Good choice on the MB with the 790 chipset that's what I would be looking at right now. It sounds like you might have already gotten it but I wouldn't go for the 9800 GX2 myself, they're pretty much just two 8800 gt's slapped together on one card. While I think that SLI can be an advantage single card setups tend be more reliable performers. As for a CPU to go into a gaming rig I would actually recommend going with a dual core over a quad core, most games don't utilize more than one or two cores(at least at this point), so a 3.0 Ghz dual core will outperform a 2.4 Ghz quad core.
Wasn't sure about playing AoC on maxed graphics, but it works great.
nvidia 8800
quad core something or other
24" samsung monitor
something else techy
something from Microsoft probably
started using a Razer mouse and that really was a big upgrade
really not sure about all that stuff, but out of the box it was great
CPU: TBD
Video Card: nvidia 9800 GX2 Ultra SLI !!! wow
Motherboard: eVGA nvidia i790 CS !!! wow
HDD: TBD
Memory: TBD, can do as high as 2000Mhz DDR3
Case: TBD
so I still got some work to do on some of my opens.. but the key items are done, and the rest will fall into place very soon.
gus
Nice. Imo, Sli is not worth the added expense. In 8-12 months the next gen cards will be out and the sli will be outperformed by a single card.
Just my thoughts.
Might want to look at the raptor harddrives, I use one for my boot drive and (games) Aoc, wow tf2 ect. and have a couple of 500 gig slower ones for all teh other junk.
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Bla... bla, bla.... Bla bla bla.....
It sounds like you have money to spend... If yes, buy a 3.0 Core 2 Extreme water cool it and overclock to 4.0. The next generation applications will use a quad better and many already do. If you plan to upgrade in the next year or so again, you will probably do fine with a Core 2 Duo for a lower price.
9800s are already behind the curve. Nvidia and ATI both just release next generation cards in the 9900s and 4800s. They are roughly double the speed already.
Put your games on a Raid 0 of either 2 or 4 drives. Put your OS on a 500 or larger hard drive. You'll be amazed at the difference in load time.
Don't buy a DDR3 motherboard, the memory is not cost effective, and you'll have almost no gains.
Buy a high end power supply if you plan to run the hardware reliably. Expect to pay 200-300 for a nice power supply.
Check out a few of the overclocking forums like Extreme Overclocking and the hardware sites of Nvidia, ATI, Tom's Hardware.
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Wear a PFD if you want to live.
As for waiting for new GFX for better performance.. well you can always wait for "unobtanium" and "vaper ware" so if that works for ya.. keep it up.
The GX2 9800 is 2 GeForce 9800 ,, ala SLI.. it isn't 2 8800s. This board and MB stated above just set the record for 3DGFX mark... overclocked to 4G and others.. but it is their flagship and kicks all comers right now.. so it isn't time for me to wait.. it is time to build.
I am buying lower DDR3 speeds now 1333.. but by next year all systems will be DDR3 (DDR2 is old news) and the DDR3 2000MHz memory will be much much lower.. i have seen the memory forecast in what I do so I know where it is going.
Now I have to find a case I like to take the next step..
Gus Orviston
Building a gaming PC
I would get a newer cpu. That 6600 has been out for a while now...
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