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Rate My PC Build - Comments/Suggestions Welcome
If anything is incompatible, please let me know. I would also like suggestions for north/south bridge cooling and CPU cooling as well. The cases aren't set in stone, so if you have a better in mind, the let me know. The dimensions have to stay at 18"Dx17.5"Hx8"W.
Thanks.
Comments
get better memory so you can fsb overclock easier, i've had very good luck with corsair dominator with all my nvidia chipset motherboards. ('cept that damn 790i)
as far as cases go, IMHO nothing beats the antec 900.
(sorry, i didn't read the dimension requirements. just make sure whatever you're trying to fit it into it gets good ventilation)
look into the line of asus xonar sound cards, they get great reviews, and i absolutely love mine.
if you get a windowed case the zalman cnps 9700s look great 'specially the aluminum ones, plus they do a very good job.
____________________________
TheCore
If you get a radial heatsink like a Thermaltake Orb, then the fan will also blow air onto the north and south bridge. Its actually a recommended fix on 780g boards to cool the mosfets. Also nothing beats plain good case cooling. Both of those cases should provide nice airflow, especially front to back.
Have you seen the new Asus Sound Cards? I really wanna get one. They look cool and people have been giving them good reviews.
For the memory, consider looking at at 2 x 2gb RAM kit so you only take up two spots leaving room for upgrades later. It should come out to be pretty much the same cost.
RAID 0 on a desktop really isn't worth it, if you do do it though, make sure you have a back up drive because RAID 0 means you have double the chance of losing all your data.
The power supply is way overkill. Consider this PC Power and Cooling 610 watt power supply, it is very high quality, will give you ample power, and saves you over $100.
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
Last of all, this is just something to consider, ATI and NVIDIA are coming out with their new cards very soon, supposedly, ATI's cards are coming out in less than a month. Might want to wait and see how they perform, they are supposed to be very powerful.
--------------------------------
Desktop - AMD 8450 Tri Core, 3 gigs of DDR2 800 RAM, ATI HD 3200 Graphics, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Laptop (Dell Latitude E6400) - Intel P8400, 2 GIGs of RAM, Intel X4500, Windows XP Professional
For the memory, consider looking at at 2 x 2gb RAM kit so you only take up two spots leaving room for upgrades later. It should come out to be pretty much the same cost.
RAID 0 on a desktop really isn't worth it, if you do do it though, make sure you have a back up drive because RAID 0 means you have double the chance of losing all your data.
The power supply is way overkill. Consider this PC Power and Cooling 610 watt power supply, it is very high quality, will give you ample power, and saves you over $100.
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
Last of all, this is just something to consider, ATI and NVIDIA are coming out with their new cards very soon, supposedly, ATI's cards are coming out in less than a month. Might want to wait and see how they perform, they are supposed to be very powerful.
I would have to completely agree with everthing. you are better off getting a terabyte drive than 2x500gb drives. it's more secure and raid 0 won't offer any noticable speed boost unless you are working with huge files. if you want speed get a 150gb raptor to put your operating system/apps on then get a 500gb to store files on.too many people buy huge psu's for a system that only draws 300 watts.
extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
that should give you a good estimate for what you need.
For the video card i would get the 8800gt for about the same price www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
http://azhrarn.deviantart.com
Do you have a good SLI board to recommend then? I have been reading some nasty things about the 780 (video issues).
I know the PSU is overkill, but it is for upgrade sake and the modular cabling.
My budget is $1500. I won't be able to drop $600 on a new card. That's why I am going with the two 9600's. Sure beats me single 6800gt at the moment.
Thanks all for the comments. I am hoping to order this later this week.
Edit: BTW, I am not stuck on Intel boards. So, if you find a good AMD board with SLI support, I am all game.
Also, has anyone actually used a CrossFire enabled system? Is it as good as SLI?
Sorry only nVidia chipsets support SLI atm. as far as crossfire goes, it scale very well if not better than sli.
Instead of getting two lesser cards you may want to consider buying one good card, and my vote is still for the 8800gt over the 9600gt's. The 8800gt is faster for about the same price.
http://azhrarn.deviantart.com
Sorry to bump, but I need to order this thing by tomorrow. I am no longer stuck on getting strictly Nvidia. I've been reading about horrible artifact issues with the newer chipsets (from 770 to 790).
Please recommend a good board. It can be ATI. Crossfire is ok, but not necessary. Does not need to be Intel, AMD is fine as well. Here is my budget.
Mobo ~ $200-$300
GPU ~ $400
CPU ~ $300
Find me a good combo there and I can take care of the rest. Thanks.
Ditch the SLI and get a single card solution
128 stream processors like the GTX on a cheaper board. Outperforms the 8800GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143119
this will allow lower power consumption. Unless you want to purchase another 8800GTS down the road and SLI it, buy a 550w it will push a single card. If you plan on SLI down the road then keep the PSU you picked out.
your SLI isnt much of perk on resolutions 1680x1050 and lower. Youd be better off purchasing a better CPU for the amount of money you would spend on a second board.
The creative board is an excellent choice
ditch the Quad Core and stick with a much faster dual core if this is a gaming machine
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot foot stomping on a human face -- forever."
