New high end system - Thoughts?

[cray86]

Yes, I'm new. Yes, you can mock me. Lots of love, I've been a fan of the site for way too long now :-)

I'm upgrading from a P4 Dell system. This is my first build, although I've worked now for a PC repair shop for about 6 months. Here's the shorthand of my specs (detailed ones in profile)

Dual Core Celeron for fill in currently... will have fun OCing this guy. Waiting for a 45nm Quad Core that is worth it (maybe a 9x multiplier down the road??)
Zerotherm Nirvana 120mm
Abit Quad X38 Board
8GB HPC Reaper from OCZ DDR2-800
Cooler Master RC-690
OCZ Modular 780W
Diamond 3870 X2
Seagate 7200.11 750GB x2 in RAID 0 (onboard RAID)
VisionTek TV Wonder 650 PCIe x1
Vista 64 / XP 32 dual boot (about 100GB for XP of the 1400)
Logitech 2.1 Speakers, 200W output!

I'm looking for a new powerhouse that will handle high-end gaming and HDV video editing. Obviously, I'm waiting for the nicer quad cores so I can overclock and chew up frames in Sony Vegas for video editing. In the meantime, an overclocked $60 dual core should be fun to experiment with and will still handle my casual gaming in the mean time. I've got all the parts en route and am excited to start the build. If anyone sees anything grossly in error, lemme know now ;-)

I look forward to posting with everyone!

[Jimmy 2004]

You sure about the Celeron? I'm guessing it will bottleneck a 3870 X2 quite a bit, and if you're planning to have it for a few months it could get a bit annoying... seems like if you aren't wanting to buy a better CPU perhaps you should just wait and get the system later and save some money?

Welcome to the forums by the way. :)

[cray86]

That was definately my hardest question to answer (you can see my decision) im probably just going to go for the Q9450 when its released. I'm really hoping Intel gets some stock of the supply out to people. I work for a PC repair shop and our distributor has March 21st as the ETA for when they will recieve and be able to ship a Q9450. I'm really curious how soon a 45nm Quad with a x9 multiplier will be out...

Ive got a Pentium 4 system right now and, frankly, a dual core celeron overclocked will still seem new to me ;)

[JrRacinFan]

Small note with the personal experience I am having with my e1200. Anything past the 2.6Ghz mark they do not become a bottleneck as much as you think they would be as long as you can game at 1440x900 or higher.

EDIT: In other words, 8x333 or higher.

[nguyenpeter76]

looks to be a butt kicking rig. will you be crossfiring the hd3870x2?? if not you should go with p35 or the p45 whenever it comes out. no reason to waste money if you dont take advantage of it especially when nehalem is going to be out next year or so.

[cray86]

I'd never thought about the chipset downgrade, because I had originally planned on crossfire down the road but then I figured it would be more reasonable to just wait about 2 years and do an upgrade to a nehalem (32nm??) system and get a nextgen card as well.

It wouldn't be too crazy to add a single slot 3870 down the road, but that would require a new Power Supply. I do have an electric bill to watch, so if im sucking down 650W at the wall its like having another refridgerator :)

I have seen some really impressive numbers in respect to e1200 overclocking. They can give core2' duos a run for their money outside of cache intensive games.

[FlipIt]

Processor: Core 2 Duo E6850 (3.0 GHz)
Platform: Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38 Chipset)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600
Processor Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700LED
Hard Drive: Western Digital WD5000AAKS (500 GB)
PSU: Coolermaster RS850-EMBA
GPU: 3870 x2

[erocker]

With HDV editing you are going to need a lot more storage. Just get a Q6600, it's plenty of power and the quad will help you with what you are doing.