Building a new PC. Advice please?

[norbiu]

Okay, so I'm finally ready (financially) to build another PC. Here's what I've got so far.


Motherboard: ABIT AW8-MAX Dual-DDR2-800 FSB1066/800 i955X PCI-E SATA2 Raid, LAN, USB, AUD 7.1


Video card: ASUS Nvidia GF7900GTX , PCIE*, 512MB DDR3-256bit , HDTV , 2*DVI ; 2nd VGA; King Kong Full Edition, Xpand Rally,Virtual Drive,Media & Show,Power Director 3; HDTV OUT adaptor, DVI-to-2nd VGA adaptor, power cable


Processor: Intel Pentium D, 930-3.0G,LGA775,800,2x2M BOX

HDD: MAXTOR 250GB, 7200rpm/S-ATA/16MB



I'm not really sure about the memory though. Thank you.

 

[blueangel]

I also would recommend DDR2 800, also consider a raid HD configuration with two smaller drives. You have higher end parts, so there is likely to be bottlenecks with the HDs. You should be able to get the same size of storage for just a little bit more if you shop around.

 

[tyr86]

Go DDR2-800. Do NOT skimp on the RAM.

Also, if you want performance in the HDD area, just aim for 2 small 36.7 or 74 GB super fast drives in a RAID 0 array, then get a honkin' huge, 250 or 300 GB HD. Also, make sure they are all SATA.

Make sure you get at least 2 GB of good RAM (Corsair, OCZ).

Also, I always prefer to go away from on-board sound, so I recommend an X-Fi if you're not salvaging a decent sound card from anywhere, that is, if you have a 5.1 system.

 

[norbiu]

Thanks for the help guys.

So does the RAID help or not?

 

[unbiased4u]

Yes, but not by that much...

 

[melarcky]

yes ddr2 800 is the best choice if you can afford it

 

[blueangel]

Yes, but not by that much...

It helps alot, with older systems, not as much as with newer ones. You would benefit quite a bit from it, but that also depends on what you are doing, I’m assuming gaming is somewhere on your priority

 

[blueangel]

Go DDR2-800. Do NOT skimp on the RAM.

Also, if you want performance in the HDD area, just aim for 2 small 36.7 or 74 GB super fast drives in a RAID 0 array, then get a honkin' huge, 250 or 300 GB HD. Also, make sure they are all SATA.

Make sure you get at least 2 GB of good RAM (Corsair, OCZ).

Also, I always prefer to go away from on-board sound, so I recommend an X-Fi if you're not salvaging a decent sound card from anywhere, that is, if you have a 5.1 system.

Those are good HDs for performance, good suggestion, but a little price for my personal taste. But they will help your performance. If price is no factor for you I would get 2 of these, and then a larger HD for your media type files.
I would suggest two 120gb raid HDs. The brand doesn’t matter everyone seems to like one over the other for whatever particular reason, I like WD and Seagate because out of all the drives I have had, those two brands have never caused me any problems. Just make sure to get ones with a large buffer 8 or 16mb.

 

[norbiu]

I will also use this system for gaming. Will the dual processor create any problems, like slow the game down a bit? I read about this somewhere ... maybe I misunderstood.

 

[Kholonar]

Dual processors are 95% compatible with today's games. For the other 5% of gamesyou might encounter an affinity problem where the game uses two processors when it doesn't support this. There's a very simple fix though, tell it to only use one with the system tray from ctr-alt-del. The other way of fixing it is you can use a built in windows program that is usually not installed by the cd but can be downloaded called imagecfg http://www.robpol86.com/Pages/imagecfg.php

I've only encountered two games with this problem, Neverwinter nights and Rome total war.

Farcry, half life 2, civilisation 4, oblivion, dawn of war, dues ex, rollercoaster tycoon 3, BFME2, Guild Wars, Perimter and Splinter Cell all work fine. Compatiblity problems are rare with dual core processors and they can be fixed. I would tell anyone and everyone to get dual core from now on, there is no waiting for hours on end after each alt-tab and I can run multiple applications without fear of slowdown.

 

[unbiased4u]

Yes, but not by that much...

It helps alot, with older systems, not as much as with newer ones. You would benefit quite a bit from it, but that also depends on what you are doing, I’m assuming gaming is somewhere on your priority

I honestly find it not worth the price. They are expensive by themselves and raiding it would cost even more! I'm too cheap for that!