it's all personal preference...i just listed what i would buy if i had $1500 to spend and needed everything. not sure if he already has a monitor, key/mouse, spkrs, etc...just thought i would list it all.
don't worry about hitachi hdds....they have been fine for some time now but many who where burned by the old "deathstars" will never let it go.
also it is not true that more games are optimised for nvidia. that is total BS. i listed the sapphire x800gto<sup>2</sup> b/c right now at this very moment it is the best bang for the buck. $220 gets you essentially an underclocked x850xt---that can't be beat.
Ok...maybe sli is just a gimmic, but i could actually see it going places. as far as games being optimized for nvidia, check out games like doom 3, and look at the benchmarks between a comparable nvidia and ati card. the nvidia card will come out on top,
Ok...maybe sli is just a gimmic, but i could actually see it going places...
I remember back in the Voodoo2 days being the envy of my friends because I was the first with SLI. Then the Voodoo3 cards came out and made it irrelevant. I guess only time will tell this time around. I'd certainly consider giving it a shot if I had the money.
...look at the benchmarks between a comparable nvidia and ati card. the nvidia card will come out on top
I may be confusing it with something else, but didn't nVidia get into a little trouble for optimizing their cards to perform well on many (artificial) benchmarks?
I've used both and been happy with each. I would take any benchmark with a grain of salt, though.
I may be confusing it with something else, but didn't nVidia get into a little trouble for optimizing their cards to perform well on many (artificial) benchmarks?
i never heard of it, but i believe it.
0
LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
Rear 120 fan has blue LED's and the front air intakes have a blue LED's at the top. There's another 120 mm fan between the drive bays and the front panel also that's not mentioned in the specs. The top 2 5,25 exterior bays are stealthed too, Comes with 2 temp sensors that I have on my raid array and my video card that read out in the swiveling top bay. Nice case for my 3700+.
one other thing i wanted to ask was about the msi boards. iwas talking to a friend of mine and told him i was going to use an msi board and he freaked out. he said their customer service was bad and that the board itself had stability issues? he was telling me how he used a msi board and he had to update the bios(?) or something and it would cause more and more problems. he also said when he called msi they never responded. was this just something that happened to my friend or is it true that msi does have these problems? the more input i get from a wider group of people i hear a lot of bad reviews and i was wondering if what my friend told me is valid. thanks
edit:
nvm. my other friend told me to just go with the msi. he said if i were a non-first time builder i should have gone for dfi. also said asus sucks and that msi does have bad tech support, but boards are ok.
Asus definately does NOT suck. It all depends on what you're building, processor type, purpose of the machine, budget, etc., etc.
I built Athlon XP based machines on MSI boards for a lot of people that never had even a hiccup. Even for myself, until the Abit NF7-S came out, I was on an MSI board. But there is no reason to catagorically trash the MSI products. It all depends on the parameters of your build.
HDD; I was burned by the 'deathstars' (three drives, five failures). Two of my replacements were newer Hitach drives. The have both died now also. They make me shake.
Video: the 800GTO2 is the best bang for the buck, no doubt. But if you are going for top speed you need a NV7800.
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Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
edited October 2005
Well, for Overclocking, Corsair is not the best. BUT, for value for money absent major overclocking, they are very good.
OCZ or Corsair Pro for overclocking, if you get a board that allows OCing RAM asynchronously with CPU. BUT, then we are into much more money and complexity.
For a first time build, I would say Corsair matched pair myself. I've been a tech for a real long time and run Corsair here.
0
LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited October 2005
Two of my replacements were newer Hitach drives. The have both died now also.
OH, I see. Thanks for replying. I thought that DeskStars had been re-engineered before their release under the Hitachi label.
All of my SATA (I & II) Hitachi drives are running flawlessly. All of my Deskstars are paperweights! I can only vouch for the SATA versions, but they are fast and relatively quiet and have been totally reliable for the last 1.5 years (SATAI at least, SATAII haven't been around that long!)
okay i pretty much have everything down about 80% i think i just wanted review from people here. my friend gave me a venice 3000+ for my birthday so i think ill be using that for now.
these two boards were rec'd to me here and elsewhere and they both seem great. ones quite a bit cheaper than the other tho. would it be better to go with the platinum? is it better in any way for its pricing?
--
processor:
amd athlon 64 venice 3000+
as i mentioned, since i got one for free
--
memory:
since i do have some extra money because i dont have to buy the processor, i decided to go with some pricier memories.
for ocz=
OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
i will try and get a 7800GT or GTX. one thing i was wondering about was from where do i get it? i just realized there are alot of manufacturers that make this card and i have no idea whats going on. any help on this issue would be appreciated.
--
does everything look okay?
