Gaming Rate my soon to be rig

[Sephi]

hard drive suggestion http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?...N82E16822136320

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB ($75 CAD and free shipping)

 

[Golfman560]

As for all the other stuff it looks top notch. The graphics card will probably be outdated soon since the GTX's are out and more are probably coming real soon, but you can always just toss a second in SLI.

No he can't.

Yeah I noticed that after I double checked the case.

 

[Joe88]

he cant do SLI because of the mobo, has nothing to do with the case

 

[DSGamer64]

It is funny that the case description says that you can fit SLI cards but there isn't a motherboard that would support it on any of the sites that I use that is in production. MSI used to have one with the nForce4 chipset which was a 939 motherboard, but they are extinct now and rather redundant in terms of specs. The only way you could do SLI graphics currently would be to have the onboard graphics of a board like this one and an independent card.

 

[shaunj66]

Stay away from Seagate and go for WD.

Recently got a WD Velociraptor as a replacement for a failed HDD and it's blazingly fast.

 

[DSGamer64]

Well I don't need a Raptor drive, they aren't cheap and lack the sufficient storage space I need which is a minimum 500GB, plus the speed is a bit much as I don't need that quick of RPM. Remember that I just need this for general purpose and light gaming, I am not too concerned about having a monster powerhouse machine, especially packed into such a small space.

 

[ricera10]

This is for the OP, if he wants to do dual graphics. There are no proper SLI mATX boards currently except X58 boards, so you'll have to do with ATI graphics cards if you're planning on going dual graphics cards. Or upgrade your processor to an i7 series.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?...N82E16813136055

A comparable ATI card to the 9800 gt would be the HD 4830. The HD 48xx series is relatively cheap right now, so I would look into upgrading to a HD 4870 or HD 4890 if you can afford it.

 

[DSGamer64]

Ewww ATI is terrible and there is no point in doing Crossfire or SLI, when you can only get 2x the performance with two extremely powerful cards, that is a waste. And yes you can do SLI with a microATX motherboard so long as it has a good built in graphics chipset.

I decided to go midtower anyway, cases and motherboards are better and cheaper, they will be able to fit all the upgrades I will eventually need like hot swappable HDD's, card reader and fan controls.

 

[Pyrofyr]

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 1066 PC28500 RAM
Seagate Barracuda 7200 500GB HDD 16MB cache
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz CPU
Gigabyte GA-G41M Micro ATX motherboard
Thermaltake LANBOX microATX case
Raidmax 630watt modular PSU
Zotac GeForce 9800GT 512MB (HDCP form factor)

I am planning on building something that will fit on my desk since I don't have a lot of space, nor do I need a big desktop in the first place, plus I like to do LAN parties and gaming laptops are so unreliable.

Pretty good.

Not a fan of Seagate's, I'd prefer a WD Caviar Black (What I have), cheap, efficient, yet to hear of any problems with them, and mine runs like a beast.

The CPU is EXACTLY what I have (Wolfdale).

The MOBO looks fine, I prefer ATX to microATX, but that's me.

The GPU, I'm a fan of the ATIs, I personally have a Radeon 4850 ATM, runs great. No complaints.

PSU will work fine for you want it for, but I grabbed a 900w myself 'just in case'.


Your box is just fine, hell it's pretty much what I have (I paid 700 bucks for mine, and it runs like a beast). I give it a 9/10.

 

[Joe88]

the 9800GT is not available anymore

 

[Lodis]

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 1066 PC28500 RAM
Seagate Barracuda 7200 500GB HDD 16MB cache
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz CPU
Gigabyte GA-G41M Micro ATX motherboard
Thermaltake LANBOX microATX case
Raidmax 630watt modular PSU
Zotac GeForce 9800GT 512MB (HDCP form factor)

I am planning on building something that will fit on my desk since I don't have a lot of space, nor do I need a big desktop in the first place, plus I like to do LAN parties and gaming laptops are so unreliable.

The right gaming laptops are not unreliable at all, they are just very expensive when compared to what you can get with a desktop. I have an NP8662 gaming laptop that has no problems, temperatures are fine and sometimes it has been on running programs for hours over night. Others have had the previous model for years and it is still going fine.

It is just recommended to give the internals a clean out after over a year to clear dust from the fan fins, heatsink etc.

 

[Lodis]

not bad at all! should serve u nicely for the next few years

and good call gettin a core 2 duo, its pretty useless getting quad core now.

It isn't useless to get a Quad Core at all, with a Quad, Dual core optimised games will still run just fine providing that you have a decent GPU, games that are multi threaded will take advantage of the extra cores and many applications can use the extra cores and you can do more multitasking. Not to mention the future games that will come out that will really take advantage of each core.

You can also set the affinity so that programs only use specific cores. Unless the price of a Quad is significantly higher than a Core2Duo, there really is no reason to say that it is useless.

 

[Joe88]

the core 2 series is getting discontinued in favor the the i7 and the soon i5 (rumored name) which will be released later this year

 

[DSGamer64]

Yeah I noticed, no matter though because since I am going with a mid tower case and a Gigabyte motherboard, I decided that since the GTS 250 is slightly better for performance over the 9800GT and the GTS 250 is actually cheaper, I am going to go with one of those. Also the cases and motherboards for ATX are far cheaper, I would rather save some money and be able to get better components and build a slightly better machine. I refuse to go ATI for graphics though, I have disliked their cards for a while now and I know they have a history of heating problems with their DX10 cards.

Board:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?...N82E16813128359
GT 250:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?...N82E16814130468

 

[Joe88]

I dont have any heating problems with my 4870

runs about 45C idle and about 60-65C load and thats with only 30% RPM on the fan

 

[DSGamer64]

I need my computer to be running at no more then 30 Celcius so I will have lots of cooling running since it can be hot as hell in my room and the last thing I want is for my computer components to be running hot. I plan on getting a few cooling fans for my graphics card and hard drive just to keep them running cool as much as possible.

 

[Joe88]

30C is a bit unrealistic
unless you have liquid cooling

these gfx cards today are rated up to 110-120C before the capacitors start blowing
the CPU's (core 2 duo) limit are around 75C

 

[DSGamer64]

I thought about going for a Quad Core, but if the Core 2 series is getting discontinued, maybe the Quad Cores prices will go down. With a mid tower as well, I get more space for cooling a faster CPU. A friend of mine has a huge ass heatsink for his Quad Core CPU which is overclocked to 4 Ghz and the fan sounds like a jet engine, I don't intend on overclocking though and there are lots of cooling options for a larger case.