Neatton's SoH gaming rig

[Neatton]

This rig is my final product. It is complete! I am now working on building my wifes rig and will post on that at a later date. The rig as I finished it is as follows. I will get some pics up ASAP but my camera sucks so trying to get some good shots
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Motherboard
Originally wanted the A8N32 version but with chances of upgrading before even going to SLI being good I decided to just go with this model.

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium

Video Card
I got a really good deal on a forum for this and so I jumped on it and have been very impressed. I honestly dont know why youd need more power right now. I also have an aftermarket NVSilencer rev 3 on it

Evga 7800 GTX KO Edition

Processor
I got another really good deal on a forum for this so decided to go with it. It is basically the equivalent to a X2 4400+ however it OC's like a madman.

Opteron 175

Ram
I went with this ram as its got descent timings for the size of stick and it performs well with OCing.

OCZ PC 3200 Ram

I am going to hit up the smaller parts of the computer in one hit. The DVD rom drive is a crap shoot. Either you get one that lasts for years and years or is nothing but trouble. Brand in my experiance doesnt matter to much so you might as well go for the Lite On there cheap and get the job done. I got a Blue Orb 2 heatsink and fan as I had read good reviews on it performing similar to the large flower type Zalman's plus its blue!

Lite-On DVD rom

Blue Orb 2

Windows XP x64 edition. I have had to find 64 bit editions for a few products but havent had any real issues yet.


For the case there is little choice for me. I am a Lian Li fan boi...dont even mess with anything else its all junk! I was so confident on this I already purchased it months before anything else. Let me tell you this thing is freekin SWEET. Slide out tray for the motherboard - You will never get another case that does not have this feature once you play with it. This case is not there top of the line but it is not there bottom either. The only few things I added to this was the bezel to cover the Lite On DVD rom so it just looks flat like the rest of the case front. I am also getting an addon fan for the case which goes on the inside in front of the expansion card slots and Vid cards. Should give me a few degrees.

Lian Li case

I give special attention to the power supply since it is where so many go wrong. Who buys a Ferrari and puts an old pinto battery in it and hope they get the juice they need. Drives me nuts. At the same time you do not want to go overboard since it is easy to do with this part just for the Epeen goodness. The power supply I selected isnt the best in the world but it is not slouch. I also got 550W instead of larger since honestly I just didnt need more. This should run when I go SLI and the whole 9 yards.

Antec Power Supply 550W

Just a UPC for backup

APC UPS 450W

[Pirotess]

Good choices. The machine Im building right now is using the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo as well. Im planning on going with an EVGA or XFX 7800 but havent settled on a specific model yet. For my motherboard I've settled on the DFI Lanparty UT SLI-DR Expert as its proven to be one of the best OC boards out there.

[Neatton]

I have looked into the DFI and I do like that they are built for the OCr. I just have never gotten into the scene enough that the extra little bit you can get out of a DFI is going to make a bit of difference for me. I like to use quietr fans and internals so I usually dont have the extreme cooling I need to OC to the point where it would be useful for me. Asus has some well tested by me options to moderatly OC and that is quite enough for me. I feel why shorten the life of my hardware to squeek out a few more pts when I can just put out a few more bucks and get something as fast as I wanted :P This however is before I have tried liquid cooling so sometime down the road this may change I will continue to update my list shortly!

[Pirotess]

Yep Im planning on jumping into liquid or phase change cooling myself. Will allow me to OC without shortening the life of my hardware quite as much. Really if hardware lasts me 2 years Im happy since by that time hardware has been revamped at least two if not more times already and Im unhappy being so far behind and end up upgrading.

[Neatton]

You know that is a very good point you have there. I dont think ive kept a piece of hardware beside my HDD for more then that period of time. Might be something to consider. I just hate the thought of something frying in months instead of years. I guess if your doing it right though then it shouldnt happen. Just never wanted to go there myself. I thinik my next gen computer will be liquid cooled though. I have been researching a bit for when that time comes.

[Epidemic]

Does the DFI Lanparty UT SLI-DR Expert have True SLI?

[Neatton]

Most of the ones that are out cirrently with 16 lanes per card have 32 in the name so you know. I would doubt that one does but one way to find out would be to hit Newegg

[Neatton]

i believe that list is complete now. If I missed anything let me know Any questions PM me or post here. Hope this helps a few ppl looking to build new rigs.

[Pirotess]

Originally Posted by Epidemic

Does the DFI Lanparty UT SLI-DR Expert have True SLI?

It has true SLI as far as being able to have two graphics cards running in tandem which is all SLI is. A nice feature it also has is that it can switch into SLI mode via software instead of having to crack open the case and use a hardware jumper like many boards out there.

However if you're talking about whether it splits a PCI-X16 port into two x8s or actually has two full x16 slots to work with then no it doesnt have that like the Asus board does. Then again most manufacturers arent going that route due to the chipset that supports that feature is more expensive and video cards arent even using a full x8 much less a full x16 right now. I've seen performance benchmarks between the two and there was only a few percentage point difference in performance.

Heres a link with details about what Im talking about from my favorite tech site.

Anandtech Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe

Back to your list. I'm also going with the OCZ memory but want to point out Im going with the Platinum Rev 2 version which offers 2-2-2-5 timings at 200mHZ. Every review I have ever read of that memory has been hugely positive. I also went with the OCZ PowerStream 520w powersupply but the Antec stuff is great as well. Seems OCZ is just a little more popular with the DFI crowd Im going to be joining.

[Neatton]

Well I decided that my current rig just isnt cutting the mustard anymore. I was going to wait till last minute but just decided to go ahead with it to give myself more time to get Itsasecret's rig done. I guess hers will have to be the one I am showing off. So chances are the setup I have above is what will be permanent. Since the 512 meg 7800 GTX is still not readily available or if it is in stock rediculously expensive I have decided to gowith the 256. I am thinking by the time the game is released I will have an SLI setup which should be plenty.

I was also thinking of waiting for the M2 socket that AMD is coming out with next year but it is going to be cutting it really close I have a feeling for game release and this board. I am hoping it is not so huge that I will be kicking myself but eh its just a motherboard in any case. I can seel my new proc and board next year if need be. I went ahead and ordered my DVD drive and RAM. I should be getting the board just after Christmas followed by the processor in a few more weeks and sometime in Jan finish it off. I will post pics when the time comes!