Comp Build Time

[Bubblegum Bandit]

Ok, I put together a couple of systems on newegg and would like some feedback or suggestions please. I would like something that is in the newer technology range but not necessarily on the edge. Something that I can upgrade part by part and still be good for a couple of years. I'm looking to go dual core, DDR800, PCIE, and I need an IE 1394 connector (preferably a pinout for front jack). Oh, I plan on running 2 drives in RAID 0. I'm not worried about having a lot of HD space, I have a server box with more than a TB of storage. Other than that I'm pretty open.

 

Common Items:

 

Hard Drives(2)

Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

 

Memory (I know nothing about RAM, stick to min 1Gig)

OCZ 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

 

GFX Card

DIAMOND X1950PRO256PCIE Radeon X1950PRO 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 VIVO Video Card - Retail

 

Case

COOLER MASTER Centurion 532 RC-532-SKN1 Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

 

Power Supply (Would like a modular)

RAIDMAX RX-530A ATX12V/ EPS12V 530W Power Supply 115/230 V CB, IEC, TUV, UL, CSA

 

 

 

AMD System:

 

Processor

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail

 

Mobo

MSI K9N Platinum Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

 

Total: $841

 

 

Intel:

 

 

Processor

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

 

Mobo

MSI P965 Platinum Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

 

Total: $916

 

 

Both of those are a little more than what I was thinking of spending. Any ideas on cost savings or better parts for the money are greatly appreciated. I realize to OC I'd need an aftermarket fan/heatsink and if do that it'll add a little more. I'd like to purchase before Christmas, although I'm wondering if it would be cheaper after maybe?

[akaM2]

if you go intel use this board, same price basically and alot better

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813128018

[Bubblegum Bandit]

The reasons I don't like that board M2. No SLI/Crossfire/whatever its called and no 1394.

 

Not trying to be smart here, but can you tell me why its so much better?

[dragonfly]

It has the colours of the rainbow?

[Cujo]

bubble, sli/crossfire isn't for people on a budget anyway. it simply doesn't make sense. you can get a much better single card for the same price as a multi gpu setup most of the time.

 

i'll post up my recommended config on that budget tomorrow.

[akaM2]

The reasons I don't like that board M2. No SLI/Crossfire/whatever its called and no 1394.

 

Not trying to be smart here, but can you tell me why its so much better?

 

 

well the board you put up isnt true crossfire anyways

 

PCI Express x16 2 (1 at 16X, 1 at 4X)

 

you need 2 at 16x for true sli/crossfire i thought, yes you can add another card but it will run at 1/4 the speed.

 

The reason for the ds3 is that people that go with that are getting amazing overclocks with the c2d's and if you get a c2d there amazingly easy to overclock that it would be stupid not to.

 

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/5965/6400cz0.png

 

that is a nice graph of overclock results, lots of people that dont want to pay over 200 are going for the ds3, thats mainly why i mentioned it

 

as for the 1394, well i dunno, you can always get a pci card to do that i guess.

 

 

BTW found this for you

 

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherb...?ProductID=2418

 

the revision from gigabyte will be out soon with dual pci slots and 1394 added.

[NOFX]

Im cant recommend a motherboard for you because I dont care about all the fancy stuff on them. I basically look at the chipset and given my experience, MOST of the time, no matter the manufacturer of the mobo, if it has the same chipset, you will get the same performance.

 

Next, go with the Intel.

 

and my last piece of advice is 1 gig of ram, with 2 512 sticks?? that is so 2002. but seriously, you need 2 gig minimum now days and if you MUST buy a gig. Buy a single stick, so when you realize you need more ram, you will have 2x1 gig in dual channel.

Edited December 11, 2006 by NOFX

[Cujo]

i agree with nofx on the 1 stick of ram but not on the motherboard or intel aspect.

 

for that price intel is too much as you'll be sacrificing too many other things. second, there are huge differences between brands of motherboard that use the same chipsets. performance will be different and overclocking/stability can be enormously different.

[Bubblegum Bandit]

Point well taken on the single stick of RAM. Only reasoning for going with 1 gig vs 2gig (even if 1gig is sooo 2002) is for cost savings.

