Time for a new rig...need suggestions...

[oneway]

Need some help...haven't kept up to date with hardware changes these last 3 years...I built my present rig February 2007...

Right now I am running an Asus Stryker Extreme with 2GB of 184 DDR @ 800 and Quad Core LGA775 2GHz proc which is driving a 786 8800GTX on PCI-ex 16...

For this build I want to swap out the board, the proc, the memory, the sound and the vid card...

The case, cooling system and PSU are all in fine shape and will be re-used...(the PSU is a 1KW Enermax...it should be fine)

I will not be overclocking...but still want the OC friendly bios...

The plextor optical drives are fine...I don't burn discs and only load software...

The hard drives are fine...a pair WD 10k raptor 75GB...a pair of WD 10k raptor 150GB, and a pair of 7200 500gb Seagates

I will probably switch to Win 7...but have been running XP-Pro...

In the past I have always used NVidia for graphics and Sound Blaster for sound...but am willing to try/look at other things..

Finally, I am going to stick with Intel...not interested in AMD...

I would like to keep the budget to 1000-1500 for the hardware...

So....can you guys point me towards some of the latest greatest...

Motherboard and proc first...

Any help appreciated...

Oneway

[Spikes]

Hey oneway,

From what I can see you would be good with a system like this:
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P - mobo
Core 2 Quad Q9550 - cpu
Sapphire HD5770/5870 - vid
Kingston HyperX DDR2-800  -ram
OCZ Gladiator Max - CPU cooler (OC to 3.2-3.4, trust me)

That is my system and I love each of those part to death (pair of 5770s)

But I think if you have that high of a price range you might aswell go i7.

Thinking i7-930
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115225
Evga mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039
OCZ Gold DDR3 ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365

Same vid card.

[oneway]

I was just digging around on new egg and was looking at that I7 stuff...

Are you running liquid or air on the OC?

I ran water on this rig for awhile to the proc, the board chips, both of the 8800GTX....as well as the 2 raptor 75's that were set up as raid 0...it ended up being such a hassle...I finally yanked it all out...dropped in a bunch of 120 fans and never looked back...even yanked the second 8800 as I found very little benefit to running SLI and it was also a hassle as I running multiple monitors and didn't like that...

[Spikes]

I run a 3.8-4.0 air cooled OC. My temps for my proc stay around 40-42c idle. I just figured since you weren't looking at a major OC, I'd give a clock that boosted your performance fairly well with little to no stress on the comp.

I also have 3 120 fans and 2 140 fans in my case, the gladiator max is also a 120mm push through setup.

I don't run multiple monitors, and don't have an outstanding res (1440x900) 19" and 1024x768 on the projector, but I see a fairly decent boost in the performance once I OC'd both cards a bit.

[oneway]

So here is the parts list....I figured seeing as I don't use the logitech 5.1 speaker system I do have...I would scratch the sound card...and throw in some creative usb head phones...this list falls basically directly in the middle of the price range and I would assume should work well for the next few years...

I still have my SB2 card anyway and it works fine...

For the cooler I am gonna go with this: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8807/?campid=bmr#blank

I got a ton of 120 fans that can do a push me pull me on that sink....

[Spikes]

Should do you very well for years!

[oneway]

Check this out....


Here is a 3 year old pic of the last build before I added the blood red fluid to the cooling system...and a pic of the radiator before it was installed...

[mbailey]

Check this out....


Here is a 3 year old pic of the last build before I added the blood red fluid to the cooling system...and a pic of the radiator before it was installed...

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

Man im jealous of talented people lol  Looks great, One of these days i'll get the sand to build my own

Very nice sir

<S>

Mbailey

[oneway]

You got tons of talent Baily...

You would kill me 10 out of 10 times in the DA...

 

 

Oneway

[Spikes]

Very cool loop. Never seen ram WC'd before.

[oneway]

Very cool loop. Never seen ram WC'd before.

forgot about the ram WC..when i mentioned liquid earlier....that was that OCZ stuff that was bleeding edge when I got it...it came stock clocking 1000...all four sticks eventually crapped out...but OCZ made good and replaced them with less aggressive stuff at my request...OCZ is a good company to deal with...they loved the pictures....

By the way...I was just digging through all of the images of that build and there is some really cool images...you guys interested?

If your a hardware builder these pics are pretty cool...

I don't want keep bumping this thread but you guys might be into this...

Oneway

[Spikes]

I have used two OCZ PSU's and they work flawlessly, their rebates are speedy too.

I'm interested in the pics. I'll post some of mine up too even though they aren't that interesting.

[Reschke]

Dump the Sound Blaster headphones and get a real pair...something like the PC350's from Sennheiser will work MUCH better. The USB head phones just muck everything up.

[Kermit de frog]

More beautiful pics please. 

[oneway]

Dump the Sound Blaster headphones and get a real pair...something like the PC350's from Sennheiser will work MUCH better. The USB head phones just muck everything up.

Thank you!....

Will change it...I had some Senn's and they rocked before i ripped the wire out of them getting up to get a beer...but they were Semi-Aural...

Circumaural is the only way I like to fly...will pull up Senn now and check 'em out...