new comp advice

[Glen]

Ok I am sure that there are lots of noobs in the forums asking about system recomendations of one kind or another but here is another. i have read lots of forums for a few weeks now and havent found what info i am looking for. so here goes my little insignificant story.


i am going to build a new system and am not sure which way to go. i almost use it exclusivley for gamming. i play bf2, fear moh and other fps games of that nature. i would like to tell you that i will look at overclocking the system but in all reality i will never get around to it or never find the time or am just too lazy. take your pick.

so this is what i have right now. i have

Amd 4000+
A8v-e deluxe asus
2 gig of generic 3200 ram
saphire x850 xt platnum pci-e
x-fi soundblaster
2 seagate 120 gb hard drives in raid 0
and a 52 inch dlp projection screen for a monitor


i am looking at
Antec® Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower w/ Power Supply, Black
AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 - 4800+ (Socket 939) [CDBOX] Retail Box w/ Heatsink and Fan
DFI® LANPARTY UT RDX200 CF-DR, Socket 939, ATI Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire Chipset w/ PCI Express x16 (ATX)
4Gb DDR SDRAM Ram Module, PC3200
2 x 160GB Samsung SpinPoint SATA-II-300 7200RPM 8Mb OEM
Sapphire® Radeon™ X1900XT - Radeon™ X1900XT VPU w/512Mb GDDR3 & PCI Express x16 TVO
Sapphire® Radeon™ X1900 Crossfire™ - Radeon™ X1900 Crossfire™ VPU w/512Mb GDDR3 & PCI
Logitech® G15 Gaming Keyboard (Retail Box), Black Metallic
Microsoft® Windows® XP Pro x64 w/ CD & Manual (OEM)
i am going to reuse my sound card and monitor.

i was considering going to the fx-57 or 60 chip instead of the x2 4800
but wasnt sure if this was necessary. and the choice of case was just cause i like the look of it and it comes with a power supply. i do from time to time do some movie burning but that isnt important cause i have a few other pc s for that anyway. any sugested changes. oh by the way my work will pay for this within reason.

 

[shadowduck]

4800+ is fine for the vast majority of uses, but consider Opteron 180 over FX-60 if you choose to go this route. The 180 is cheaper than FX-60 and provides more performance.

 

[godlyatheist]

4gb or ram will slow them all to DDR333, 2x1gb OCZ DDR500, 550, or 600 will better.

Definitely Opteron over X2. They are higher quality and OC better in general. But keep in mind that the faster the CPU is at stock, the less it will OC. I'd say save some $$ with Opty 165 or 170

make sure the included PSU is like 500W or higher otherwise it is not enough juice.

instead of two 160 gb, two 250GB WD SATAII with 16b of cache is better

 

[Glen]

that case comes with 450W SmartPower psu. that is the only info given on it. not familliar with that one at all. if that isnt enuf power then i will get a case without a psu and get a better psu. the look of the case isnt that important to me. i would rather have it preform better than look better.
i probably will not overclock anyway so should i get the opty 180 or the 154. and what are the differences between the opty's and the athlon chips.

 

[mdd1963]

"The 180 is cheaper than FX-60 and provides more performance."

SInce when will a dualcore at 2.4G (180) outperform a dual core at... 2.6G (FX60)?

 

[mdd1963]

If you are big on gaming, I'd consider dropping the X850XT PE for a 7800GT, or else jump all the way to 1900XT....

 

[FreshMeat]

4gb or ram will slow them all to DDR333, 2x1gb OCZ DDR500, 550, or 600 will better.

Not true, it only defaults to DDR333 with 4GB. You can still set it to DDR400 in your BIOS with 4GB of ram, it's just 'officially' supported. I am running 4GB right now at DDR400 2.5,3,3,3T. You just can't be as aggressive with your memory timings. That being said, if you are just playing games, 2GB of ram is fine, and it allows you to run with faster memory timings.

 

[shata]

Dont get a x850 thats a waste of money i know there only like 200$ but you gona kick yourself down the road if you want to have a high end system.

Id get one of these:
7800gt
x1800xl(i got this one)
x1900xt

 

[Anoobis]

If I come to work with you, will they pay for a new computer for me?

 

[shata]

Part of the reason i forgot to mention you will is, if you wana see all the eye candy the x800 series doesnt surport Pixel shader 3.0 which means no HDR and AAA or HQAF.

 

[Glen]

actually the x850 is what i have now. i am looking at getting 2 1900's. as for ram i am getting my comp parts from PC Canada can anyone recommend a better choice.

