Help me plan my gaming PC

Right I've started a new job and will soon be able to get a new pc. I had a few things I wanted to ask.

This is the spec as it stands

Quadcore 2.4 q6660
2x 8800gts
Striker Asustek S775 nForce 680i
4gb Ram
xfi extreme gamer
Watercooled
Vista ultimate

etc.

A few of things i was really after

1. How much space does sli take up? will I have room for the soundcard?
2. I don't really know what RAM to get for a gaming machine there are too many codes for me to understand
3. Would 1x8800 ultra be better than 2x 8800gts?
4. what would the best HDD set up be for gaming? I was think having 3 drives one for OS and general apps, 1 for games and 1 as a file dump.
5. Are there better components out there for similar money?
Any other general comments/advise would be appriated.

 

Was just looking at this,

http://www.dabs.com/productview.asp...&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

any good?

 

Dang, how much are you planning on spending here? lol

ok here's my input:

for video cards, id go with a single 8800GTX and then add another later when you need it.

RAM: 4 gigs will be good for quite a while. You want to get the fastest stuff your mobo can take. i can check later if you dont know

watercooling: its awesome! ive just got a thermaltake kit, its not the best but it does the job great. youd be better off with building your own kit but the zalman is good. The koolance exos is great as well. check out some reviews for kits on maxPC: http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/Water+Cooling

depending on the motherboard setup you may or may not have room for a soundcard; 8800GTXs are HUGE. Make sure the case you choose has plenty of room

You're going to need a pretty extreme PSU here, probably close to 1000W if you run 8800GTX sli and all this other stuff. Check out an OCZ or PC Power and Cooling

For hard drives, the best would be 150gig raptors in RAID 0. They are pretty pricey though. 2 of them would probably be plenty, i get by fine on a 200gig hard drive

any questions, feel free to ask

 

What is Raid 0? is that the one were the 2 drives have the same thing on it? I was going for a 700/750/800 psu but might get a 1kw if. What do you reckon on that case? I was going for
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u292/Surreal4/Blackline.jpg

But the zalmon one sounds like a good deal if it includes the w/c componts.

As for cost I set aside £1400, but through work I can get stuff VAT free. (17.5% off)

My plan was to get thee 8800gts and oc them a load with w/c it should fine right?

Has anyone got first hand experiance with a Striker board?

 

raid 0 is data striping; both drives work together as a single drive so both can be written to and read from simultaneously which is quite a bit quicker than a single drive. However, if one drive fails, everything is lost

 

looks like an awesome build as for raid I tried it before and had a drive fail. Not a pretty picture. But if you are spending that much get 4 matched drives do a 0/1 mirrored/striped array 2 striped together and 2 more striped together mirroring the first striped array. that way if a drive goes down you plug in a new one and it rebuilds itself from the mirror.

 

:confused

I think I'll ask for advise with setting up the hdd's, I think I am gonna go for a gtx instead as it will be powerfull enough for a while then I can get another one when they are cheaper. Is there anything new coming out in the next couple of months that would be worth posponing the build?

Also does anyone rate that zalmon case? I case that looks that good and has built in water cooling seem to good to be trueat that price!

 

The way I see it - get one graphics card for starters, and see how it goes.

I'd go for a separate case and water cooling setup, that seems rather cheap for a case and water cooling setup so probably won't be of best setup.

Sorry can't help with the raid as I know nothing about it and don't use it!

Otherwise it looks great

EDIT - Forgot to add, don't buy your components from Dabs, there's cheaper retailers in the UK!

 

I won't be, I get it through work. They give an interest free loan on all PC stuff. Plus they get it VAT free, so basically I get all my pc components a fair bit cheaper delivered to my door and get to spread the cost over a year. I have used microdirect before are there any others you would suggest?

 

I swear by www.overclockers.co.uk and www.scan.co.uk

 

This will be put back a few months now, I got hit of my motorbike today too much going on to even think about this for a while. Hopefully I will be ready to go soon.

 

Ouch, am sorry to hear that man!

Hope you get a speedy recovery

 

I'm fine it's the bike that is knackered and she is my first love and more important than a PC (don't hate me rolleyes) I am getting a hire bike tomorrow and hopefully insurance will deal with it but if they lay any blame on me I will have to purspone as my insurance will go through the roof (I'm only 20 on 600cc bike) also I might need to fix the bike out of my own pocket.

I see it as a straight forward case I had right of way and he hit me. It happened on a roundabout (yanks might not know that you always give the person on your right, right of way) I was going straight across and he cam out of the first exit. But I do not trust insurance companies in the slightist so I'll wait and see.

 

Better change your derogatory term for our fellow American friends....

 

Appologies, I never meant it as derogitory.

Edit: I can't edit the other one now must have timed out. I did not and do not use that a a derogitory term.