New Build Advice

[samdrong]

Thanks in advance to anyone who has input on this build or answers any of my questions.

As with any build, I’m trying to balance all my needs and wants as best as I can. I want a computer that will:
A) Be as close to silent as possible
B) Keep power draw to a minimum
C) Be able to play FPS games at a decent resolution
D) Cost around $1,000 (usd)


Here is what I have come up with.

Case: Antec SOLO
Mother Board: ASUS P5N-D nvidia nforce 750i sli
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Memory: 4GB RAM (what ever high performance kit is on sale the time of checkout)
Video Card: Asus EN9600GT Silent Edition
Power Supply: EnerMax Modu82 425 w
Hard Drive: WD SE16 Caviar WD3200AAKS-00B3A0
Optical Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc 20X DVD±R DVD
CPU Heatsink: Scythe Ninja Plus B (passive)
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit)

Questions:
1a) I’ve read some reviews that say the 9600GT runs fairly hot, does the Solo case have enough airflow to keep this from being an issue for the card and for the case temp in general?

1b) If yes, would I be better off switching to a blow-down style heatsink (Scythe Andy) that would send a little more air flow past the video card?

2) Should I wait and see what ATI’s new video cards look like in the coming month? More to the point, will ATI’s new offerings compete head to head vs. the 9600GT?

3) As of the time of writing, the Asus 9600GT is the same price as the ECS 8800GT (has an Accelero S1 factory installed). I realize the 8800 will game better but has a larger power draw… what would you do?

4) Are there any incompatibilities that I’m overlooking?

Thanks again for any advice or comments you can give.

[antifro]

Questions:
1a) I’ve read some reviews that say the 9600GT runs fairly hot, does the Solo case have enough airflow to keep this from being an issue for the card and for the case temp in general?

The fan on the GPU will still ramp up when playing games. However will slow down fairly quickly when you quit.

1b) If yes, would I be better off switching to a blow-down style heatsink (Scythe Andy) that would send a little more air flow past the video card?

Blow down will help increase cooling of MOSFETs and Northbridge but will do very little for the GPU. If you're not going to be doing maximum overclocking and are ok with having your CPU a few degrees higher (but still well within safe regions) than the temps of the best air coolers the nget a blow down cooler.

2) Should I wait and see what ATI’s new video cards look like in the coming month? More to the point, will ATI’s new offerings compete head to head vs. the 9600GT?

AMD IS supposed to come out with something this summer so waiting is not a bad idea. If I was in your shoes however, it wouldnt be the GPU I'd be waiting for, but the new Nehalem CPUs that will come out in late 2008 from Intel. Go to Anandtech; they have a very early preview showing 20-30% gains on Penryn with only a 10% gain in power consumption.

3) As of the time of writing, the Asus 9600GT is the same price as the ECS 8800GT (has an Accelero S1 factory installed). I realize the 8800 will game better but has a larger power draw… what would you do?

The way I see this for you is the 8800GT scores two for your list of "pro's" and one for your list of "con's". Its gives you better performance and will give is very quiet (when paired with the right fan, doubt you'll run it passive for a long time). It does however take more power, which is a con but I would definitely see 8800GT as the obvious choice.

4) Are there any incompatibilities that I’m overlooking?

Besides that Vista 32 will only be able to use about 3.5gb of ram, then no.

Thanks again for any advice or comments you can give.

My opinion on your system: You're spending $1000 (maybe a bit more?) on a fast system. However you will not be able to make meaningful upgrades. Socket 775 will be phased out when Nehalem comes in in late 2008. DDR2 is already being phased out with DDR3. You are getting an SLI motherboard but only have one video card. I found intel chipsets better than Nvidia so unless you're going with SLI, I'd go for a gigabyte P35 based mobo. BTW, if you're thinking of going to SLI in the future then you might want to rethink... as a newer generation GPU is almost always faster than an 2 previous generation GPUs in SLI.

So in summary... if you can wait for half a year then you'd be doing yourself a big favor; new CPU, new GPU, cheaper DDR3, more upgrade options for the future. You might also save up a bit and get a 2.5" velociraptor drive, which is very quiet but beats the pants of any other comsumer drive.

