New Rig Advice

Couple more questions on new rig

I haven't built a new system from scratch in years; although, I was one of the early adopters of OC'ing, case modding, and water cooling here many moons ago! Jez, it's been about 6 or 7 years or so now. Anywho, I know I can trust you nut cases to steer me straight. My old video card died on me, so I've been waiting for DX10 and Vista to emerge. I've assembled the following list of gear for my new rig. I have a Dell 2405FP monitor running 1920x1200. SLI may be in future for longevity sake. What do you think - power, flexibility, longevity and of course overclockability? Please feel free to suggest substitutions or your own list. Thanks!

I see now that the quad runs real hot and my limit my overclocking adventures. Would a TT even fit this case/mobo? How about the Zalman 9700?

COOLER MASTER Stacker RC-832-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

Thermaltake Toughpower 850W W0131RU – NVIDIA QUAD-SLI APPROVED, FOUR +12V RAIL READY - Retail

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562QX6700 - Retail

CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop

CORSAIR CMXAF1 Fans - Retail

2 Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM (RAID 0)

Creative 70SB046A00000 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty

Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM

There are not many advantages to quad core until more multi-thread apps are available. Save a few bucks and get an E6600.

Unless you are planning on SLI, I would seriously consider an Asus or Abit mobo with an Intel chipset. They are for more stable and reliable.

That RAM is overkill and expensive. But, I suppose you like the fancy heatspreaders. Get some DDR2-800 RAM with D9 chips, like the G. Skill "HZ" ($250 at newegg) for example.

Definitely pick a better PSU. Just because it says "850W" don't mean it's good. It's a 4 rail unit with only 20 amps on each +12v rail. That's sad for the price. Check out the manly PC & Cooling Silencer 750W PSU with 60 amps on a single rail. Oh yeah!

http://www.pcpower.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S75QB

Thank you for the advice Batboy! I've revised my rig as you have suggested. I was kind of looking for a modular cable design on the psu, but I am with you on the current.

Does the list look good now? I added the Zalman since it looked like adding a TT might be difficult in this box. Any other suggestions? What about the sound card. Which version of X-fi card?

COOLER MASTER Stacker RC-832-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Intel 975XBX2KR 975X 775 ATX Motherboard

EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad - Copper EPS12V 750W Power Supply 90 - 264 V UL, ULC, CE, CB, RoHS - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600 - Retail

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ - Retail

2 Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM (RAID 0)

Creative 70SB046A00000 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty

Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM

go with a tuniq tower for cooling

Two more questions:

I want some redundancy. I'm deciding between 3 drives @ RAID 5 and 2 drives @ RAID 0 with a nightly backup to a spare. How much of a performance hit is going to RAID 5? Is RAID 0 even worth it? This is primarily a gaming rig.

Should I get the super clocked GTX or the regular 575mhz card? Will the higher speed be a problem with other overclocking?

Thanks,

dem

Another vote for the Tuniq Tower here. I havent seen that case you list, so i cant comment on if it will fit. The Tuniq is so good, I would make sure I had a case where it did though. I dont know how dead set you were on your case, but this is what I use. I LOVE it. There are pre drilled holes /w rubber grommets at the bottom for external water cooling (if you choose that route down the road). The side of the case is a rigid mesh, so you can mount your own fans on the side. (I use a 120mm fan blowing between my two SLI vid cards.) The case is tough and sturdy as hell and can fit my PCP&C 850W power supply. I also like the two 120mm exhaust case fans that line directly up with my Tuniq CPU exhaust. It removes all the hot air from the CPU and doesnt recycle it within the case.


Newegg has more great pics on this case if youre interested.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811233002

You have some great advice in this thread re: motherboard, ram, and PSU. You should have a killer rig when all is said and done.

RAIDs, I think you should ask someone else. I think the only way to do RAID5 is with a hardware raid. I use System and Gaming on RAID0 with my Raptors and couldnt be happier. All my important docs / pics / backups go onto my RAID1 array for storage.

You can buy the Superclocked version GTX card if you like, but most people say you can overclock the stock cards yourself at or near those speeds. The superclocked ones are simply garunteed and overclocked out the box from the factory. It doesnt affect your CPU / system overclock because you should be locking your PCIe speed in your BIOS prior to overclocking.

I would consider maybe getting cheaper hard drives with more capacity and doing RAID 0+1. For $40 less than the two raptors you could have a RAID0 array of 640GB with full redundancy.