Support NeoGAF

[Synbios459]

I don't know if it'll work but here's my list

In case you can't see it, I got:

Case: Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811129155

Mobo: ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131517

Vid card: ATI 100-435705 Radeon X1800XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814102624

Proccessor: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ ClawHammer 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor Model ADA4000ASBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103497

RAM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model Twinx2048-3200c2pt - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145575

Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822144160

DVD Rom Drive: SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827101131

DVD Burner: NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827152058

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16829102188

Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16835100007

Heatsink fan: ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU 120mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan with Copper Heatsink - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16835118115

I'm trying to build a PC that will allow me to play games like Oblivion well, as well as sounding real great.

My only concern is the Hard Drive. Is the extra speed really worth the price? And if so, if I were to get a second HD for other things how does it work, like do I combine them to make one big drive or do I have to switch HD whenever I want to do something? Thanks.

 

[rc213]

Video Card: I saw a Sapphire 512mb x1800 XT for $299 no rebates.

Processor: Have you looked into the X2 Dual Core chips?

Hard Drive: Not exactly clear on what your asking.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Processor: Have you looked into the X2 Dual Core chips?

I was gonna mention the same thing. Dual core might be more future proof.

 

[Synbios459]

About the Graphics card: I honestly wanted to go with Nvidia, however, I couldn't find Nvidia anywhere on Newegg.

About the Proccessor: I've never looked at that, would that be a better buy?

As far as the HD goes. What I mean is, let's say I install both that Raptor drive, and a SATA 250 Gig regular HD, will I have to switch between HDs when I boot up my comp or will it just allow me to have more space overall? Sorry, I've never had more than one HD before.

 

[rc213]

About the Graphics card: I honestly wanted to go with Nvidia, however, I couldn't find Nvidia anywhere on Newegg.

About the Proccessor: I've never looked at that, would that be a better buy?

As far as the HD goes. What I mean is, let's say I install both that Raptor drive, and a SATA 250 Gig regular HD, will I have to switch between HDs when I boot up my comp or will it just allow me to have more space overall? Sorry, I've never had more than one HD before.

You can use the 250 Gig drive for storage only. If you purchased matching drives you could look into using RAID setup. Are those Raptor drives worth the premium price?

Just so you know that X1800 XT is a beast in Heat/Noise. I have a Athlon64 X2 4200+ 2.2ghz 1.35volts, easy to cool and fast.

 

[Pimpbaa]

About the Graphics card: I honestly wanted to go with Nvidia, however, I couldn't find Nvidia anywhere on Newegg.

About the Proccessor: I've never looked at that, would that be a better buy?

You can get a Geforce 7900GT for around the same price as that radeon you listed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150149

As for the processor, just get the fast Athlon 64 X2 you can afford, and you should be good.

 

[Synbios459]

I guess I should've mentioned I'm trying to keep the cost around $1400.

Anywhoo, on GameFAQs I was recommend the eVGA 256-P2-N564 Geforce 7900GT KO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

and the ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

The thing about storage I don't understand is, I'm mainly going to use this comp just for playing games, browsing the web, and listening to my MP3s (which are around 1.58 GB) so would I really need all that extra space?

 

[rc213]

eVGA 7900GT KO is a kickass card with great lifetime support behind it. One if not the only company I have come across that will allow you to replace the heatsink/fan without voiding your warranty.

As far as the board goes I would go with the A8N-E or A8N-Sli which both use the nForce 4 Ultra chipset. It has better SATA onboard support. If you dont see yourself using that much space than 1 HD would be sufficient.

 

[Synbios459]

You mean this mobo?

 

[XMonkey]

The thing about storage I don't understand is, I'm mainly going to use this comp just for playing games, browsing the web, and listening to my MP3s (which are around 1.58 GB) so would I really need all that extra space?

No, 74GB should be fine if thats all you will use it for.

Why two DVD drives though?

 

[Black Deatha]

Looks pretty good, I have a somewhat similar system I just built a couple months ago, that video card is awsome, same as mine, go for it, that system will run Oblivion great, and yeah, go for the dual core, I got the 4400+

~Black Deatha

 

[Synbios459]

Oh, one thing I've always wondered: Do the games that have the Nvidia logo and say "Powered by Nvidia" really play better with an Nvidia card?