 

As far as the crossfire thing goes. I thought I read in Tom's or somewhere that 2 of the cards I have up there would run at about the same performace as one of the high ends. So my thought was buy the 1st now, and say in 6 months buy the second and be at that higher performace level. With a wife, daughter, and another daughter due in January, the ability to shell out a grand on a new comp at a time doesn't come around often. So I'm looking for a good base for now that I can build on piece by piece and not necessarily keep up with the Joneses but maybe the Smiths. I've just gotten to the point where the one I'm on now is too old to keep putting any money into. I realize I will get there with this machine as well, but hopefully its 3 or 4 years down the road.

 

M2, or whoever can speak to it. Does a revision like that usually stay in the same price range? I also didn't see a date on it.

 

Cujo, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts pertaining to what I just wrote in reference with this statement:

 

for that price intel is too much as you'll be sacrificing too many other things. second, there are huge differences between brands of motherboard that use the same chipsets. performance will be different and overclocking/stability can be enormously different.

 

Would it still hold true? I mentioned that I didn't really like those prices above, but if $100 more would mean the difference in what I said above holding true and not holding true, then I could find the extra $100.

[Cujo]

the big thing with sli/crossfire is that 6 months down the road you could buy a single mainstream card for the same price as selling your old card/buying a new same card would cost and the single card would outperform it. mainstream video cards are around for only about 6 months at a time now. by the time you'd go to buy the second one the price wouldn't have fallen enough to make it a worth while purchase. for example a second x1900xtx right now wouldn't be worth the 400+ when i could buy a 8800 for 600ish that would be much better value. or if i had a 7600gt from say 6 months ago that i paid 250ish for. right now i could buy a second one for about 150 or get a 7900gt for about 250 that would perform the same as sli'ed 7600s.

 

crossfire/sli only makes sense if you buy it right away and it only makes sense on high end cards if you have a monitor of at least 20inches or larger. it does not make sense on mainstream cards.

 

all of the above is especially true right now as 6 months from now you'll want a dx10 card as mainstream dx10 cards are being released in early spring.

 

what i meant by the intel is too much is that if you spent extra money on intel now you wouldn't have as much left over for a decent video card or power supply. yes the better value is intel but you're on a relatively tight budget and without a high end video card you won't exploit the difference in the cpus anyway. you'll be too limited by the video card as it is on this budget.

 

sry, i didn't have a lot of time for a config today. you're on the right track though. i like the vid card. both of those cpus are fine whichever you decide. mobos i prefer asus but msi is alright. just don't expect to oc as high. m2's recommendation is a good one for the gigabyte. hds are cool and your preference. if space is not a concern i'd shell out the extra 30 bucks for a raptor 74gb rather then raid. not a fan of raidmax power supplies but i'm a firm believer in spending lots on a good power supply so you never have to worry about wondering whether a problem is caused by the power supply. price for what you get is a bit cheap but better then those 500w for 20 bucks dealies.

[Laz.e.rus]

BB, the PSU you linked to does NOT support sli configuration. Also, its a little weak on the total 12v amps with a weird split.

 

Here is a link to some recommend PSUs and also some to AVOID.

There are some decent mods listed a bit down on it.

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10854

[Bubblegum Bandit]

As far as boards go, I'm not particularly fond of any different brand. I think the MSIs just tended to have the dual high end PCIEs and the IE1394 combination. I really like the idea of that Gigabyte revision M2 posted. That's why I was asking if it would come out around the same price and was looking for a launch date.

 

I know nothing about PSs especially when it pertains to overclocking voltages etc. I just picked that one because it was modular and 500W+.

 

Went back and forth with the raptor idea cujo. Is a single raptor going to be faster than a RAID setup of the other two in a real world situation? I guess the better question would be would I see the difference at all with what I'm looking to put together.

 

At this point I'm leaning towards the Intel setup....

[Cujo]

i don't think you'd see a difference. i would go raptor. you could always then later add a second 74gb raptor for super speed.

 

intel is definitely the way to go if you're goin ati and thinking crossfire.

 

for a little bit extra i'd switch to this card:

 

SAPPHIRE 100186L Radeon X1950XT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

 

check out the pixel pipes. full 16 like xtx. clock speed is 50mhz higher and mem speed is 400+mhz higher. for 30 bucks more. no brainer.

