New PC questions

[hews500d]

Ok I've been putting together different systems on Ibuypower.com and think I came up with one that I would be happy with:

SYSTEM 1

Thermaltake Xaser VI MX Middle Tower Gaming Case w/420W Power Supply Silver/Black
800 Watt -- XION SuperNova XON-800F14R-201 Power Supply Quad SLI Ready
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8600 (2x 3.33GHz/6MB L2 Cache/1333FSB)
INTEL Certified Liquid CPU Cooling System kit
[SLI] Asus P5N-D Nvidia nForce 750i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, Dual PCI-E MB EPU Technology
4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR2-1066 PC2 8500 Memory Module Corsair Dominator
Ati Radeon HD 4850 1GB PCI-express x16
1 TB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]
320 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]
16x DVD-ROM Drive Black More Options
[** Special !!! ***] LG 20X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black More Options
Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi ExtremeGamer
600W PMPO 3 PCS Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System
Windows Vista 64 bit

$1625.00 total before monitor (I'll probably shop Best Buy or somewhere like that for a 22" monitor). My total budget is $2000.00 MAX.

Would this be a good system for FSX? I primarily play it, LOMAC, Black Shark whenever it's released in the USA and maybe a couple racing games, plus run a few music applications.

Any bottlenecks? I was wondering if the 800w PSU would be enough or could I safely drop down to 800w to save a few bucks??

SYSTEM 2
Thermaltake Xaser VI MX Middle Tower Gaming Case w/420W Power Supply Silver/Black
850 Watt -- Ikonik Vulcan MT 850 Power Supply Quad SLI Ready
[=== Quad Core ===] Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9550 (4x 2.83GHz/12MB L2 Cache/1333FSB)
INTEL Certified Liquid CPU Cooling System kit
[CrossFire] Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, Dual PCI-E MB
4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR2-1066 PC2 8500 Memory Module Corsair Dominator
Ati Radeon HD 4850 1GB PCI-express x16
1 TB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]
320 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]
16x DVD-ROM Drive Black More Options
[** Special !!! ***] LG 20X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black More Options
Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi ExtremeGamer
600W PMPO 3 PCS Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System
Windows Vista 64 bit
$1738.00 total

Could I safely overclock the Quadcore to get it comparable or better than the 3.33 Duo in system 1?


I'm ready for some opinions and advice now :isadizzy:

Darrell

[harleyman]

Both the CPU are great.......The quad on water will OC very well...


I would go full case now..As future cards might not fit so well....

I do not,repeat Do Not like Corsair ram,expecially with an Intel chip..have been known to not play well together...I like OCZ

Big HDDs are somewhat difficult to maintain , I perfer smaller for the OS and all my Applications and seperate for game install.

Keep the 850W PSU...Its a keeper....LOL

I also don't think you need a sound card..Expecially that one as its know to have ,shall i say driver issues......I had two and did not like...Both mobos have good sound IMO



I also like the X48 mobo..




But I ramble...I think both would be good for FSX,the quad may have more future proofing built in ,as I hear FS11 will love quad cores and SLI.....

[txnetcop]

If they are built correctly, either system should be fine Darrell. I use a 750 watt PC Power and Cooling but it is a single rail 60amp up front. It has an 85% efficiency rating at peak. I prefer PC Power and Cooling over all others as I overclock very high for gaming.

It's not the wattage that does the trick you can have a 1000 watt that craps out on ya under a load. The other important factor is wattage available up front where the motherboard, memory, and video card can put it good use under a load.

Here is something to think about, for the same money you can move into the i7Core920 and either the ASUS X58 P6T or Gigabyte X58 UD5 both are excellent boards and with the new DDR3 memory they are proving to be more powerful than the QX series Intels just look at the reviews on the i7920 and 940.

Ted

[hews500d]

Here is something to think about, for the same money you can move into the i7Core920 and either the ASUS X58 P6T or Gigabyte X58 UD5 both are excellent boards and with the new DDR3 memory they are proving to be more powerful than the QX series Intels just look at the reviews on the i7920 and 940.

