Legit Reviews

Hey everyone! I'm new here. I've been on the site for hardware reviews and I love it. It's a huge help.

This is the build I'm currently building lol or I want to

Processor: Core 2 Duo E8400
HD: Seagate 320gb
Optical: Asus 18x18 dvd+r
PSU: Silverstone Element 500W
Ram: OCZ Platinum
Mobo: XFX 680i LT SLI
Vid card: 8800?

I'm just wondering what input anyone has about my build Any help would be great and for my question or questions per say lol

My mobo will it be compatible with the Core 2 Duo? People were telling me to go with a P35 because its mroe stable with the Intel Processor and stuff but the XFX was on for a good price so I decided to go with that. I'm new at this and want to use my build for gaming. It says it is compatible I just want to be sure and I'm still trying to chose a 8800 vid card preferably from XFX. I'm just not sure which one to go with. andd finally lol a big concern of mine is my power source will it be enough juice?

Thanks for any help I can get!!! I really appreciate it!!!

It might need a Bios flash, but the 680I chip set does support the Wolfdale CPU, they are right though the new chip set might be a better choice. I'd probably go to a bigger power supply, lot of the guys here use Corsair 620W, not that that's not a good power supply, it is, but at 500w you wouldn't have much room to grow and you never want to starve your system for power.

I'd definitely go XFX on the video card, double lifetime guarantee, change heat sinks still covered, over clock still covered, and an all around great product. Many flavors of 8800 to go around, I like my XFX 8800gt 512meg Alpha Dog, every thing I've thrown at it, it screams through. Any model with 512 meg, the 256 meg cards were seeing performance hits because of the lower memory. They also have a new chip set coming. Me I'm not much of a wait for the new stuff person, prices usually higher, bugs haven't been worked out that sort of thing.

I'll definitly up the PSU than, I chose to go with the 680i just due to cost and the fact it was on sale for a good price from tiger direct. I just want to make sure that everything will run nicely all together.

The only thing to look at really is the 8800 series are pcie 2.0, pretty sure that board is pcie 1.0. The video cards are backward compatible with 1.0 so they'll work, but at a 10% 12% performance hit. If that's the budget though I wouldn't go with out a gaming rig just for that reason.

Would I be better off going with a 8600? or should I try the 8800 still?


NVM lol sorry looked it up and only the 700 serise supports pcie 2.0

I definitely recommend a Corsair PSU, the 620W if you want a modular one, it's a great PSU that'll last you a good while. With the ram, you don't need the most expensive sticks if you're going DDR2 because there are some great sticks out there for a decent price; I, for one, am quite happy with my SuperTalent I posted some of the numbers I got outta them over here. With the GFX card, get the best single card you can afford, don't split your money between two cards, that way you can buy a second card later. Also, if you can't afford a 8800GTS, get the 8800GT 512MB edition I wouldn't go 8600. XFX is a nice choice for video cards but I didn't even know they make mobos >_<

if you can somehow fit it into your budget, wait for a 790i. not a 780i, they are just a 680i with a bridge chip. the 790i will be good for quite a while, and in the future you can upgrade to triple sli. as for which 8800 to get i would recomend a gt 512 or a gts 512. my xfx 8800gt has oced extremely well as you can see in my sig, and could probably beat a stock 512 gts.

Alathald wrote:I definitely recommend a Corsair PSU, the 620W if you want a modular one, it's a great PSU that'll last you a good while. With the ram, you don't need the most expensive sticks if you're going DDR2 because there are some great sticks out there for a decent price; I, for one, am quite happy with my SuperTalent I posted some of the numbers I got outta them over here. With the GFX card, get the best single card you can afford, don't split your money between two cards, that way you can buy a second card later. Also, if you can't afford a 8800GT, get the 8800GTS 512MB edition I wouldn't go 8600. XFX is a nice choice for video cards but I didn't even know they make mobos >_<

sorry about teh double post. but you should know that an 8800gts costs more than an 8800gt

martini161 wrote:sorry about teh double post. but you should know that an 8800gts costs more than an 8800gt

D'OH! you know what I meant, cut me some slack I'm tired; fixed.