So I may be planning an upgrade job soon and it'd be nice to have some feedback/comments/suggestions.
I'm trying to keep this under $900 if possible and since I'm in Mississauga, I only have access to Canada Computers and Tigerdirect.

www.tigerdirect.ca
www.canadacomputers.com

Current gaming rig:

Ultra X-Finity 600W PSU
ASUS P5P800-SE LGA775 Motherboard
Intel Pentium D 805 2.6GHz LGA775 Dual-Core (OCed 3.2GHz)
1024MB (2x512) DDR400 PC3200
Western Digital 80GB IDE HDD
Western Digital 250GB SATA-II HDD
eVGA NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT 128MB DDR3 AGP 8x (OCed 550/1100)
19" LG L1970HR Flatron Slim 2ms 2000:1 DCR LCD
Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit 5.1 EAX HD
Logitech X-530 5.1 Surround Sound System
Windows XP SP2
Coolermaster Centurion 5 case

So basically I'm looking for a system that will easily play upcoming games, for example Gears of War and Assassin's Creed. Since I use my computer as a multimedia center as well, quality RAM is important.

Here's what I've picked out:

Motherboard:

EVGA nForce 650i Ultra - $114
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...365&CatId=1533

RAM:

OCZ Platinum Revision-2 2GB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel - $64
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...686&CatId=2261

or

OCZ SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel 2GB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz - $59
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...597&CatId=2261

GPU:

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB - $427
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...918&CatId=2514

or

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB - $333
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...232&CatId=2669

Not including rebate or tax and going with the nForce 650i, OCZ Platinum Revision-2 2GB, and the EVGA 8800GTS 320MB, the total comes to $587 which is pretty much perfect.

Throw in this Western Digital SE16 400GB HDD for $115 and the total comes to $702.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...113&CatId=2459

It's OEM but the mobo will have extra SATA cables, so it's all good. It would be nice to have one of those Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM drives as a boot disk, but they're too darn overpriced IMO. Maybe I'll even split my 250GB for a system drive and some files and use this 400GB for all my games and multimedia, so I can finally retire that IDE.

So here are the questions:

1. Should I spend extra and go for the 640MB GTS instead? How much will the extra video memory benefit me in the long distance? With current games, the 640MB and 320MB 8800 GTS cards are dead-even in terms of performance and quality. Will future games change that?

2. SLI motherboard. Tigerdirect doesn't seem to carry them, but should I try to go for the SLI nForce 650i or not? Would it be best to just be ready for the quad-core, multi-GPU future with an SLI-ready system?

Trying to keep this under $900 btw

Any feedback/comments would be appreciated

Hey, You seem to know alot more about internal guts on your Pc, but i just got a quick question for ya.


I noticed your monitor, I was in TigerDirect today see that they got those on for $179, You like it? had any problems with it?

Grab it, I just can't say enough good things about it. I'm currently running it on VGA (yes, silly me) and the quality is just magnificent. Perfect LCD for gaming, movies, surfing, Photoshop, etc.
Although I bought mine from Best Buy for $230 last December. They had it mistakenly labeled with a DCR of 1600:1, but it's actually 2000:1

No ghosting whatsoever, not a single dead pixel either. Only one not-so positive thing to say about it is the lack of a DVI cable. I've put off buying one for so long so I'll just grab one when I'm ready to shop for all my parts.


Also regarding the nForce 650i, I might as well ditch the Creative sound card as it'll be nothing more than an annoying bottleneck and go for on-board audio. No point in spending on another sound card since these gaming boards have high-quality on-board. It surprises me how Creative is still in the market with some of their sub-par gear.

Holy moly, look at the price on this 8800GT 512MB! Only $341.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=P450-8812

These just released today IIRC. Should I grab one? Moron alert??


One thing though. The 8800GTX requires a minimum 450W or greater power supply with 12V current rating of 30A. GeForce 8800 GTS/GT requires a minimum 400W or greater power supply with 12V current rating of 26A. Now take a peek at my Ultra X-Finity 600W PSU's specs:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...309&CatId=1483

Problem?

As to the card I see no problem and that is a good price.

I had heard they were going to drop dramatically this week.



If you can stretch the budget a bit this motherboard is very sweet:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...879&CatId=1533

Only $60 more than your choice of the lesser model.

The 680 remains "state of the art" in my opinion. I have one!

This will also alter your RAM choices as you can go to a higher bus.

Hmm yes, I have been looking into the 680i as well.

So you don't see any problems with my current PSU in terms of amperage and power? I guess what I'm most worried about is if the fan design on the PSU can handle an 8800 GT pumping heat. The dual 80mm fans are only on the front and rear, whereas I'd prefer a nice 120mm under the PSU directly sucking up hot air away from the video card.

I see no problem.

8800's get hot but they take care of themselves.

I run 2 x 8800 768MB GTX and although I have liquid cooled mine the stock fan blows out the rear of the case so most of the heat is dissipated out of the case by the card itself. The card case serves as an outflow engine.

They do run up @ 60C stock. That is considered normal. Liquid cooled you can get them down to @ 40C.

Oh curse you, 8800-hog

Thanks for the info, Jeph. I'll see what goes on in the next week or two with regards to the GTS and GT. If I were to buy the parts tonight, I'd go for the 640MB GTS. Let's see what nVidia has planned.

Final choices:

XFX nForce 680i LT SLI Motherboard - $189.97
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...594&CatId=2051

OCZ Platinum Revision-2 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel Memory - $99.97
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=O261-8070

Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB Hard Drive - 7200RPM, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM - $115.99
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=TSD-400KS

EVGA GeForce 8800 GT Superclocked Video Card - 512MB GDDR3 - $365.99
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=E145-8810

Total: About $880 with tax.

Good? Bad? Scared?

Looks good to me.

Make sure to get the latest BIOS. My EVGA 680i has gone through 8 different BIOS this year.

Also do not connect the motherboard AUX PEX power molex as you have direct power to your PCI_E card. Connecting both will not allow power on. Been there.

This is the molex connector between the RAM slots and the IDE port.


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