My friend came back from Iraq a few weeks ago and he wants a new computer, mostly to game on. So I'm building it for him. His budget is $1500.

I'm basing my build around the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 because I am a strong believer in the Quad-Core and with the new 45nm this chips really nice. Im pairing it with a good motherboard and high frequency RAM because its going to stress the FSB since its got a lower multiplier. Tell me what you guys think of the parts i picked out

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66Ghz Yorkfield Quad-Core
4Gb (2x2Gb) OCZ Reaper DDR2 1066Mhz DIMM
DFI Lanparty DK Intel X48 chipset
2x Crossfire MSI ATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb GPUs
500Gb (2x250Gb) Western Digital SATA SE16 in RAID 0
Corsair 750watt ATX Power Supply
Antec Performance One P180 ATX Mid Tower
Lite-On DVD/CD Burner/Reader
Xigmatek 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

Total: $1,498 ($1,532 w/ s+h)

and along with that are three free games from newegg

its a 10!

the case ..... well

ok its 9.2

for the price there are some much much nicer cases IMHO!!!


check out warranties other brands of 4850's have better warranties i think - that card runs hot too

make sure you use slot coolers that blow air on the cards i would use 2 bliz's

newegg is out of blitx vga coolers

couple of these are only $20 the move the air around and blow the heat up

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835119097

No, say no to the Q9450. Buy a Q6600 or Q6700 and overclock that b1tch until it screams! Also, drop that case it will not cool 2 4850s, not even close, and get the NZXT Tempest. Then use the extra money on 2 4870s! Honestly thats the best way to go easily.

the Q9450 is nice with the X48 is better.

q9450 works better with the new bios with nvidia 780i mobos - probably 750 too.

q6600 works great with intel chipsets

Would it be better if I went with the Q6700 instead of the Q9450 and then used the extra cash to say get a better case and also I was looking into getting a Western Digital Raptor. Maybe getting the Raptor 36Gb just to use for Windows and maybe a game or two he wants loaded fast. I know the 36Gb Raptor is older now, is it still fast compared to the regular SATAs?

i like the original configuration, but i do agree on another brand of cards. the case is kinda gay

yeah, I'm thinking about just keeping the Q9450, but what brand of 4850 do you guys recommend then? theyre all basically $200 so I'm stumped because I've always trusted MSI the most, but everyone seems to disagree. Also I changed the Case

This is now the case im going for: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129154
The Antec P180

i like that case. i have an Antec case and i am very happy with it. For Graphic Cards i usually go with Asus.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121253

I would go with the Q9450. It runs cooler, has more cache and sse4.1 instructions.

Yeah, I think the Q9450 is the best choice over the Q6600, Q6700, Q9300, and other chips

Xpyrofuryx, check out my thread that I have high temps using a Q9450. Somewhat informative, oh and I also am using the xigmatek cooler. Hope this helps. Tell your buddy, semper fi. Turns out I am not the only one that has theses high temps on the 45nm quads. Oh and the second link is the best way to apply thermal grease to the hdt coolers. Good luck.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] high-temps

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] mitstart=5

I am currently working on a similar build using the Q9450. All the reviews on the Egg seem real good. They dont talk much about over heating problems. I will look into that before I make my final decision. This is what I have so far.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
GIGABYTE-GA-DS4 X48 Motherboard
Mushkin 4GB (2x2) DDR2 1066
Seagate Barracuda 250 GB 32MB Cache x 2 in Raid 0
Antec Twelve Hundred ATX Full Tower Case
Sapphire Radeon 4870 512 MB GDDR5
XIGMATEK 750W PSU
LITE-ON 20X DVD/CD-R Optical Drive
ZALMAN 9700 CPU Cooler
ZALMAN VF1000 VGA Cooler
ARTIC Cooler Thermal Compound MX-2 x 2
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64

Total on this setup was $1640 and some change.
I have put ALOT of thought into this build and the only thing I am not 100% on is the VGA with the 4870X2 coming makes me wonder. But if I keep trying to chase the carrot so to speak I guess I will never buy it lol. Anyways I hope this helps you. Couple of important notes. First if you are going to get one of the new ATI cards 4850 or 4870, everything I keep reading says to try to stay with a X48 MOBO like the one you have and the GIGABYTE i have listed. Also the those cards tend to run hot so 3rd party cooler is something to think about and if you chose the ZALMAN VF1000 you can still run 2 in crossfire with it. I looked everywere for that bit of info.

Take care,

DeepSea