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Ok guys i am looking at building a gaming pc that will last a while. I am currently saving up to buy it so i have been looking around for parts. Heres what i have for the main components and i was wonering what you guys for of them. Also are these parts all compatible. I have included links to all parts.
ThanksCPU -AMD ATHLON 64 3800+ Proccessor
Mobo -DFI LANPARTY UT RDX200 CF-DR Motherboard
Memory -CORSAIR DUAL CHANNEL 2048MB PC3200 Memory
Video -BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC videocard, 256MB DDR3, PCIe, VIVO Video
PSU -OCZ POWERSTREAM 520W ADJUSTABLE PSU Psu
Hard Drive -Seagate 500GB SATA150 7200rpm Hard Drive
Monitor -DellTM 2405FPW 24" UltraSharpTM Monitor
Grusomhat
I suggest a different CPU, different board, different monitor....
You don't state exactly what 3800+, but if it's a single core Venice w/512k L2, you'd be better off getting the 3700+ single core San Diego w/1MB L2. If it's the 3800+ X2 w/2 x 512K L2, you might wanna consider an Opteron w/2 x 1MB L2.
I don't recommend a board based on the ATI chipset, especially if you're gonna run an nVidia based video card. A board based on the nForce4 Ultra or nForce4 SLi chipset would be the one to get.
The monitor has a response time of 16ms & probably won't be good for gaming. Look for a response of 12ms or less...8ms is recommended
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Jam is right, but I wouldn't get that video card. It's a good card but there are better choices for the price. With a little more cash you can get yourself an x1900xt w/512mb. I'd wait a little, since nvidia is releasing any moment now their 7900 series, and because of that, I read that ati will do some massive price drops to kill nvidia. So that will be nice for you.
Free
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So for the CPU Do you think i should go for something like This
For the Graphics This
If I was to go for an ATI graphics card I'm guessing my DFI Board would be sufficient.
For a Monitor do you think This is good.
Thanks for your Help
Grusomhat
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Yea, that's a better CPU choice.
As for the motherboard, it's no so much compatibility between nVidia & ATI, it's just that the ATI chipsets are not that great. Generally, the nForce4 Ultra or SLi chipsets perform better. If you intend to run Crossfire, you have no choice...you'll need the ATI motherboard & 2 ATI video cards. If you don't intend on ever running 2 video cards, you don't need a Crossfire or SLi board. If that's the case, I suggest a board based on the nF4 Ultra, then you can run either an nVidia or ATI card...your choice.
As for the video card you selected, I have a hard time recommending spending that kinda money on ANY one single component, then again, I'm not a hardcore gamer. Fennerman loves expensive cards, so I'll leave that one for him...lol
Much better choice on the monitor.
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Grusomhat,
Currently the best performing, least problematic boards out there are NVidia Nforce 4 Ultra/SLI chipset based, preferably DFI. Quite honestly, you should go with it no matter what graphics card you choose.
Your new selection for a CPU is good, but also price out a 3000 or 3200, as well as the Opteron 165.
Those give you good 2nd and 3rd options.
1. If the 3000 or 3200 is significantly cheaper, there's the argument of any single core will do for now, and no single core will do for years from now. Therefore, get the cheapest single core Socket 939 you can, and pop on a dual core when they're cheaper.
2. If the Opteron 165 is not much more than the San Diego, the argument there is you have a good CPU even if apps aren't optimized for dual core since it has 1M L2 cache per core.
3. The 3700 is sorta hedged between these two. If you don't see yourself upgrading the CPU to dual core when they're cheaper, this would definitely be the CPU to get.
Excellent choice on the monitor. Samsungs are really good. Also check out Viewsonic.
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So do you think this Motherboard would be better for me DFI LANPARTY UT NF4
Thanks for your help.
Grusomhat
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jam,
I gotta disagree with you on the monitor, for it's size and pricing, you can't get anything better that offers such clarity and crispness.
