New PC, advice on MB/HDD/PSU

[jamesporter]

Hi all, i'm in the process of buying a new system, its mainpurpose will be gaming. (HL2 and SWG).

I will be reusing parts from my current system monitor/keyboard/mouse/soundcard and speakers etc..

The current system I had in mind:

- AMD XP2500+ 333FSB Barton (Inc Heatsink & Fan )
- A7N8X Deluxe or A7N8X (none deluxe)
- Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 120Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache ATA133
OR
- Maxtor 120gb Serial ATA 8mb Cache 7200rpm

- Crucial PC2700 512mb DDR 184pin DIMM


i will most likely go for a ATI Rad9800 Pro or maybe the FX5900 Ultra depending on prices when i purchase.

Anyway, the main duscussion points are:

- What power supply should i go for i really havent a clue
- should i bother with Serial ATA or go for the none deluxe mb and get the normarl ATA133 version?
- Also, any recomendations on different MB's etc
- feel free to point out incompatibilities etc


Its worth noting im in the UK so i cant use newegg.com, i will most probably be buying from ebuyer.

Thanks in advance

James

 

[Maverick494]

For the most part a decent 350W psu will be fine for everyday gaming. If you plan to O/C at all an Antec true power 550W psu might be a good thing. As for the motherboard I think that the Abit NF7-S is a better choice than the ASUS. Definately go SATA if you can afford it. SATA is less of a CPU hog than ATA133. Also I am going to throw in a vote for the 9800Pro 128MB. Oh and get 2x 256MB of PC2700 Crucial so you get the Dual DDR function of the Nforce2 chipset.

Just a computer junky

 

[jamesporter]

Thanks Maverick

I will definatly look into the Abit MB, unfortuantly they dont sell it on ebuyer :/. Komplett sell it for 80£ so thas pretty good.

I tihnk ur right about the ati9800 pro, just read the article about the 9800 256 and the 5900 Ultra. Perhaps better moeny spent else where

 

[Maverick494]

Are you in the UK then? Cause <A HREF="http://www.dabs.co.uk" target="_new">http://www.dabs.co.uk</A> might be something you can buy from. I am not sure if they have real good prices or not. The Abit NF7-S is 92.00 incl. VAT from them (73.80 w/out). and the 9800pro 128MB is 319.00 incl VAT (271.49 w/out).

Just a computer junky

 

[Maverick494]

Hmmm I just went to Komplett.co.uk and priced the stuff we're discussing:

117213 Abit NF7-S V2.0 mainboard Socket A S-ATA
- nForce2-SPP/MCP-T2/Ultra 400, ATX,1394
100+ 78,72 <b> 78,72 </b>

119216 Crucial ATI Radeon 9800PRO 128MB DDR
- AGP, ATI 9800PRO, DVI-I, TV-Out, Bulk 10 312,73 <b> 312,73 </b>

116244 AMD Athlon XP2500+ 1.833 GHz 333 MHz bus
- Socket A (Barton) processor, 512 kb. OEM
100+ 63,00 <b> 63,00 </b>

118874 Western Digital Caviar 120GB S-ATA 7200k
- Special Edition 8MB cache WD1200JD Unconfirmed
21.07.2003 104,27 <b> 104,27 </b>

117208 Corsair Value S. PC2700 DDR-DIMM 256MB
- Unbuffered, Non-parity, 32Megx64, CL2.5 50-99 30,61 <b> 61,22 </b>

Surcharges: 0,00
Total:<b> 619,94 </b>


The Crucial version of the 9800Pro ought to fly. I chose Corsair PC2700 Value Select memory because of the fact that my Value select PC2700 will do 2-2-2-5 @ 175mhz and 2.5-3-3-6 @ 215mhz. You can try it or you can get the crucial for only a little more. Up to you. Dabs may be better it may not you would have to do a price compare.

Just a computer junky<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Maverick494 on 07/06/03 06:14 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[jamesporter]

wow, i didnt expect this much help, i really appreciate it

thankyou very much.

i must remember to bench mark it and ill come back hre with the results

again big ty

James