Old computer dead, New computer needed, a little advise?

Gorau

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Apr 9, 2006
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Hey there, this is my first post on these forums, though i do lurk on the on occation. The situation is this, my old computer (XP2500, radeon 9600) just suffered a motherboard meltdown, and since its such an old computer i've decided not to fix it. So i'm looking to get a new gameing system. I've put together a setup from a local computer stores build a system site and i'd like some comments as to what people think i could improve on.

Processor : AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ w/ 2x1MB Cache
CPU Heatsink / Fan : AMD Retail Heatsink and Fan
Thermal Compound : Arctic Silver Arctic Silver 5 High Density Silver Thermal Compound, 3.5g
Motherboards : Asus A8N-E w/ DualDDR400, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, SATA2.0, PCI-E x16
Memory : Corsair 2048MB TwinX PC3200 CAS 2 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 1024MB)
Case : Lian Li PC-65BU Plus, Black
Power Supplies : Enermax 600W EG701AX-VE SFMA All In One Noisetaker
Hard Drives 1 : Seagate 160GB Barracuda 7200.9 SATA II w/ NCQ, 8MB Cache
Hard Drives 2 : Seagate 400GB Barracuda 7200.9 SATA II w/ NCQ, 16MB Cache
Optical Drive 1 : LG 52x32x52x CDRW (Black) w/ Software
Optical Drive 2 : LG Super Multi DVD Writer 16x16 DVD +/-RW Dual-Layer, Black (OEM)
Video Cards : ATI Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E w/ VIVO, Dual DVI (Retail)
Sound Cards : Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 4 SE 7.1, OEM
Ethernet Cards : Onboard 100/1000 Gigabit Lan
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (OEM)
 

timberwolf1

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Mar 24, 2003
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Hi Gorau,

With regards to your questions:

1) XP2500, radeon 9600? Time for an upgrade anyway :)

2) How will you be using the computer? Is it mainly for gaming (especially 1st person shooters, FarCry, Quake, Doom)? If so, I'd certainly recommend that you get an SLI motherboard and (potentially) two graphics cards (the 7900GT is a good bet).

2) The ASUS A8N-E is not SLI right? Be sure it is what you want. The choice of motherboard is very important.

3) I assume you want to do dual CPUs at some point? If so, thar Athlon 64 X2 is perfect.

4) Just a question, why do you want a CDRW when you have a DVD writer?

If your purpose is to play games, then you can check out this article which recommends a sample gaming PC configuration for you.
 

7H4_D00D3

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Dec 30, 2005
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drop that cpu like it's hot, grab an 165 Opteron one and let the overclocking begin

You could also fix your old computer and make it fit a toaster or a DVD player or something, just like this
 

Gorau

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Apr 9, 2006
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Yes it is a gaming (almost exclusivly) pc.

I don't think i'm going to go sli or crossfire any time in the near future, personally i feel its not worth the expense and hassle. I'd much rather get a powerfull single card.

and if i may ask, what exactly do you mean by duel cpu? the x2 is already dual core, is there a reason to go dual cpu?

and @ 7H4, personally i don't like overclocking. i've had 2 friends who were deep into the overclocking and such, and i've watched both of them fry 5 systems between them because they were always looking for that one extra FPS. I also found their systems were consistanly very unstable.
 

7H4_D00D3

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i've had 2 friends who were deep into the overclocking and such, and i've watched both of them fry 5 systems

They suck.....

OC does no harm unless:

a) you give it too much voltage

b) don't chek RAM very well and get corruption on your files/registry (happened to me)

c) improper procedure

If you don't want to OC then you don't have to, and go get the x2 instead

And about your friends...they don't really suck, but sure are NOT carefull when OCing...
 

shadowduck

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Jan 24, 2006
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He means Dual Core, I think he misread your post.

I agree with the other poster, drop the 4800+ and get an Opteron 165 or 170 and overclock it. Nowadays, you cannot fry as system (well its hard) from overclocking it. Take it bit by bit restarting into Windows each time. You can easily get the 165 to FX-60 levels.

Nice motherboard, you will enjoy it.

Ditch XP x64, its awful and not worth the hell of getting it installed and finding all the drivers you need. Wait for Vista x64 with far better driver support.