Common guys, do you honestly expect AMD to hold on to the performance crown forever ? If you do, I'll sell you the Brooklyn bridge at a whopping discount.....LOL Evaluate your rig's gaming ability

0

Yeah I've read that article TP Man. Nothing to write home to Mom about huh? But I hope that isn't the only answer AMD has for the Conroe. I like the competition but "its not over till the fat lady sings". Right now it looks as though Intel will take the crown for at least a short time until AMD recoops. :) 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 don't expect AMD to keep the performance crown forever. I just don't think it's reasonable to put off a purchase for any equipment coming out six months from now. Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!

0

heh sorry about the long response time I had to go out of town for work. Anyways Im pretty much scrapping my old machine so nothing there will be re used except maybe the speakers and sub. I will be building this myself because its generally always been cheaper to buy the compnents and build it yourself then to get a pre built system. In the past Ive been partial to AMD for gaming purposes and Ive never had a Asus mobo let me down. Athlon64 San Diego 3700+ DFI Lan Party Nforce 4 Mobo 2GB DDR400 RAM CL2-2-2-5 74GB WD Rapter 10k RPM x2 raid 0 Geforce 7900GT THX 5.1 surround sound speaker 19in+ display In response to TMP Ive done a little bit of research here and this config or something very close keeps coming up. I have a set of speakers that have done well for me for a while so they will prolly get re used and I can live with a 17 to 19 inch display. Ive checked some prices out and I believe I can get a 8ms-12ms LCD for around $300 Isn't there a bit of danger in running raid 0 without some sort of backup? I mean I dont see beeing able to spring for an additional drive for backup purposes for awhile. I do have the HD in my old PC but it had issues that I dont think a format is going to correct.

0

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3700+ @ 2.2GHz, 1000MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache Cooler Master Aquagate Liquid Cooler with Radiator and 120 mm Speed Adjustable Fan Asus A8N-SLI Premium NVIDIA nForce4 SLI 2000 MT/S FSB, PCI-E, DDR400 w/ RAID Onboard 3D Digital 7.1 8-Channel Sound,Onboard Gigabit (10/100/1000) Network Port Kingston 2GB (2 X 1GB) PC-3200 DDR 400MHz Memory Western Digital Raptor 74GB S-ATA 150 10000RPM Hard Drive x2 @Raid 0 NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT 450MHz 256MB GDDR3 1.32 GHz PCI-E, DVI & TV Out Internal NEC Dual Layer ND-3550A Black 16X DVD+/- R + 48X CDR Rewritable Drive 1.44MB 3 1/2QuoteMark Floppy Disk Drive CoolerMaster Centurion C5 Black / Silver Case ACE Power 550W SLI Ready Power Supply Viewsonic VA902b 19QuoteMark 1280X1024 550:1 270nits 8ms Black LCD Monitor $2247.30 w/shipping This price also includes supplies needed to assemble and a red cold cathode neon lighting kit. Im also considering springing for a second vid card a little further down the road so I can run em SLI Comments? Id really like to hear everyones opinion before I buy. Like I said Its been a while since Ive been able to sit down and enjoy my games due to the vicious life sucking B#@%h being around.

0

"$2247.30 w/shipping" LOL...not even if I won the lottery!

0

VERY nice system there. If I was upgrading right now i would probably look at something very very similar. Except I wouldn't waste the money on the raptors. From what i've heard the performance difference (in gaming anyway) isnt worth the extra $$$. AMD Athlon64 3500+ 1024MB 512x2 Dual Channel Corsair TwinX Coolermaster Wavemaster 120GB Seagate SATA HDD Gecube X800XT Platinum Logitch 5.1 Surround LG 16x Dual Layer DVD Countle

0

BTW i forgot to add, a divorce is the best thing a married man can wish for, seconded only by death (of either spouse =) ) AMD Athlon64 3500+ 1024MB 512x2 Dual Channel Corsair TwinX Coolermaster Wavemaster 120GB Seagate SATA HDD Gecube X800XT Platinum Logitch 5.1 Surround LG 16x Dual Layer DVD Countle

0

see now thats what im talking about. Thats why Im here I value the opinion of you people. I was on another forum and was hearing about How Raid 0 Dual raptors were awesome. A little more research uncovered pretty much the same general concensus. This machine will only be used for gaming.period. Pick it apart guys. In the end you'll sort of be spending my money for me =) I just want to keep from buying another rig for a few years so im looking for performance and maybe a little upgradability to carry me on a good haul.

