Builing a New Computer - Suggestions, and Questions.

Hi, Im pretty new at this sort of thing, but have some experience with internals so Im looking to build a new computer, i have a few components id like to keep, but mainly going with new stuff.

I play some games like command and conquer, flight sims and counter strike/HL.

Here are the specs im considering, Id like input good/bad or maybe suggest another direction. Id like to keep it around 1500 w/o monitor as it will last for a while. My current comp is a dell ive had for 6 years just upgrading ram, hard drive and vidoe card and a dvd burner.

Case - Thermaltake Soprano, i really like this case. Hoping to keep it quiet.

PSU - 400w silent purepower from thermaltake

Motherboard - DFi Lanparty nf4 dr. was doing some research which made me think that this might noto be the best choice. I dont plan on doing any overclocking or that stuff. Any other brands to try?

Processor - AMD athalon X2, either a 3800 or 4200. I think dual core is the way to go for a new age PC.

Memory - At least 2GB, is Ultra any good and what specs exactly should I look for?

Video Card - eventually id like to go PCI - E, and nvidia, I currently have a Radeon 9800, would I be able to use this one for a while before upgrading or should I just get a new one now?

Hard drives - I have a 80gb caviar and a 200gb barracuda that I am currently using - both ata 100 drives. could I buy a 74 gb raptor sata fir windows and use all three with any problems, or should I stick it out with the ata's.

Drives - I have a dvd rom and DVD-rw drive that is really new so ill keep those. they are ata connection.

OS - windows xp 64?

Monitor and sound - have a 19" sony and a turtle beach santa cruz card.

Any thing else im forgetting let me know.

Thanks a lot for allt he help.

 

The 9800s are AGP cards, they will not work on PCIe motherboards.

 

definately go pci-e and with that setup your listing go with a minimum 450w preferably 500w or more psu. as far as xp 64 there just doesnt seem to be enough driver support.sticking with xp home or pro would probably be better.your ata drives are fine as long as the board has enough connections to handle it.a raptor to me imho is just a waste of money for very little performance gain. so a game loads a hair faster or an app starts a hair faster.is it worth the price? hope that helps

 

I would consider a 550+ Watt PSU so u can go SLI with no problems later on. Asus makes rock solid mother boards... HOWEVER, something to think about is currently new egg is running a promotion with eVGA, in that you buy a eVGA 7800 GT and you get a eVGA mother board for free! (honestly, you pay 60 dollars for it... 7800 GT = 299, mobo offer = 340). I can say personally that this is a great board to work with, the bios is stable as are the raid drivers (i have two raptors running in RAID0) Also, the board is SLI, so you can go that route later on. When it comes to processors, for the moment single core>dual core for gaming, however, that will change once game makers start taking advantage of duel core. I think your decision to go dual core is a good one! The ram in my build is corsair XMS pro. the timings are 2.5-3-3-6. the LOWER the timings the better, OCZ seems to be a great company when it comes to gaming RAM, as is corsair. Go PCI-E... just as dual core is the future, so is PCI. I agree with ibbonkers about windows 64, from what i understand the driver support is nothing short of... non-existant. gonna need alot of ata connections though, so make sure the board u pick has enough! Last thing, when it comes to power sources, make sure u get one that is SLI certified... better safe than sorry!

 

Follow up -

On the AMD X2 processors, what does the manchester and toledo etc. designations mean? Some appear to be drastically more expensive.

Thanks for the replys so far.

 

i need to Build a new pc coz mine is borken how ever i dont know what to go with amd or Intel i dont want to make top of the line pc either, only looking for something that will run most games i guess i could spend some in a good video card also i know intel is more expencive that amd this is my first pc building alone i have a few how ever i had help bulding them i just need to know which way to go and what to make sure i need to get with out fail i'll make another post here of what motherboard i been looking at and also the tower am getting rest i might leave to you guys give me some tips

 

i didnt see an icon to edit my post so i have to repost to this , i was looking into the pc thing and this is what i got so far maybe u guys can tell me any suggestion and what i missing so far :

Hard Drive
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
SOUNDCARD
Rosewill RC-701 5.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card
POWER SUPPLY
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power
RAM:
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL
CASE
Corsair Graphite Series 600T CC600TM Mid-Tower Gaming Case
MOTHERBOARD
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD motherboard
PROCESSOR/CPU
AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8120FRGUBOX

got windows 7 already