Long time lurker, 1st time caller!!!

[Niwroc]

Hello everyone,

Been on this forum for months as I leveled my "Crew". I want to thank everyone who has given advice or helped others in different threads, Thus me never having to ask any questions.

I've hit lv 70 on 4 mages and 1 shaman. I'm using Keyclone and an older PC. Spec's below. The problem I'm having now is that I need to upgrade now that I want to do battlegrounds. My Dell XPS has been upgraded as far as it can go.

I've upgraded it from a P4 to a dual core. ram went from 2 to 4GB and the old Video card went out the door with a EVGA 8800GTS and an new power supply. This system got me from 1-70 5 boxing on it. Sad to say, its time to say good bye to this baby!!!

Dell XPS 400
Intel Pent D 3.0 Ghz
4GB ram
Nvidia Gforce 8800GTS
Windows XP Professional SP3

I'm looking to purchase this system this week and need to know if you see any weak spots, not upgrades becuase anything I put down you can and will find a better product. I want to know if I will have any problems 5 boxing on one machine.

So here is my soon to be baby, (Im building this myself).

CASE: NZXT Tempest, ATX, ohne Netzteil
POWER SUPPLY:BE Quiet! Straight Power 700 Watt / BQT E6
RAM: 4096MB-KIT Corsair XMS2 PC8500, CL5
RAM: 4096MB-KIT Corsair XMS2 PC8500, CL5
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 boxed, 12MB, LGA775, 64bit
VIDEOCARD: MSI N260GTX-T2D896-OC, 896MB, GDDR3, PCI-Express
DVD:Samsung SH-223F bare schwarz
HARDDRIVE: Western Digital Raptor 74GB, 10000 U/Min.
MOTHERBOARD: MSI P45 Neo3-FR, Intel P45, ATX

Can I use any windows vista 64bit to see the 8gb of ram?

Thanks for any advice.

Striker force
Malorne USA HORDE
Strikerone,Strikertwo,Strikerthree,Strikerfour and Strikerfive.

[moosejaw]

Any 64 bit OS should see the 8gb. I think some of the video card gurus could help on your card choice. There are a few people with experience on the new series of cards.

You may want to consider using an SSD in conjunction for storing the data/cache and maybe the interface. This should improve load times in crowded areas and bgs. If you haven't seen them already there is several informative threadsabout SSD's in the hardware section.

I don't see anything else that could be adjusted in your build. Maybe toss in some Liquid Nitrogen processor cooling? :P

[NashTitan]

Mooooooo!!

[Ellay]

Whats the uhhh total price tag on that baby? :P

[Multibocks]

You buying from Newegg, Cyberpowerpc or iBuypower? All that stuff looks like it's from Cyber, but I could be wrong! I'm waiting for the new i7 chips, tests show they can kick some serious butt. I think Vigorgaming is where I will get mine.

P.S. 700W P.S. is something to ponder on, not sure if you might need a little bigger.

[Tsunami]

since you are building this yourself i did notice some things you may want to consider

1. 700 watt limits future expansion. i would go with a 1k

2. nvidia 260 videocard: this is an sli card but you don't have an sli motherboard. sli allows you to link two or more video cards. another option would be the nvidia 9800. they are both about the same perfomance but the 9800 is cheaper. just a matter of future expansion and what type of games you play.


3. HARDDRIVE: Western Digital Raptor 74GB, 10000 U/Min. I'm assuming this is a mistake, and surprised nobody else caught this one. you will need more space than 74 gb. if you have the money i would recommend a raid 0 setup with 2 of these drives, and with a 500+ main harddrive. with raid 0 you will not slowdown in cities and BG.


4. add some as much cooling as you can afford.

[Farleito]

Very nice selections. The 260 GTX is one of the best single videocards around right now (aside from the 280 of course)

My only recommendation would be to add a 2nd hard drive. If you're going to go all out, go all out and stripe those bad boys! Raid 0 with 2 disks would give an average read of 152.90 MB/s. 3 disks would yield 227.8 MB/s. A single Raptor 740ADFD would give 75 MB/s. If you're going to spend $2000+ for this system, whats an extra $200 for twice the file i/o speed? You can't add another disk in the future if you decide not to do it now. (Well, you can but it's a bitch)

Basically, you've got a really fast sports car, with a rev-limiteron it.

(These numbers are from www.tomshardware.com)

Also, be careful with MSI rebates. They are known to hold out on them.

Good luck and have fun!

[Niwroc]

I was trying to keep this under $1500. I'm buying the parts here in Germany, takes to long to get them from the states.

I play only wow. Go figure.

I will look at the 1k on power.

I was not planning on SLI, but will look at the 9800 video card.

As for HD, I wanted a fast HD. I will look at raid 0 and see if I can budget it in. I have a laptop 320GB 7200 RPM just sitting around I could use as a main drive. fact is I have two! lol

Keep the tips coming in as I rethink my new puter!!

[getoutofmyway]

That Intel chip is awsome, running a Q9550 and OC to 3.12 and is very stable. I would however go with a bit better board don't want to paint yourself into a corner with only 1 PCI-E slot.. this will allow you to expand if required. Looking at Newegg alone it does not have the best reviews, I personally own a Gforce 780i that has been bullet proof so far. The other thing I would replace is the HD, The WD Velociraptors are SATA II and have a larger capacity you could get 1 or 2 depending on your requirements and set up a raid array. With Raid 0 you could increase your speed incredibly but you lose your data if 1 drive fails. I do think though your 700w PS should be sufficiant.

Can I use any windows vista 64bit to see the 8gb of ram? - Vista will see all the ram, but when you go to install the OS ensure that you only have 2gig of ram in the machine MAX! Once the machine has the required update to prevent BSOD on loadup, you can add the other 6gig of ram you plan to put in there.

[Farleito]

[quote='Tsunami',index.php?page=Thread&postID=14627 5#post146275]nvidia 260 videocard: this is an sli card but you don't have an sli motherboard. sli allows you to link two or more video cards.[/quote]

You can't use multiple monitors when using SLI mode. Running 5 toons on a single monitor?

[quote] another option would be the nvidia 9800. they are both about the same perfomance but the 9800 is cheaper. just a matter of future expansion and what type of games you play.[/quote]

No.

The nVidia 260 outperforms the 9800GT and GTX. As far as [u]single nVidia videocards [/u]go, the 280 is the best money can buy right now. The 260 is the next best thing. For SLI mode... the 9800 GTX SLI mode poops on everything. [url='http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Call-of-Duty-4-v1-6,Marque_fbrandx876,745.html']Videocard Benchmarks[/url] <-- Numbers don't lie.