I’m building a gaming machine that I am hoping will support Elder Scrolls Oblivion, as well as Age of Empires 3 and Battle Field 2. I would like to run the games on high or maximum settings.

Currently I have the following in my list of parts. Your input to if the system will run these games smoothly is appreciated as well as input on ideas for different parts. My budget isn’t extremely big, and I already have a SyncMaster 915N Samsung 19” LCD that I would like to use. I believe the maximum resolution is 1280 x 1024 for this monitor, (or at least that is the highest that my current graphics card supports, a poor GeForce FX5200 128mb)

Anyway here is the parts and your input would be appreciated:

MotherBoard - Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
Newegg N82E16813131517, price $154.

CPU -- AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz HT 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor
Newegg N82E16819103539, price $212

Power Supply - Antec TruePower 2 (550W)
Newegg N82E16817103931, price $90

Memory – I will use either one of the two below.
Cosair 1GB PC3200 x2 (2gb total), Newegg -- N82E16820145505, price $132
Or
Ultra 1GB PC3200 x2 (2gb total), Tiger Direct -- ULT31897, price 120

Hard drive – Seagate 160GB Sata-300 drive; Tiger Direct – TSD-160AS3 , price $50

Graphics Card – eVGA GeForce 7600GT (suggestions for different cards is ok)
Newegg, N82E16814130283, Price $174

Sound Card -- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channel
Newegg, N82E16829102188 , price $102

Roms – Sony 16x DVD-Rom 48x CD-Rom, Newegg, N82E16827101131; price $21

Case – Ultra Wizard Black ATX Mid-Tower TigerDirect -- ULT31824 , Price $50
(want a quite computer, so other cases are up for suggestions)

CPU Fan -- Thermaltake TR2 Silent Boost TigerDirect, T925-1074, price $35
(trying to keep computer quiet)

Case Fans – Scythe DF 120mm fan x2 , Newegg N82E16835185012, price $12

Total comes to around $1020+ship

Main requirements I am looking are
1) ability to play the games mentioned above
2) Quiet computer.
3) Under $1200 or $1300

Again, any comments or recommendation are welcome.

Thanks for any help!

George

Please respond after you have solved your problem to notify who helped you and what solved the problem. Both sides benefit when you do.

Also, forgot to mention: would it be better to look into the FX or X2 AMD instead? Although if I did, i wouldn't be buying now, as they are really expensive.

Thanks!

George

Please respond after you have solved your problem to notify who helped you and what solved the problem. Both sides benefit when you do.

I don't like your board choice but I do like the CPU...the FX is WAY too expensive & for the time being, the X2 is unnecessary. Look at DFI boards & if you don't intend to ever run SLi, don't pay for it. Get a board based on the nF4 Ultra chipset instead.

Unless you're an extreme audiophile, hold off on the soundcard & give the onboard sound a try...you can always upgrade later.

The CPU will come with a HSF, I suggest you use it, at least initially. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe an aftermarket HSF will void the CPU warranty. As with the above, you can always upgrade it later.

Personally, I won't buy from TigerD, their rep is horrible...but to each his owm.

Please note: I'm a newb! Guys like Jam, Sabertooth and so on are way more skilled than I am, but I'm starting to get the hang of what I'm doing. Look at my specs in my signature below. You're building very cose to my system, which I built this for around $1300 and its amazing.

The stock cooling on the 3700+ is good (I've never broke 45C) enough and relatively quiet so you shouldn't waste the money on a new CPU fan unless you plan on some serious OC'ing. My PSU is ridiculously loud, though!

Questions I have:
No CD/DVD-burner? Shell out another $10 bucks and get one.

The 7600GT will do you well, but you should look into the 7800GT or 7900GT for highest settings on all these games. It'll bring you up another $100+ but you can skim in other areas to keep the price down.

I see the sound card, but no speakers. Do you already have speakers? If not, run with the on-board audio for now and upgrade your video card.

The case you selected already comes with a 500w power supply. If your gung-ho about replacing it, consider a case without a pre-installed PSU. You'll knock off a few more bucks. This case also does not include any fans (which is why you want to buy some). If it were me, I'd do some more homework, before I settled on this case.

Happy hunting!