[Shadout]

Its always possible to wait 6 months more for something better.
Beside, Nehalem is likely going to be very expensive and low availability for a long time.
So that ½ year could suddenly become 1 years wait.

Also, CPU is hardly a bottleneck for most usage today. Bying a new PC now, and then upgrade to Nehalem 1-1½ year ino the future (or later depending on your need), when the new chipset has matured and maybe even recieved a die shrink to 32 nm / went to octocore, is a pretty sensible upgrade path, rather than jumping on to Nehalem the moment it comes out.

I would however wait and see the Radeon cards coming in 2/3 weeks. 4850 should be faster than 9600GT (rumours ofc, no 100% sure info is out yet). Hard to say if the temperature and power draw will be better or worse yet.

[samdrong]

Antifro, thanks for your valuable input.

The “wait six months and something better will come outâ€

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello,

If you want to make use of all 4GB of RAM, then you have to use a 64bit OS. 32bit will let you use ~3-3.25GB.

You should use the Thermalright S775 bolt-through kit with the Ninja -- and I would also consider the Xigmatek HDT-1283 (along with the same kit).

[Shadout]

Btw, so far Intel has only stated Nehalem Extreme Edition will come out in Q4. For $1000-something probably. Then Q1 for the normal prices parts. As it was with penryn.

I guess heatsinks could be out at time for release, when manufactures can already have early motherboards around, but 'could be' doesnt say much of course.
Would worry more about getting a Nehalem than getting a heatsink for it though.

[samdrong]

I just quickly browsed through the Thermalright website and didn't see a S775 bolt-through kit but I did see a LGA775 Bolt-Thru-Kit. Will that work? Did I miss the S775?

Thanks again for everyone's comments. I'd like to know what other people think about waiting to put together a machine until the Nehalem comes out. When it does come out, will I even be able to put together a decent Nehalem-based computer before June 09 for $1,000?

Maybe its worth waiting until Nehalem comes out just so I can buy even more cheap DDR2 (if I go the 64 bit route) as well as getting a better price on a socket 775 board. Thoughts?

[Shadout]

Its hard to say, but I somewhat doubt DDR2 will go much further down in price, its already insanely cheap.
Current CPU's will surely go down, prices should fall in Q3 according to Intel, but for the dual cores its minor changes (like 20$).
The current expensive MBs (X38 etc) should go down too, but since you can already get a cheap P35, I hardly think you would save much.

Beside, if you waited till end of the year in the first place, I surely agree with antifro that you might as well wait for Nehalem.

In the end it just comes down to whether you want a new PC now or later.

[Shadout]

Surely looks like you can expect Nehalem coolers out at release time:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/06/05 ... -coolers/1
Would surely not be in Intels interest to have it in any other way either.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello,

I just quickly browsed through the Thermalright website and didn't see a S775 bolt-through kit but I did see a LGA775 Bolt-Thru-Kit. Will that work? Did I miss the S775?

That's the one I meant -- I should have written socket 775, instead. I recently got one of these kits from Sidewinder Computers -- it was very reasonable cost for USPS Express shipping (~$2.50?), but it took 8 days to arrive...

[antifro]

Well I think OP is in the same position as I was about 3 years ago. I just bout a P4 Northwood with a low-mid end mobo. Six months later, socket 478 was replaced with socket 775, DDR with DDR2, AGP with PCI-e, and PATA with SATA. So I had a fast PC (at the time) but that I couldnt upgrade.

People ARE right saying that a 6 month wait could turn into 9 month or a year (doubt it'll be THAT bad). And yes, initially prices will be higher. However, you'll know that you have a future proof system with a chip that wont be beaten for at least a year.

However, what you CAN do (and probably what I'd do, because I'm a build and hardware wh**e):

Wait for new ATI video cards. Buy everything you wanted except mobo, cpu, and memory. Then buy something like a E7200, P-35 based mobo, and good DDR2-800 2gb kit. These component will run about $250. You can OC the E7200 to 3.2ghz on stock cooler. This will surely keep you computing happily well into 2009. Then you buy Nehalem, new mobo, and DDR3 that you want. You can ebay the older parts or build a low-mid level second PC around those components for whatever purpose you see fit.