critique my gaming build!

[wushudrew]

im planning on buying a new machine on monday in time for christmas, and id like to run it by rfd before i make the purchase. any suggestions, insults, and compliments will be taken! ..just provide a reason and an alternative please!

CPU: Q6600 G0
HSF: zalman CNPS 9700 LED (if anywhere has a cheap thermalright ultra 120 extreme in toronto, please tell!)
MOBO: asus maximus formula
RAM: crucial ballistix tracer pc2-8500 2GB
HDD: 2x 150gb WD raptor, RAID 0
GPU: 8800GT (any good companies to look for?)
CASE: antec p182
PSU: pc p&c silencer 750W quad
DVDRW: pioneer dvdr-212

thanks in advance!

[tdotcbc84]

infonec is selling a TRUE for only $55 ! check it out !!!


any reason you want the Asus Maximus ??

stick with the Crucial PC2-6400, no need for PC2-8500, since crucial put the same ram in both! (Trust me on this one! I did my research!)
Only difference, is that they tested the ram to operate @ 1066mhz! But I can get my DDR2-800 all the way to 1100mhz on stock voltage!

Try the new Seagate 7200.11 heard they were faster than raptors in some tests! Cheaper and more storage!

If you are only running 1 x 8800GT, save some money and get a Corsair PSU, but you can't go wrong with the PCPC PSU!


everything else looks top notch for your $$$ :D

[goofball]

Drives don't matter that much, only for loading but in-game play they should not make a big difference between a raptor or a 7200rpm drive too much. You should invest in video card.

[wushudrew]

i picked the maximus for the x38 platform in the hopes that future BIOS updates would send the overclocking through the roof and for its feature set. the BIOS itself is very tweakable, and i enjoy that alot. the p5e and p5k were also considerations of mine, but i went with the maximus after reading through reviews.

as for the pc2-6400, would you think that the pc2-8500 would hit higher speeds?

i would imagine that raptors in RAID 0 would be significantly faster than much else. however, RAID 0 7200 rpm drives are up there with single raptors in terms of performance at a much lower price point. im still debating over WD SE16 AAKS and raptors.

[silentio]

Yes, they're both D9 chips. However, within the same D9xxx chips, there are dif grades of speed. Hence, they are NOT the same.

The ddr800 will hit ddr1000 speeds, almost 100% of the time. At least with 2 gigs of ram, no guarantee with 4.