budget gaming rig

[Kanyezy]

Hi im looking for some last minute advice before i order my budget gaming machine.I would appreciate any input, especially about any hardware incompatiblities.

Antec Sonata II includes 450w (everyones favorite)
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor S939 Venice 2.0GHZ (cheap,ocing easy)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM
ASUS A8N5X ATX S939 NFORCE4 DDR PCI-E16 SATA RAID Sound GBLAN
OCZ Premier PC3200 1GB 2X512MB DDR400 CL2.5 3-3-7(unsure of)
Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200.9 8MB 11MS SATA2NCQ(read good reviews)
EVGA E-GEFORCE 7900 GT CO 500MHZ PCI-E 256MB 256BIT (gaming)
Samsung SH-W162 16X DVD+-RW 5X Dual Layer DVD Writer Black
=$1245(CDN from ncix.com)
Thanks!

 

[dvdpiddy]

What kind of games are you planning to play?

 

[angry_ducky]

It looks good.

 

[sandmannight]

pretty good.

 

[Kanyezy]

I plan on playing WoW, civ4, bf2 and HOPEFULLY Bioshock and C&C 3 tiberium wars when those come out in the next 6-12 months.

I guess i could go with a lower card, but i think by sacrificing my cpu with a 3200 I should atleast get a good video card.

 

[sandmannight]

I plan on playing WoW, civ4, bf2 and HOPEFULLY Bioshock and C&C 3 tiberium wars when those come out in the next 6-12 months.

I guess i could go with a lower card, but i think by sacrificing my cpu with a 3200 I should atleast get a good video card.

A 3200 will be fine and you will play all current games at good quality. You could get a good OC board and make that 3200 really shine.

 

[Kanyezy]

What are some good motherboards for the 3200, OC wise? I just went with that model from Asus because of the good reviews on newegg.

 

[dvdpiddy]

I plan on playing WoW, civ4, bf2 and HOPEFULLY Bioshock and C&C 3 tiberium wars when those come out in the next 6-12 months.

I guess i could go with a lower card, but i think by sacrificing my cpu with a 3200 I should atleast get a good video card.

Ya it's fine just get yourself a different mobo maybe a dfi if you plan to oc.

 

[Kanyezy]

say as if I were to buy a
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD,
would I be able to throw in a dualcore chip in later on? and will the next gen cpu's coming out soon be supported by this mobo?

 

[angry_ducky]

say as if I were to buy a
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD,
would I be able to throw in a dualcore chip in later on?

You'd be able to put a dual-core s939 chip. And you'd be able to overclock quite well.

and will the next gen cpu's coming out soon be supported by this mobo?

No; the next-gen CPUs coming out tomorrow (!) have 940 pins and use DDR2 RAM, so they will not be compatible. However, they show no real gains in performance over the socket 939 chips.

 

[dvdpiddy]

say as if I were to buy a
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD,
would I be able to throw in a dualcore chip in later on?

You'd be able to put a dual-core s939 chip. And you'd be able to overclock quite well.

and will the next gen cpu's coming out soon be supported by this mobo?

No; the next-gen CPUs coming out tomorrow (!) have 940 pins and use DDR2 RAM, so they will not be compatible. However, they show no real gains in performance over the socket 939 chips. Exactly!