--
thats about it for now i think. thanks to everyone here for helping me. i dont think i could have come this far in my selection of parts without everyones help. thanks again
personally, i would go with a mid-tower case b/c a full tower takes up a lot of space and space is at a premium for me.
also i would skip the platinum on the msi boards and save the money towards your gpu. the only difference is that the platinum version has sata2 (300mb/s) ports instead of sata1 ports like the regular version. if it's important to you, then spring for the platinum.
also go with the ocz ram instead of the corsair. it's cheaper and better IMO.
neopower psu is a good choice...
as far as 7800gt/gtx manufacturer, i would go with the cheapest you can find from a decent manufacturer. some manufacturers, like bfg, offer lifetime warranties if that's important to you. i would chose this one though...it's overclocked out of the box and relatively cheap.
Comments
don't worry about hitachi hdds....they have been fine for some time now but many who where burned by the old "deathstars" will never let it go.
also it is not true that more games are optimised for nvidia. that is total BS. i listed the sapphire x800gto<sup>2</sup> b/c right now at this very moment it is the best bang for the buck. $220 gets you essentially an underclocked x850xt---that can't be beat.
I may be confusing it with something else, but didn't nVidia get into a little trouble for optimizing their cards to perform well on many (artificial) benchmarks?
I've used both and been happy with each. I would take any benchmark with a grain of salt, though.
Thermaltake XASER, Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133154
Thermaltake Armor VA8000SWA Silver Computer Case With Side Panel Window - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133155
Lian Li PC-7077A Silver Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811112049
and a few others but im not so sure..any suggestions?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129144
Rear 120 fan has blue LED's and the front air intakes have a blue LED's at the top. There's another 120 mm fan between the drive bays and the front panel also that's not mentioned in the specs. The top 2 5,25 exterior bays are stealthed too, Comes with 2 temp sensors that I have on my raid array and my video card that read out in the swiveling top bay. Nice case for my 3700+.
Flint
one other thing i wanted to ask was about the msi boards. iwas talking to a friend of mine and told him i was going to use an msi board and he freaked out. he said their customer service was bad and that the board itself had stability issues? he was telling me how he used a msi board and he had to update the bios(?) or something and it would cause more and more problems. he also said when he called msi they never responded. was this just something that happened to my friend or is it true that msi does have these problems? the more input i get from a wider group of people i hear a lot of bad reviews and i was wondering if what my friend told me is valid. thanks
edit:
nvm. my other friend told me to just go with the msi. he said if i were a non-first time builder i should have gone for dfi. also said asus sucks and that msi does have bad tech support, but boards are ok.
I built Athlon XP based machines on MSI boards for a lot of people that never had even a hiccup. Even for myself, until the Abit NF7-S came out, I was on an MSI board. But there is no reason to catagorically trash the MSI products. It all depends on the parameters of your build.
Flint
Video: the 800GTO2 is the best bang for the buck, no doubt. But if you are going for top speed you need a NV7800.
OCZ or Corsair Pro for overclocking, if you get a board that allows OCing RAM asynchronously with CPU. BUT, then we are into much more money and complexity.
For a first time build, I would say Corsair matched pair myself. I've been a tech for a real long time and run Corsair here.
Flint
casing:
Antec Performance I P-160WF Silver Computer Case With Side Panel Window - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129144
or
Thermaltake XASER, Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133154
i guess this depends on whether i want a big case or not. havent really made up my mind yet. are full towers really that big?
--
power supply:
Antec NEOPOWER 480 480W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103924
i have no idea what im talking about when it comes to these so i just chose one with decent reviews.
--
hdd:
seagate 7200.8 250 GB x2
i figured this way is slightly cheaper and i get a little more space.
--
mobo:
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130484
MSI K8N Neo4-F ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130491
these two boards were rec'd to me here and elsewhere and they both seem great. ones quite a bit cheaper than the other tho. would it be better to go with the platinum? is it better in any way for its pricing?
--
processor:
amd athlon 64 venice 3000+
as i mentioned, since i got one for free
--
memory:
since i do have some extra money because i dont have to buy the processor, i decided to go with some pricier memories.
for ocz=
OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146890
for xms=
CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145523
CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145522
between the corsairs, i couldnt tell what the difference was except the 20 cents difference in cost. is there any difference?
--
dvd burner:
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152047
--
gpu:
i will try and get a 7800GT or GTX. one thing i was wondering about was from where do i get it? i just realized there are alot of manufacturers that make this card and i have no idea whats going on. any help on this issue would be appreciated.
--
does everything look okay?
--
thats about it for now i think. thanks to everyone here for helping me. i dont think i could have come this far in my selection of parts without everyones help. thanks again
also i would skip the platinum on the msi boards and save the money towards your gpu. the only difference is that the platinum version has sata2 (300mb/s) ports instead of sata1 ports like the regular version. if it's important to you, then spring for the platinum.
also go with the ocz ram instead of the corsair. it's cheaper and better IMO.
neopower psu is a good choice...
as far as 7800gt/gtx manufacturer, i would go with the cheapest you can find from a decent manufacturer. some manufacturers, like bfg, offer lifetime warranties if that's important to you. i would chose this one though...it's overclocked out of the box and relatively cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130249
good luck and keep us posted as you put together your new rig.