Give this rig a Rating for me before I drop the cash

[Shifty52]

Any feedback would be appreciated.

The budget I am aiming for is 2200-2500, 80/20 split in favor of online/single player gaming over actual work. If anyone has any ideas for either better performance or quite possibly saving of money I would greatly appreciate it. With everything I have listed below it comes to 2,052.91 Shipped and without factoring in any rebates. So I do have some room to play with. I've done a handy amount of research and have chosen parts that hopefully will be able to keep me future proof for awhile.

Thanks for the help in advance.

PC:

Case:Aspire X-Navigator
MoboFI Lanparty
CPU:AMD Opteron 170 Denmark
RAM:G.skill 2GB
Hard Drive:Western Digital 74GB Raptor 10,000RPM / Seagate Barracuda 7200 250GB
Video Card:eVGA 512-P2-N570 GeForce 7900GTX
Cooling:Zalman CNP9500 , Artic Silver 5 Paste
Card Reader: AMC AICR-01-BG 8-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader/Writer
Power Supply: FSP (Fortron Source) 700W
OS: XP Home - OEM

There it is in a nutshell. Mostly priced out from ZZF and NE. Hopefully my choices are alright and will work well this way, however if you guys have any input into something better, or a way to cut costs without sacrificing performance much, let me know. Thanks!

Shifty

 

[sandmannight]

looks good and will last you for a while and even when you want to make changes you can just buy a new video card because all the other stuff will last even longer

 

[doolittle]

Looks awesome. One comment about the X-nav, I have that as my file server and it is excellent. Great airflow - once you make sure the fans are properly oriented - I had to reverse my rear and side fans to get everything cool. And not to mention the door feels a bit cheap. Otherwise an excellent case, benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Every bay is full on mine, and keeps cool running 24x7. Well I did shut it down when I went out-of-town on vacation....

 

[sandmannight]

you dont need a 700 watt power supply that is over kill. Forgot to mention that

 

[Shifty52]

you dont need a 700 watt power supply that is over kill. Forgot to mention that

That's true yes, but I like to think of it like a condom. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

S

 

[Shifty52]

Just curious. Would there be any benefit, in going with XP Pro over Home? I'm reading a few posts that say Home will do fine, but others say that it will not use the dual core to it's full potential so one might as well get pro. Thoughts??

 

[pat]

Just curious. Would there be any benefit, in going with XP Pro over Home? I'm reading a few posts that say Home will do fine, but others say that it will not use the dual core to it's full potential so one might as well get pro. Thoughts??

there is no real advantage going pro unless you need advanced networking feature or multi processor support. Home will happily support dual core just like it support hyperthrreading..

 

[MrCommunistGen]

I've always used Pro. The only times I really notice differences are when I go to LANs and I usually wind up troubleshooting half the computers there before we can play. Home doesn't have quite the same fuctionality when it comes to networking and file sharing... at least in my experience. Also, if you start up a computer running Home in safe mode, you can change the acount passwords. 8O

-mcg

 

[azzman]

I've had bad luck with Seagate drives...an equivalent WD will do you nice
Also, I've seen a lot of people saying the 7900GTX isnt' worth it. The 7900GT is the better buy. You may want to buy the GT, and put whatever money saved towards a dx10 card a year from now. The 700watt PSU is definitely overkill, but if it makes you feel better by all means get it.

System looks awesome, you'll be happy with it for sure.

 

[jap0nes]

Would there be any benefit, in going with XP Pro over Home?

i think they both suck
i think pro sucks less than home

 

[Shifty52]

Ok dropped down to a FSP 600W, saved a little money. Anyone else have a recommendation for a good reliable PS? Preferably one that "can" handle SLI configs? Not getting SLI immediately, but it would be good to have for later.

 

[Shifty52]

Ok, Pretty much the final conclusion for this rig. Pondered, wondered, studied and compared. Seems like this should be good and futureproof for a goodwhile. Will be making the purchase at the end of this month, oh the suspense is terrible.. I hope it'll last..

Case-ASPIRE X-Navigator ATXA8NW-SS/500 Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Mobo-DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD
VidCard-eVGA 512-P2-N570-AX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
Power Supply-FSP Group (Fortron Source) FX600-GLN ATX12V/ EPS12V 600W All-In-One Power Supply
CPU-AMD Opteron 170 Denmark 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
Card Reader-AMC AICR-01-BG 8-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader/Writer - Retail
Ram-G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model
Floppy-SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
HD #1-Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
HD #2-Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
CPU Cooling-ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED 92mm 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan with Heatsink
OS-Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2

Total 2045.80