new build

[thecheesemaster]

Hi, I'm new here! greetings aside, I was hoping to get some feedback on (what will be) my first complete build. I'm trying to keep the price fairly low, shooting for below $2500. anyway heres a parts list:

Case: NZXT LEXA-NP Black/ Silver Aluminum Construction Plastic Front Panel ATX Mid Tower
Motherboard:$224.99 DFI LANPARTY DK X48-T2RS LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU:$194.99 Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
Heatsink: $26.99 ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
HD:$249.99 Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
RAM:$43.99 Extreme Performance 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) (X2)
Soundcard:$179.99 ASUS Xonar D2 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Ultra Fidelity Sound Card with Complete Dolby/DTS Sound Technologies
Physx card
PSU: COOLMAX CUG-700B 700W ATX 12V( V.2.2) Power Supply 115/ 230 V
video card: $524.99 BFG Tech BFGE981024GX2E GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (512MB per GPU) 512-bit (256-bit per GPU) GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported


The computer will be used for primarily gaming. I have one of the 2 sticks of ram, the physx card, psu, and case. They don't apply to the overall total of the purchase (seeing as i already have them) although I am worried about the PSU, I'm wondering if it has enough power to run everything. It will run a dual boot of Windows XP and Ubuntu. At one point I may want to get another 9800GX2 for SLI, but not now. I will be buying everything from newegg. And i think thats it, sorry for the partially jumbled ending here.

 

[Ashura]

You can't do SLI with a x48 board, you need a nvidia mobo. The 780i is recommending often.

 

[cabose1227]

Only a couple suggestions, get a evga 750i ftw so you can sli and get the cheaper 9800gx2(its the same). A 700watt psu can easily power this rig.
gx2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130338
mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188026
This mobo is the best nvidia mobo because evga makes it themselves. it will oc that cpu great and has plenty of features.

 

[EchoTheDolphin]

If you're going to be getting all that good stuff, I'd definitely look at upgrading to 4 gigs. No harm but plenty of awesome!

 

[ou_phidelt]

What resolution do you game at?

I would replace the PSU now and not later. For two of GX2's I would look for something in the 800W range. Unless you have games that take advantage of the physics card I wouldn't bother installing it. Unless something has changed it is dead, but I have been wrong before.

What kind of speaker set-up are you using that sound card for?

Lastly, you may want to consider a faster hard drive. With that kind of budget I would consider a velociraptor.

You may want to consider waiting and see what the 4870X2's have to offer. From the looks of things they are at the very least going to give nvidias best a run for there money. If they are good enough, you can stick with x38/x48 get a better OC to boot.

 

[thecheesemaster]

What resolution do you game at?

I would replace the PSU now and not later. For two of GX2's I would look for something in the 800W range. Unless you have games that take advantage of the physics card I wouldn't bother installing it. Unless something has changed it is dead, but I have been wrong before.

What kind of speaker set-up are you using that sound card for?

Lastly, you may want to consider a faster hard drive. With that kind of budget I would consider a velociraptor.

You may want to consider waiting and see what the 4870X2's have to offer. From the looks of things they are at the very least going to give nvidias best a run for there money. If they are good enough, you can stick with x38/x48 get a better OC to boot.

For resolution, I usually set it to whatever the highest my computer can handle. I have a 5.1 speaker setup. I looked at what cabose1227 said and I may go with that, I will defiantly go with the cheaper video card though. I don't plan on doing the SLI soon, its more of planing for an upgrade later, leaving my options open. Also I'm not so sure that the physics card is dead yet, nvidia bought ageia and I don't know how that will work out yet.

 

[blazed]

Seagate ES hard drive is for ultimate reliability for servers, hardly necessary for a desktop gaming rig.

Forget adding a 2nd 9800GX2 have you seen how it scales? I'll save you some time, very poorly, single GX2 should be more then enough for you I'd think. What resolution do you plan on gaming at?

So since you don't need SLI support you can get a better single PCIe slot board, P35 or one of the new P45s will do great and OC better then the expensive nVidia boards.

Edit: You say whatever the highest resolution it can handle, so your using a CRT I'm assuming? The reason for high end dual GPU setups these days is because people have LCDs with high native resolutions, as using lower resolutions then the native looks like poop. Unless you plan on using 1900x1200 or higher resolution money spent on a 9800GX2 nevermind 2, is going to be wasted, as a nice and cheap 8800GT will do 1280x1024 on any game easily, and thats with some AA turned on as well. 1600x1200 or so a 8800GTS 512mb or 9800GTX is useful, etc.

New nVidia power hungry cards are coming out momentarily (GTX 280 and 260) as well as the new AMD 4850, 4870 and eventualy 4870 X2 cards.

 

[thecheesemaster]

I'm going to partition the hard drive, one for windows with games, one for ubuntu, and one for media. As for a monitor, I'm going to get a LCD monitor that is at least 19". As for the SLI, you have convinced me that it wont be worth my money. I think I may stay with the 9800GX2 though.
Just wondering: can i connect directly to a tv using the HDMI port just like a monitor? (so long as the tv has an HDMI port)