I don't think anyone looking for a large LCD should pass up the 2405FPW, I'm well aware of the response time, but seriously a 16ms response time is not a problem at all, unless you belong to a class of the very finicky gaming or multimedia enthusiast, who are in the dire minority.
With a vast number of sharp and affordable LCD's now touting sub 18ms response time, it is not that big a deal as it's made out to be.
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That mobo is very good. High quality. It also has tons of BIOS options for overclocking. If those options are something you don't care about, check out the DFI Infinity series. Still great quality, but often 25%+ less cost.
The X2 3800 quite honestly I don't think is a good CPU to get. It's relatively expensive since it's a dual core CPU compared to single core CPU's.
Also, dual core CPU's right now perform in the vast majority of games as well as what one of its single cores perform. For example, the X2 3800 has two cores with 512k L2 cache running at 1.8GHz each. This is basically what an Athlon 64 3000 is. Therefore, for most games you spent all that money for the performance you would have seen from a 3000 CPU, which is about 1/2 the money.
This is what is attractive about the Opteron 165. It's 1.8GHz with 1M L2 cache per core, making it run a little slower than than the 3700, but could be overclocked to make up the difference and then some. In the US, it's only $30-40 more than the X2 3800, making it a very attractive solution for the money. Good specs per core for now, and dual core for later.
"It happens."
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Yeah that is the card I was pointing out. If you find it too expensive, I'd wait for the 7900gt (a little better than the 7800gt for about 300 dollars). But remember that ati will soon drop most of their prices!!!!
Free
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I think i will stick to the San Dieago single core at the moment as it isn't extremely expenssive and i will upgrade it when dual core becomes needed.
And for the Motherboard i will go with the DFI LANPARTY UT NF4 Ultra-D. As it has nice O/Cing features.
Graphics i will tend to lean towards the X1900XT as Fennerman said it will be commming down in price.
And for the monitor probably the Samsung.
Any arguments about these choices. Thanks
Grusomhat
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Well, that would be indeed a powerful gaming machine.
I belive that san diego will last quite some time before you need to go dual core, specially if you overclock it. I own the dfi infinity nf4 mobo (like the "budget" version of yours) plus the same 3700+ san diego and I've been running it for about 5 weeks now at 2,750mhz stable with only a 0.5v increase and temps never go above 47ยบ.
In other words, I'm encouraging you to overclock xD.Free
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No argument here. Are you sticking with the 500gb hard drive? Do you need that much storage? Have you considered two Raptors 10,000 RPM HDD's in Raid for nearly the same price?
Fennerman,
I just received an email (as you may have too) from Nvidia. It is official. The new 7900 and 7600 is out. :)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&description=Geforce+7900&Submit=ENE&Ntk=all&N=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=8&Go.y=25
Now lets see what ATI does in response.Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Corsair 512X4 2048mb
2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K
2X 256 6800 GT
Raid-0
WinXP Pro X64
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Ok I will most likely overclock especial sice of the mobo. Thanks Everyone for their input and opinions. Now i just need to save up the money to buy this stuff.
Thanks
Grusomhat
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Wow those are some nice cards. Hopefully ATI drop there prices now. I had never thought of the higher speed hard drives. What exactly do you meen by having them in raid? I see you have two raptors. Do you notice the speed difference? I imagine you would.
Thanks
Grusomhat
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I have two computers. One that is listed below and another WD Caviar 250gb 7200 RPM.
Naturally the Raptors BLOW away the 7200 RPM. If you're in need of that much storage then you best stick with the 500gb. However if you don't mind sacrificing storage for speed (random access time, read/write transfer rates,etc.) then go with a 10,000 RPM drive. Then if you want to increase it even further, take two of them and put them into a RAID 0 stripping mode. I think two WD 74gb Raptor HDD's will cost just a little more, if any, than your 500gb HDD.
Are you going to see a significant improvement in gaming? Not while actually playing the game but during "system load level data in 3D games", starting up windows, or other large applications, of course. BIG TIME!
