My First Gaming Computer Rig

Hey guys,

I am trying to put together a gaming computer rig. I am hoping to
learn more about computers as I research which parts need to go with
which others. Mind you, I am very new to computer building, so some of
the choices I made may be completely stupid; enlighten me if you see
any.

My father, who has built many computers, is going to help me actually
put it together, but I need to make sure I am picking out the right
pieces. Any criticism on the pieces I've chosen, whether it be on
specific hardware or the combinations of the hardware, all criticism
is welcome.

CASE: Aspire X-SuperALIEN ATXA6SW/500 PS Aluminum Gaming Case
MB: Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n Core 2 Extreme/ INTEL P45/
DDR3-2000/ CrossFireX/ Wi-Fi/ A&2GbE/ ATX Motherboard
CPU: Intel Q9550 P4 CORE 2 QUAD LGA775 2.83G
MEMORY: Crucial 4GB ,2GBX2, DDR3-1333 PC2-10600 Memory
HDD: Seagate ST3500620AS 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 16MB Hard Drive
CD-ROM: SONY Optiarc CRX890S-10 24X/24X/24X/8X SATA Slim CD-RW/DVD
VGA: ASUS nVidia GeForce GTX260 896MB 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express

I'll be throwing in a Zalman fan or maybe the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7
Pro. I am also planning on getting a 750W PSU. Do you think that will
be good? I am also considering learning how to properly OC on this
rig. I am also still up in the air over what soundcard to get.

I want the rig to be able to run Crysis on at least medium settings,
as well as Starcraft 2, when it comes out. I am planning on using
Vista Ultimate 32-bit as well, since I found it for a VERY low price
at my college bookstore.

Any help would be greatly appreciate.


Andrew

 

These are all high end components.
Overclocking is utterly over-rated when using high end components like you
have listed. The minimal increase in speed, generally appreciable only in
benchmark tests and not perceivable in actual use, is not worth the risk of
destroying expensive computer parts.
Caveat empty-headed.
Unless you are using a very large LCD panel, with its attendant high
resolution, if your system is working properly you should achieve in Crysis
more fps then you will be able to appreciate. Cranking up the special
effects in Crysis beyond what your hi-end dual card SLI system would
otherwise support does not in any perceptible way change your experience of
the game, unless it lowers the fps noticeably. The eye-candy in Crysis, as
opposed to the FPS, is not dramatically different at uber settings.
Crysis is just another repetitive shoot-em-up anyway. Turn on God mode and
kill all the bad guys just to get to the end and get it over with.
I would avoid liquid cooling unless you are absolutely sure about what you
are doing. It is more important to get a good CPU cooler (there are many out
there) and make sure that you arrange the cabling in your case to maximize
air flow. Those video cards will get red hot with intensive 3-d gaming.
Speaking of which: make sure your power supply, 750 watts should be enough,
has enough connections to power both video cards. You may need adapters.
Spend extra on a high quality, name brand power supply. Anything else is
likely to fail early.
Finally, you should always have two hard drives, even if you do not plan to
use RAID. Moving the swap file to a second hard drive speeds up Windows.
In the world of Steve Jobs you could not build your own, would have to pay
Apple super premium prices for mid-range Intel hardware, and you could not
play high end games. All so you can run the same productivity programs
(Microsoft Office, Photoshop-32 bit only) and click on different looking
icons. I get it not.

 

Thanks so much for your input. I am planning on using a 22" 1680 x
1050 LCD as my monitor, and have been getting some feedback about
perhaps going to 2x 4870s or just going with the 280. The main reason
I wanted to make sure it would be able to run Crysis was more as a
personal benchmark, so I'd know the rig's power. I am planning on
keeping this rig, and just upgrading along the way, so it'll be able
to play the newest games very well.

Also, I was planning on getting a 2nd HDD as soon as all the parts
were up and working, and not using RAID.

Again, thanks so much for your help. I'll definitely put it to use!


Andrew

 

Sounds like you on the right track, checked out the forums @ Toms
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/