[Advice appreciated] New ~3.000$ PC rig (3D|Gaming)

[Cliff Burton]

Hi my fellow OCers.

Next september, I am about buying a new PC rig focused on 3D performance and gaming, in this order. The maximum budget is about 3.000$ (monitor not included).

Case: SilverStone Temjin TJ10B-W
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-1000HX
MB: ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD4870X2 1GB GDDR5
RAM: 2x2GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1800 8-8-8-24 (TW3X4G1800C8DF)
HDD: WD VelociRaptor 300GB (WD3000GLFS)
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB (ST31000340AS)
CPU Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme
Scythe SFlex 1600rpm 120x120x25 (SFF21)

The OC would be quite slight as I am looking for high stability; Q9450@450x8=3600MHz@1.275-1.30v 2:1 DDR3@1800 8-8-8-24@1.9v

The PSU is a bit overpowered as I will surely change the HD4870X2 in a year or a year and a half without having to renew the PSU.

The VelociRaptor is meant to be the OS HDD and both ST will handle with backups and document storage. I rejected the idea of doing a RAID 0 with 2 VelociRaptor HDD as it would be quite expensive in view of the performance gained (especially as I am not editing video/images with this PC).

I have chosen the P45 chipset as I am not thinking on doing CF, even in a far future (PCIe 2.0 16x and 8x/8x).

I rejected Quadro/FireGL rigs as it supposed a huge sacrifice in gaming performance (and as it exceeded ~3000 budget by far :D).

And now my main doubts:

1) Even if I am not planning on doing a CF, would a top X48 chipset MB beat in rendering and gaming performance a top P45 one?

2) Why does the Corsair Dominator DDR3 modules double the cost of almost all of the rest modules? They are supposed to use D9GTR, like the rest of top DDR3 modules, right?

3) Which Q9450 batch should I go for? Which are the ones with the lowest VIDs?

Many thanks for helping me. Any advice will be very appreciated. I promise I will upload pictures when I got my setup running :)

PD: Sorry for my english.

[S1mon-]

I would personnaly wait for Nehalem before spending 3K on a new rig :)

[Mk]

I would personnaly wait for Nehalem before spending 3K on a new rig :)

agreed wait tell September

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

3000 will only get u a mediocre nehalem rig in September if its even worth it at all (early adopter = you get screwed) I say wait for e0 stepping processors and get a Q9650. :up:

[r4st4m4n]

If your buget is 3000$, I think you should get a x48. Maybe you don't plan on Crossfire now, but you maybe will later.
And it's not like if you were on a tight budget anyway ;)

[Cliff Burton]

Many thanks guys.

I need to go for the Penryn platform as I start working at the middle of September. Anyway, if I feel like migrating to Nehalem, the only components I have to change are CPU and MB, right?

I have taken a look at some reviews (3D performance), and I have decided I will change the P5Q3 Deluxe with the P5E3 Premium.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

Many thanks guys.

I need to go for the Penryn platform as I start working at the middle of September. Anyway, if I feel like migrating to Nehalem, the only components I have to change are CPU and MB, right?

I have taken a look at some reviews (3D performance), and I have decided I will change the P5Q3 Deluxe with the P5E3 Premium.

sounds good man :up: if your budget can afford it, the new q9650 is out for $570 and its xeon counterpart for the same price

http://www.lagoom.com/INTEL_CPU_CORE_2_QUAD_Q9650_3.00GHZ/BX80569Q9650/partinfo-id-583418.html

[B.E.E.F.]

Thermalight HR-01 instead. Better cooling.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article842-page1.html

Or you can always go liquid.

[perkam]

Take a lesson or two from this guy: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=197197

And steer clear of behemoth $3000 systems.

Perkam

[grimREEFER]

you can get a dfi x38 board with 4 gigs of ddr2 to save some money if you want.
and get the thermalright hr-01 with whatever lga775 board you get.
and make sure to use vista 64 on this thing.