First time build 1000€ budget. What do you think?

[Fed3x]

I'm planning to build my first computer mainly for gaming. I got about 1000€ (about 1200$) to spend on this computer.
Here is what I've got so far, the prices over here are in euros so that's why the prices are in euros.

Motherboard: ASUS A8N-E http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=171&model=455&modelmenu=1 97€ (115$)
I just picked this board because it was the most expensive non-SLI ASUS motherboard in http://www.atk-agentti.fi/content.php?pn=39&ci=1. If you got any suggestions for another board feel free share em. The only thing I notice missing is Firewire, it would be nice to have it even though I have nothing that uses it. Also can I use 5.1 speakers with this mobo or do I have to buy a separate sound card?

CPU: Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 216€ (256$)
I chose this one because I've heard that AMD is best for gaming and this one seemed to have pretty good performance/cost ratio when checking performance from http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/the_mother_of_all_cpu_charts_2005/page24.html

Graphics card: PNY GF 7800 GT PCI-E 256MB 2X DVI SWAT 4 306€ (362$)
I was first planning to get 6800gt for 240€(284$) but then I noticed this 7800 GT made by PNY. They also have the gtx version but it's 180€(213$) more expensive and I don't think it's worth it. Is PNY bad in some way or how do they have much cheaper cards than the other manufacturers? The only other possibility would be to get club3d 7800gt which would be 27€ more expensive. The other brand cards are over 50€(60$) more expensive.

RAM: 1 GB
Here I think 1 GB RAM should be enough for me. You can always buy another RAM later to get 2 GB. But I don't know which RAM I should get, I want DDR400 but I don't know if it's worth spending more money on a RAM with lower CL. http://www.atk-agentti.fi/content.php?pn=47&ci=1 There is a list of some RAMs, which should i take? The site is in Finnish but you should be able to understand enough to know what they are about.

Harddrive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (250 Gt, 7200 RPM, SATA) 102€(120$)
I think this is a pretty good HD. http://www.atk-agentti.fi/content.php?pn=44&ci=1 There's again a list of different harddrives I can get. I guess 7200 RPM is best to take but what about cache size and SATA version?

Case: Antec SuperLanboy 88€(104$)
I like this case cuz it's not so large, it looks cool and it doesn't weight so much. Does anyone have any good or bad experiences about this case?

Power supply: Antec Truepower 2.0 430W ATX 24-pin 82€(97$)
I think this PSU is pretty expensive but I chose it because I've heard good things about Antec PSUs.

DVD Drive: LG GSA-4167B 49€(58$)

Floppy: 1.44MB, 3.5" 14€(17$)

TOTAL: 954€(1130$) without RAM

Then finally I would want to know if everything is compactible, if there are any bottlenecks and is the PSU powerful enough. Thx in advance

 

[Fed3x]

No replies? :?

I have never overclocked before but it could be nice to try. Do you have any suggestions for a motherboard which would be easy to OC for a newbie?

 

[sleepdeprived82]

Well it all looks good to me

The asus board will allow you to overclock if you want to, I have had both an asus and abit motherboards recently and I prefer the Abit board myslef. If your site had a abit an8 ultra i would have suggested that as it has firewire.
The asus board will allow 5.1 and 7.1 sound and onboard is enough for most people.

I have a maxtor 10 and find it a little noiser than my old hitachi. Go sata for better air flow in the case. You will get more cache with the bigger drives

Psu is good may want a bit more watts for future proof sake, maybe the antec neoHe 500w, it also has removable cables to allow a less cluttered case and better airflow.

Ram , get what you can afford, budget mainbrand is enough for most people. Get a matched pair so they will run dual channel. lower CL with give a couple of % performance increase and allow more room if overclocking.

 

[the_guru]

Pick another Harddrive. Maxtor DiamondMax 10 is one of the least reliable drives today. Seagate has a 5 years warranty.

 

[Fed3x]

Well i'll change the PSU to neoHe 500w. The ability to remove cables you don't use sounds pretty sweet.
Then about the RAM, I was planning to buy one 1GB memory stick but do u need 2 RAM sticks to benefit from dual-channel? In that case how would 2x KINGSTON 512MB DDR400 PC-3200 CL2.5 work? There's also a pack with KINGSTON 1GB KIT (2*512) DDR400 PC-3200 CL3 which would be 10€ cheaper but it got higher CL. Which should I take?
I checked some HDs and ST3250823AS BARRACUDA 7200.8 250GB SERIAL ATA/150 seems to be closest to the one I have now from Seagate.

The thing I'm most worried about is how the PNY 7800gt will work. Does anyone have any experience about PNY?

 

[Rugger]

Yes you need 2 sticks to get dual channel for your memory. It is about a 2-5% performance increase with dual channel. Little performance difference between the CAS latency performance. Read this TechReport Latency review.

 

[Fed3x]

Ram , get what you can afford, budget mainbrand is enough for most people. Get a matched pair so they will run dual channel. lower CL with give a couple of % performance increase and allow more room if overclocking.

How does lower CL give more room for overclocking?

Little performance difference between the CAS latency performance. Read this TechReport Latency review.

Well it seems that CL doesn't have much inpact on performance. But what are those command rates they talk about in the review? They seem to affect the performance more.

Then about the OS. Is it worth spending 149€ on Windows XP pro x64 edition or should I stick with the XP home edition i have now? What advantages do you get by using a 64bit OS?

 

[sleepdeprived82]

lower CL means that when overclocking the modules you can loosen the timmings to give yourself more room for improvement on the FSB. the more you loosen the timings then the less strain is put on the ram which is important when pushing the FSB.

Hope that makes sense, makes sanse in my head

Command rate, look here: http://www.obm.co.nz/obmnew/guides/ddrram.htm

If you get the 2*512mb ram you should be able to get 1t, prob have to go to 2t if your overclocking or use more than 2 modules. I hear certain 1gb modules dont like 1t timings either.

Problem with win 64 is that many companies still dont have 64 bit drivers, so unless you can find drivers for every thing you plug into your Pc i would not bother, also you will not gain much from it.
Wait untill vista is out its not long

 

[Rugger]

What advantages do you get by using a 64bit OS?

A lot of speed...if you use 64Bit software and stable drivers are available. :/ Not worth the money - stick with XP home for now. Maybe Vista down the road...

How does lower CL give more room for overclocking?

You can loosen the timings to increase stability at higher clock speeds. Or you could run them async and lose very little performance.

More latency info. Command rate is adjustable in the BIOS, but on an A64 if you have more than 4 banks of memory installed you won't be able to run 1T command rate unless you're running the DFi RDX200 mobo - Anandtech article on RDX200. Don't confuse banks of memory with the number of RAM modules/sticks - there can be more than one memory bank on a single stick of memory. In fact most modern RAM has at least 2 banks per memory module.

 

[Fed3x]

So I think I choose the 2.5CL rams since they're only a little more expensive. 8)

But do you think the PNYs graphic card will work? It's now the only part I'm uncertain about. :?

 

[sleepdeprived82]

Pny are fine