Need reviews on new system specs

Sarvo

ok, well a freind of mine recently had me put together a list of parts for him to buy, and me to put together, for his new computer. his main concern was having a large hard drive for music and the like, he also wanted to be able to play decently some FPS and World of Warcraft, he needed everything for it. so basically this is the list i have so far

SAPPHIRE 100556-RD Radeon 9800PRO 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - OEM

ABIT NF7-S2 Socket A (Socket 462) NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Barton 333MHz FSB Socket A Processor Model AXDA3000BOX - Retail

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail

ENVISION EFT-720 Silver & Black 17" Pure Flat CRT Monitor D-Sub - Retail

Update Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JD 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM

ATRIX CSCI-L8005-C43 Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply - Retail

Logitech X-530 70 Watts 5.1 Speaker - Retail

the main concern that i have is the power supply not being powerful enough, but any ideas on how to either cut costs, or make this rig better without breaking the bank would be greatly appreciated. FYK this is $792 after shipping from newegg

-Sarvo

GrayFox

400W should be more then enough even if it is a genaric psu like the one in that case.

I would recomend a 380W antec just because genaric ones have a tendency to cause problems die and/or take parts with it. Also this psu supports 24 pin atx (The new connector)

Donut

Check through the forums a little, I seem to recall some A64 rigs that were relatively inexpensive. Even thought about upgrading myself.

csimon

NF7-S2 ...what no overclocking?

Sarvo

i will look at some of the A64 stuff and see how it will compare price wise.
and yes, this rig will be running at stock speeds, would need better hardware to OC.

Grond

Your money will be much better spent on a quality power supply than an A64. Antec is mediocre at best these days. They were good back when 300 watts was more than enough to power your system. Unfortunately good power supply information is rather hard to come by and there is not necessarily a correlation between price and performance. Sparkle/Fortron still makes a good one as does Enermax. Even they are lacking though imo, the manufacturers have been very complacent while raking in the money as power requirements have rapidly increased. With as many power supplies as there are available for under $30 you should be able to get a 500 watt psu, with good regulation, protection and efficiency for under $100. Right now you're lucky if you can 2 of those for under $150, which is an absurd price for a power supply but I'd rather be overcharged than troubleshoot power supply problems.

TheBaron

Enermax is excellent, I'll agree with you there, but you're doing everyone a disservice by saying that Antec is a subpar manufacturer when it comes to power supplies. that is absolutely incorrect. granted, they're no PC Power and Cooling, but those PSUs are very expensive

Grond

Granted if you're getting an Antec case with an Antec psu included the price is hard to beat and they are wonderfully quiet but in my opinion they have some shortcomings. They aren't very efficient and the voltage regulation could be better. They are certainly much better than those bargain basement brands but for what you would pay for their top of the line models I think you can do better. I didn't mean to imply they are subpar, I think Antec is slightly above par. The problem is par has become woefully inadequate these days.

muddocktor

I have to agree about not skimping on the psu. Of course everyone has their own feelings about psu's, but in my opinion the Antec's are better built than the Enermax psu's. I've heard real good things about Fortron Source and I have 1 in a folding rig and it's been a keeper so far, after a year of service.

Instead of that horrid NF7-S2, which not only doesn't overclock well but also will not run 1T command rate on the ram, build an inexpensive socket 754 system instead.

Here's a few parts I quickly found, checking at Newegg:

Mobo - MSI K8N NEO3-F Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX - $72

Vid card - SAPPHIRE 100595 Radeon X700PRO 128MB - $129

proc - Sempron 3000+ Palermo - $94

I chose the X700 Pro vid card because the mobo is a pci-e NF4 board instead of the AGP 9800. The vid card should be at least as fast as the 9800, if not faster.

The Sempron 3000+ should be a lot faster than a socket A 3000+ and it's a bit cheaper too.

flyrice

Agreed on the PSU. My 450W that came with the case was a POS and it couldn't handle my rig. The 380W PSU I snagged out of an Antec Sonata case does the job remarkably.

Grond

I'd be interested know why you feel the Antecs are better built.

muddocktor

I used to have an Enermax 651P-VE, which is a 550 watt unit, along with Antec True Control 550 psu's and I noticed tighter regulation (from what I could see with monitoring software) with the Antec than with the Enermax. Plus, the Enermax died at about 3 1/2 years old, which really disappointed me for a psu that cost over $150 in around the 2001-2002 time frame. After it died, I robbed some parts out of it and the heatsinks inside also looked a bit small for a 550 watt psu too. It also borked the mobo went it crapped out.

Admittedly, that's going by a 3-4 year old psu and not indicative of what Enermax is turning out now, but that's what I found. Also, Enermax psu's tend to be quite expensive for the specs and power ranges they are sold in. The Fortron Source psu's tend to be a much better deal.

edcentric

I hate to say this, because I am stuck in the past, but you really should consider moving to a 939 mobo.
At least with 939 and PCIe you will have an upgrade path for the next year.
With any other socket/slot choice what you buy now will be it. period.

Skimp on the cpu and video card now. Prices will keep falling and you can upgrade.
http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2475&p=2
look at this.

muddocktor

Ed, the mobo I linked to is a pci-e board, although it's socket 754. That way he can move his vid card over to the next system when he upgrades if he wants. As far as upgrade paths go, both socket 754 and socket 939 will be replaced in the next year or so anyways, when AMD starts upgrading to the DDR2 memory controllers on their procs.

Grond

I had the opposite experience, much better regulation with a new Enermax than I got with an Antec True Power. However I was basing it more on Tom's PSU tests, it's the only site I've seen that does good tests. Most sites reviews consist of "they sent me a brand new power supply and I've been using it for a week and my system runs great". A few years ago the Antecs did really well and Enermax not so much, but if you check out all the tests for the past year you'll notice that there have been various problems with pretty much all the Antecs tested while Enermax has fared pretty well. I agree Enermax is overpriced but it is also very efficient which will more than pay for the difference when you're talking about 600 watt power supplies. It will be interesting to see how the latest test turns out since the new ATX standard is much more stringent about voltage regulation.

muddocktor

Well, you may very well be right on that, Grond. I haven't messed with any new Enermax psu's for a few years.

Still, if I'm going to spend that kind of money, I think I'd just spend a little more and go the PC Power & Cooling 510 route myself. Every review I've read on them is stellar, as far as power regulation and output are concerned.