Ted

Ok this stuff is getting over my head rapidly:costumes:

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll read up on the i7's Aren't they new though?? I've learned to stay away from new technology for a little while until the bugs get worked out so to speak.

So mobo's have improved now to where the onboard sound is as good as adding a sound card ?!!??!?!!! It's been about 7 years since I purchased my last system and then the onboard sound :bs: was terrible!

Darrell

[hews500d]

Both the CPU are great.......The quad on water will OC very well...


I would go full case now..As future cards might not fit so well....

I do not,repeat Do Not like Corsair ram,expecially with an Intel chip..have been known to not play well together...I like OCZ

Big HDDs are somewhat difficult to maintain , I perfer smaller for the OS and all my Applications and seperate for game install.

Keep the 850W PSU...Its a keeper....LOL

I also don't think you need a sound card..Expecially that one as its know to have ,shall i say driver issues......I had two and did not like...Both mobos have good sound IMO



I also like the X48 mobo..





But I ramble...I think both would be good for FSX,the quad may have more future proofing built in ,as I hear FS11 will love quad cores and SLI.....


One more question, are those cases I've spec'd not full size?

Disregard, I've been researching cases and found the answer :redf:

I never knew there was so much to consider when building a system, but I guess after owning 2 systems and getting burned a LOT with the first one, a LITTLE with the 2nd I'm wanting the 3rd to be as close to perfect as I can afford :costumes:



Darrell

[fcfcfc]

I just came across this graphics card by Matrox:
M 9140 LP 512MB Quadhead

Does anyone know anything about its performance?

[harleyman]

Sorry I know nothing about that card..




As far as sound goes i would start with onboard sound...that gives a good amount of money to put into power items like your CPU,or Vid card,or whatever...Try it out,it is simple to add a sound card later If you feel you need it.......


Need more help just ask away..Or opinions...LOL We all have them.

[fcfcfc]

Thanks Harleyman.

I just found an article about a similar Matrox card and learnt that it has fairly low spec GPU. For the same money, the review suggested a pair of dual GPU ATIs (four monitors) or even three lesser ATIs (for six monitors).

Another blind alley... but for those still curious:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Matrox-graphics-gpu,5794.html

[harleyman]

And heres the kicker about that......Which is what I expected ..




Performance-wise, Matrox’ graphics chip can hardly be called a GPU. Instead, it is clear that the company focused on delivering (analog) native quad-monitor support, so we are not surprised to see that DirectX compliancy was not mentioned. We managed to find out that M-Series supports DirectX 9.0 in a way to run Windows Vista’s Aero interface and OpenGL 2.0. There are no technical specifications available on the GPU.



So SLI and CrossfireX are still the deal....But they make a hell of a set up with their 2 and 3 heads to go......

[Major_Spittle]

Ok this stuff is getting over my head rapidly:costumes:

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll read up on the i7's Aren't they new though?? I've learned to stay away from new technology for a little while until the bugs get worked out so to speak.

So mobo's have improved now to where the onboard sound is as good as adding a sound card ?!!??!?!!! It's been about 7 years since I purchased my last system and then the onboard sound :bs: was terrible!

Darrell

Hews- I would certainly look at the i7's. They are a big step up, just not fully utilized yet with today's software. Water cooling is not need and a good way to run into problems, my current Q9450 system runs at 3.6 on air in a case with only one side fan that is variable speed and the system is pretty darn quiet. btw I can OC to 4.0 but then the system will get noisy. Also I would get the Quad vs the Dual core. The Quad will run FSX as good or better than the Dual core and they both overclock very well.

For a Motherboard I would suggest the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P for either system. This is the one I got, it Overclocks excellent, is crossfire compatible, and built excellent for either of the processors you looked at.
Vista64 is what I run and love it and I have 4 gig of OCZ DDR2 800. No need to skimp on memory at this time with the prices so get 8 gig of decent DDR2 800 (< $130) with the systems you looked at building and set no virtual memory up on your system so everything loads to RAM ( or just set up FSX to only run from RAM in .exe file ).

Anyway, these are just my suggestions.