Building New PC - Help Needed

Hi.

I have have some extra cash which I'm going to use to build myself a new PC. It will mainly be used for high-end games, along with many other things (apps. and the rest).

I'm not 100% sure as to the hardware I want, but it's something alone the lines of:

- AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (San Diego) / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ (is it worth it?)
- Gigabyte K8NXP-SLi nForce4 SLi PCI Express Motherboard (S. 939)
- Now comes to the graphics card, which is where my real problem is. I've been looking at the HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X850 XT PE ICEQII 256MB DDR3 and XFX GeForce 7800GTX Extreme Edition 256MB GDDR3 graphics card. I'd appreciate your input.
- Not sure about sound card either. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 maybe?
- Western Digital Caviar SE 200gb HDD (IDE)

Haven't chosen a case yet. There's so many decent gaming ATX cases on the market. Any recommendations?

Thank you!

 

Well.. For sound card , I don't find sound cards extremely important for me, just whack on some bad ass 5.1 surround speakers, heh. But yeah if I were you, I'd just stick with standard onboard sound if the motherboard you choose supports it =P I'd go with the 4200+ , If you have the cash you may as well go the next step, but if your on abit of a budget then it won't make a great difference if you choose a 4000+ or a 4200+. And by the looks of it, you've already chosen some great specs, either of those video cards you've listed would do nicely , heck I only have a 128mb Radeon 9200 myself, lol. So really those other cards you've been looking at, are just kickass no matter what you choose ^_^.

 

San diego Thread :
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=384679

Dual cores X2 Thread :
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=384679

Gigabyte i have no idea
Mobo I choose DFI

I choose VGA XFX 7800GTX

HDD is OK ( IF you can get WD raptor 10000k 8m)

PSU Eneramax or antec, you will get more info about other at MG thread

Ram I choose Corsair or Gskill

Other member will get you more option

 

it all looks very nice! the only thing i would tell u is to definitly get the GeForce 7800GTX Extreme Edition. its a lot better than the Ati option. alone by the fact that it has 24 pipes gives it a huge advantage. but then again it is kinda expensive...

 

What wattage would you recommend: 550-600w? Enermax Noisetaker 600W sounds good. Bit pricey on top of everything else, though..

Are AMD 64 bit the best AMD CPUs out? Also, I'm still not decided on the graphics card. I've looked into it abit, and one lot of people say Radeon are best for gaming, and the other lot say NVIDIA are best for gaming. Is that just personal opinion, or is one better than the other really? The Radeon graphics card is cheaper than NVIDIA, so if there isn't much difference I'll probably go for Radeon.

I hope I'm right in thinking that everything I've chosen will fit with everything else. And, still, found no ATX case that I really want. I think I'll probably purchase the components first, see how much it all comes to, then choose my case. I also have to buy a monitor (going for 19", not too expensive yet good, recommendations?), gaming keyboard and gaming mouse. And lots of stickers.

 

The 7800 blows the crap out of the xt850,read this article from this page to its conclusion,it has benchmarks on all the latest games against all the latest vid cards,if I were you I'd drop your cpu down a notch to make sure you can get the 7800 gtx,it will give you more gaming performance than a better cpu.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/229/16/

600w psu's are for servers,You will waste electricity and kill more of whatever is endangered ATM a good 400,450 or 500w will do,Tagan,enermax noisetaker,the ultra-xconnect,power consuption with this card is lower than the 6800's,the most important thing is its a quality unit with strong 12v rails,a



BTW what country you from,it makes shopping easier,when you have your final list post it here so's we can mull it over

 

Well I may be using it as a CS server, providing it will work fine on a 2mb connection. Gotta look into that more. If so, should I go with the 600w? Otherwise, I'll take a 500w. I'll probably go for the 7800. Looks totally KICK ASS. For CPU reckon I should go for the AMD 64 bit processor I mentioned earlier, not the dual core? I definitely don't think I'll need more than AMD 64 bit. If I'm not able to have that little bit extra money, then I will turn it down a notch, but otherwise I'm going for it. Probably will go for a decent sound card aswell, because I'm going to set up surround sound around my bedroom. HDD is sorted out, but I may purchase another - 80gb max. - to install Linux on, as I do a lot of work on Linux.

I'm from the UK. When I'm all decided I'll post everything. Really appreciating your help here, guys.

