to blow it, the setup is fine. You might as well up to a GTX295 if you're going to spend all that money to have that comp though.

If you'd like a comp that is a fuckload cheaper and will run everything out or projected for quite a while, go with a much cheaper build. E8500 C2D, 4GB DDR2 on a decent mobo, GTX260, 500-600W PSU, decent mid tower case.

Also, I wouldn't bother spending money on Vistaids with Win7 right around the corner. Pirate WinXP or even Vista and purchase Win7 when it drops if you're going to actually spend money on an OS.
[/quote]

If you're talking about the Motherboard being SLI-capable, I'm really not planning on going SLI; Every single LGA 1366 mobo on Newegg has at least 2 PCIe x16 slots, so I'm dicked into getting one. I'm somewhat insistent on going Core i7 though. My hope is that in time the higher end i7 processors will plummet in price and I'll be able to move beyond the entry-level. However, now that you're mentioning a 500-600W PSU, I think my 850W might be a bit overdoing it. I'll make some revisions, thanks.

And good point about the operating system. I'll see what I can do in that regard.

[Wedge]

RAM seems kinda pricy, plenty of 3x2 sets for more than $50 cheaper than that and they don't look any worse specwise.

And I might try looking up information on SSD's for a OS drive if you're making something really expensive.  I have a core i7 system and while gaming performance is great, the general speed of the OS and applications isn't much faster than much "slower" computers, so it feels like a bit of a gip.  I figure a lot of that has to do with HDD limitations, I remember someone posted a nice article about this before stuff before.

[Eightball]

All right, point taken--RAM is RAM. Opting for a cheaper kit (oddly enough with the same timings, it looks like the extra fifty plus bucks were for the heat spreaders): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820145236

I'm also opting for a 750W power supply; same manufacturer, series, just 100W and thirty bucks shorter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817189011

And I'm looking into SSDs, and this is the only real option for my price range (even being willing to spend upwards of 1500 on this): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820227372 so I'm considering it.

[Blues]

I'd wait on SSD, give them 6 months and they'll probably take a sharp price drop. I was foolish enough to buy hard drives a few years ago when they were almost a dollar a gig, and it's pretty shitty now looking back. You can tweak your system, set things to use dedicated memory, etc. to have things run faster.

[Wedge]

Yeah maybe look at SSD's when W7 drops officially, I think it's supposed to have support for managing them better anyways.

[Blues]

Random insult.

[Eightball]

Blegh, here's what I'm thinking for the OS: The windows 7 RC is up for download, I figure why not use that. Any reasons against it? (Other than the lack of support at this stage, obviously)

[Blues]

Other than lack of support and possible bugs, no reason not to use it. Personally, I'd make two small patitions and stick an XP install on one and Win7 on the other so that you can at least use the PC if Win7 gets borked somehow. Use the remainder of the space as a media drive so that you can access your shit from either install.