0

LOL! You said that you don't have the funds to purchase a backup HDD but look at what you have listed. Without a backup plan, don't go RAID 0. Either you need to be anal-retentive about copying files to CD and this system is used mostly for gaming, or you need a storage HDD. I have a WD 250gb Cavair as a storage drive on mine. Mine is a gaming machine. But I still copy my HDD to backup periodically and copy all of my game patches, drivers, etc onto CD for extra security. For over a year, I've had no problems with my RAID. What is the reason for the liquid cooler? do you plan to do some heavy duty overclocking? If so, DFI motherboards would be my choice. But that Asus motherboard is a good one. If not doing a lot of overclocking, I wouldn't bother with the cooler and might purchase a more cheap but reliable SLI board. I seen a DFI SLI board for about $100.00 and there are others brands for around 80.00 That money saved can be put towards another HDD.:) Have you looked around for video cards? Try shopping around for different brands. I like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130282 Oh and I don't care for the monitor. I feel for gaming you need one with at least 600:1 contrast ratio and I prefer 800:1. Might want to look at Samsung. They have 19"'s 8ms 700:1 with DVI-D input for around $300.00 Have fun! 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

"Cooler Master Aquagate Liquid Cooler with Radiator and 120 mm Speed Adjustable Fan" Why? And if you're overclocking why did you get PC-3200 DDR 400MHz Memory? Why did you pass on the DFI LanParty mobo, the de facto overclocking mobo out there? "Asus A8N-SLI Premium NVIDIA nForce4 SLI 2000 MT/S FSB, PCI-E, DDR400 w/ RAID Onboard 3D Digital 7.1 8-Channel Sound,Onboard Gigabit (10/100/1000) Network Port" DFI are the best quality boards in NForce4 based. This coming from someone who bought an Asus board and subsequently replaced it with a DFI. "Western Digital Raptor 74GB S-ATA 150 10000RPM Hard Drive x2 @Raid 0" Gigantic waste of money, while doubling the chance of complete data loss due to hard drive failure. Am I missing something? How in the world did this add up to $2200? "You said that you don't have the funds to purchase a backup HDD but look at what you have listed." LOL, couldn't have said it better myself. $2200 on the computer, and $100 can't be spared on an external drive?! "LOL...not even if I won the lottery!" Agreed... Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina! www.redcross.org

0

Ok well apparently Ive made a few bad choices here. Guys youve seen my criteria. Performance for the long haul $2000 +/- a couple hundred bucks. I dont want to look into buying another machine for a few years. Ive always liked asus but then again ive never owned a DFI. AMD was the brand of choice back when I was gaming hard years ago. I havent kept up with technology in a few years and im looking for the best bang for my buck by todays standard. If you had 2 G's to throw right now for a machine what you you spring for? Also Id like to say that everyone who has posted in this thread thus far has been helpful and your input is appreciated Thanks

0

1. Stock cooling with a retail boxed CPU is fine. 2. DFI mobo all the way. If you want to overclock heavily, go with the LANParty series. 3. You could drop $4000 on a machine today, and it will be blown away by a $1000 machine three years from now. It's the honest truth with computer gaming. The answer is not drop more cash; it's don't drop that much cash, so you have it WHEN you need to upgrade. Get the best price/performance parts you can. You did a good job in that regard on many components. Good pick on the CPU. If the RAM was under $200, good. $150 on the mobo would be about right, but I think SLI is a waste. I'd personally just get an NForce4 Ultra, and when you need better video performance, replace your card with another single card solution. Forget the Raptor, it's not worth the money. I don't even fault you for the video card choice, although some here think $300+ on a video card is a waste. When I look at that machine with those changes, I'm thinking it should be running you less than $1500. Are you shopping for parts, or are you having this system built for you? Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!

0

shopping for parts. found some good deals on newegg, and The best price ive found on the RAM was on monarch. I considered for a short spell having it built but then it just wouldnt be my machine. Im gonna be doing some case modding with this rig as well, had some interesting ideas over the last couple of years while taking extending S@#t breaks, hiding from the wife. Its time to cash in and and start having some fun again.

0