Rate my custom PC please.

[deathc4]

Alright, so im using the same company (Cyberpowerinc.com) that custom build my last PC, turned out good. What im wondering is if this system has enough watts to support all its components (and possible a second graphics card) and also if anyone sees any place where problems could arrise and if the 10,000rpm HDD is worth it. Ok, heres the guts of the machine:

CASE : Xplorer Mid-Tower Case W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display (Black Case w/Green Face)

Power Supply: Aspire 600W DARK SIDE POWER ATX Power Supply

CPU : (939-pin) AMD Athlon™64 FX 60 Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

MOTHERBOARD : (Sckt939)ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio

MEMORY : 2048 MB (1GBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair XMS High Performance Memory w/ Heat Spreader)

VIDEO CARD : NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card

HARD DRIVE : 200GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive -- Recommended

Optical Drive : COMBO DRIVE (16X DVD-ROM & 52x32x52 CD-RW) (BLACK COLOR)

SOUND : Creative Labs SB Audigy SE

OS: Windows XP Pro. SP2


Thanks for your feedback.

 

[llama_man]

Looks like a nice system - that's gonna cost ya!

Never heard of Aspire PSUs - I assume it is a quality brand (you don't want to put a cheap one in a nice system). I've got an Enermax and it's great - nice and quiet but beefy enough to run my 3 hard disks 8)

I'd have thought that 600W should be ample, but it's worth bearing in mind that those watts only count if the PSU can produce a good, stable supply. Try looking for some reviews of it's performance under load.


Other points:

1. Have you considered getting a better soundcard? I've heard that the X-Fi (or whatever it's called) it a lot better than the Audigy. Again, there should be some reviews on this very site.

2. What are you doing about cooling? I note no heat sink or case fans in your list. Will you be using stock cooling?

3. Peripherals - I guess you're cannibalising your existing mouse/kb/speakers?


Final point:
This should have been posted in hardware - homebuild thread, not in gaming. The mods will probably move it.

 

[Atais]

If u have got enough cash u cant buy better PC.. but

If i were u i would buy system which will be a lot cheaper.
I would buy for example radeon x1800xl , or 7800gt(x) and safe money for improve.

If u will buy it now, u will pay a lot, but no game will be able to use 100% of these.
I would buy sth worse, when for example GPU will be to bad to play on full details, sell it and buy better one.

But it is the way to save money, not to get the best 3d mark score 😛

 

[deathc4]

Yeah, I was thinking about building a lesser machine and maybe just plugging in 2 lesser graphic cards, but this thing has to last me for at least 4 years. So im building big.

I will take your advice and look for reviews on the PSU. Another question that came to mind is if 600W will cover it if I ever add in a second (but identical) graphics card (gotta love SLI)?

As for cooling im choosing this option:
AMD ATHLON64 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK + 3 EXTRA CASE FANS

And if a mod could move this to Hardware that would be great. Its gonna be a gaming PC so i figured, gaming, gaming PC, bingo, who would know better than other gamers.

 

[Atais]

um Deathc4... i dont want to make u sad but i have to say that even that maschine will NOT be enogh good to play new games in ... well 2010y .

If u really want to play games, do as i said -> buy worse and sell it when u will have to buy better, but DO NOT buy the BEST coz the price is about 70% higher than its performance...

I think that that PC will be in 2010 sth like Athlon 2000+ 512MB ram and Radeon 9600 now 🙁, so dont waste money

 

[deathc4]

Yeah, im begining to lean that way too. Although I was going to have Cyberpower Inc build my comp. but I have seen that 80% of the reviews about them are very negative. Im a little nervous and aprehensive about building my own, at least if someone else is building it and they screw up i can get a refund or a replacment, if i screw up...then im screwed.

I had cyberpower build my last comp, and its lasted 4 years and still doing ok. Although even when it was new it didnt seem to run as fast as it should for a 1gig of ram and a Athlon 2000.

Damn computer purchasing is stressful. Just so afraid of being screwed over.

So anyone have a decent place to buy from?