 

[XMonkey]

No

 

[rc213]

Oh, one thing I've always wondere: Do the games that have the Nvidia logo and say "Powered by Nvidia" really play better with an Nvidia card?

No, just marketing.

 

[Synbios459]

No, 74GB should be fine if thats all you will use it for.

Why two DVD drives though?

One is for burning and one for just watching movies/play games. I know I only need one, but I like being able to have an extra drive so I can have 2 things in at once.

 

[Synbios459]

Thanks guys, you've been a great help! TBH I'm actually selling my car due to never using it and high gas prices for this (as well as the Onkyo Home Theater) so when it finally gets sold I'll be able to finally build the comp I've always wanted!

 

[Synbios459]

My revisements:

Mobo: ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

Proccessor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX

 

[rc213]

My revisements:

Mobo: ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

Proccessor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX

A8N-E is a great stock board , I've used it in the last 2 PC's I built for buddies along with 4200 X2's.



EDIT: Dont know where you are from but if you have any shops you can buy from locally. I would look into purchasing the Case/PSU locally because that would save to tons of cash in shipping.

 

[rc213]

.

Crap Double Post

 

[Synbios459]

Does the eVGA 7900 GT KO support HDR? If not will it really make a difference in games like Half-Life 2?

 

[Hooker]

How long can you hold out for buying this PC?




Like I've been saying in every PC thread, wait 1,5 months for Conroe (the new Intel chip) It's THAT good!! You will not regret it!!

 

[Teknopathetic]

"Does the eVGA 7900 GT KO support HDR? If not will it really make a difference in games like Half-Life 2?"

Yes it does, however, Half-life 2's HDR isn't the normal SM3.0 HDR used in most games, it's their own custom implementation of HDR that uses SM2.0. But yeah, the 7900GT will do you good.

 

[Hooker]

^ nVidia cards don't support HDR + AA though, only ATi has that at the moment. (X1900XT(X))

 

[Synbios459]

I've already ordered. I really don't want to wait because whenever you do someone always says to wait for such and such and it gets to the point where you never get your stuff.

 

[Hooker]

Meh... your loss





What did you decide on btw?

 

[Synbios459]

"My revisements:

Mobo: ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

Proccessor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX"

 

[Shawn128]

You good sir are gunna have a kickass setup.

I have the mobo you ordered and its really fucking sweet, ASUS is incredible for overclocking. Just a quick note, if ur mobo comes with a fan on the northbridge, be wary of it as it might fail on you after like a month (this is a known problem on the motherboard). I'd suggest perusing the ASUS forums to find out about the Passive heatsink that could be installed in place of it (or I can PM the link if you ask me nicely )

I agree with everyone's opinions about the dual core processors. Get an X2 if you can.

EDIT: If it were me, I'd stick with the SLI rather than the A8N-E or whatever. I like having the future option of having a dual card setup

 

[Synbios459]

Alright, I have built my computer, can someone tell me what to overclock and how to do it?

 

[Shawn128]

Have to go to your BIOS, go and find something that lets you adjust the clock frequencies or a multiplier. If your cpu has an unlocked multiplier, then you can simply increase the multiplier to get an increase in clock frequency. However, I'd suggest the more subtle approach of adjusting the clock frequency itself. this is usually tied to you FSB speeds (mine was set at like 200). You can from here, basically increase the speed to however much you want. I would suggest you increase from about 10-15 at first, then when you notice some stability, decrease in frequencies of about 2~3 until you are stable. How will you know if its not stable? If you boot into windows and the thing freezes before you can even do anything.

Good ways to test stability are Prime 95 (think thats the name) and even 3D Mark. Also, running very cpu intensive games are good ways to test stability also. If you get a computer lock up doing these, then I'd suggest you decrease the frequency/multiplier as well. Make sure you keep an eye on your temps too !

 

[gprime]

Woah, your computer is almost identical to mine.

By the way, the CPU kicks major ass. EDIT: Except my video card is a X800 XT PE

 

[nitewulf]

are there any free pc benchmarking software avaiulable? spyware free i mean.