Hardware Advice - Ask your questions here

[ket]

Your PSU should be fine, not much point in a Quad TBH, and XFX are quite possibly THE WORST nvidia board partner in existence, their warrenty process is absolutely horrible.

[Nightwatch]

Very good deal, I'd say go for it as long as you're sure about the integrity of the items; I mean they, particularly the Graphics Card are genuine. Then perfect deal.

Power Source is quite adequate. 620 Watts with 3x 12V rails, toatlling 50A on them. With your current purchase products, it'll be offereing power over the required levels.

(a note: I it hadn't been a part of the package, and if you were to be buying it separately as new, I'd recommend a 750 or 1000W PSU thinking about the long term future. But 620 with 3x12V 50A, for now and the near future, is above the requirements. )

edit: I'm saying these with the understanding that it's package deal. Otherwise, for the Graphics Card I'd definitely advice ASUS then, close behind it, EVGA.
Hope everything goes well.

[EggChen]

Thanks guys, yes they may not be the parts I would have chosen, but as a package the price seems good.

It also helps that my little brother has come up with the £400 he has owed me for about 8 months, so it almost feels like a free upgrade!!

I'll be checking the parts over thoroughly, and investigating the warranty situation.

NW - I think the power supply will be OK as well, I went for quality over quantity when it came to wattage, I have had two other allegedly more powerful PSU's burn out (one taking a motherboard with it). This upgrade would be it for the next two years at least, so if my needs increased beyond this PSU I would have to upgrade that with the next big upgrade.

ket - I hear you on the XFX warranty, are the cards generally reliable from what you know? If the CPU causes a bottleneck I can always OC it a bit. Luckily I already have a very good Zalman cooler, which is solid copper and so heavy it comes with a warning about motherboard warranties!! It keeps my 6600 dual core below 30 degrees.

[Nightwatch]

Yes, quality always pays off nicely over the quantity. PSU is a well known brand. It's an assurance that you can't throw away -as you say it from your experience- PSUs are quite critical parts, they can take many components with them.

I've used XFX Cards previously, two in fact, and my current one is also an XFX OC version (though I had to put it in in urgency, not because of choice, because the previous 8800GTX burned out, too much usage.)

they tend to get a bit hotter than, say ASUS and EVGA, and may (just may, and this is very relative) more prone to glitches and freeze(s). Though very rarely, just technical point of view.
When considering things in "value for money" I'd still say, it's good deal. As long as they are original. There are quite few of far east non-brand Graphics cards are being packaged as brand names, One needs to be more careful when it comes to Graphics Cards.

[ket]

Thanks guys, yes they may not be the parts I would have chosen, but as a package the price seems good.

It also helps that my little brother has come up with the £400 he has owed me for about 8 months, so it almost feels like a free upgrade!!

I'll be checking the parts over thoroughly, and investigating the warranty situation.

NW - I think the power supply will be OK as well, I went for quality over quantity when it came to wattage, I have had two other allegedly more powerful PSU's burn out (one taking a motherboard with it). This upgrade would be it for the next two years at least, so if my needs increased beyond this PSU I would have to upgrade that with the next big upgrade.

ket - I hear you on the XFX warranty, are the cards generally reliable from what you know? If the CPU causes a bottleneck I can always OC it a bit. Luckily I already have a very good Zalman cooler, which is solid copper and so heavy it comes with a warning about motherboard warranties!! It keeps my 6600 dual core below 30 degrees.

Generally I would only recommend a XFX is if the stock cooling is immediately replaced. Obviously the best option is to stay away from XFX entirely. Without question at some point there will be a fault with the card. XFX used to be very good, but haven't for some time. Their RMA process is a joke, their products are much more prone to failure due to poorer quality parts and inferior cooling to any other manufacturer, and should you actually manage to get a RMA, theres a very high likelyhood the card you get back will be of a different (not as good) model.

[EggChen]

Thanks again, I'll compare the GFX packaging to that on the review, I'll also ask when and where the parts were purchased.

Have looked at a few benchmarks (using a lesser CPU) and it seems like this lot will max anything, with perhaps the exception of Clear Sky, which I cannot be bothered with anyway.

I'll be giving NEWSA a go though!! Also lined up, Crysis, Bioshock (purchased before I knew the DRM situation) and Call of Duty 4.

I started playing Bioshock with almost everything on full, but will be nice to try it in DX10, CoD4 I had to lower a couple of settings. Just got to get Vista 64bit and 4Gb ram and I am all set.