 

For all those tests guru3d used an a64 4000+ and it gave the 7800gtx plenty of cpu power to blow all the other cards away,any of the top 4 tagans will do just get the best you can afford,they have strong 12v rails,you could easily stick 4 hd's in there for a server and the psu wont flinch,yourt connection might though,its the upload speed you need for a server 2mb is prob your download speed,anyway with a 2meg upload you could prob have 4-6 players without much ping.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Tagan.html

 

So, AMD 64 bit 4000+ (San Diego) processor, Gigabyte K8NXP-SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (?), XFX GeForce 7800GTX Extreme Edition 256MB GDDR3, Tagan TG580-U22 580W ATX2.01 2Force SLi Compliant Silent PSU, so far. But Ultra X-Connect 500W ATX2.0 Cable Detachable PSU sounds quite good. Didn't say anything about being silent though.

If anyone can tell me about a better mobo for around the same price, that would be cool.

What about RAM? I was looking at Corsair's 1GB DDR XMS3200C2 XPERT TwinX. I don't think I'll need anything more than 1GB right now, and those sticks have some pretty cool features to help determine what exactly is going on, etc.

Apparently the CPU cooling fan that comes with the AMD 64 bit processor sucks, so I think I'll spend some extra money on a decent one. ThermalRight maybe? I dunno.

Cooling I'll have to work out when I've picked a case I want. If any of you know any UK websites that sell decent gaming ATX cases, do tell.

What have I left out? Oh, sound card. I don't need anything really really good. Just something that will suffice when playing games. Something that will make the playing experience more realistic. I was looking at Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value 7.1 PCI sound card. Speakers I'll pick out later. Actually 7.1 I probably won't need. 5.1 would be cheaper and still suffice.

Keep the input coming please. You're helping a lot.

 

The ultra x-connect psu looks awsome its also a good stable psu,in performance/quality terms though its not in tagans league,its up to you performance or looks.motherboard I would go for the asus nf4 sli mobo
for £135 including vat,its awsome and feature packed.half way down the page.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/ASUS_Socket_939.html

The stock fan does suck"I know"Its noisy as hell when it winds up and will only keep the cpu at about 55* under full load,I first bought an akasa ak-859 which was alright,awsome fan,but because of the design of my mobo was I think it was being restricted by the vid card and memory,check my thread out

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=64712

Tight mobo,so I have bought an xp-90c which is the best 939 heatsink in all the reviews I have seen,sometimes beaten by its bigger bro the xp-120,this is it with the 80mm akasa fan on,one post down havnt tested it yet though

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=65752

A good case is the chenbro gaming bomb,but its expensive about £130,its available at .scan.co.uk or I think .overclockers.co.uk, Its my fav so far,to be honest I dont like any of them they look cheap use too much plastic and are tacky.

The mobo has good onboard sound,You could go for an audigy 2,they are all good IMO the best you can afford,this will free up a small amount of cpu usage,but with an 4000+ you wont notice it

 

The scan and overclock links are toast,I like this case awsome cooling,looks good "to me"lol

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=192072

 

looks like ur gonna have a sweet PC there!
what are ur plans on RAM? make sure u get some good stuff so u can overclock ur cpu to fully max out that GF7!

 

Good point olley forgot about ram,I'm not a fan of that expert stuff looks tacky to me,a plain matched pair with 2-2-2-5 latencies is good enough,its what I have and its awsome.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=118550

 

Tough decisions. I'm definitely decided on the CPU, unless anyone can crop up with a reason not to buy a AMD 64 bit 4000+ processor. I could overclock it aswell. Graphics card I'm going for the NVIDIA GeFore4 7800GTX Extreme Edition.

Like Kenshin said, I'll probably leave sound with the onboard sound, but set up some good speakers.

Both of the mobos - Asus and Gigabyte ones - have great reviews and lots of excellent features. Who would you say is leading at the moment?

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL XPERT TwinX who RAM? Has nice additional features, and hopefully well worth the extra money. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Corsair_XL.html - first product.

I'll go for the Targan PSU, Rikky.

I'll see how much money I have after buying all of this, with monitor, keyboard, and mouse, before I buy a case. If this comes to less than I originally expected it to, I don't mind paying for a £150 max. case. Thermaltake cases look good.

Still need a good but inexpensive (£240 max.) 19" monitor. Never payed much attention to monitors, so I don't know what's good and what's bad.

 

heh, well I'll leave you guys to it. =P Though personally i'd use an ATI graphics card over a NVidia card anyday =P

 

These cases look and sound good:
Case 1
Case 2

This RAM is practically the same as the other RAM I picked out, but cheaper.

Mmkay..

