Building a Super Computer (Based on Longevity) Need help!

[BaronVonRotterdam]

Okay well a lot of you saw that I was building a super computer for my cousin and everything went great and he couldn't be happier. Now I am looking to build one for me and my dad. These are the parts we will need in the future and the total cost. We will not be buying this all at once. As time goes on we will increase the video card, ram, and OS. These are the parts I have picked out. Please tell me what you think based on these questions:

1.) Will my power supply be powerful enough? (+3.3V@30A,+5V@30A,+12V1@22A,+12V2@22A,
+12V3@36A,+12V4@36A,-12V@0.5A,+5VSB@3.0A)

Heres what EVGA says the video cards need:

9800 GTX+

Requirements
Minimum of a 450 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt

current rating of 24 Amp Amps.)
Minimum 550 Watt for SLI mode system.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt

current rating of 30 Amp Amps.)

2.) Will I be able to run SLI with just standard fan cooling in my case?

Any comments and suggestions would be much appreciated! I just want to make sure that everything will be able to run fine. Oh and the grand total came out to be $1,410.15

[kanabanoid]

nice build , Paint, i can see nothing wrong. only thing i would sugest is i would atleast go with a 780i or 790i motherboard. that powersupply is just fine for 2 cards. and many fans lights ,exct. the motherboard is te backbone of the system and if you want it to take you into the future. i would go for atleast a 780i, 790i's get a bit pricey. but are that much better. i picked the MSI P7N Diamond for the reason i wanted it to last me for a while. i found that it has more connection hedders than most any of them. it is realy packed with features. but it was also pricy. i checked newegg and they do have an open box one but it is still 2 x the price of the one you are looking at. but like i said i got it for all the connections and the O.C. capeabiltys. all of that is only just my sugestion. the system you picked out this time is "MUCH" !!! better than the last one, but please atleast look at the 780i's or 790i's and even the 680i's all are better then the 750 chipset. hope i have been of some help and good luck : )

[BaronVonRotterdam]

Thanks for the comment and tips kanabanoid I looked into the 780i and 790i and the only difference I see is that the 780i does 3 way sli and the 790i does 4 way. Thats way TOO much power . I looked at the 750i on Nvidia's website and found this 750i for $110:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CVRqCjCVRq

I thought I had struck gold until I saw that the 2 PCIE x16 2.0 slots were actually in x8 mode. Unless for some reason that has no effect on the performance of the system and is the same as 2 PCIE x16 2.0 slots then I really did strike gold.

I might consider this one if the x8 2.0 slots don't deliver the same performance as x16 2.0 slots:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... VqHCjCdwwp

At least with this one I can definitely see that it says "2 PCIE 2.0 x16" slots. The only thing I don't like about it is the price and it doesn't look well ventilated or clean as the above one.

Also, what about this system made it sooooo much better than the other one?

And I like how my PC is kinda like a "Variety-Bucket" . Look at all these companies that will make up this PC:

Raidmax
Western Digital
Seagate
Acer
Evga
BFG
PNY
ASUS
Intel
Microsoft
Acer

[kanabanoid]

it is a mater of the amount of lanes that your pci-e can use. maybe this chart will help some, and you did say future. if you want to be able to keep up in the next 3-5 years you will eventualy need to go tri sli. once games start takeing advantage of sli. just as software is not up to snuff wit more than 2 cores yet.


http://hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA_ ... _9800_GX2/

P.S. i would not miss match hard drives. do to the fact you might want to setup a raid. if you set up striping with a 1tb drive and a 250gb drive you will only have 250gb of space. 320gb's are not badly priced. no matter what the size of the HD's you should atleast match them

[BaronVonRotterdam]

I purchased the 1TB for data and game storage and the 250 GB for running the operating system. I am not sure but at the moment I don't think I want or need raid. If I decide not to use raid will it be okay to use two different brands of hard drives?

Also I have decided to go with the 750i FTW Sli. I don't trust an open box with a longevity PC.

[kanabanoid]

yes you can but when you raid 2 diffrent ones you can only use the amount of space on what ever one is smaller,I.E. a raid with 2 x 250gb = 250gb hd space a raid with 1tb and one 250gb = 250gb or a raid with 2 x 1tb = 1tb and so on, however you configure it

[ZombieSlayer]

As noid pointed out in the other thread, don't bother installing all 4GBs of RAM (just keep the 2nd stick in the packaging in a drawer) until you get vista. XP only recognizes 3GBs and usually not even that.

I don't have vista myself, don't see the need to upgrade and I don't want every god damn program connecting to MS to tell them what I have.

[Archangel]

As noid pointed out in the other thread, don't bother installing all 4GBs of RAM (just keep the 2nd stick in the packaging in a drawer) until you get vista. XP only recognizes 3GBs and usually not even that.

I don't have vista myself, don't see the need to upgrade and I don't want every god damn program connecting to MS to tell them what I have.

Most of the newer versions of XP (non OEM) will recognize up to 4gb ........it was the initial versions that would only see 3 or less. That's with PAE enabled in order to see and use 4gb of memory. Actually, the PAE can be hacked to read and use even higher........but, doing so could cause memory buffer issues. It's kinda like an overclock, if you change it, make sure and do some stability tests to ensure stability or like a bad overclock of the CPU, it could cause data corruption.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/pl ... AEdrv.mspx

You can go into your Admin Services and disable services that notify MS of Authentications.

In regards to running 3gb instead of 4gb........most motherboards on the market will NOT run in dual-channel mode if you use 3 slots instead of 2 or 4 slots (actually, I don't think there is one on the market that will run with the dual slots filled and a single slot filled at the same time. If you find one, let me know). If you stick let's say (3) 1gb sticks in a 4 slot board, dual channel will NOT run and you'll take a big performance hit. Your better off running (2) sticks of 1gb in the dual channel slots until you get another match set to fill the remaining slots.......Remember, always use matching memory........don't mix brands or memory types.......Here again if you run non matching memory, you'll take a big performance hit. Also, make sure and research what memory is compatible with the motherboard your using as some memory don't work well or not at all in certain mobos. Here again......do your research prior to making the purchase. This includes if your upgrading OEM systems as well.

[ZombieSlayer]

Arch he has 2 2GB sticks listed. So the dual channel with 3 sticks of memory doesn't apply

I did not know about PAE (I only have 2.5Gs of RAM anyways :D ) so thanks for the info

As for turning off the services, I am sure you can't turn off all of them, because MS won't disclose all of them.

[Archangel]

Arch he has 2 2GB sticks listed. So the dual channel with 3 sticks of memory doesn't apply

I did not know about PAE (I only have 2.5Gs of RAM anyways :D ) so thanks for the info

As for turning off the services, I am sure you can't turn off all of them, because MS won't disclose all of them.

Here yah go........

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

As noid pointed out in the other thread, don't bother installing all 4GBs of RAM (just keep the 2nd stick in the packaging in a drawer) until you get vista. XP only recognizes 3GBs and usually not even that.

I don't have vista myself, don't see the need to upgrade and I don't want every god damn program connecting to MS to tell them what I have.

Maybe I miss read that about the memory.......