Pro Builders Needed!

[yellapage]

Hi Guys, I've been out of the building game for a while and just wanted some advice really. I have bought 2 parts below and wish to add to this to make a complete system.

AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4400+/SKT939 2.2GHZ 1MB

CORSAIR 2GB DDR XMS3500LL PRO 2 x 1 GB PAIRED

I was thinking about pairing a

Sapphire PURE Advantage CrossFire Radeon Xpress 200P CrossFire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-003-SP)

With a

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-113-SP)

2 x SATA WD 10,000 RPM 36 gig

Is a good mix to compliment the parts I have bought?

I need a Case, PSU and Fan for the processor? Any recommendations would be a great help as I am getting a bit lost. It would be great if the PC didn’t sound like being on a airplane (Silence is golden)and what sort of power do I need in the PSU?

Would like any advice?

Cheers
Rich

 

[FITCamaro]

Don't know if you'll see any better performance with an NForce 4 based board. Its an option if you're not planning to run a Crossfire setup. Its worth looking into.

For a heatsink I personally have the Zalman 7700CU. Nice and quiet and cools really well. Fairly easy to install. Sounds though like the 9500 is better so might want to get that.

Antec powersupplies are great. As are Silverstones and such. TomsHardware has done some great articles reviewing PSUs before so just read a few of those. I'd personally definitely get one with modular cables to keep the case clean and neat.

For cases I like ones with 120mm fans so they're quiet and move a lot of air but its kind of a personal choice. Get one with a side fan that blows on your GPU if you can to keep it cooler.

Also, you planning to have any other storage than the two Raptors? Or is this PC just for games and you aren't looking to store a lot of stuff?

 

[yellapage]

This PC will mainly be for games so storage is not really a problem. I had a look on overclockers.co.uk and found the bit you mentioned and think I will go for the 9500. Do I need to order any paste or anything like that...been out of the game so long. And is this difficult to do?

 

[bweir]

Nice setup. I've got 2x 36Gb raptors in a RAID 0 and they sure do fly. With those, and the 2Gb of memory, load times are going to be half of what the are for other "average" systems. All said you chose wisely. Although, if you don't plan on using two video cards, why get the Crossfire board? Maybe to upgrade later I guess, but its a question you should consider. For a nice system like that, get a good case to show it off. Thermaltake and Antec are nice and fairly quiet, Lian-Li makes great looking cases, but they tend to be obnoxiously overpriced. Plus get a good power supply, don't ever use a cheap-o freebie that comes with a case with those high quality components or you might end up frying something really expensive. Get a minimum of 500-550 watts. I use an Antec Truepower 550 and it doesn't even blink under load.

Good luck.

 

[yellapage]

Is questioning the crossfire MB a finanial one or is there gains to be had when using a single graphics card with non-SLI/Crossfire MB? I'll have a look at those cases now. I was reading about a new Antec power supply that is fanless until loads permit it. Anyone head any good/bad things about this?

 

[bweir]

It's more of a my own curiosity, rather than a financial issue. You could go with either without worrying one way or the other, plus with Crossfire, you'll be able to buy another 7900 in a year or so when the price drops by half.

Antec has a good reputation for power supplies, IMHO being top 5 or so, but I haven't seen that specific one in action so I can't really comment on it. But I've been known to simply do a bit of homework, and if the "enthusiast" community gives it 5 stars on Newegg, I'll take a leap of faith and buy it. It would be a nice feature to have a quiet PS right up until the games start blasting out in 5.1 surround, then you won't hear it anyway!

 

[FITCamaro]

Yes get some Artic Silver 5. To apply it basically put a small dab of it on the CPU and then use a business card to spread it very thinly over the surface of the CPU. Easy as that. More is not necessarily better with the stuff. To much and the heat will get trapped.

 

[moparman390]

I used one 74GB Raptor in my own system. I also have a RAID 1, (Mirrored) array for bulk storage, consisting of two 320GB WDs. I am assuming you want to use the two 36GB Raptors in a RAID 0. I do not reccommend a RAID 0 as there is no fualt tollerance and the failure chances double with two drives. RAID 0 is not going to give you any real speed boost either as the 36GB Raptors are slower then the 74GB Raptors (access/seek times). Either use both 36GB Raptors seperately or get a 74GB Raptor.

If you want buld storage on a seperate drive, go for one big one instead of combining two smaller ones in RAID 0.

Also, if you do not plan to use Crossfire in the future, go with an NForce chipset, they have a southbridge that has more features.

 

[yellapage]

Guys, Thanks for all your advice....It has been very handy.

Conclusion so far

I will get:-
1 x 74 GB Raptor 10,000 RPM

1 x Antec Phamtom PSU
PSU Link For Details

Sticking with the Sapphire Combo of 1900XTX and Sapphire PURE Innovation Gruper Radeon Xpress 200P - I hope this chipset is not going to effect the perfomance compared to the nforce4.
Motherboard Specs Link

1 x Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower

1 x Tube of Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

On the case front still have not really made up my mind..If anyone has a little time to browse thru this selection that would be great
Cases

This is allot of money for me to be spending on a machine so just trying to make sure all is right, Thanks again guys

Rich