Im putting together a computer to replace a HP Pavilion 533w thats pretty much stock save a NEC ND 2510A, an extra 256MB PC2100 ram, and a visiontek xtascy 9200se.

That computer sucks so damn bad its makeing me sick, it will become my nix box once my gaming rig gets built.

But I need help critiquing this setup. I will be buying a monitor but thats here no there so I didnt include it but will be spending up to 300$ on one. You can suggest on that if youd like but I atleast want a 17" 1600x1200 monitor.

The main suggestions I need are on MOBO and the video card ( I really have my heart set on the 7800GT ). I probably will never want to run this card in SLI mode, by the time I would need that it would probably make more sense to rebuild the rig. So I guess I dont want a mobo that has SLI. But I do want one that will allow me to OC the CPU and has a frequence lock on the AGP/PCI bus. Pretty much every feature on the ASUS A8N but no SLI.

Heres my build

(FROM NEWEGG)



-Keyboard/mouse 20$ Microsoft B7S-00003 White Wired Standard Keyboard Mouse Included - OEM

-Case 90$ ASPIRE X-Pider ATXA2XPW-BL/420 Blue Computer Case With Side Panel Window - Retail

-CPU 233$ AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail

-MOBO 163$ ASUS A8N-SLI Premium ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

-Hard Drive 78$ Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" SATA 300MB/s Hard Drive - OEM

-Optical Drive 40$ LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SOHW-1693S Black - Retail

-Video Card 300$ Nvidia 7800GT

-Memory 117$ OCZ Performance Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail

( I really like this memory becuase its dual channel, has a copper heat spreader, and is 2-3-3-6 timings, I was going to go 2x1GB RAM but I dont think 2GB is necessary and the timings were alot slower)



TOTAL: $1041 Without shipping or taxes


EDIT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130249

FTW... 470/1100

But actually the 339$ XFX 7800GT comes with COD 2 also and is only slightly slower at 450/1050... I should easily be able to push it to 490/1200 right??

Good news and bad news...
Good news is you are the right track and you made some good choices. The bad news is i am going to have to modifiy this a little bit....

I dont know how set on a case you are...based on looks or whatever, but you will need a Power supply, and not one thats included in a case (ones that come in cases are often not that great for OCing) I would say a decent Enermax/Fortron Srouce ~400W should do you just fine

Cpu....good choice, no problems

Mobo...i always throw out this DFIboard because its cheap and it is a great OC'er. Its just what i would do.

Hard drive...is alright

Optical....ok

Video card......excellent choice, make sure to OC the card as well. I love BFG as a brand and you can get a free copy of COD2 if you buy a 7800GT with it.

Memory...OCZ 512x2 Its a little more then you are spending now but will OC much better and you should be able to get and maintain 2-2-2-5 timings up to 250FSB (2.75Ghz for the CPU at250FSB)

Also get a aftermarket cooler for your CPU, a thermalright one is best in my opinions and then a good 120mm fan. I will look one up later for you...i have givin you enough for now.


So there you go....those are my thoughtsand ideas.....

Just another noob question, If I set the CPU FSB to 250MHZ (2.75GHZ) will that put the ram automatically to 250*2(PC4000)??? Can that be fixed with a locked AGP/PCI bus frequency??? Does that DFI board have a lockable AGP/PCI bus frequency????

EDIT:

This is what im looking at right now, what do you think.

(FROM NEWEGG)



-Keyboard/mouse 20$ Microsoft B7S-00003 White Wired Standard Keyboard Mouse Included - OEM

-Floppy Drive 10$

-Case 55$ COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Computer Case With Side Panel Window - Retail

-CPU 233$ AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail

-MOBO 115$ DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

-Hard Drive 78$ Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" SATA 300MB/s Hard Drive - OEM

-Optical Drive 40$ LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SOHW-1693S Black - Retail

-Video Card 370$ BFG Tech Geforce 7800GT BFGR78256GTOC Video Card - Retail

-Memory 142$ OCZ Gold Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) 2-2-2-5

-PSU 76$ ENERMAX Noisetaker EG495P-VE SFMA 485W Power Supply - Retail

-HS 50$ Thermaltake CL-P0257 Blue orb II CPU Cooler for LGA775 & K8 - Retail

6$ Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

TOTAL: $1195 Without shipping or taxes


I was thinking of getting an all copper heatsink (THERMALRIGHT XP-90C Heatsink - Retail 53$) and just buying a decent fan for on it... would that be alot better then the Heatsink/fan combo I've listed???

you shouldn't just set it at 250...but once you work up to 250 then your RAM will be DDR500 which is PC4000 i think....and with the ram i reccomended you should get timings of 2-2-2-5 at that speed so it shoudl be even more nimble.

Yes, that DFI board has a locked PCI/PCIe so you wont accidently OC those.





keyboard....ok
Case....ok
CPU....excellent
Mobo.....excellent
HDD....ok
Optical....ok
GPU....excellent
memory....excellent
Power.....excellent
HSF...NO!!! This is what you want....PERIOD!
Fan for heatsink....this It comes with a fan control...so you could turn the noise down when you are chillin...and when you game or have the cpu at 100% you can turn it up....best 120mm fan i have ever known as far as sound/speed
Artic silver 5 thermal....good

dont get the XP90C....its a good product but not as good as the one i listed and it costs more.

Could you suggest something else?? Because I only want to go through newegg if at all possible. I want this computer to be under 1500$ total with shipping taxes and a monitor and im very close so for paying for shipping twice might take me over.

And what do you mean work up to?? I plan on burning in all this hardware before I try to OC any of it. Let 3Dmark03 loop for 24 hours, then run Super PI for some time and then possible run 3Dmark05??

Does any of the parts become slowed down by other parts??? I guess im asking is this system bottlenecked anywhere??

Thanks for your help thusfar.

I wish i could....but the SI-120 if the best air cooler i know of, and that fan is a beast fan. If newegg sold both you would be set.


You can burn in if you want....whatever i just ment when you OC you dont just set the fsb to 250, you would set it to 205 test for a couple min then 210 then test then 215 then test then 220 then test...and so on till it fails...then once it fails you go down 1Mh till it work again....

Do all of that with a lower multipler and loos timings on yoru RAM to see the MAX fsb your cpu can do. Then See what the cpu you will do at a stock multi and loose ram timings. Then once you have the MAX fsb at stock multi, then tighten your ram timings and then test with 3dmark05, prime95, memtest, and if it passes all those and your temps are good....its a good OC.

Unless you're an experienced OCer, a couple of better mobo options are the Epox 9NPA+ Ultra or the Abit AN8 Ultra. The DFI is a difficult board to get tweaked just right because it has a LOT of options/tweaks. Its major advantage over the Abit and Epox is the higher Vdimm (3.6V), but 99.99% of users will never run their RAM at those speeds anyway. Both the Abit and Epox boards have frequency divider for RAM/CPU, and are less expensive than the DFI.

HSF: Unless you want to push the system past a 15% OC, the stock AMD cooler is more than sufficient. If you want a more quiet with your OC, then feel free to go with a good aftermarket HSF. I'd personally spend that money on a better PSU/GPU. [/shrug]