[ket]

Check my last post, edited with more details

[EggChen]

Thanks, I had posted as you did...

I'll have to weigh up the pro's and con's. I doubt he would split the package up, as he seems keen to generate some money quickly. Of course, this info may help me knock the price down a bit

Thanks again, both of you.

[audioave10]

The PSU is the one I've had for awhile now and is currently running my
SLI machine just fine. "How many rails it has" is not so important on the Corsair since all of it's 50 amps can be sent to any or all rails (just like a
single-rail PSU).
My tech buddy used XFX cards in the past with no problems but what their like now I'm not sure.
It looks like a "go for it" deal to me. BUT, you need a big case with good airflow. You're Zalman will do nicely on the quad.

[ket]

Dual rail PSUs serve a important purpose. With traditional PSUs its one 12v rail all devices connect to, with dial rail units it makes it possible to connect "spiking" devices to one rail and "consistent" components on the other rails, which leads to much cleaner, more stable power distribution and better OCs

[EggChen]

OK I went for it, all packaging still sealed, and genuine products.

So next question, I'll be getting 2x2Gb ram and Vista 64bit to take advantage of DX10 and 64 bit gaming in full...

So, is any version of Vista better for gaming or not? If not I'll be going for a lower version, as I don't need/want the extra features, and of course cost is a factor.

Edit: I understand I may have to instal Vista with 1x2Gb installed, update it, then add the second stick.

[Nightwatch]

I'm so sure about the Vist 64 tbh, not everybody agrees that it offers best for gaming over the 32 bit version, plus always driver problem will show themselves for all other programs. It's getting better I guess, but not sure that you can find all the necessary drivers for your PC on 64 platform yet. I'd sugegst checking extensively on the internet what the current situation is for your own set up, I mean in respect of drivers.

I had 2 Gb when installed ista (32) bit then added another two sticks, it was not a planned procedure for me, just the way it happened, but worked alright, no problems with RAMs.

Well, before forgetting: congratulations, and I hope they serve you well

[audioave10]

COOL...Good Luck!

Ket...with a powerful PSU it may not matter so much. There were alot of
guys having problems with dual-rails when they put out 18A per rail but
the new larger video cards wanted 24A on it's own rail and the PSU could
not defer extra amps to one or the other rails. Some cheaper PSU's still
do that. As you know, you must go high quality on PSU's nowadays so
the extra amps can go wherever they are needed. Your Crossfire and my
SLI rely on it.

[EggChen]

COOL...Good Luck!

Thanks, no matter how many times I build/rebuild a PC I always cross my fingers when I press that power switch for the first time.

[Nightwatch]

COOL...Good Luck!

Thanks, no matter how many times I build/rebuild a PC I always cross my fingers when I press that power switch for the first time.

Yes, don't we all? Good luck from me too. (keep your fire extinguisher ready, LOL I always do that, fortunately it has not been (yet) required )

[ket]

COOL...Good Luck!

Ket...with a powerful PSU it may not matter so much. There were alot of
guys having problems with dual-rails when they put out 18A per rail but
the new larger video cards wanted 24A on it's own rail and the PSU could
not defer extra amps to one or the other rails. Some cheaper PSU's still
do that. As you know, you must go high quality on PSU's nowadays so
the extra amps can go wherever they are needed. Your Crossfire and my
SLI rely on it.

Isolation of spiking devices is always important. Lets assume a single rail unit has 30A on its 12v rail, everything is connected to it, graphics, fans, HDD etc. Those spiking devices disrupt the flow of clean power distribution and can lead to hardware anomalies such as crashing in games and unexpected restarts. In over 12 years I have never had any issues with graphics being starved of power, the only instances I have read about are people trying to run systems with underpowered units. You can even squeeze more out of a PSU by efficiantly connecting devices to it or opening the unit and tweaking things by adjusting the potentiometers

As for the OS question, personally I stick with XP Pro 32bit. Its faster for gaming than Vista, plus XP has much better compatibility and differences between 32 and 64 bit are not that great right now, things still need to mature. Vista is the new Windows ME, its a horrible horrible OS and even MS have as good as said Vista blows. Fortunately W7 shouldn't be too far off, its a very matured OS based on what people want, not what MS try and tell people what they want like they did with Vista. When government agencies, big businesses and learning institutions all say they will not upgrade to Vista, you KNOW there is very good reasons for it.