Gigabyte K8NXP-SLi nForce4 SLi PCI Express / Asus A8N-SLi Premium / And the Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLi - If anyone could research and find out how they match up against each other, that would be great. I'll try, but I doubt I know all the sites for these types of things like you

 

NICE TRY!From what I'v seen asus is the best here get reading

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=939+sli+motherboard+roundup&meta=

The expert memory you linked to wont allow you to fit alot of aftermarket coolers because of its hight,the memory link is the same as the one I gave you?The case I suppose is up to you,thermaltake have made a good name for themselves in the case department though.

 

Yeah I'm tilting towards Asus at the moment. I've heard good things about the DFI Lanparty aswell. Apparently they are the best AMD 64 SLI motherboards out at the moment? I do want to overclock as much as possible. I heard, again, that the Lanparty is the best for that.

 

check this out I pretty much trust gruntville,they have the asus aswell

http://www.gruntville.com/kingofthehill.php



Unless your into overclocking,pressed return too soon,lol decisions, decisions,you wont be dissapointed in either

 

Lol, damn. There are so many good ones! The Asus A8N SLI yeah? What's it like for overclocking? And why does it say the ATI X850XT PE is the fastest chipset? If it really is I may aswell save money and buy that instead of the NVIDIA 7800GTX Extreme Edition.

Oh, and I think I may go for the Western Digital Raptor 74gb. I'll buy another WD HDD aswell. Not much difference between IDE and SATA when installing?

 

Alright, guys. Have it now I reckon:

AMD 64 bit 4000+ CPU
Asus A8N-SLi Premium
GeForce 7800GTX Extreme Edition
Corsair 1gb TwinX-XL DDR400 RAM
Western Digital Raptor 74gb SATA with WD Secure Connect SATA cable (I'll buy another HDD later, but for now that will do me fine)
Tagan TG580-U22 580W ATX2.01 2Force SLi Compliant Silent PSU

Monitor I've chosen Samsung SM913N 19" TFT. From what I've heard it's a great monitor for gaming and reasonably priced.

No case yet.

Coolers, CD/DVD drives and what have you I will buy after the other parts.

Sweet system or what? Now I just need to try and find the cheapest prices.

 

Sweet system couldnt have picked a better one myself! I recommend www.scan.co.uk or overclockers.co.uk Ihave used them both,they are both the cheapest I have found and scan has the best customer service I have yet to experience

 

I dunno,why'd you ask,neweggs far cheaper than any UK store.

 

LOL,the only thing that gets me outta line is the price you guys get your parts for

 

AMD Athlon 64 bit 4000+
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
XFX GeForce4 7800GTX Extreme Edition
Corsair 1gb TwinX-XL Pro DDR400 RAM
2 WD Raptor HDDs
Thermalright XP-120 with 120mm SilenX fan
SilenX 600w PSU

Zboard (normal keyset, gaming keyset, free additional BF2 keyset)
Logitech MX-518 gaming mouse
Altex Lansing XA2021 Gaming Audio 2.1 speakers (cheap ones for now - better later)
WD Secure Connect SATA cable

I'll buy other fans depending on the case which I STILL haven't chosen.. :/ Same with buying things to tidy up cables.

Dunno what to do about a monitor. Right now I have a 19" AOC PG+. Don't know whether to buy a new one (was looking at a Samsung SyncMaster 19") or keep my current one. Whatever I choose I'll paint black to go with my whole pc.

 

Theres no point running the raptors in raid there is no speed advantage,150 gigs of space is loads,if you wanted to trim some fat off you could go for one raptor or the 36gig version that I have for you most used files and a large storage drive.

A 600w psu is too large,its efficiency will be poor with the parts you have chosen,this means you will pay for shitload more electricity

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page4.html

 

I'll keep the raptors and buy another larger HDD later on. Saved quite a lot of money so I'll be able to buy it. Going to keep my current monitor and mod it. Saves money.

520w SilenX PSU will do then? I'll send the 600w SilenX back.

 

As the article states its not cost benificial to have such a large psu,with your system I would go with a 450 or 400 quality psu,unless your gonna stick 4 more harddrives and 4 dvd burners in.

 

the Large PSU capacity, the much spare parts you put in computer. 520w PSU is good at moment but it not good for OC base on your Computer Specs.

 

Blah, you're both saying something different lol.

I cancalled my order from overclockers.co.uk for the XFX 7800GTX, because it's pre-order. I found the same one (with slightly lower core & clock speeds) for a cheaper price. I'll OC it as much as I can, aswell as everything else. Oh, and still no case.. I hate choosing cases.

Gonna buy a decent headset for games. What's the Sennheiser PC160 Pro-Gaming Headphones like?

EDIT: My 2 raptors and AMD 64 4000+ have arrived. AMD have bad packaging :/, and the fan is definitely crap lol.