How does this build look to you? Any suggestions?

LOL 800W is a bit much even for my Crossfire rig. Maybe with dual GTX280s? lol

 

Two GTX280s actually don't draw a great deal more than an HD4870X2. A TX 650W could handle them fine, I'd suggest a 750W to be on the safe side though.

 

Well seeing as I'm using a 620W rated PSU without trouble, I don't see why a 650W with 2 actual PCI-E connectors can't do the same.

 

Four actually. GTX280 is a 6+8 card like the X2 remember...

 

LOL I forgot. I'm using 2 with 2 adapters ;P

 

It'll be on a 22" screen

 

Indeed. An HD4870 is more than enough for 1680x1050, an HD4850 would suffice for most things at that resolution.

 

Yes and 2 512MB HD4870s on my 1920 res screen is still overkill for most stuff. But that also means higher eye candy settings

A single 4870 should be able to max most stuff at 1680 res. Even Crysis should be quite attainable. Heck, a 4850 could do Crysis at that res, though not near as well XD

 

1680x1050 requirements for smooth gameplay at absolute maximum settings (Except where stated) (minimum frame rate of 30, 20 for Crysis)

Fallout 3: HD4850, HD4870 4xAA, GTX285 8xAA
Far Cry 2: HD4850, HD4870 1GB 4xAA,
Crysis Very High: HD4870X2, GTX280 SLI 4xAA
Crysis DX10 High: GTX260-216 / HD4850X2, GTX280 / HD4870X2 4xAA
Crysis DX9 High: HD4870 1GB, GTX260-216/HD4850X2 4xAA
Call of Duty World at War: HD4850, HD4850 1GB/HD4870 4xAA
STALKER Clear Sky High: HD4870, HD4850X2 4xAA
STALKER Clear Sky Max: HD4870X2, HD4870X4 4xAA
Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway: HD4670 (AA not supported by game)
GRiD: HD4670, HD4830 4xAA
Grand Theft Auto IV: GTX280 Triple SLI (AA not supported by game) (hack required)

A clear trend appears here. In all the games that aren't stupid, an HD4850 is enough. For the ones that are though, even an HD4870 1GB is hopelessly inadequate. This is my personal experience as a lot of games coming out now are only running at 1680x1050 on my X2 - I would need something better to reach 1920x1200. It's also worth noting you will need a 4Ghz 45nm Quad core processor or 3.7Ghz i7 to pull off the GTA4 score, as most of the games are CPU rendered.

 

Jesus... this makes me wanna invest in a better card after I finish this build... With a Q9550, what do you think would be the highest speed attainable without a voltage increase?

 

Depends on the stepping. If it's C1 perhaps 3.4Ghz, if it's E0, maybe 3.6-3.7.

 

What are the chances of getting an E0 stepping from newegg? And those speeds are attainable with a tuniq tower sitting on top of it right?

 

I'm not sure about the chances. Mostly it's all luck.

A Tuniq Tower should work well. Mine got me to 3.7 stable with a Q6600.

 

To hit 4Ghz on a C1 Q9550 you will have raise the northbridge voltage, Gunning Transceiver Logic(GTL) voltages, and your CPU Voltage needs to be around 1.36 or so to achieve 4Ghz.. You have better have some good cooling as well, the Tuniq would be fine.. Gunning Transceiver Logic or GTL is important to achieve stability with quads at higher FSB's. When you have a higher fsb you create additional current and electrical noise through the mobo, the GTL filters out the noise that causes instabilitys with higher overclocks.. CPU Termination or VTT is also important, the max VTT for 45nm chips is 1.45. Too much Vtt will nuke a quad quickly, i read an article where anandtech used too high of a Vtt on a Q9650 which ultimately destroyed the chip within a month..

 

The E0 is where it's at, you really won't need that much voltage to hit 3.83.. Now with a C1, you can prepare for a battle!!! Still though, who would have thought a few years back that you could achieve a 35 percent overclock on air with no major voltage tweaks.. My how far we've come, there's nothing like free performance!!

 

I saw a guy on Overclock.net hit 4.33GHz with a C1 using 513*8.5.. That's a FSB of 2052, jesus christ! He also had proof of his stability with Prime95 and OCCT, i'm not sure if he was on water or air?? He had to be on water, who knows??

 

The FSB isn't what's amazing about that, it's how fast he got a quad. There have been plenty of 550+mhz FSB testes using Phase or Nitrogen cooling on dual cores. Additionally, you're amazed about 35% gains on air with no voltage increases? This is good for a quad, but the lower end Core 2 Duos were making 75% overclocks with no voltage increases on air, especially the E2140.

 

That's right the E2140, i remember seeing some 100 percent overclocks with that thing.. Hey sam my other system had an Opty 180 on an A8N SLI Deluxe which i couldn't overclock to 2500mhz, so you must excuse me if i get excited about any type of overclock!!lol Can you feel my pain!lol

 

You should have been able to, the 180 was a 2.4Ghz chip wasn't it? I had the basic A8N-SLI SE and an X2 4200+ (2.2) and I managed to get that to 2.4. Considering all I changed was the multiplier I didn't do too bad, not for a board of such poor quality it failed after 5 months. My E4300 (1.8Ghz) ran at 3.15Ghz for a solid year, and 3Ghz for 6 months before that. It now runs at stock in my fileserver as I don't need it OC'ed for that job.

 

It sure was a crappy board, you remember how bad the chipset fan was!!lol It failed on me in about a month and Asus sent me a replacement chipset fan and i replaced it, i should have got rid of the board then.. Crazy thing is i'm still using the board on my other build, it hasn't crapped out on me yet!!lol