Its all to much.. what do I choose

[derwood]

Hey all,

After reading a lifetimes worth of post here, I am still lost... serious overload.

I have experience with building my own machine but I did such a good job on my current machine that I haven't looked into new hardware in a long time.

I am looking to use some of my current hardware but get newer equipment that will be upgradeable.

What I wish to end up with is a decent gaming machine but not super high end. Of course a good gaming machine can be used for anything else I would do. While budget is always a factor, I would feel comfortable at around $1200 but if something brings it over that and would be worth it I amnot limited by budget.

The only components that I have that I wish to keep are a new 600W power supply (dual fan with controllable fan speed) and I don't want/need to spend any money on my sound card.

I am not wedded to Intel or Amd. I have had good success with Nvidia so I would prefer to stick to them but if ATI is that much of a budget saver I will consider it.

I have had problems in the past with cooling so I am interested in cooling options/cases.

The meat of my question:
Solid motherboard?
Ram 2gb+ to go with it?
Vid Card(s)? SLI or PCIE? Are these the same thing?
Cooling?Case?
Processor? Dual Core????? to many options out there for this one to even begin to have an opinion myself.
SATA or Raid or old school?10,000rpm? is 7,500 good enough?
Seperate drives (1 for system and 1 for files and programs?)
I have dvd writers and readers of course.
Don't care about wireless network as it sits 6 ft from my router but if its included in the mother board thats fine.
Of course I'll need USB and Firewire ports but isn't that on all of the decent boards now?
I run dual monitors so I would like to keep that function available.

Anything else you can think of?

I'll price out the items recommended but if you know a good source please include that too.

Thanks for any suggestions you can give.

Derwood

 

[Sean618]

This feels a little weird giving advice to someone who has already built their own pc and I haven't yet, but I think I know enough to give some advice.

SLI is where two Nvidia cards are used, Crossfire being the ATI equivelent. PCIE is the slot which most new graphics cards will use. So you definately want a PCIe graphics card.

Motherboard; There are quite a few but the most popular are Asus (P5W DH and P5B in particular) and Gigabyte. If you desperately want SLI (which most people wouldn't recommend as it's generally not worth the money unless you are using a high resolution) then the P5N32-sli is probably your best choice, btw there are 3 types of this board. If you desperately want crossfire which again isn't recommended, then the P5W DH is probably your best choice.

At the moment ATI's X1900 range is the most popular only bettered by the Nvidia 7950GX2, however that's alot more expensive (basically SLI on one card).

Definately go for dual core preferably conroe (Intel core 2 duo) as it's far better at the moment then an AMD equivelent. The E6300, E6400 and E6600 are the most popular anything higher is just too expensive.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sean618]

Might want to got for this hard drive instead;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148144

Otherwise want more could you ask for?

 

[derwood]

Thanks for the info so far.

So is a Dual Core 2.4 gig chip as good as a higher rated single core?

Your right about the 7950GX2... $200 more.. ouch. but with the idea of limiting upgrading would it be worth it. Does the 7950GX2 really provide much more then the ATI?

 

[Sean618]

Yea that core 2 6600 is about as fast if not a little faster than an AMD fx62. Only cpu's faster than it are the 6700 and 6800extreme.

And i do not see where the 7950 is really worth the price/performance over the ATI. I normally prefer Nvidia but the new ATI's IMHO are the way to go for the high end.

Yeah I definately second that.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Thirded, and I've got AMD/Nvidia written through me like a stick of rock :lol:

 

[purdueguy]

Case: Antec P180

CPU: Intel C2D E6600

Hard Drives: 2 Seagate Barracudas 7200.10

Motherboard: Surprisingly a lot of MB's don't come with firewire. The one I suggest (ASUS P5B Deluxe/WIFI) does and has good potential for OC'ing if you want to do so and has nice RAID options.

RAM: A lot of people say to go with 2 GB's of RAM. Well, if it's in your budget (the 2GB of Mushkin is probably your cheapest at the moment) then I say yeah, go for it (or when VISTA comes out - definitely), otherwise 1GB will be fine for awhile and memory is the easiest thing to upgrade. Crucial Ballistix - CAS Latency 3

Video Card: I'd wait until Monday to see if Newegg gets the MSI X1900XTX card in. MSI X1900XTX Otherwise the X1900XTwith 256MB performs nearly as well as the 512MB version but costs around 60-175 dollars less depending on the model.

I am of the opinion to spend your money on the best CPU, video card, and motherboard that you can afford and work in the other components.

Get yourself some Arctic Silver 5 if you don't have any. AS5

Total: $1174.92 not including S&H. If you want the 2 GB of memory then add another hundred.

 

[derwood]

logainofhades: The price from newegg includes almost $100 in taxes. Are there any other recommended sellers that aren't in California?

Also, I looked at both MB's that were recommended. It's been a while but I assume the blue card slot is for the PCIE and the white slots are PCI but what the the hell is the black one for? 😀

As a second option, does anyone know a retailer that has good prices on a solid gaming machine that would meets the specs of what I'm looking for? Or are they all significantly higher then self assembly?

 

[Sean618]

As a second option, does anyone know a retailer that has good prices on a solid gaming machine that would meets the specs of what I'm looking for? Or are they all significantly higher then self assembly?

That's like waving a red flag to a bull in this forum :lol: but there have been a few previous post on good prebuilt machines. Basically, if you have the time then building your own would be cheaper (normally around 10% cheaper).

 

[derwood]

10% on $1200 is worth the effort. About $60 an hour... if it goes well 😀

 

[Doughbuy]

I go to www.directron.com for all my needs. Their based in H-Town, so I drive to their office whenever I want and pick up what I need.

DX10 cards are coming out soon. If your satisfied with your current system, I would recommend you stay satisfied with it for another 2-3 months and see how DX10 cards pan out.