Edited December 12, 2006 by Cujo

[NOFX]

ahh yes, overclocking features and how far you can push your CPU is greatly dependent on the motherboard manufacturer. Now two stock system exactly the same, with same chipset. One is made by Biostar and the other Asus. I say the performance would be insignificant.

 

On the other hand, I decided to go with an MSI motherboard last time. Well, occasionally, it boots and says keyboard is not present(i use usb). so I fight with it for a while, reset the cmos a few times and eventually it works. But what I just described above is guaranteed to happen if I boot into linux and turn the machine off.

 

higher end motherboards usually mean better stability.

 

and you could be right about the intel setup. Im done wasting all my money on computer parts, so if I upgrade, Im going to do it right and drop a few extra bucks for performance, instead of being stuck with my current 3200+(and its been about a year to date since I got it)

[Cujo]

msi has had that keyboard problem for years. even my old kt4v had that problem.

[NOFX]

msi has had that keyboard problem for years. even my old kt4v had that problem.

 

well.. I wish I would have known this before I bought it.

 

I need an upgrade. Im sitting on a load of cash and would love to have

either a 24" widescreen or dual 19" LCD's. How about a new X2 processor? I saw a dual core 1.8Ghz opteron that supposedly hits 2.5Ghz with ease for only $155. Look for that on Newegg BGB, Id go with that processor because of the

2x1MB of cache

 

*edit

 

oh wait, its a 939

Edited December 14, 2006 by NOFX

[-=SKArface=-]

I need an upgrade. Im sitting on a load of cash and would love to have

either a 24" widescreen or dual 19" LCD's. How about a new X2 processor? I saw a dual core 1.8Ghz opteron that supposedly hits 2.5Ghz with ease for only $155. Look for that on Newegg BGB, Id go with that processor because of the

2x1MB of cache

 

 

I'd go for the dual heads rather than the single 24. Being able to have a game full screen on the primary and stuff like email/im/whatever running on the second is fantastic. You can't really access the second display without minimizing the game but being able to see stuff is great.

 

I have had some issues with a few games (3 or 4) that do not appear to capture the mouse to the main display. i.e. you move the mouse hard to the right and the pointer leaves the game screen. I picked up a pair of 20" Sceptre monitors from costco about a year ago for about 300 each. I've been VERY happy with them. I have one on DVI and one on VGA (I had two CRTs when I bought the card so I didn't go for the dual DVI) and the VGA display needs to be coereced into focusing correctly sometimes, but that's the only problem I've had with 'em.

[dragonfly]

I'd go for the 24 and use your current one for secondary. Or maybe get an x2...

[Cujo]

i'd go 24 over two 19s. 19s are useless when watching a movie and as was mentioned you have to alt-tab anyway to do something on the other one. such a pain in the donkey and demonstrates how terrible windows coding is. i'm not 100% but i believe the problem still exists on vista as well.

[Bubblegum Bandit]

Ok, lookin to put in the order tonight or tomorrow. Here's what I'm lookin at. Its coming in around $1000 after MIRs. I'd love to knock a hundred or two off if you have suggestions:

 

COOLER MASTER Centurion 532 RC-532-SKN1 Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

 

ASUS P5N-E SLI Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

 

SAPPHIRE 100186L Radeon X1950XT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

 

Thermaltake Pure Power W0073RU ATX 520W Power Supply 100 - 240 V CE, CB, TUV, FCC, UL, CSA, and CUL - Retail

 

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

 

OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

 

Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

(decided to just stick with these for $ and space reasons rather than the raptor)

 

I could save some money by just going with the 1Gig of RAM and/or 1 HD, I may do that. What do you think specifically about the RAM, mobo, and PS?

[Cujo]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817371001

that psu is 20 bucks more and i just bought it for my bro for christmas.

 

hdds are your call. ram is good and i'd stick with 2gigs. i was questioning buying an sli motherboard with an ati card but i'm one to talk with my nf4 board and ati card. that and the only crossfire boards for core2 are gonna be much more expensive then that board is so i'd stick with it.