Requesting Opinion on my new rig

[JohnnyB]

After a few days of research, this is my equipment list. I could really use some input, especially if you see a potential problem. This will primarily be a gaming machine, but will not be overclocked. All prices are from newegg.com

CASE CHENBRO|PC61566-SL-W ATX - $210
<i>Very nice appearance, worth the extra cost to me</i>
MB DFI|NF4 LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D - $135
<i>Seems like the defacto choice just about everywhere I look. I don't plan on ever using SLi, since I was around in the old Monster 3-D days and suspect SLi could be short lived. Many programs also don't benefit from it so SLi is out</i>
VGA GGBYT|X800XL GV-RX80L256V 256M - $329
<i>Could have saved a few bucks on a different card, but I've always had good experiences with Gigabyte products and support</i>
PSU OCZ|OCZ52012U 520W RT - $105
<i>Looks are what this one's all about. I also plan of using a 4 drive array in the near future, so the extra power is necessary</i>
CPU AMD 64 |FX-55 ATHLON 64 939 RT - $832
<i>Only choice for me with this chipset</i>
DUAL DDR 1GB|PC3200XLPRO CORSAIR RT - $233
<i>Low timings and good reviews at newegg. This is my main concern, so if anyone has experience, I would appreciate the feedback</i>
HD250G|ST 7200 8M SATA ST3250823AS - $136
<i>Thought long and hard about the Raptor, but this board has SATA II, so I figured I wait until someone other than Hitachi was making them, and then pick up a couple. In the meantime, this drive looks like a good compromise</i>
KB&MS MS|MM OPTCL VALUE M54-00013 - $130
<i>Bluetooth keyboard and mouse by Microsoft</i>

I'll have to look for a decent dvd combo or burner in silver, and I already have a Viewsonic vp2000s lcd.

 

[o1die]

I would save some dough, and use the venice 3500 ($289 at newegg). You may not see an fx series in the venice core for awhile.

 

[tomr23]

looks pretty sweet dude

 

[Rugger]

$80 is more than a few in my book! ATI makes very reliable, well-built boards like <A HREF="http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=190527&Category_Code=ATI-PCI-E" target="_new">this</A> one.

Another RAM option is the <A HREF="http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=20-220-033&depa=0" target="_new">Patriot PDC1G3200+XBLK</A> for $218. Uses Samsung TCCD (OC beast) and looks great.

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[JohnnyB]

Thanks for the ideas guys, you've saved me some cash for sure...as far as $80 being alot, I was originally budgeted for dual 6800 Ultras, so $329 is something like $700 less

But you're right, the ATi card should be fine. And the RAM looks very promising.

I'm not so sure about the CPU. I see the venice is 90 nanometer design, but the clock is 400mhz less. Would this be ideal for a game intensive computer?

 

[Rugger]

With that rig the Venice should easily OC to 2.6Ghz or higher.

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[Azz]

I can't see spending the money on an FX-55 yet. Its performance is only slightly better than the 3800+, and at more than double the cost. I'm building a new system as well, and the price/performance ratio for the FX-55 just sucks.

Though if your hunch about SLI proves correct, I'll get burned by that one in the same way.

Either way, I'm waiting until dual-core gains some momentum before I even look at an FX-55...maybe by then prices will move down into a more reasonable range.

 

[JohnnyB]

Although I've been building my own PC's since my first Pentium 90, I've never (ever) overclocked one. Frankly I'm scared to death of burning something up.

As far as the processor, I think I'm going to stick with it (the FX-55). For a non-modder like me, who is lucky enough to have the extra cash, I think it's the right choice.

Dual Core is interesting, but if I understand it correctly, it will require programs to support some kind of SMP (not unlike what SLi does, if I'm not mistaken). This may actually bode well for your SLi, since software makers will have the additional incentive of dual core to prod them into multi-processing support.

Thanks for all the replies guys, really helped 😉

J-

 

[Huh]

Any reason why you won't go with SCSI? Pretty much every component is top of the line or nearly to of the line so why not go with the top of the line HDs?

Fast HD make a big difference when loading the maps.

I think Wusy is a SCSI user so he would be ideal for input on SCSI drives (15k Cheetas)

Other than I wouldn't mind having your system

 

[pat]

sli need the game profile to be included in the the driver to actually works. If the game doesnt have a profils in the driver, it wont make use of SLI. This is going to improve with newer game, but older one may never get any support. I would rather get only one good video card, because, even a x800xl push enough FPS for games.. Just ask yourself if you really need 300 FPS or if 150 is enough..

Same for dual core CPU. if the apps is not programmed to make use of it, then it wont benefit. in a few years, when dual core will be mainstream, then more apps might be developped to support them. But until then, spending a lots of money that might be wasted in a few years dont worth it. Better dual core from AMD probably make use of another kind of socket and other memory standard, to improve smothness of dual core processing. faster HDD interface will help too. if you HDD cannot provide data to the system fast enough, for dual core to benefit, then it is a waste..

but that is your money..

<font color=red>Sig space for rent. make your offer.</font color=red>

 

[JohnnyB]

SCSI is out for two reasons:

The HD price per GB is way higher than I can justify($499 for a 74gb 15k cheetah)

I'd also need to get a u320 controller card, and the cheapest two channel card is about $210. Plus it sucks more power...

~$700 +tax? No thanks. I have a few extra bucks, but I'm not rich. I'll use the onboard SATA II for my raid 0 (gaming) and stick with the 250gb Seagate for my system drive (hopefully I can enable SATA II RAID funciontality without having to make it also the boot device)

For the record, I was a huge proponent of SCSI all the way to my last U160 setup. Now though, SATA is providing enough throughput for any game I've seen, it's cheap, it's easy(er) to configure, it's easy to find....and I can still have my DVD drives exclusively on IDE.

No doubt, it would pump though...if only all the stuff was free

J-


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by johnnyb on 05/02/05 10:22 PM.</EM></FONT></P>