Can you help me spec a "bleeding edge" system for a friend?

[glocktodahead]

Hey Guys, I have a buddy who would like a "bleeding edge" PC built. His price range is around 3+ grand Canadian. The main use of the PC will be gaming.

Just thought i'd ask your opinions on the parts he should get and what his gaming will benefit from the most.

thanks guys,

-Glock

 

[Ham]

Same old high stuff tbh

E6850

IP35-pro

4gb OCZ/Muskin kit

8800GTX (maybe 2?)

decent ~750w psu (silverstone/tagan)

Pair of HDDs in raid

500GB storage

 

[Hyper]

Try and save as much on the components by overclocking, e.g buy a E6600 instead of a top of the range one and clock the hell out of it. Then use the extra cash to buy peripherals like a sleek monitor and a nice sound system.

Just my thoughts

Will post a spec when I have time.

 

[glocktodahead]

He doesn't need any peripherals atm so all the cash is going into the tower. I don't think he will be overclockin either, so the fastest outta the box stuff is the best for him.

 

[glocktodahead]

How is this so far?

Abit IP35 Pro ATX LGA775 P35 DDR2 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard

$206.85

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Dual Core Processor LGA775 Conroe 3.0GHZ 1333FSB 4MB Retail

$329.99

Mushkin HP PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL5-4-4-12 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit

$364.99

EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800 Ultra 612MHZ 768MB 2.16GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out Video Card

$759.99

Silverstone Zeus ST75ZF 750W ATX12V 24PIN Power Supply W/80MM Fan Active PFC Quad SLI Cert *IR-$25*

$164.99

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB 8.5MS 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM 3YR MFR Warranty

$139.99

Western Digital Raptor 150GB SATA 10KRPM 16MB NCQ 5YR MFR Warranty Hard Drive

$294.12

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI Xtremegamer FATAL1TY Professional Series Sound Card 7.1 PCI Retail

$169.99

LG GSA-H50L DVD+RW 18X8X16 DVD-RW 18X6X16 DL 10X Lightscribe DVD Writer IDE 2MB Black OEM W/ SW

$49.92

 

[BUFF]

Looks OK but he'll need an OS (& XP is still best for gaming).

I'm not sure that the small performance increase of the 8800 Ultra is worth the increased cost over a GTX especially as there are reports of quite a few being flaky (pushing the limits of the hardware I think).

With a 32-bit OS a big chunk of that 4th Gb of RAM will be reserved for addressing but again 64-bit games are few & far between..

 

[NickS]

Q6600, P5K Deluxe, 8800 Ultra, etc.

 

[!TIMMY!]

Remember XP only recognises 3gb, but when vista gets better he can move over and then all 4gb will be used (hopefully not just by vista).

 

[llwyd]

What monitor does he have? pointless getting all that graphic power and putting it through a 1280x1024 17" 60hz tft

 

[glocktodahead]

He has 2 22" (gateway I believe) monitors @ native rez of 1680x1050

I will tell him about the RAM and how XP only recognizes 3gb. He basically just wants to future proof so maybe 4gb is a good idea.

 

[Mr. Smith]

Everything I have read suggests that XP recognises 3.5gb out of 4gb and you can get the other 512mb addressed by memory remapping...

 

[prosser13]

Your sticking with the stock CPU HSF? For that budget, you could get him a custom watercooling kit, or at least a nice, quiet, high end CPU heatsink like the Ultra-120.

Also, I say Q6600 over E6850

 

[Rastalovich]

Everything I have read suggests that XP recognises 3.5gb out of 4gb and you can get the other 512mb addressed by memory remapping...

More or less - the way 32bit Xp does it, is that u have a blank page of 4g to allocate to. U`r gfx card locations will take away from that and the balance can be used as ddr, loosely.

 

[Pat123]

Q6600 4GB of RAM 8800GTX sorted..

 

[mrapoc]

Quad core > dual core

QFT ^ above post

 

[glocktodahead]

Quad core is > than dual core for gaming? And what about the 1333 FSB of the E6850 isn't that the way to go?