Review my computer build list...

VoodooChi|d · May 7, 2005

Hey all... this is my first post on [H]... I've been lurking a long time though but now that it's time to build a computer from scratch (my old one was a frankenstein system with parts borrowed mostly from a gateway p4 1.4) I figured I would join...

Anyways I'm going to be building a new rig with some graduation money (finally out of high school in 2 weeks

MemoryInAGarden · May 7, 2005

Looks good to me. The only thing I might change would be looking into an SLI board if that interests you or getting a dual channel kit of RAM since it would probably be cheaper.

Juic3 · May 7, 2005

Sounds good, Id hit the NF4 or Ultra chipsets though ... and buy a PAIR or RAM sticks so you get Dual Channel

VoodooChi|d · May 7, 2005

Well I went with the single 1 gig stick b/c I'd like to upgrade to 4gb eventually... I'll probably get another 1 gig stick soon... but would the single one be fine for a lil while? Would there be a signifcant loss in performance of a single gig stick compared to a 2x512?

I don't really want a PCI-E card right now just beacause I don't see much need for it for a single 256mb card... so the other mobos don't really seem necessary

Carnival Forces · May 8, 2005

personally, i think OCZ is a bad company. there's all this drama about them and the [H], an older user can tell you about it...

why in the world would you need 4GB? movie rendering?

why two DVD drives? going to be burning *and* watching a DVD? often enough to justify the cost?

this is a gaming system? or is it a rendering system? if it's rendering, go for more RAM (2x1GB) and a quad opteron system :drool: hehe...sorry...</off-topic>

considered water cooling?

Captain Colonoscopy · May 8, 2005

Thermaltake PSUs are kinda sucky, I wouldn't recommend one. Antec, Enermax, OCZ are highly recommend brands in the PSU forums here, but they are a little more expensive, you get what you pay for. Try these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103928
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104154
If you have to stay in the $40-$50 price range for a PSU please get this one instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103444
It is rated for 50W less than the thermalcrap PSU but it will actually come closer to its advertised rating . . .

As for the mobo, I would recommend going with an nforce chipset. They are much better for over-clocking. Here's the one I'm running right now without issue, and it's cheaper

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123230
However I would recommend, since you're building new, to make the jump to nforce4 and a PCI-X video card. There is virtually no difference in price, PCI-X video cards are actually cheaper and the setup would be more future proof.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123236
or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123243
In case you haven't noticed I'm partial to EPoX.

MSI and DFI are also highly recommended.

If you want to OC and save some cash I would buy a 3000+ instead of a 3200+. Also, I'm using the stock retail HSF with a good lapping with excellent results. To save some cash I might wait to purchase that zalman HSF.

I also would suggest getting a dual channel memory kit. Corsair value ram is on sale right now and do you really need 4GB of memory? What are you gonna do with this thing?!!!

Your present build looks pretty good however and I think you will be happy with it. My suggestions are just what I would do. But please, for all that is good and right in the world, do not buy a thermaltake or ultra PSU. Do yourself a favor and spend some time reading through the PSU forums here, you'll thank yourself later.

VoodooChi|d · May 8, 2005

I hate to admit it but I kinda knew the PSU wasn't too great and the biggest reason I liked it was the sleeved cables because I'm too lazy to sleeve them myself... and I liked that it had a black housing...

Going by the things I will have in the computer... what wattage of a PSU would you recommend? (I realize the wattage rating isn't the best way to judge them)... Basically I'm asking of one of the nicer brands of PSU's what would be a sufficient wattage for my computer...

I have seen other posts where people have talked poorly of OCZ but I haven't found out why... I have heard nothing but good things about their RAM from people who have it... Now that I have thought about it some I really am not sure why I wanted 4 gigs... I guess it just sounded so cool... so I'll prolly just go with the OCZ 2x512... and get another set of it later...

I'm still not sold on the PCI-E or the Nforce... to me the only 2 single cards that would benefit are the two 512mb ones... I dont see the 8x AGP slowing down the 256mb one and the PCI-E version of the exact same leadtek card is 100 dollars more...

About the DVD and DVD-RW drive... I'd rather have both because if I'm going to just use a cd/dvd I'd rather not use it in the dvd-rw drive because its less time the -rw drive is moving and I'd rather keep it healthy for its strenuous task of burning the 100s of movies I'll be getting this summer with the blockbuster movie pass

... and for more bucks it's not that big a deal...

I don't know if I'll be OCing or not... It seems with this setup (especially the AMD 64) it would be really easy and almost fool proof... but I never have before and I'm a bit nervous... I'll prolly run it stock for a while and then decide... but I've heard such great things about the 3200 and its not that expensive either...

As to my intentions for the computer, it's going to be serving a pretty broad range of activities... I plan on doing some music recording, some video editing (not very often), some gaming, some movie watching/copying, some photoshopping, and of course MSoffice stuff for school...

I'm going to get the Dell 2005fpw monitor once they have another good deal on it too...

Schro · May 8, 2005

For the RAM, check this Corsair ValueRam out- it'll save you $50 and is from a more reputable company than your original selection.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145505

With the money you save on RAM, put it towards this PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104934
If you head over to the [H]ot Deals section, there's a thread showing where you can get this for about $70. I've used Antec, Vantec, and this PSU on the rig in my sig- only this one holds the 12v steady at 2.7Ghz.. the others cry like babys and give me 11v, +/- .3v (oh my.. the coffee is making my verbaige colorful today).

For the motherboard, I'd suggest looking at an NF4 based board so you can have NCQ and PCI-E... The AX8 from Abit is going for about 111 and the MSI SLI board is going for alittle more than 150. This will make your graphics card a little bit more expensive, but if you go with the MSI board, it has a Soundblaster Live! hybred built onboard so you may not need the Audigy ZS.

Continuing on the NCQ thought, I'd suggest picking up NCQ capable drives- most of the newer Seagates and Maxtors have this capability, and will translate into an excellent "real-world" performance gain when coupled with an NCQ capable controller.

The PC-61 is a very nice case, but it has been around for 3+ years now, and there are better ones out there as far as cooling and noise go. I generally avoid aluminum cases and 80mm fans, as steel cases with 120mm fans can create a quieter computing experience at the same level of cooling. Unfortunatly, I'm picky and don't have a better suggestion for you at this time....

I agree with the 3200.. I've been wishing i got the 3200 for a few months- This board tops out at a 300HTT, which I can hit with my 9x multi.. If I had a 10x, 3ghz would be in range....

As for the monitor.. lets jsut say my 2005FPW will be here in a few days...

kirbyrj · May 8, 2005

You'll run out of video card options in AGP before you need 4GB of RAM

.

I don't think you'll get to run 4GB anyway. I can't imagine a A64 memory controller that can handle that (4x1GB) right now. Maybe with X2's.

VoodooChi|d · May 8, 2005

I've heard good things about Corsair but I've heard a few bad things about the Value stuff... Would this... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145450 be good?

Also I'll bump my PSU price range up in the 60s...

Review my computer build list...

VoodooChi|d

[H]ard|Gawd

MemoryInAGarden

2[H]4U

Juic3

[H]ard|Gawd

VoodooChi|d

[H]ard|Gawd

Carnival Forces

Supreme [H]ardness

Captain Colonoscopy

2[H]4U

VoodooChi|d

[H]ard|Gawd

Schro

[H]F Junkie

kirbyrj

Fully [H]

VoodooChi|d

[H]ard|Gawd