Building a new system

[Everclearboy]

I am looking to build a new system shortly, currently I have the following:

AMD 64 3000
ASUS K8T800 Socket 754
ASUS 6800GT 128MB AGP
ASUS 5232AS CD-RW
ASUS 1604P DVD-RW
Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Ed.
Maxtor 160GB DiamondMax Plus 9 6Y160PO IDE
Corsair TwinX 512x2 PC3200XLPT

My Budget is right around $2,500

What I am interested in is this:

AMD FX-60 or FX57 making use of the Socket 939
Upgrading to a slightly faster burning DVD-RW
Would like to go with a Nvidia 7800 or even the upcoming 7900
I'd also like to bump up to a 300GB Hard Drive and make use of SATA
I'm also interested in the new X-fi Sound Cards from Creative particularly the Fatality card.
As far as memory goes I'd like to make use of the 2GB Corsair 3500LL Pro though am open to suggestions as I am not sure if the 3500LL works better then the 3200XLPT I already have.
Motherboard-wise not sure if I should keep with ASUS as well.. have any other motherboard/component makers out there really shined recently?

I'm trying to avoid compatibility issues as well so I'd prefer to keep a solidity with the brand name of the parts as I did before. Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[shadowduck]

I am looking to build a new system shortly..

My Budget is right around $2,500

What I am interested in is this:

AMD FX-60 or FX57 making use of the Socket 939
Upgrading to a slightly faster burning DVD-RW
Would like to go with a Nvidia 7800 or even the upcoming 7900
I'd also like to bump up to a 300GB Hard Drive and make use of SATA
I'm also interested in the new X-fi Sound Cards from Creative particularly the Fatality card.
As far as memory goes I'd like to make use of the 2GB Corsair 3500LL Pro though am open to suggestions as I am not sure if the 3500LL works better then the 3200XLPT I already have.
Motherboard-wise not sure if I should keep with ASUS as well.. have any other motherboard/component makers out there really shined recently?

I'm trying to avoid compatibility issues as well so I'd prefer to keep a solidity with the brand name of the parts as I did before. Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks

Ok, lets see here..

In my experience Asus makes the most solid motherboards I have ever used. If you wish to overclock howerver, there are better options (DFI comes to mind, even EpoX).

Unless you really want the absolute best CPU ever, the FX-60 does not really offer that much in terms of performance over an Opteron 180 and the price/performance ratio on the FX-60 is terrible.

As far as the motherboard, I really like the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium. This board is approved to work with Opteron CPU (per Asus support) and has a nice set of features including SLI.

As for a DVD burner- NEC makes a good 16x model that can be had on Newegg for $39 or so. RAM wise I tend to perfer OCZ, they have really shined lately in memory. They make excellent RAM, and it overlocks well.

Hard drive- 300GB SATA is massive of course, and brand is probably not really important, however I would like a drive with a 16MB cache (vs 8).

The Xi series is really nice, and the Fatality has about every possible connector for plugging in devices thanks to the included drive bay insert.

Lastly, for a video card the 7800GT is a really nice card, but the 7900 will improve over the 7900 around 10% (according to Toms). However, the 7800 will be cheaper once the 7900 is out and is by no means a poor card.
For brand- I really like the eVGA cards (I currently have one of their 6800 cards and it works beautifully.)

Anyway a part lists for you:

Operton 180 CPU $771.00

Asus A8N-SLI Premium Motherboard- $164.99

Seagate 300GB SATA2 (3Gb/sec) Hard Drive $127.00

Creative SB X-Fi Fata1ty- $286.00

NEC 16x DVD Burner $39.75

eVGA Geforce 7800GT 256MB $349.00 (Newegg is offering a combo special as the time of this post offering a free eVGA socket 939 motherboard when you buy this video card. I have no experience with eVGA motherboards, so not sure what to recommend. Could always sell it on eBay.)
eVGA Free Motherboard (Socket 939)

OCX 2GB (2x 1GB) Titanium RAM $255.41

Newegg Total $1934.15 plus shipping

Now of course add the case of your choice, Windows, keyboard/mouse, and an LCD if you need one and you have the perfect system!

--Duck

 

[mdd1963]

"What I am interested in is this:

AMD FX-60 or FX57 making use of the Socket 939
"

Fine processors they are, but waaaay overpriced for the 1-2% performance improvement they offer in real world high res gaming scenarios...

I'd save yourself at least $300-$400 and look at an Opty 170-175, which might OC to FX60 levels, were that extra 200-400 MHz to be useful in some games, depending on your desired gaming resolutions...

For drives, you might consider instead a 74GB Raptor for OS and games, and then an aditional 250GB IDE/ATA 7200 rpm unit for general storage, which you can frequently find on sale at CompUSA for as little as $59 after rebates...(you'd have better OS/gaming load time speeds, and still abundant storage capacity than with a single 300GB SATA drive)

As for video card, unless assembling this rig very soon, many are eager to see what the 7900GT/GTX brings to the table, but the best cards now seem to be 1900XT variants