 

[adreen]

silly question...but why do u want a new comp now?
would seem like a waste of a perfectly respectable comp u have right now.
4000+ can run any game on the market and then some, why not wait until AM2 comes out where you'll atleast be future proof instead of buying a 2500 dollar comp that MIGHT (prob won't be, but not as good) be replaced by the newer generations of CPU/mobo and GPUs (namely the 7900).
Just my opinion, I would wait it out to see what intel and amd has to offer and then make a decision considering you have quite a nice comp there already, sure as hell kills my current one running a 6600gt n intel 2.4
ohhh also i would wait atleast until DFI releases an updated version of that mobo..i read reviews and it's not as good as it could be, some minor problems. but i'm pretty sure it wouldn't hold back TWO x1900xt/cfs :twisted:

 

[Glen]

the only reason for the timing of the build is that my youngest daughter wants a comp. her birthday is at the end of febuary and she is going to get the one i have now and i will use that opportunity to upgrade. she is turning 7 and doesnt need anything great and said she would more than thrilled to get this one. she is the only family member without her own comp. i bought a intel 2.4 a few years ago from dell. then i got a built a 3.2 and gave the dell to my 2 girls and my wife to share as none use the comp very much anyway. then my 8 year old started to use it lots so i got the amd 4000+ and passed everything down the line. my wife and youngest share now and she is getting really interested and frustrated that she has to argue for time with my wife. i know that kids pick up computer smarts easier than adults so i dont want to do anything to inhibit her interest or development in computer knowledge.
damn that was a mouth full.
So i could easily push her off for another month as i will be getting her other birthday gifts anyway but i dont want to wait much past march cause as soon as the ground thaws i will be back outside busy with house renovations and probably not have time to resaerch any further.

 

[adreen]

ohhhh
makes perfect sense! go for it then.

 

[godlyatheist]

The 154 is an Fx-57 for less without the unlocked multipliers. It is single core. The 180 is dual core. Gaming is better on single core right now, but that will change with new generation of games. The difference is that the opties use better core than the athlon. the first batch of opty used the Fx-57 core so u can imagine what that was like.......

 

[crazywheels]

you are going to spend all of that money and then get generic ram, you might as well spend another $100 or so to get some name brand ram. don't go with generic, you don't always know what you are getting.

 

[Glen]

to be honest i usually just go tell the tech guy at the store what i am doing with the comp and let he tell me what i need. this is the first time that i have tryed to do the research on my own. last build he just told me to get generic so i did. that is why this time i have beeen reading here for about a month now and have started this thread. i am looking for some advise. so on that note what ram would you recomend. also i have been reading alot about the bottleneck that the hard drive creates in newer systems, so iwas wondering if i could get 2 WD 39 GB raptor hard drives to run in raid 0 and have a third hard drive run normally so that i could load games on the raid array and other less time critical stuff on the third drive.

 

[Glen]

i have been reading more on the crossfire benifits. it seems that the general opinion is that the dual grafics card oonly hase a great benifiit when running at high resolutions. i only play my games on a resolution of 1024 x 768. this is what all my games are set to as well as my desktop. actually i think that my dlp tv/monitor has a native resolution of only 1024 x 768 when in the mode that is needed when i hook it up to the comp. with this in mind will i get any real gains in performance by getting the dual vid cards.

 

[adreen]

i wouldn't think so. it's overkill for dual gpu at low res. sometimes single cards outperform dual at low res! it also generates more heat, uses more juice, and is just not needed if you're going to be playing games at 1024. plus most 19" lcds have native res of 1280, so unless ur going big for like an acer ferrari (or a quality CRT), ur not gonna see a huge performance increase with dual cards. i would suggest going for the top of the line x1900xtx. if needed, it can handle the higher res if u change your mind, but it can handle everything u throw at it low res. my two cents.

 

[RoachKilla]

Would there be any advantage to adding a GIGABYTE i-RAM memory board to your system?

 

[Glen]

i am going big like a 52 inch LG DLP projection tv it has a native resolution of much higher but not in the pc mode

 

[adreen]

well if u can't play games in a higher rez u don't it right?
pc mode = games?
i'm confused!

 

[Glen]

i meen that the native res for the tv if i have it by itself or with a dvd player it is 1920 x 1080 but as soon as i hook it up to the comp it detects the hdmi connection and dropes it down to 1024 x 768

 

[Glen]

ok what if i drop down to 2 gb of ram. i am now looking at this set
OCZ 2Gb PC3200 DDR EL Dual Channel Platinum Edition (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K)
the timming on this is 2-3-2-5 what ever that meens. and it has a speed of 400 MHz. is this a better choice.

 

[godlyatheist]

i only play my games on a resolution of 1024 x 768. this is what all my games are set to as well as my desktop. actually i think that my dlp tv/monitor has a native resolution of only 1024 x 768 when in the mode that is needed when i hook it up to the comp.

I'm wondering why such a good system for only 10x7 gaming? With your money I would suggest get a separate monitor just for gaming, you'll like the resolution difference.