Gaming Rig - Advice Required

[bigfunkymonkey]

Hi folks, I havent done much gaming in a couple of years and with a couple of games I have an interest in coming out soon I thought I would try to get back into it, so time to ditch the notebook and build a time machine!

I have a decent techie knowledge but when it comes to overclocking, benchmarking and the such it's sort of new territory to me. I have already purchased most of the hardware I am planning on using, which is:

Graphics: 3 x BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Memory: 2 x BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Mobo: Asus Striker II Extreme nForce 790i Ultra SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
HDD: Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (WD1500ADFD)
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower 850W Modular Power Supply
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.50GHz 6MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail

Case and cooling I haven't looked at yet, because I do not know the in's and out's of good airflow etc. I have a 64 bit version of both XP Pro and Vista Ultimate which again, I dont know which is best to use. I have seen great visual improvements with DX10 but I think the added "fluff" that comes with Vista is a serious performance hog. Is there anything else you would recomend goes with this, be it added hardware or replacing something above?

 

[Lethul]

Case - Antec p182 (or antec solo if you wanna go a more silent approach)
Fans - Nexus or Noctua

CPU Cooler - Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme is loved in the OC world
GPU Cooler - Arctic Cooling Accelero S1

Attack fan of your choise to both of these coolers (i would use Noctua P12 or whatever they are called as CPU/GPU fans and a mix of S12/P12 as case fans, expensive tho)

 

[Reza]

What have you already purchased?

If you've already got the mobo and tri sli gfx cards, then I guess the obvious thing now is to get a serious monitor to make use of the gfx driving capability you have. If you haven't got them already work backwards from your monitor choice and its native resolution to working out what you will need to drive that at decent fps.

The ram you linked was obviously a mistake, but I guess 2x2gb DDR3 would be a good place to start (maybe moving to 4 sticks if you fell you need later).

Have you got the drive already? The new raptors were anounced recently with crazy performance on paper. Not sure if bang for buck they will be great with early adopter prices, but should drop in price in a couple months once availability is good.

I would recommend some sort of 2nd drive for storage. How you configure your drives for OS, progs, storage, pagefile, maybe some raid, partitions maybe etc can be a headache to decide actually.

With 2 OS though you could (and I would if I was you) make 2 seperate OS partitions. The other nice thing about that is you can have one OS that you only ever use for benchmarking and stability testing with OCing if you want to get into that, and your other one for your rock stable settings so as to not risk corrupting the OS and causing a headache with your everyday PC apps.

For cases it's very subjective obviously, but I like the look of Lian-Li cases. Build quality, weight, airflow are all great. See if you like the look of any of them. Silverstone make great hi end cases too.

The only other thing I can think of is to make sure you check compatability issues concerning your choices and the motherboard. Mainly check for how your ram choice is reported to perform on your mobo (especially for OCing) and check things like how your bios is flashed and what version it is likely to be shipped with etc.

 

[bigfunkymonkey]

What have you already purchased?

If you've already got the mobo and tri sli gfx cards, then I guess the obvious thing now is to get a serious monitor to make use of the gfx driving capability you have. If you haven't got them already work backwards from your monitor choice and its native resolution to working out what you will need to drive that at decent fps.

The ram you linked was obviously a mistake, but I guess 2x2gb DDR3 would be a good place to start (maybe moving to 4 sticks if you fell you need later).

Have you got the drive already? The new raptors were anounced recently with crazy performance on paper. Not sure if bang for buck they will be great with early adopter prices, but should drop in price in a couple months once availability is good.

I would recommend some sort of 2nd drive for storage. How you configure your drives for OS, progs, storage, pagefile, maybe some raid, partitions maybe etc can be a headache to decide actually.

With 2 OS though you could (and I would if I was you) make 2 seperate OS partitions. The other nice thing about that is you can have one OS that you only ever use for benchmarking and stability testing with OCing if you want to get into that, and your other one for your rock stable settings so as to not risk corrupting the OS and causing a headache with your everyday PC apps.

For cases it's very subjective obviously, but I like the look of Lian-Li cases. Build quality, weight, airflow are all great. See if you like the look of any of them. Silverstone make great hi end cases too.

The only other thing I can think of is to make sure you check compatability issues concerning your choices and the motherboard. Mainly check for how your ram choice is reported to perform on your mobo (especially for OCing) and check things like how your bios is flashed and what version it is likely to be shipped with etc.

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

The memory is actually OCZ 2GB DDR3 PC3-10666C6 1333MHz ReaperX (2x1GB) Dual Channel DDR3 (OCZ3RPX1333EB2GK) - wrong copy and paste, sorry about that.

I have the graphics cards, PSU, Mobo and memory, the hard disk and CPU i am going to get from ebay (both finish tomorrow) but I hadn't heard of the new Raptors, I will definately look into this.