So this was just some food for thought if you're considering paying that much money for a HDD. I want attempt to go into details about RAID because someone else that is better than me already did. :) Check out this link:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/02/06/wd1500ad_raptor_xtends_performance_lead/index.html
Read carefully that two HDD's in RAID Stripping can increase performance but dangerous if something goes wrong with one of the drives. You will lose you data on both drives. That is one of the reason why I have another storage drive (not listed)on the system below to backup the RAID'ed Raptors.
Last but not least.....if you don't want a RAID throw a few more bucks into your HDD and get the Raptor X 16mb buffer.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136011Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Corsair 512X4 2048mb
2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K
2X 256 6800 GT
Raid-0
WinXP Pro X64
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Oh sorry. I would not care for the Raptor 150gb 10K RPM hard drive with a window on it. Who cares? To save a few bucks get one without the window. :)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136012Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Corsair 512X4 2048mb
2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K
2X 256 6800 GT
Raid-0
WinXP Pro X64
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Thank You heroedge for you input. I think i probably go with two raptors setup with raid-0 and have a external hard drive for backup. I will be reading up on raid-0 so i know how to set it up when i need to.
Thanks so much
Grusomhat
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Download and read the manual for your hard drive. It should explain how to set up the RAID. You'll like the results! I don't know why you would want an external hard drive when you can have up to 4 SATA HDD's on your motherboard?
BTW....I have two Samsung SyncMaster 930B's 19" on my gaming machines and it is not as good as the one you are getting. I agree with Jam and disagree with Sabertooth. To me 12ms or less is a must for a computer such as the one you're building. And the contrast ratio 700:1 is acceptable. I have a Viewsonic on my wifes computer that is 16ms. There's no comparison when gaming FPS. Stick with the Samsung! It's a great quality LCD.
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Corsair 512X4 2048mb
2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K
2X 256 6800 GT
Raid-0
WinXP Pro X64
0
"I think i probably go with two raptors setup with raid-0 and have a external hard drive for backup."
I don't see the point for gaming. So what if it takes a bit longer to start up a game? 2x the risk of total data loss due to hard drive failure, and you're spending gobs of money for not a lot of storage.
Here's a better idea: Get two hard drives, store the OS on one, games on the other, and divide your virtual memory on both drives. That will perform better without the risk associated with RAID0.
I know Raptors are faster, but come on. Look at the prices of the drives per gigabyte. It's not worth it.
Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!
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Intersting opinions. I think i will need to think about Raid0 alot more. Instead of two hard drives would just having one 500gb and divide it into two partoins so i have 20gb for the O/S and then the rest for all the data. Would that be sufficient? Yes i will probably stick to the 19" as i get lost looking at a 19" sometime and the 24" i think for me would be too big. I agree with Jam also about the response time as i want to be able to get the most out of this computer so i want a low response time.
Thanks
Grusomhat
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"Instead of two hard drives would just having one 500gb and divide it into two partoins so i have 20gb for the O/S and then the rest for all the data. Would that be sufficient?"
The only reasons to multiple partition the drive is for organizational reasons, and being able to just format the OS partition without losing other data in the process.
There is no performance gain from doing this. In fact, you may actually harm performance if you do not setup the page file correctly.
If you want additional disk performance, there's no real way to get around either a faster drive or having multiple drives. Personally, I don't think you need additional disk performance. One good drive will be fine, and it doesn't need to be a Raptor.
Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!
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The reason i would have the two partions would be to keep the o/s seperate from the data for multiple reasons.
Grusomhat
I need a knew signature
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Main reason would be to keep data safe it i had to reinstall Xp. I find backing up data is easier it i dont have to worry about all of the system files. What i might end up going with is the two hard drives. Like a 40gb and a 500gb, Instead of using two partions.
