As my mum was pretty chuffed with my GCSE results she decided to give me a hefty amount of money. Here how the system should turn out when all the upgrades are in place: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache (New) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty 7.1 Sound Card Pioneer DVR-115DBK 20x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter BFG GeForce GTX 280 OC 1024MB GDDR3 (New) Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz (New) Asus Rampage Extreme Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard (New) Corsair 4GB DDR3 DHX 1600C7DHX Twin3X (2x2GB) (New) Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium CPU Cooler (New) Corsair HX 620W PSU My first query is whether my original HX620 will still be able to handle all of those components. My second query, is will the GTX 280 be able to power a dual monitor setup; Samsung 226BW 22" and Samsung SM-2493HM 24" (Bit of a silly question, but it is better to be safe than sorry) Thanks, for any replies.
I doubt you NEED all of that... if you're getting a Q6600 then I'd get liquid cooling so you can put it up to 4GHz per core If you ARE going for quad core I'd get 8Gb RAM as well As far as I know the GTX280 will be able to handle dual display, and according to Extreme PSU calc the PSU should still handle the wattage for everything under 100% load (depending how many fans you have)
4 x 120mm and 1 x 250mm. I don't need all of that, just been saving up a lot of money as well. So, now I won't have to upgrade for a while. All that stuff is the maximum I can afford right now.
Your PSU is more then what you need, which is perfect! Unlike bigsharn says, PSU calculator are not good, as they only look at Watts and consider an average Amp level form mid/low range PSU's. In your case you have a high-end PSU and Amps are more important then Watts, so it it will handle your computer without any issues. SLI'ing some 280, might be way too much for the PSU, but I don't think it's your goal. Your video card will handle just fine dual monitor, unless you play a game per screen. With a 24inch display you won't be able to play the latest game with max settings. I start to see more and more broken ASUS motherboard from friends, myself, and bit-tech... I think ASUS starts to make crappy motherboards. Have look at Gigabyte, instead. I trust that you will use Vista 64-bit edition (which is better then the 32-bit, more polished), as you won't be able to use your 4GB of RAM (3.5GB max, if you are lucky), and even it might slow down your system. Troubleshoot: If your sound card outputs pop's, crackles, fails to work, or other strange issues, that is the sound card that doesn't like your hardware configuration and/or your chipset (it hates Nforce 4 and up, crossfire, SLI, and "new" (after the x-fi release) Intel chipsets), however you might be lucky as you were before and not have any issues.
Just built my new system: Asus Rampage Formula Q9550 w/Enzotech Ultra-X OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066 (4gb) Sapphire HD 4850 Toxic X-Fi Fal1ty SONY DRU840A x2 WD SE16 500GB WD RE2 160GB Maxtor 400GB OCZ GameXstream 700w Vista Ultimate 64bit I've had it up and running for a couple of days and it performs extremely well. No problems with the Mobo or X-Fi (no more crackle pop) YMMV.
I never said it was good, I said according to the PSU calc the wattage should be fine... Leave me alone, I'm new to this high-end stuff
I don't think the 'Asus Rampage Extreme Intel X48' has SLI support so why go with the GTX 280. You may as well get a ATI HD 4870 or a couple of 4850's and crossfire. The ATI cards use less power too.
ive always been under the impression, 1 BIG card is better than 2 lesser cards, for compatibility, and preformace (if you chose the 4850's) correct me if im wrong, but using a single GTX280 1 gig will be a better option than 2 4850's or a single 4870. and the cost of 2 4870's will out cost the GTX280 for a gain thats IMO, not worth the money? maybe if you DID want to splash cash.. go for the 4870X2