I have two old 22" LG wide screen monitors, they are good old VGA though, no digial so I guess buying a new monitor should be up top of the list, I could always use one of the older monitors as secondary. What is it exactly I should look out for on a good monitor to get the best from this? is it all about the response time, refresh rate or something completely different?

I have second PC (just a bog standard desktop) running RAID 5 with 4 x 1TB hard disks which i am going to use with a KVM switch for storage. I was thinking of running two raptors in RAID 0 but I hear drives are twice as likely to fail, which worries me a bit and is the only reason i decided against it.

I had never heard of Lian-Li before, just checked their webby, some very nice stuff.....I will definately be looking in to these.

Thanks for all the info thus far, tis greatly appreciated

 

[bigfunkymonkey]

Case - Antec p182 (or antec solo if you wanna go a more silent approach)
Fans - Nexus or Noctua

CPU Cooler - Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme is loved in the OC world
GPU Cooler - Arctic Cooling Accelero S1

Attack fan of your choise to both of these coolers (i would use Noctua P12 or whatever they are called as CPU/GPU fans and a mix of S12/P12 as case fans, expensive tho)

That is a nice case.....will go well with the keyboard

I will order that CPU cooler tomorrow all being well, it does read quite well, I may see how it performs with factory cooling as the budget has been devestated already and its kind of damage limitation.....but then again if your going to do something, do it right.

 

[TdC]

drives are twice as likely to fail, which worries me a bit

no: each drive has as much chance to fail. however, any drive failing results in the loss of all data on the stripe.

 

[Reza]

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

The memory is actually OCZ 2GB DDR3 PC3-10666C6 1333MHz ReaperX (2x1GB) Dual Channel DDR3 (OCZ3RPX1333EB2GK) - wrong copy and paste, sorry about that.

I have the graphics cards, PSU, Mobo and memory, the hard disk and CPU i am going to get from ebay (both finish tomorrow) but I hadn't heard of the new Raptors, I will definately look into this.

I have two old 22" LG wide screen monitors, they are good old VGA though, no digial so I guess buying a new monitor should be up top of the list, I could always use one of the older monitors as secondary. What is it exactly I should look out for on a good monitor to get the best from this? is it all about the response time, refresh rate or something completely different?

I have second PC (just a bog standard desktop) running RAID 5 with 4 x 1TB hard disks which i am going to use with a KVM switch for storage. I was thinking of running two raptors in RAID 0 but I hear drives are twice as likely to fail, which worries me a bit and is the only reason i decided against it.

I had never heard of Lian-Li before, just checked their webby, some very nice stuff.....I will definately be looking in to these.

Thanks for all the info thus far, tis greatly appreciated

The main thing that screams at me when I see Tri SLI (or even SLI really) is 'Resolution'. So for me that really means bare minimum 1920x1200 native resolution decent monitor (I run one of these on a single 8800GT but not full antialiasing on all games). That will be starting in the 24-26" in size and then if you want to go super hi end you have the 30", which i think are 2560x1600 (which your cards will handle like a breeze even the dreaded Crysis at good settings im guessing ). You could get 2 smaller monitors too I guess.

Although I know its obvious, I thought I should also mention that you should check that your PSU has the neccessary connections and power for 3 8800 GTX.

 

[Jonty]

Hi bigfunkymonkey

Just a quick post to echo what the others have said. Tri-SLI is a waste of money, even at ultra-high resolutions the benefits are debatable (SLI is probably enough for most people). Personally I would wait and choose the 9900 series card due out in July, or just grab a single 8800GTX or 9800GTX for now.

Also, DDR3 is crazily expensive, and the performance benefit is negligible because ther latencies are higher than DDR2. Literally, you can get 8GB of decent DDR2 for the price of 2GB of high-quality DDR3. It strikes me that money isn't a problem for you, but don't be fooled into parting with your cash too easily Of course DDR3 will continue to improve in the future, but it's still a long wait.

Personally, if you forget about SLI, then you can afford to change your motherboard to an Intel chipset (P35 or X38/X48 are good choices). You could opt for DDR2 memory, a single decent graphics card, and you've instantly saved hundreds of pounds. Although we all love to buy the best, there's no point in spending so much cash on what literally is a marginal performance increase (literally just a few percent in most instances).

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. Although I've never owned one, Lian-Li cases have a good reputation.
P.P.S. As for monitors, look at the resolution, screen size, brightness and contrast, and the digital connections (DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort). Response time is also important, but the figures can be manipulated by the marketing people (as can contrast ratios).

 

[inactionman]

Just to echo what Jonty says, Tri-SLI is of negliible benefit, DDR3 is not ready for the prime time for system memory, and there's new cards out from ATI (this month) and Nvidia (July) which should be better than a 8800GTX.

Also I find if you have lots of money you are better off saving some of it to upgrade in the future, say 9-12 months.

