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Looking for some advice
HothaRonin
Member Posts: 1
I'm building a new machine and I've done about a months worth of research so far. I'm planning on using it for strictly entertainment purposes, gaming, watching DVDs, Music and recreational use. Despite my attempts to find informative debates online to answer some of my questions, I wasn't able to get everything I needed so I'm asking you folks. First off, I'll give you the layout I think I'm going with and I'll see what your responses are:
EVGA 780i SLI Mobo (I was considering going with the 790i Ultra SLI mobo but it seems there's some severe quality issues with the boards when you get them and the DDR3 memory is just too expensive when looking at it from a price/performance perspective)
Core 2 Quad Q6700 2.66ghz CPU ( I was going to go with a q9300 2.50ghz because it was a newer chipset but from my research the Q6700 is a better product that OCs cooler and has all around better performance. Problem is, I've never OCed anything and while it sounds fairly simple to a reasonably intelligent person, it'll be my first time.)
EVGA 9800 GX2 1GB Video card - Here's where my first question comes in, is it better to go with 1 of these cards for $500 or 2 X SLI 8800 GTS 512mb card? When I compared one of the GPUs onboard the big card with one of the 8800s it seems the 8800 is better and cheaper. So if I buy 2 of those cards and run them in SLI will they perform better than the one big one? What're the pros and cons between each option?
2 X 2048 mb DDR2-PC6400 OCZ SLI Ready Ram (it's only 61.99....)
I can't decide which speaker setup to go with, I was looking at the Logitech 5500 THX certified setup but it just recently jumped to $250 so I'm wondering if it's still worth it or if I could get a better performance for the cost out of one of it's predecessors or competitors.
The other question I have is onboard sound vs. the Fatality Pro Xfi Card? I know that the Xfi card will perform better but I'm curious if they are worth the cost and will the sound difference be very noticeable from a gaming aspect?
Last question, not really all that important.... is getting an HDMI monitor worth it? There's about a $100 difference in prices of monitors with and without HDMI ability. Does anyone use it and is it worth the upgrade just for gaming alone? (I'm not getting a blu-ray player so I didn't think getting an HDMI monitor was something to worry about)
One last thing! Are HDDs with 32mb Cache that much better than those with 16mb cache and will it help my machine do what I want to do with it better? Again this boils down to value vs. performance.
I forgot to mention I'm going with aircooling, one heatpipe/sink/fan combo on the CPU and two 120mm fans for the front and back of the case.
The whole unit will be powered by a 700watt PSU (I'm still trying to understand how wattage and power work 
) with 600watt UPS Backup.
Thanks for all the input and taking the time to read this, I appreciate your help.
Comments
Video card: Get a single 8800 GTX or Ultra. The performance increase of the GX2 doesn't justify the extra money. Also, If you go with the GX2 then you would be better getting the 790 board so that you are all setup for quad SLi should you decide to add a 2nd GX2 later.
Speakers: I just use the creative labs 7:1 speakers, decent surround sound with good bass and at a good price.
Sound: Depends on OS. If you are getting vista then you need HD audio. Most MB manufacturers are now putting HD audio on the board, if you go with X-Fi then you will need the creative alchemy download to get surround. If you are going for XP then ignore that 1st bit and just get what you think best.
HDD: you will not notice a large difference unless multi-tasking and using HDD intensive applications.
Power: Can never have enough. An 8800 uses 300w a GX2 likely uses more and then you need power for everything else. The only thing that I will say about PSU's is don't buy cheap crap.