New rig!

Right, so I'm heading off for college in a few months, and I want to have a decent rig when I get there. I'll need it for gaming, mainly TES IV: Oblivion. I believe Oblivion will require some solid hardware (especially in the video card section), and it is essential that I manage to run it as smoothly as possible.

I'm not sure how big my budget is, but I think I'll have $3000-$5000 at my disposal for everything, including clothes, books, appliances, hardware and other necessities; but we all know that hardware > all that , so it'll be on top of my budget priorities list.

Enough rambling. Here's what I currently have in mind:
ASUS SLI nForce4
AMD 4000+ (San Diego vs. Clawhammer?)
2GB 3200 Dual Channel Corsair
eVGA 6800 Ultra (PCI-E vs. AGP? Or should I just go 2x 6800GT and overclock?)
200GB Seagate SATA
Fortron/Enermax PSU 500W (Enough?)

I'm going to buy this stuff sometime in August/September. The reason I'm making a list this early is because I want to buy them when their prices drop and not try to chase after new (and expensive) stuff.

I'd like everything to be 'powerful' right out of the box, but I do intend to overclock a bit, but nothing insane. And I'd also prefer if it was very silent.

Any recommendations or advice? What would you get?

Thanks for reading my lengthy post.

I would vote against SLI, I just don't think it's worth it. Definitely go PCI-Express. You probably won't need that much processor power, a 3500+ would be more than enough. I don't know what Oblivion will need in the way of ram but for now that is more than you need. 1 GB should be enough for anything you need to do outside video editing or something. For the power supply a reliable 500W will be plenty to power it. Good luck and I would check the scene again before you buy it to find out what you will need for your very specific needs.

Basically what qwertyuiop said. Go with a lesser CPU, 1GB RAM, and use the money you saved to buy a 6800 Ultra. Regarding the video card, SLI is not only a poor deal in terms of price/performance, it increases fan noise in your system. If you want silence SLI is not the way to go. A good (Antec, Seasonic, Fortron/Sparkle, OCZ) 500w PSU will be enough to power that system. Consider Samsung hard drives as well. Have you thought about which case you're going to use?

They're right you know...SLI isn't all its cracked up to be. Those graphics do look pretty intense, so you'll definatly be needing a great graphics card. I've got 1GB of RAM, and I know I will be upgrading up to 2GB this summer. My point being, RAM is easily obtainable, and you don't (unless you run out of space) have to get rid of the RAM you have. Video cards on the other hand....Well, that's just my two cents...I'm off to look at that game some more...

Sheesh guys did you not see how much money he has to spend? I don't think money is on his worry list. IMO I would go SLI(as I've already done) Becuz, ironically, I'm cheap. This let's me not only not have to buy another motherboard. But I don't have to upgrade to a whole new video card whenever a new game comes out........HL2, Doom3 and such, or the newer ones if you want to refer to those. All I have to do is pop in another video card, by which at that time will have dropped in prices yet it enables you to run at full screen, full eye candy with no lag.

SLI is not something to be used right now, but to have as a backup. If ever you need a boost in graphic abilitly it's good to know its as easy as poping in another video card, and not upgrading your whole system . My opinion would be to get and SLI certified PSU, so don't have to worry about buying another PSU. Then just get one 6800U, for now, and whenever games get demanding enough to where that card can't hold up............pop another one in

PEACE

Thanks for the replies everyone -- I appreciate it!

So I shouldn't bother with SLI, which means I shouldn't get an SLI board, right? And should I bump my CPU down to a 3700+ San Diego or a 3500+ Venice?

Also, I was initially considering a Samsung drive as I heard they were pretty fast and queit, but I heard that Seagates outperform them. Is that true?

EWBatOVAclockin, but I don't want to spend money on something that isn't really necessary.

EWBatOVAclockin, but I don't want to spend money on something that isn't really necessary.

Click to expand...

to the forums, firstly

On the one hand... SLI gives more future-upgradability, and more games may use SLI as it becomes more advanced.

On the other hand... SLI mobos cost a fair bit more often, and even in games like Doom3, the performance increase from having one 6800 to 2 6800s can be as little as 1.2x! And SLI never obtains a 2.0x increase (twice as fast as one vid. card.) The very highest is something like 1.7x, but that's rare, and on older games - SLI can give as little as 1.05x performance increase.

Lol suit yourselfs. We all have our opinions

PEACE

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah Elder Scrolls!!!

Oblivion is going to be sweet!

Hell yeah!

I just dont know if i want to get it for pc or xbox 360.

Hmmm.... which is cheaper? ah the heck with it, ill just get it for pc.

The PC version has its advantages... Although getting an xbox 360 is definitely cheaper than building a new rig.