I also expect the computer to sound like a hoover, no matter how quiet the case is!

 

[soze]

I would add measure your Cards before you get a P-182 and with a GT I had very little clearance in that case and i imagine the gtx is a bigger card.

 

[Jonty]

I would add measure your Cards before you get a P-182 and with a GT I had very little clearance in that case and i imagine the gtx is a bigger card.

Good point The 8800GTX is 9" long, as is (I think) the 8800 GT. However, the 9800 GTX is 10.5", as are a few other cards out there.

Kind regards

 

[Cromcruaich]

You seem to of been sucked in to just throwing as much money as you can to get what on paper looks like an excellent system.

I think you are storing up problems for yourself with tri-sli and gonna end up with a beast that is probably noisy, would heat a stadium, and is unstable. Its called cutting edge because it bleeds your money and time.

Wind back the specs - better off spending £600 this year and £600 in 2 years, than future proofing something for 2 years in one go.

Spend the money you save on a lovely flat screen - thats an investment for 5 years or more.

 

[Kryten]

Stick with Vista. I hear so often about people thinking it's hogging your resources exponentially more than XP etc; 1. it uses more resources, course it does, it's more recent but the point is, it uses them slightly better. Especially when it comes to memory management. 2. 64bit XP is dreadful, steer clear. I've just personally made the jump from 32bit to 64bit Vista and I'm very happy with it on 6gb of ram.

I can't really comment too much on the hardware specs as you're obviously out to get the best possible performance regardless of cost; however I can certainly question as to why. It will cost less (and therefore free up beer money, be more carbon efficient etc etc) to "keep up with the jones's" as time goes on rather than spend a shitload all in one go to hopefully keep it "fresh" for as long as possible. Speed isn't everything, so you feel like a bit of an idiot when you're not able to use a feature or some nice graphical oomph when someone with a very basic next generation card can do it very well.

So what are you intentions for this system?

 

[bigfunkymonkey]

Thanks for all the input folks.

I am a little gutted I didnt post up here first as I probably would have saved a packet. I have always liked to waste money, an early adopter of sorts so I just fancied trying to go for sort of the best on the market without much consideration for anything else.

I am going to stop where I am, maybe sell one of the 8800's - although I am wondering why three of them shows little performance increase, it a broken technology?

I have ordered an HP 30" monitor (HP LP3065 30-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor overview - HP Small & Medium Business products) and I will most likely go with Vista 64, with a few other bits and pieces that will be me.

 

[Kryten]

SLI isn't broken as such, it's just not entirely well implemented. Even a straight 2 card setup isn't even close to reaching the performance levels it's capable of. Crossfire is a *little* better but ATI's software monkies still haven't made it reliable enough for serious folks to bother with.
I think it's a good stopgap in the meantime - i.e. having a single card now then adding another a year or so down the line to keep up with newer releases. I've done it a couple of times recently with folks on 7900GT's and they make things like Crysis a lot more playable when previously a lot of detail had to be disabled.

But, on a 30" screen you'll need all the juice you can get, you might actually start to see the benefit of the 3rd card. Might be worth waiting till the screen arrives, run a couple of benchies with it in, take it out and then bench with just 2. If theres little or no performance loss, flog one of the cards and buy another toy/more beer/a couple of weeks worth of takeaways

 

[Ch3tan]

Not to pick on the screen, but do you know how it reviews compared to the dell 30"?

 

[bigfunkymonkey]

Thanks Kryten, thats exactly what I will do, I will post up the results.

I checked the monitors out here:
Filter Results - TrustedReviews

I may be getting the HP for £650.00 which kinda sealed it for me.

 

[Lethul]

Scythe Slip Streams 800rpm are supposed to be great aswell as fans (or 1200rpm if you are not as fussed about noise)

 

[Ch3tan]

Good price, the dell seems to have gone up in price recently. Yaka has a 30" dell, worth asking him what card he uses to run games at that silly res.

 

[inactionman]

The good thing about higher rez monitors is that you don't tend to notice it so much when they upscale.

I don't know if you've used a widescreen monitor before, but you tend to get problems with the monitor stretching non-widescreen content to widescreen aspect ratios, making things look odd. If you get this use the scaling feature in the Nvidia driver, it will fix this.

Also if you are having problems running games at your native rez, drop the rez to 1920x1200 or similar and use the scaling feature to upscale.

 

[bigfunkymonkey]

The good thing about higher rez monitors is that you don't tend to notice it so much when they upscale.

I don't know if you've used a widescreen monitor before, but you tend to get problems with the monitor stretching non-widescreen content to widescreen aspect ratios, making things look odd. If you get this use the scaling feature in the Nvidia driver, it will fix this.

Also if you are having problems running games at your native rez, drop the rez to 1920x1200 or similar and use the scaling feature to upscale.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks very much