Grusomhat
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Heropsycho is right. There are risks in running RAID0. However, I think the risks are not so bad as long as you have a back up plan, good anti-virus protection, etc. I for one apreciate speed. But its really an unnecessary preference. I mentioned this only for something to think about since you was spending so much money on a HDD. I would still rather have Raptors for the same cost with the increased speed. As heropsycho points out, the gigabyte/cost is high but, hey you have room for 4 HDD's. :)
The best method in my opinion is to back down from the 500gb and get something more reasonable in price like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144417
Spend the money saved on a killer sound card, games/software. Then as you have the need and the price goes down, plop in another HDD.........or two.
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Corsair 512X4 2048mb
2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K
2X 256 6800 GT
Raid-0
WinXP Pro X64
0
I somehow can't figure out why this HDD config seems so convoluted, can't you simply get a 74GB raptor as your system HDD and another SATA or IDE HDD (250+GB) and use that as an internal or USB/Firewire external backup HDD.
That way you can save a periodically updated image of the system HDD as well as other critical data on the second drive.
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Wow thanks heroedge i had totally forgotton about a sound card. I will think about that hard drive you showed me.
Don't meen to start a new discussion but what do you think of This sound card
Thank you all for taking the time to help
Grusomhat
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If you're gonna buy a sound card, that would be the one to get, provided you don't need the additional features of the Platinum.
Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!
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Get a soundcard only if you are using some kickass sorround speakers. If not, it is not worth it, just use the mobos integrated audio.
Free
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It really depends.
The X-Fi does improve sound even on headphones. It's a question of whether it is significant or not.
As someone who spends gobs of money on home theater, I can appreciate better sound quality more so than most people. For example, most people I know can't tell the difference between listening to a CD, and listening to the CD ripped into MP3. Not that there's a big difference between the two, just that I actually can tell the difference.
To me, even with headphones, the X-Fi shines, but it's hard for me to tell if most people would be able to appreciate it and get the value out of the money spent on the soundcard or not. The X-Fi has significantly better Signal to Noise ratios, better DAC's, etc. resulting in a cleaner, clearer sound, and we're not even talking about its surround capability.
The other nice thing about sound cards is unlike video cards which you're often compelled to replace yearly or every other year, if you buy a good sound card, it's good often for 5 years or more.
Before this X-Fi I have, I had an Audigy I bought in 2000. In fact, it's in my Media Center machine still working great since it had a Digital Audio out for my home theater receiver. Before that I had an SBLive I bought in 1997-8, which is now used in my wife's machine.
So while it may seem like a lot of money, considering it may be the only sound card you buy possibly for 5 years, over that time, it's not so much. @$130 USD, it's less than most graphics cards, which we will probably replace at least within 2-3 years to keep up.
Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!
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I will be needing a sound card as i will be pluggging it into my Stereo so it will be nice to have a good soundcard to get the most of the games sound.
Thank you everyone for all your help and i believe i have enougth information now to be prepared when i have the money.
Thank You all so much.
Grusomhat
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Grusomhat,
FYI with the X-Fi vs onboard.
Onboard soundcards do in fact have interconnects to your stereo system. Many motherboards including the lanparty DFI you're getting even have SPDIF optical and/or coaxial outs built right on. Or you can of course connect via a mini-din to RCA cable.
Don't think an onboard sound card is incapable of doing this. They do perform surround sound functions, and pretty much all game surround protocols aside from the very latest and greatest EAX stuff, which most games don't use, and even if they do, they support the older EAX stuff.
If you decide to buy an X-Fi ExtemeMusic, you will need to order from creative a headphone DIN to coaxial spdif adapter should you want to connect via digital audio for surround.
Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!
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Interesting. I was thinking about how good the onboard sound would be and was just checking to see how good it was on the DFI board i am getting and i was even thinking about just keeping the onboard sound. And not getting the sound card would meen i would be able to put a bit more money into the case modding. Thanks
Grusomhat
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What I would recommend is try the onboard sound first. If you're not happy with it, no biggie, order your X-Fi. The onboard sound doesn't cost you anymore since it's on your mobo, so if you're not happy with it, oh well!
Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina!
www.redcross.org
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