hmm im not an expert in these things, but i think you will need windows 7 to use that 6gb ram. Or the 64 bit version of vista.

I have been reading some stuff on crossfire not being supported by every game? I just bought my new card and went for one GTX 275 works fine for me so far, and would cut down your power usage by, well, allot. Not saying get a 275, but i like one card more then the sli/crossfire stuff.

Your electric bill is gonne be allot of fun this year ^^

But SICK SICK system m8t!

I would wait till AMD gets there new chips out and build around that.

Ditch the 900 and get the 902 instead, trust me, you'll thank me. You'll have a fucking nigtmare trying to cram 2 4890's into the case and then managing the cables in a 900 and the thing is like a dust collector. 902 has dust filters is deeper and has better cable management options.

Also might be pointless info since you have a beefy power supply. But the 4890's eat 2 of those 6 point socket things, but you'll prolly get some addaptors and crap too.

your partly correct, Win 7 has nothing to do with it though, its 64 bit that is needed to address more than 4G total memory regardless of the OS, I'm pretty sure Fuzzy knows this.

a PC only draws the power it needs, just because you have a 1000W PSU does not mean the PC will be using 1000W at all times that the PC is powered on. If your system idles at say 400W that is all that will be used. it will then draw more power when the system kicks up.

Nice system plan Fuzzy....

FYI...take a peek at newegg. looks like the Real Power ESA model of the 1000W is having some issues, like 6 of 7 review are dead PSUs within days. might want to avoid the ESA model and go with the regular Real Power Pro model.

Personally I don't like that Cooler Master doesn't tell you at what temp the efficiency rating was taken....too many test at 25C which ultimately means the efficency rating is garbage. I won't buy a PSU that does not state the rating was taken at 40C-50C because that is the true operating range of the PSU.

I am impressed on one thing though, looks like Cooler Master started rating wattage at continuous rather than peak.

See "V-dub v Bimmer"

I will be using 64bit Vista If XP wasn't limited to 3.25Gb I'd use that.

The PSU chosen is the Real Power Pro, and it will be running off 240v supply not 115v

The graphics speak for themselves:

The UT3 result has four times the fps than my current 8800GT...

Excellent build FL. I would skip right over Vista and go to Win7. I like Vista, but it is no match for 7. But Obviously 64-bit is the must-have. I wonder if you can get the free upgrade to Win 7 on an OEM pack of Vista? Worth looking into to save money, yeah?

On that SSD and upgrade to W7 might also be an issue compared to new install. I've seen significant difference in space eaten up between upgrade compared to fresh. And by Significant I mean a couple of GB, important when your O/S in on an SSD.

I already own Vista Ultimate, so I have no option but to buy the W7 update disk... Any install of a new OS will be clean, I never update.

That sounds like a fine machine Fuzzy. It should be capable of handling anything you throw at it now and for quite some time into the future. Good luck with the build.

(might as well get a bigger monitor or two while you're at it.)

I'm going it a little slower.....

I ordered a Coolermaster HAF932 and should be getting it today or Tuesday (holiday weekend)

I already picked up 2 Caviar black 640Gbs & I have several other smaller sata's for a Raid 1 array

might add 2 more 640s if they go on sale or maybe a OCZ Agility Series OCZSSD2-1AGT60G 2.5" 60GB SSD

current plans....in flux depending on the next couple weeks sales...

I've been thinking about a q9550 on a Gigabyte GA EP45-UD3P (still riding the fence on whether to go i7)

also like the Coolermaster V8

ASUS EAH4890 1GB (just one for now)

PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W (Single Rail)

8gb G.Skill ddr2 1066

I pre-ordered W7 Pro

Agreed - and the i7's are very OC-friendly. Not sure how Intel expect to ever sell a 975 (at least not to anyone tech-savvy).

You shouldn't have any heat problems. I'm running an i7 920 OC'd at 3.33, with the Noctua dual fan heat pipe, in a Coolermaster Scout case - and it runs a lot cooler than anything I've had previously. Even ran it at 4Ghz for a while (hardware OC'd) and didn't notice anything.

I mainly use it for photo processing (Lightroom / Photoshop), and found that 4Ghz made little difference over 3.33. A Crossfire set up may change the cooling characteristics, but it won't be because of the CPU.

The thing is, it is a blazingly fast CPU at 3.33Ghz, and well worth the investment of £50 on the Noctua cooler.

I said it before, but i'll say it again, your system will be awesome, but the Antec900 will be a pain to put that stuff in.

Looks pretty good, but 2 gtx 275s will beat a 295 also, maybe even the Xfire configuration, but i can't find any benchamarks of this. The 4890s are cheaper, but nvidia has physx and Cuda and all that other stuff.

Overall, looks good. If you have the money, add another SSD and put it in Raid with the other one...

Gotta agree with the others on the case. My current build is in an Antec 900 and while I don't have many complaints about it, it will definitely be cramped with a couple big cards in there. I'd recommend the HAF 932. It's what I'm going to be grabbing for my new build (which will be very similar to yours, actually).

Case problem is solved. I've done something drastic - knocked out the shelves under my desk which means my Coolermaster now fits (at 45° though).

The room looks a mess with all the stuff pulled out, but it's very quiet

Since windows XP is not limited to 3.25 gb ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension ), you can use it...

Simply edit your boot.ini and add the "/PAE"... something who can help is add the "/3GB" too... with 4 gb, 2gb are reserved for application and 2 gb for the system... the "/3GB" allow 3 gb application and 1 gb for the system...

PAE is possible from the old pentium pro !!! Max 64 gb ram.... and if someone have a old version of windows server 2003 datacenter edition, you will be better with it that with the windows7... take a look at the table at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension#Microsoft_Windows ...