im building a new gaming system and need some input, here is what i'm looking at getting:  I know that i dont need a dual core for gaming, but i figured what the hell, i'll spending, might as well, plus i like to burn stuff a lot.
 
case: cooler master 533 :  
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119098
 
cpu: amd x2 4400+
 
memory: 2 gig corsair:
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145594
 
hard drive: raptor 36 gig 10000 rpm
 
motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
 
video cards (2): evga 7900 gt ko
 
power supply: 680Watt
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817148022
 
 
Thanks for your input.

 
The Asus A8N-SLI boards are horrible. They have very high rates of failures and other problems. Wusy can give you high levels of detail on this subject. Change the motherboard to something from DFI. Also, you can save some cash by getting the Opteron 165 instead of the 4400+ and overclocking it.

DFI lanparty Ut Expert SLI-$177.00
Opteron 165  
G.SKILL has 2GIGS of PC4000 RAM on sale for 171.00
 
Everything else looks good. Although I would go SLI I would just get a 7900GTX. But thats just me.

what about the Pentium D 805 ?
 
i've never overclocked anything, so i'm kind of skeptical about doing it...

It gets very hot and uses a lot of power.

Do I still need the DFI even if i dont plan on overclocking?

 
If you overclock or not, DFI makes a great board, and it always gives you the best option if you choose to get into overclocking later.

if you had $1700 and wanted to build a gaming maching and didnt want to do any overclocking, what would you build?

 
3 options:
 
1) Your current setup with DFI motherboard you pointed out.
 
2) Your current setup with DFI motherboard, 1 7900GTX instead of SLI. In most benchmarks a GTX is equal or only slightly slower than 2 GTs in SLI and is around $100 less expensive with lower power requirements
 
3) Your current setup with 7900GTX and Asus A8N-E (no RAID 5, no SLI upgrade path, but only $93 board)
 
If i were buying, I would probably go for setup #2.

 
3 options:
 
1) Your current setup with DFI motherboard you pointed out.
 
2) Your current setup with DFI motherboard, 1 7900GTX instead of SLI. In most benchmarks a GTX is equal or only slightly slower than 2 GTs in SLI and is around $100 less expensive with lower power requirements
 
3) Your current setup with 7900GTX and Asus A8N-E (no RAID 5, no SLI upgrade path, but only $93 board)
 
If i were buying, I would probably go for setup #2.

I would change the X2 for Opteron 165 (good and safe OC) ...if your budget allow you, get Opteron 170 (higher than 3 GHz OC) .... I like Asus AN32N-SLI ...as you will get 2 VGA's.... do it full power... 2 x 16xPCIexpress... and I got no problems with my MB... but DFI is also a good choice if you are in OC mood... I got AMMO 533 case...and it is awsome !

one last thing.  the Pentium D 805 was said to outperform any other chip out there: "a cheap CPU that costs $130 outperforms the fastest processors from AMD (Athlon 64 FX-60) and Intel (Pentium Extreme Edition 965), each of which costs over $1,000." on TomsHardware.  
 
What if I bought that chip, put in a nice cooling system and overclocked it to 4.0?  From the reading, seems like it'll be as fast if not faster than the top of the line AMD and Pentium chips?

 
*sigh*  
 
Do not fall for this..  
 
1) Watercooling is required- add $400 for the proper case and watercooling equipment
 
2) There is NO gurantee of any overclock. You might not get over 3.5. It all depends on the chip.
 
3) Tom's guys are experts in overclocking and know what to do, you probably don't.
 
4) Even overclocked, its STILL an Intel which sucks for playing games
 
5) That system pumps out heat like no tomorrow. So you will need a good air conditioner, and a beefy (650W+ PSU).
 
Stick with the AMD solutions. The D805 just isnt worh it.

While an interesting experiment it puts me in mind of Tim (or should that be Tom now) Taylor, the toolman.  Stick a turbo charger on a POS and now it's a POS with a rocket attached to it, makes for a bigger boom when it blows and a lot of sh!t everywhere.
 
If you don't know what you are doing with OC don't get the D 805.  I know there are many here that have done it but in reality, if you could afford it, would you rather buy a ferrari or a SRT4?

you're right, i know zilch about overclocking.
 
i'll stick with x2 4400+ and will get (2) 7900 gt ko's. (i will chose this because in two years, when i upgrade again, i'll be able to split these cards up into two different sub systems for the kids
 
thanks for your input. (feel free to post more, i will definitely read it)
 
btw, do you guys game?  if so, what games?

 
The Asus A8N-SLI boards are horrible. They have very high rates of failures and other problems. Wusy can give you high levels of detail on this subject. Change the motherboard to something from DFI. Also, you can save some cash by getting the Opteron 165 instead of the 4400+ and overclocking it.
 
I'm not disputing the claim that these are horrible boards... just gonna say that I'm very happy with my A8N-SLI. Maybe I got lucky!

i just read that the DFI lanparty expert mb, each sli card runs at 8x, combined giving 16x? (I may be wording it wrong, but im sure you get my point)
 
please advise as i want to take full advantage of two 16x cards.

i just read that the DFI lanparty expert mb, each  card runs at 8x, combined giving 16x? (I may be wording it wrong, but im sure you get my point)
 
please advise as i want to take full advantage of two 16x cards.

No current generation cards can fully utilize two 16X PCI-e data paths. The difference between the two are neglible with current generation cards.  
 
Here's a link...
 
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/m [...] pdate.html