650i ultra vs 680i and ram???...

[hippomofatumas]

Hello,

New to the forum, so howdy.
I'll try to do this as quickly as possible. I am planning a complete pc upgrade soon. Currently I run a:

amd 3800
7600 gt
antec 550w
unknown mb and ram (its an hp...)

I play a huge amount of cs source and plan on playing more games once I have a better gfx card. I am debating between a 8800gtx and an 8800 gts 640mb. Im planning on an e6420 for the cpu, which I would like to oc a safe amount.

So I'm not sure whether to get the evga 650i ultra or an evga 680i sli or sli lt.
I want evga because i've heard they have god warranties and service. Other brand suggestions are welcome. I don't really need sli, one 8800 whatever is fine enough lol. I dont care how many sata connections there are, I only have 1 internal hd right now. I want a good fsb and oc abilities.

And I'm pretty sure I'll be getting ddr2 800 ram, 2x1gb. I've looked at corsair xms2 models and some kingston and ocz. Any help here would be nice. I dont think its worth forking up 100 more dollars for 3-4-3-12 over 4-4-4-12 btw. I just need solid good performance.

This will be my first complete new build so I'm a bit nervous.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Tedster]

intel has posted warnings about oc on 680i chipsets and using superclocked ram.
It postentially could cause catastrophic damage to the mobo. So don't do it.

 

[hippomofatumas]

but...

i dont see how that would be the case when the 680i chipsets are the best at oc'ing, both according to nvidia and all the benchmark tests out there, the c2d is amazing at oc'ing, and is very flexible with ram. I'm confused.

 

[hippomofatumas]

thanks for all the replies...

im pretty sure im gonna do the 650i ultra.

...

thoughts?

 

[beef_jerky4104]

I would get the eVGA 680i because it has support for SLi.

 

[hippomofatumas]

considering the fact that im goin for an 8800 gts 640mb, there isnt much benefit to sli. and i also dont have the money for 2 350 dollar cards.

any other reasons? i know it supports higher speed memory, but i think ddr2 800 is enough for me. and i know it has better oc'ing features, but ive never een oced before, so moderate ocing will be enough.

thoughts?

 

[Tedster]

the warnings intel has posted is mostly in regards to using superclocked ram and increased voltages. Some superclocked ram draws too much voltage which in turn can fry the motherboard chipset.

 

[beef_jerky4104]

Didn't you already post that Tedster?

 

[hippomofatumas]

ted, if im correct, that would only happen if you set the voltages off stuff way too high. and not only am i not gonna do that, maybe a bit of an increase so i can oc some but nothing crazy, but don't most modern mb's cpus and ram just shut down if something is wrong?

that what tomshardware and anandtech and xbitlabs say...