Stream Processors really don't mean shit when it comes to gaming, or else nVidia would not have a competitive card seeing as how ATI is churning out 320 stream processor cards. The GTS only has a marginal performance advantage over the GT, but at a higher cost.
If you are set on ATI, then I would wait 2 weeks. ATI is releasing a new series of cards that deals with the limiting factor in the current cards. They should show a sharp performance increase.
Also just because you have a budget of $1500 doesn't mean you gotta spend it all. For games there isn't an advantage of a $1500 system to a $800 system. 120fps over 60fps, who cares when you cannot notice the difference passed 30fps.
I'll probably go with the new ATI card then. What board do you recommend. To be honest, I can put it all together and make it work, but I suck at picking out the hardware.
youre going with an ATI card and purchasing a 780 chipset?
First of all, the only reason to get a 780 or 790 is to go SLI. The nVidia based motherboards are garbage compared to the intel based boards. Theyre not nearly as flexible or stable. Had it not been for the possibility of going SLI I would have suggested ditching that 780 right off the bat.
in that case, get an x38 or an x48. Personally, the x38 is awesome and you wont get much more out of an x48. Its a very stable chipset with a better RAID controller than what comes on the nVidia chipset boards.
stick with Asus or Gigabyte. The Asus Maximus Formula is a killer motherboard.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131221
secondly, do yourself a favor and start researching the pros and cons of what you're buying. You're going to get pulled in every direction here by fan-bois persuading you what to buy and what not to buy. You should check Tomshardware and just start reading the general motherboard forums.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-30-185.html
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot foot stomping on a human face -- forever."
I'm not being swayed by fanboys, I am doing research, but I am trying to get opinions such as yours, which, I appreciate. I looked at the X38 and may go with that.
Thanks.
Your board really depends on what you are planning to use it for. If you are going to be using it for HD Video playback then you should go AMD, if you are using it to game then go Intel. There really isn't as huge a difference between AMD and Intel when it comes to performance. Intel obviously is the better choice right now for gaming, but its not such a huge advantage that building a budget AMD system is out of the question since right now its more about the video card then the processor.
If your multi-tasking, or using alot of multi-threaded applications, then a Quad core has its place. However, if its just gaming then Dual Core is more ideal at the moment unless you go AMD where Quad Core is pretty much the only choice.
I guess I should have added that this will be a gaming machine. I am turning my old PC into a Linux box.
I'd say go with the evga 750i mobo, its a great motherboard for the price and awesome overclocking stability.
As for gpu's, stay away from the current 9 series that is out, it is just a refresh of the 8800 series that doesn't perform any better. I'd say get EVGA 8800 GTS G92 KO edition, same performance as the 9800 GX2.
Nvidia is suppose to be releasing the 9900 series in JulIy so you should be able to do the step up program from there, as long as you keep everything. This is what I plan on doing atleast.
what'd ya end up doing with this build dekron ?
____________________________
TheCore
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 English 1 Pack CD
Item #:N82E16832116515
Return Policy: Software Return Policy
COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black Computer Case
Item #:N82E16811119152
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$64.99
PC Power & Cooling S610EPS 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply
Item #:N82E16817703005
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$15.00 Mail-in Rebate
$109.99
BFG Tech GeForce 8800GTS (G92) BFGE88512GTSE Video Card
Item #:N82E16814143119
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Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Processor
Item #:N82E16819115036
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ASUS P5E3 WS PRO ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #:N82E16813131282
Return Policy: Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy
mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Item #:N82E16820146739
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($133.99 each)
Thermaltake CL-P0257 Blue orb II CPU Cooler for LGA775 & K8
Item #:N82E16835106069
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Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Item #:N82E16835100008
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ASUS Xonar D2 Ultra Fidelity Sound Card With Dolby/DTS Technologies
Item #:N82E16829132001
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Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Item #:N82E16822136218
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SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S203B
Item #:N82E16827151153
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$26.99
'grats. have fun with it !
____________________________
TheCore
Thanks. This thread did help out a lot.
Well, just finished building and smooth startup. I ended up going with the Antec 900 - love it. The only issue is the Asus Xonar D2. My mobo won't recognize it. It's a known issue with the chipset.
Now, this is awesome. I used Arctic Silver 5 and the Blue Orb 2 CPU fan, and well, holy shit. I've been running my PC all day and the CPU temp has MAXED out at 7C. My case is ice cold from all the fans. Nice, awesome build.
Oh yeah, another issue. Windows is only reading 3.25/4.0GB of RAM. Any ideas why? I've tested the sticks and they are all good.
I'm assuming the OS you bought is a 32-bit system. It only recognizes 3.27 gigs or something like that. You need a 64bit OS to recognize anything more than that - 4, 6(oddly), 8 gigs of ram and so on.
7C...god thats nice.
I think he typoed 7C. Having a system temp of 7C would be dangerous due to condensation. Also sucks that your Xonar Card doesn't work.
Nope. Unless the sensor is bad, it is reading 7C.
Edit: Downloaded Core Temp and it is showing both cores hanging around 47C. I need to reseat the Blue Orb and reapply the themal paste.
for video card.. get 8800GT..also why you have to spend $250 for the PSU?? do you have to spend that much money?
**Update nice i didnt know this thread seem resolved with so many reply.. Nice PC. I think my new Pc is like half of your cost --;