Possible new System

[Sir Shertown Pimp]

$55-ENERMAX Blue Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Case With 400W PSU, Model "10MCS-56881LBFS-D3" -RETAIL

 

Case

 

$36.79-AOpen Cool Gray, Black, Beige 52X32X52X16X Combo Drive, Model COM5232/AAP, Retail

 

$59.99-Western Digital Special Edition 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD800JB, OEM Drive Only (8mb)

 

$84.27-Corsair 200-Pin 512MB DDR SODIMM PC-3200 - Retail (considering doubling this need info)

 

$210-ViewSonic E90FB 19" PerfectFlat CRT Monitor –RETAIL (Parents want me to go flat screen for space saver)

Monitor

 

$83- MSI "K8T NEO-FSR" K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL

 

MotherBOARD

 

$210- AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 939 64-bit Processor - Retail

 

Processor

 

$168- AOpen nVIDIA GeForce 6600 Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI-Express, Model "GF 6600 DV256" -RETAIL

 

VideoCARD

 

Total is $995.05, looking to spend no where over $1200 dollars, minus 50 or so for a wireless router for my room.

 

Any advice is appreciated fellas, also what am I missing to build it from scratch completely. Intending to play hl2, cs:s, dod:s, and WoW with great smoothness.

Edited November 15, 2004 by Sir Shertown Pimp

[TeK]

Great smoothness your going to have to look into a x800/Pro/XT. Those are THE cards for HL2 and other DirectX games. They also run OpenGL games well, but not as good as the NVidia's in that aspect.

 

The problem also is that card is PCI-Express, that motherboard isn't a PCI-E board. I don't believe they are incorporating PCI-E until the nforce4 motherboards come out and that will be mucho dinero so I'd really look into a x800, or if money doesn't allow you, a 9800Pro will run it well, but possibly not at the smoothness you want if you want to have a high resolution with some special features enabled(1024, 1280).

 

As far as chip, you can't really go wrong with the A64, problem is your looking at the cheaper 754-pin chips. I believe AMD is phasing those out for the newer 939-pin chips so in the future if u want to just upgrade your chip you may have a tough time doing it.

 

If you add your old hard drive and CD drive from your old computer, that can save you some money and you can add it towards your video card.

 

I would definately look into 1 gig of ram, its almost standard these days and will really help the computer a lot. Dunno if that ram is good tho, gurus will know.

 

I also think the monitor is very overpriced, you can't really say no to your parents but you can find a very nice CRT monitor for cheaper than that these days. Can't argue with the mom's though :/

 

I spent $1176 for my new rig(Which is still MIA because I'm waiting for a new mobo) I also had a DVD-RW already and hard drives so I saved money there and also was using my old monitor which can all save you money and help towards the beefier parts of the system.

 

I was able to get a

MSI Neo2 Platnium K8N nforce3 - mobo

a64 3500+ 939-pin - chip

x800XT

1 gig Twinmos ram(Don't see it on newegg ne more :/ )

Mid-Tower ATX case

New powersupply Enermax Noisetaker 480Watt.

 

See what you can scrounge up from the old computer, it'll definately save you some money.

[Penty]

All the current MBs are dual channel memory, so whatever you pick grab 2 sticks either 2x256 or 2x512.

 

A flat screen CRT does not save space, you want an LCD for that.

[Guest zerodamage]

The 754-pin Mobo's are NOT dual channel where the 939-pin systems are. You just have to be doubly careful when buying a vid card and Mobo now to make sure they are both either PCI-E or AGP.

 

The 754-pin are not being phased out that I know of. They are the same as 939 minus the dual channel which doesn't do much of anything for games. Maybe 1-3 fps at the most. The way that the A64's are designed with the Memory controller on the chip that Dual Channel doesn't really do a whole lot. I went with the cheaper 754-pin which is better established right now. Tons of boards out for it, cheaper, and will be around for a while.

[Guest zerodamage]

This is the only board I am seeing right now with a quick search that has PCI-express and is 939 pin. It is out of stock though at the moment.

 

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=240148

 

 

Here is a better look at it. Keep in mind this is for PCI-Express video only, NOT AGP.

http://www.amdboard.com/abit_ax8.html

 

 

 

2 Reviews right off hand.

 

http://legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=116

amdzone

Edited November 15, 2004 by zerodamage .gc

[All Kill3r]

$84.27-Corsair 200-Pin 512MB DDR SODIMM PC-3200 - Retail (considering doubling this need info)

 

DDR ram is 184pin, dunno what 200 pin is but don't get it.

 

since you have room up to 1200, i see no reason to not get a x800 series card. It fits your budget and is perfect for the games you listed.

[Sir Shertown Pimp]

My parents want me to go lcd flat screen for space saver, but 19inch CRT will cheaper and better for gaming I hear.

 

Also I decided to change to a AMD Athlon 64 3000 754 pin for $151

 

Now should I go for the 9800 128 PRO for 185 or the Geforce FX 5900 Ultra for 188

 

9800 PRO

 

5900 XT 128

 

 

Any links to nice monitors is appreciated!

 

Also switch out that RAM for two of these Corsair 512 DDR 3200 184 pin

Edited November 15, 2004 by Sir Shertown Pimp

[Penty]

Between those I'd say the 9800, but if you can swing an extra $60 it would be worth it to get the 6800 OC at Outpost.

[Guest zerodamage]

Between those I'd say the 9800, but if you can swing an extra $60 it would be worth it to get the 6800 OC at Outpost.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I completely agree with that. I would avoid the FX series of Geforce like the plague. They are miserable performers and you would be regretting it while trying to play HL2. use the extra money saved from the CRT monitor and get a 6800 OC.

[Sir Shertown Pimp]

Alright Ill get the 6800 and probably look at Sams for monitor, most likely going with linksys for my router.