Seeking input/advice on new system spec

[Reza]

Hey guys

Gonna be back sometime in early Jan and im trying to arrange for a long overdue new PC by then. Been toying with the idea of building one myself and have also looked at a few UK oems who look like they offer decent stuff at ok prices.

Anyway, so any input/thoughts on the specs of PC im thinking of ordering would be appreciated. Also I have a few questions bellow maybe you could help with.

Base Specifications

Silverstone "TEMJIN" TJ07B (Black) Aluminum Supertower Case
EVGA 122-CK-NF68 NF680i SLI, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1200/533/667
800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
850W Enermax EGA850EWL Galaxy Modular PSU 85% Eff' EPS12v Triple Quad +24 Rails Silent x2 Fan
1year Onsite Warranty (Mainland UK)
45cm Akasa Round Floppy Drive Cable
Silverstone FP51S Aluminum Silver 3.5" to 5.25" Bay Adaptor
Ahead Nero v7 - Essentials Suite 1 *OEM for Data, Audio, Photo, Video and TV
90cm Round IDE (PATA) Cable BLACK *UV* Newlink (NLRB-399UVK)


Qty Selected Specifications

1 *No Custom Colour Required*
1 Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache Retail
1 Zalman CNPS9700-LED Super Aero Flower Cooler (775/AM2/754/939/940)
1 2Gb Corsair, DDR2-1066, 2x128Mx64, non-ECC, 2x240 DIMM, unbuffered, 5-5-5-15, E.P.P. Technology, H/S
1 768Mb XFX 8800GTX PCI-E (x16), Mem 1800 MHz, GPU 570 MHz, Stream 128, 2x Dual Link DVI/HDTV
1 ** No Additional Graphics Cooler Required **The coolers below will not work on the 8800 Range
1 150 Gb Western Digital WD1500ADFD Raptor Enterprise, SATA150, 10000 rpm, 16MB Cache, NCQ, 4.6 ms
1 500Gb Seagate ST3500630AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms
1 NEC AD-7173A-0B Labelflash Black 18x DVD±RW Dual Layer inc 12x RAM Oem
1 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card OEM
1 Microsoft Windows XP Professional Inc. Service Pack 2 OEM
1 NVIDIA DVD - Bronze edition - Dolby 2.1
1 **OpenOffice 1.1.0 software**
1 24" Dell 2407WFP Widescreen Midnight Grey 1920x1200 1000:1 6ms VGA/DVI + Card Reader/4Port USB2 Hub
1 Microsoft Habu Gaming Laser, 2000 dpi, USB 1.1/2.0, 7 Buttons, Black - Retail
1 Sennheiser PC Range PC150 Headphones
1 *Speakers Not Required*
1 120mm Akasa Amber Case Fan, 3 Pin, 2 Ball Bearing , Ultra Quiet
1 **No Sound Proofing Required** Not Needed if Using Antec P180
1 Standard 3XS System Warranty

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Questions:

1) Anyone know if the motherboard is meant to be any good? If i was gonna build myself i was planning on getting the Asus P5N.

2) Is this EPP Corsair do usefull at all or mainly a gimick? Likewise the DHX technology the dominators have, is it worth the extra cash or is it just good cooling for crazy OCing? (i plan to OC moderatly as ive read the E6600 OCs very well)

3) About my hard drive choices. I was originally planning on going raid 5 with 3 74gb Raptors as my system drives and then having a 500gb for storage of videos, photos, music etc. But I wasnt sure if you would then partion the 3 raided system drives to have a OS partion and a programmes partion and whether all that would be worth it compared to say just a single 150gc raptor for system? Are there other options like sticking the OS on a 36gb raptor and then raiding say 3 150s for storage (this time storage meaning everything but OS)?


4) Lastly out of curiousity, if i plan to SLI in the future i know i need another 8800gtx, but does it have to be the exact same card from the same manufacturer or can u SLI with any other 8800gtx?


Mostly though if you can spot things i might be missing/stuff i dont need, or any obvious bottleneck or component that is poor, let me know plz.

 

[Boni]

1). Not a clue.

2). Gimicky stuff imho, with that setup youll be hard pushed
to find any applications that strains your machine without any OC at all.

3). "Are there other options like sticking the OS on a 36gb raptor and then raiding say 3 150s for storage (this time storage meaning everything but OS)?" <- I would do that basically. Stick your system and swapfile on a dedicated drive (not partition) and all your pron/games on the other drive (or raided drives).

4). Hmm Im not sure tbh, I think you can SLI different cards though I would guess the resulting performance would be different depending on how close the two cards where.

and I cant really see anything your missing or bottlenecks in your setup. Should perfom well.

 

[Reza]

Cheers for the help Boni.

Decided to take your advice on the hardrive setup, and im also opting for the Asus P5N mobo instead of the EVGA.