Looks good except a couple things.

0. Cross out the X-Fi (Agree with guys above)

1. Buy your case sans PSU from a local retailer. Make sure you get a notable and beefy PSU, that you can get online. There are options but makers like Fortron (FSP), PC Power & Cooling, Antec do put out top-notch PSU's with clean rails. You probably should be looking at one with a 24-Pin connector, at least 450W (500W better), PFC-Active and not so noisy (doesn't necessarily have to be dual rail) but make sure there's at least 20A on the +12V rail and check out the warranty on it too.

2. As suggested above, dump the "ROMs" and get a Dual Layer DVD "burner" as your optical device.

3. I'd also suggest the 7800GT over the 7600 with that CPU.

4. ASUS does make good boards, so I have no qualms with that board, other than suggesting a downgrade to the much cheaper vanilla Asus A8N-SLI. I would have asked you to get just the NF4-Ultra (A8N) if you are not considering an SLI setup down the road, but the lack of a firewire port and noisy chipset fan makes the extra $10.00 priceless.

Goodluck !!!

When Google isn't your best pal

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Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the advice.

I’ll drop the sound card for a less expensive one or onboard.
The case does not say it comes with a power supply. However, I might change my mind to one that is more quiet.

I do not intend to use SLI (I don’t even know what it is). I choose this MB because it looked good. I really have no clue when it comes to choosing motherboards though, the last computer that I purchased was a soyo 1800+. I am currently using a factory built systemax 3400+. Main reason that I choose this one was because it looked fairly good priced for the ability to upgrade to a FX or X2 later. I will look into the other mbs suggested. Please suggest others if it makes a difference that I won’t use SLI.

I will look into the DFI boards. I just really don’t know the reliability of brands. I have used soyo, and always hear that asus provides reliable boards. My current uses a biostar (because that’s what the manufacturer stuffed in).

DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D ATX AMD Motherboard is the only one that newegg has that is based on the nF4 Ultra chipset. But it really doesn’t many pci ports. N82E16813136152

How about one of these for a mb?:
ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard N82E16813131530

BIOSTAR TForce4U Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard N82E16813138270

DFI nF4 Ultra-Infinity Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard N82E16813136163

ASUS A8N-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard N82E16813131524

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard N82E16813131517

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard N82E16813131540

The current power supply doesn’t seem good? I thought it was.

Also, I don’t plan to over clock, (never have before, so I don’t want to destroy a expensive computer doing so, but I might experiment on a lesser one)

Thanks for any help!

George

Please respond after you have solved your problem to notify who helped you and what solved the problem. Both sides benefit when you do.

You don't know what SLI is..yet you're building your own gaming machine? HHmmmmm. Hope you have someone close for support.
"NVIDIA® SLI™ technology is a revolutionary platform innovation that allows you to intelligently scale graphics performance by combining multiple NVIDIA graphics solutions in a single system with an NVIDIA nForce® SLI media and communications processor (MCP)."
http://www.slizone.com/page/home.html

Of the boards your listed above, I like the DFI

SLI is not that expensive anymore. I don't think its a big deal to get a motherboard without SLI. You want save bundles and in some cases (as example the DFI you selected above)you can spend more. As you learn more about SLI you might decide later to check it out and you want have to replace your motherboard to do it. I have some gaming friends that would rather match up their existing cheap GPU with another one in SLI rather than purchase the more expensive 7800's or 7900 GPU's. SLI provides that flexibiity.

I suggest Nvidia nForce 4 SLI X16 motherboard.
(Refurbished)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128301R
This is a great price!

As suggested, start your new system out with a 7800GT or 7900GT.

Good luck!

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

Im not sure if you still need a answer to your question about duel core or fx, but if you ever do upgrade i would pick the X2 4800 before i would pick the fx-55 or 57, because its dual core and has a bigger L2 cache (the clock speed wont make that big of a difference here, especially for the $ envolved) but if you do want to go all out get the fx 60, its the fastest chip on the market, and its dual core...............................

Amd 3700+
2Gig Corsair
Msi-Ms-7184 mobo
ATI Radeon x850xt pciXpress 256mb
Antec Trupower 430watt
Creative soundblaster pci