UpGrade

[Azmaril]

Geez, I can't take so much at one time (You guys really Smart , me not so much). I will get back to you about the brand and specs of the PSU as I am doing a little illegal surfing at work, but assuming that i am not all that interested in Sli now and probly not so in the future is the Gigabyte still a good choice. Will i be able to keep it in the future and upgrade the CPU and Graphics or will it be a new build again as i've to do this time.

This was my last shot at the putting something together:

Cooler Master Elite 330 Black/Silver Tower Case (No PSU)
Antec Truepower Trio 650w ATX Power Supply
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400/ 3.00GHZ/ 6MB Cache
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 Motherboard
Asus EN8800GT, 512MB, GF8800GT, PCIE2.0, DDR3, HDTV, 2XDVI-I
Kingston DDR2 4GB PC-6400/800 (2X2GB)
Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA 2 (X2)

Is there anything in there that should be replaced, (i'll take a majority vote here, NO arguing). I am not committed to anything as yet could completely change everything if it will give me a bigger better more power and stable build. I am also hanging out to see the new Graphics Cards come out.

Starting to drool on keyboard, need to go to bathroom to clean up.

[Azmaril]

Found a new M-board that could be a contender, appreciate your thoughts.

XFX nForce 680i-LT9 Motherboard $223.30

or the original

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 motherboard $214.50

[DaddyRabbit]

Found a new M-board that could be a contender, appreciate your thoughts.

XFX nForce 680i-LT9 Motherboard $223.30

or the original

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 motherboard $214.50

If you don't intend to SLI then I would stay with the P35 Gigabyte.

[Azmaril]

Thanks for the input. So the only advantage the XFX board has over the Gigabyte Board is its ability to Sli? You need two identical Graphics cards to Sli Don't you? I don't know if i can convince myslef that i can afford two 8800Gt's or that i need it? Can anyone argue the point to convince me?

PSU Specs

+5v - 38A
+3.3v - 28A
+12v - 17A
-12v - 0.8A
+5sb - 2A
-5v - 0.5A

[DMB2000uk]

Your PSU is as I suspected, high amps on the 3v and 5v rails and not a great deal on the 12v.

So you definately need to get a new PSU like you wanted to. Either the 550w or the 650w Antec will do you well.

Even though it is the same wattage rating, the 550w antec will be much better than your current powersupply; as the Antec has 500w of power on its 12v rails, where your current one has only 200w of power on it's 12v rails. So if you need to save money then get the Antec 550w, as it will be cheaper than the 650w and will be more than capable for your needs.

Dan

[DaddyRabbit]

Thanks for the input. So the only advantage the XFX board has over the Gigabyte Board is its ability to Sli? You need two identical Graphics cards to Sli Don't you? I don't know if i can convince myslef that i can afford two 8800Gt's or that i need it? Can anyone argue the point to convince me?

PSU Specs

+5v - 38A
+3.3v - 28A
+12v - 17A
-12v - 0.8A
+5sb - 2A
-5v - 0.5A

Avoid "6" series Nvidia chipsets, if you must go Nvidia go with the 7xx series as most 680i mobos won't support newer CPUs. That said I'll roll into opinion here... Intel makes the CPU and Intel makes the chipset (P35, P45, X38, X48) IMHO Intel on Intel is the way to go.

The future problem I see is that AMD/ATI is at odds with Nvidia and Nvidia really isn't all that friendly with Intel (quite the conundrum ehh?). Again, IMHO Intel on Intel is the best direction to go unless you "need" SLI (read ULTRA high res on a BIG display with EVERYTHING turned on). The system you've spec'd sounds pretty good.

[tekgek]

Thanks for the input. So the only advantage the XFX board has over the Gigabyte Board is its ability to Sli? You need two identical Graphics cards to Sli Don't you? I don't know if i can convince myslef that i can afford two 8800Gt's or that i need it? Can anyone argue the point to convince me?

PSU Specs

+5v - 38A
+3.3v - 28A
+12v - 17A
-12v - 0.8A
+5sb - 2A
-5v - 0.5A

If you do a lot of high performance gaming, then I think that it would be worth it. But, if you can afford one of the 9 series cards, then I think that one of those would be better than two 8800 gt's. The gt's, if I am correct in thinking, are the bottom of the 8800 line. You would be better off with a g92-based card (8800 gts, 9800 gtx, or the 9600). The 9600 is a downgrade of the 9800, but I am pretty sure that it is still pretty good.

Tekgek

[DaddyRabbit]

Thanks for the input. So the only advantage the XFX board has over the Gigabyte Board is its ability to Sli? You need two identical Graphics cards to Sli Don't you? I don't know if i can convince myslef that i can afford two 8800Gt's or that i need it? Can anyone argue the point to convince me?

PSU Specs

+5v - 38A
+3.3v - 28A
+12v - 17A
-12v - 0.8A
+5sb - 2A
-5v - 0.5A

If you do a lot of high performance gaming, then I think that it would be worth it. But, if you can afford one of the 9 series cards, then I think that one of those would be better than two 8800 gt's. The gt's, if I am correct in thinking, are the bottom of the 8800 line. You would be better off with a g92-based card (8800 gts, 9800 gtx, or the 9600). The 9600 is a downgrade of the 9800, but I am pretty sure that it is still pretty good.

Tekgek

If I am not mistaken the 8800GT was the first of the G92 cards (the G80 cards were the 8800GTS 640 and the 8800 GTX). There is a LR review of an overclocked 9600GT that puts it between the lower memory 8800GT and the original 512MB 8800GT. Go with the 8800GT 512 for the money or better yet a 8800 GTS 512...

[Azmaril]

OK, the specs i have are apparently pretty good, But if i gave you $1100 what would you build?

Case?
PSU?
M-Board?
CPU?
G-Card?
Ram?
H-Drive?

[Azmaril]

**** **** **** **** the more i look around the more bloody M-Boards I find and cause i have no idea about them i feel like i need to ask, so here is the latest ones.

Gigabyte Ga-EX38-DS4

or

Gigabyte Ga-X48-DS4