 

[nottheking]

That machine looks good to me. However, just some comments I'd make:[*:0783b24e3d]That power supply; it's good that you're tossing the stock case PSU in favor of a new one (always a wise choice) but I've heard mixed reviews on Aspire. However, it should, hopefuly, work. I'd just recommend some more research on it to find out how stable you can expect it to be.
[*:0783b24e3d]With that sort of money, why get an Audigy card? They're inexpensive, yes, but in many ways not all that much beyond what you get with integrated audio. Personally, I'd go for an X-Fi, and be ready for the next several years without any worries.
[*:0783b24e3d]7900GTX? Although an admirable card, that didn't get very high markings from me as far as "deals" go. Of course, it is still the best card nVidia has to offer. Since games are increasingly becoming shader-intensive, I would've gone for an X1900 at that line, or perhaps a 7900GT for a cheaper card. I'd avoid the 7800GTX and X1800 cards.
[*:0783b24e3d]Lastly, are you SURE that 200GB will be enough hard drive space? It's almost always the case that any figure turns out to be not enough, the amount just determines how long it will be before that inevitable occurance.

um Deathc4... i dont want to make u sad but i have to say that even that maschine will NOT be enogh good to play new games in ... well 2010y .

That's actually a bit of stretching the truth. My machine is holding up marvelously well, even though it's almost two years old, (Athlon64 2800+, X800XT AGP) and is quite on track to be quite useable for games in 2008, when I plan on replacing it. It seems quite possible to get by only getting a whole new machine every four years. Such a dual-core, 7900GTX-equipped machine should be able to do the same, even though it seesm that 8-core or 16-core CPUs will be standard for new machines then, though the software won't have caught up fully yet.

 

[llama_man]

Lastly, are you SURE that 200GB will be enough hard drive space? It's almost always the case that any figure turns out to be not enough, the amount just determines how long it will be before that inevitable occurance.

True - you always end up needing far more space then you originally envisaged. Having said that, if you're on a budget, 200Gb should be enough to keep you going for a while until you save up for the next disk. Anything bigger than a 200/250Gb drive and the Gb per £/$ seems to go down, so you get less value. And with most m/b having at least 4 SATA connectors, you're more likely to run out of juice in your PSU or space in your case than drive connections.

 

[Ralkthor]

While the FX-60 is a sweet processor, I would say unless you plan on overclocking it really isn't worth the money. The X2 4800+ is much cheaper and you are only giving up 200Mhz and the unlocked multiplier. The marginal benefit of what you will spend to get the FX-60 is very small. That being said, if you have the cash and are willing to spend it, go for it, you can't do much better than the FX-60.

I would try and stay away from Aspire PSU's. There are plenty of excellent PSU's on the market. You may want to check out some of the reviews here on THG and see what others have to say in the forums. As far as 600 watts go, that will be fine. The 7900GTX is pretty efficient for such a high end card.

Finally, I have an X-Fi and it was well worth it. With the money you will save from buying a cheaper processor you can buy at least the X-Fi Xtreme Music which can be found for about $100. Check out the reveiw by THG HERE.

Finally, I know building your own system seems like a daunting task but if you do a little research and pay attention to what you are doing you will be fine. I like it because you can get the best prices on components and you can pick exactly what you like. I build my own because sites like CyberPower only give you a few options. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

 

[nottheking]

While the FX-60 is a sweet processor, I would say unless you plan on overclocking it really isn't worth the money. The X2 4800+ is much cheaper and you are only giving up 200Mhz and the unlocked multiplier. The marginal benefit of what you will spend to get the FX-60 is very small. That being said, if you have the cash and are willing to spend it, go for it, you can't do much better than the FX-60.

I would try and stay away from Aspire PSU's. There are plenty of excellent PSU's on the market. You may want to check out some of the reviews here on THG and see what others have to say in the forums. As far as 600 watts go, that will be fine. The 7900GTX is pretty efficient for such a high end card.

Ah, yes, I had forgotten to comment on the processor. The 4800+ is a great deal cheaper than the FX-60. Personally, I don't place that much value on unlocked multipliers. After all, you can reduce the multiplier for the Hyper-Transport Link, as well as reducing the RAM speeds.

And indeed, I'm personally a little worried about the quality of Aspire's PSUs. Some say that they might be decent, but personally, that's not good enough for me; I'd rather have a form of consensus among reviews. Hence, I'd just stick with the more "reliable" brands like Fortron-Source.

Finally, I know building your own system seems like a daunting task but if you do a little research and pay attention to what you are doing you will be fine. I like it because you can get the best prices on components and you can pick exactly what you like. I build my own because sites like CyberPower only give you a few options. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

Yes, it is actually easier than most think. Of course, the real strain is the ammount of patience required. A tip that some forget is to assemble all the parts OUTSIDE of the case first, to test them; if something's wrong, it will be immediately apparent, and a cinch to take it appart.