Help

I need help with configuring the main componets for a new PC (not necessarily from DSO, just any site with a decent price and the parts I'm looking for)

and the eVGA step up program is 90 days right?

Yep, the step up program is 90 days. The 9800GX2 is releasing this month.

Without knowing what the 9800 cards will sell for, it's rather difficult to recommend an option between waiting or buying now at a given budget.

Given the current GPU choices only, I would opt for the 8800GTS over either the 8800GT or the GTX. The 8800GTS provides performance on par with the GTX for less money. It also expels it's exhaust heat outside of the case. Given your budget, I assume air cooling, so this feature is a major plus.

At the resolutions you currently game at, and even the ones you list potentially upgrading to, SLi is not going to help you much, if at all. The SLi card is a mirror of the primary graphics card and helps to process the additional information in a high resolution display. It doesn't do much more than burn additional power and generate heat when you play at low resolutions.

I don't have any uncontrollable impulses to play with the configuration page, but I can offer a suggested build if you like. If you want PCI-e 2.0 and you want an ASUS mainboard, you've already made a decision on which of those two boards is better. The Striker Extreme is based on 680i architecture, and has two  16x PCI-e 1.1 slots. You can confirm this information at the ASUSTek site.

P5N-T Deluxe

ASUS Striker Extreme

Personally, I would take EGVA over ASUS any day of the week based on customer support alone, but since you'll be able to go through DSO for  support, I guess the partner makes less difference.



Edited by Tyler Lowe - 07 Mar 2008 at 11:52am

You're also probably running a bit of a handicap on the overclocking potential of the Wolfdale CPU you selected by going with 800MHz RAM. That will take you up to a 1600MHz front side bus. I'm not yet fully up to speed on the Wolfdales, but my math tells me, that means you're capped at around 3.6 GHz.

 If you are happy with that as a soft ceiling on your overclock (the RAM may have some overclocking potential as well, so you might be able to push further), the selected RAM should be ok.

The power supply you selected suggests you are fairly certain SLi is not in your future. Given this, I would recommend the following:

$1991

I went with the X38 chipset for best overclocking capability. The RAM was upgraded for the same reason. I did dispense with the liquid cooling. At your budget, it's just easier to air cool. I hope this wasn't something you had your heart set on. If you do, I suggest considering that wait you talked about, and setting aside the additional money for the liquid cooling so it doesn't cost you anything on the performance side.

It's interesting that the motherboard is again an ASUS. I would have gone with an EVGA had the chipset been NForce, but without the need to run SLi., it's difficult to suggest going with an NForce northbridge over the X38.

I linked the ASUS site already, the EVGA product page is here. Between the two you should be able to find what you are looking for in terms of specs.

Getting one of those might be pretty tough at first. Intel can't keep up with demand for the chips they have out now.

I'll tell you what I would do. I'm just a customer, I have no personal stake in where you buy. I think this is a pretty good company, and I know the build quality and support is excellent.

I would drop in a 620HX in the build I posted in place of the "550W", call up DSO and offer them the chance to price match. The 620HX is a superb power supply and will deliver all of the power it says it does. That puts it on par with many "700W" PSU's, more than enough to run most SLI setups, including 2x 8800GTS.

I don't know if they will, but I do know that *I* would never have let a customer walk to the competition over 2 and a half points when I was in sales.

Oh here is the web site conditions page.