A new rig for my pretty asian cousin!!!

[deusex]

I have aproximately 1.5 Grand (Maximum) for a gaming rig - these are the parts I've chose - Feel free to suggest anything pertaining to it. (actually, the rig is for my pretty asian cousin, not me....)

of course, the parts are from newegg...

Cooler Master Cavalier 3 silver case
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATAII NCQ 160 GB HD
LG L1980Q 19" LCD
Asus A8N-E Sock. 939 nforce ultra
eVGA geforce 7900 GT CO 256 MB GDDR3 PCIe (500mhz/1500mhz)
Enermax Noisetaker 485 W PSU
Logitech X-530 5.1 speakers
Corsair XMS 2GB DDR SDRAM
AMD Athlon64 3700+ SanDiego CPU

Should I wait till the Conroe July 23 AMD drop?, and get a X2 or 4000+?
And.....Should I get a X1800 XT, instead of the nvidia 7900GT?

Thanks


Wide Open to suggestions XD

 

[gambit6259]

If you can hold out till the price drop I would, then you will be able to bump into a nice X2 cpu. I think you should stick with the 7900GT over othe ATI, but other than that it looks pretty good! Have fun when you decide to go for it!

 

[sunangel]

$1,500US for a computer. No way. You can buy an XBOX 360 or PS3 for less than half that. Take the rest and buy a notebook or something for real computer working, not gaming.

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OCing is for MEN. Being a MAN is not a good look for you.

 

[dwave]

I would wait for the price drop and get a better CPU myself. Like the screen name btw, one of my all-time favorite games.

 

[Heyyou27]

Yeah, if I wanted to play with a less than spectacular image of 1280x720.

 

[MrsD]

$1,500US for a computer. No way. You can buy an XBOX 360 or PS3 for less than half that. Take the rest and buy a notebook or something for real computer working, not gaming.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OCing is for MEN. Being a MAN is not a good look for you.

Ignore the peanut gallery please :roll:
Now to address the question. You could wait for Conroe if you wanted.
I certainly wouldnt buy a socket 939 system because it wont be upgradeable. If you get the same system in AM2 socket with DDR2-800. It wont cost you hardly anymore and you will be upgradeable to the new processors when they arrive. You could get a AM2 3500+ for $114 or a 3800+ for like $150 which will kick serious ass in games and upgrade to a 65nm x2 when they come out.

 

[Fox_granit]

personally i like my Opty 165. It does just as well as a dual core, and it should be dropping in price soon enough. let me know what you decide on

 

[michaelahess]

Dam straight skippy! 1600x1200 all the way, lets see that waste of space 360 do that.

 

[sailer]

Dust off the armor and polish it before rescuing distressed damsel.

If you can hold out until July, definitely get AM2 and related hardware. Better upgrade path and all that. Prices should drop a bit too. I would get the 1800 XT card because it allows both HRD and AA at the same time. Better yet, if you hold off till July, try to put away some more money and get a 1900 XT. If you don't care about doing HRD and AA at the same time, the 7900 GT will do nicely. You might also think about a 500-550 wt PSU so as to allow for upgrades in the future.

Overall, you've got a nice layout and should be pleased with the result.

 

[hergieburbur]

personally i like my Opty 165. It does just as well as a dual core, and it should be dropping in price soon enough. let me know what you decide on

Uhh, the opty 165 is dual core. At least mine is.

 

[jrnyfan]

I agree wholeheartedly with the bagging on the x360 and p3, that's just stupid persons talk to buy one of those if you want the ultimate gaming experience...dummydumbfaceheads :lol:

Your choices are strong, stay with nvidia and with a single core chip...I say that owning a dual core chip but if it is for gaming only, there are no advantages yet to owning one...nothing is multi-threaded but that has been addressed ad-nauseum in other threads.

my personal opinion is dont go with AM2, its going to be a while before that socket matures enough to consider using. everytime a new socket comes out you have awhile before it is considerably better than the old socket, enough so to warrant an upgrade. the only benefit of the AM2 socket is DDR2 and benchmarks have consistenly shown that its really not that exciting yet. if you want to wait, wait for the inevitable price drop in s939 and buy cheap. s939 will be around for a while and if you go with an sli board and just add another 7900gt later on, you will be fine for at least a year, if not 2 years. i have been running my 6800gt for almost 2 years now and i can play anything, Oblivion to F.E.A.R. and BF2 just fine.

MSI K8N-Neo2
AMD X2 4200+ (oc 2.3ghz)
evga 6800gt (oc 400/1100mhz)
2gb (4x512mb) Crucial Ballistix
3dmark03 - 13942

 

[MrsD]

personally i like my Opty 165. It does just as well as a dual core, and it should be dropping in price soon enough. let me know what you decide on

:roll: :roll: Yes opty 165 is dual core.
This is the biggest problem at THG. A person giving another person advice on a processor and yet he himself doesnt even know if his own processor is dual or single core.
So I conclude:
A) Hes a liar and doesnt have a opty 165
or
B) He's just too stupid to know what he has.

Take your advice here with a grain of salt everyone.

 

[Heyyou27]

1680x1050 but close enough.

 

[MrsD]

my personal opinion is dont go with AM2, its going to be a while before that socket matures enough to consider using. everytime a new socket comes out you have awhile before it is considerably better than the old socket, enough so to warrant an upgrade. the only benefit of the AM2 socket is DDR2 and benchmarks have consistenly shown that its really not that exciting yet.

Thats not entirely true. AM2 does post up to 20% performance increase using high speed (DDR2-800 or higher) low latency ram (4 or less). I dont believe there have been any benchmarks done with the correct ram.
Secondly recommending to you AM2 isnt just about better performance, its about the same or better performance for the same price with upgradeability. The new processors that havent even been released yet will work on the AM2 board, they wont work on 939.

 

[MasterLee]

Shut up XBox Boy, that's not what she asked. If you can't answer what she asked without interjecting your useless opinion, then don't reply.

 

[MasterLee]

I'd do some research on the 160GB drive, I heard they have problems losing the FAT Table, it may or may not be true, but I have one in the shop right now that did.
I'd wait for AM2, I'm no Extremist, but it does seem that AMD has something brewing, that's just from reading what's out there about the new platforms.
Other than that, play on and play happily.......NOT ON A CONSOLE !!!!

 

[jrnyfan]

you raise interesting points...i suppose we will have to wait and see when the merde acutally hits the ventilateur.

its boils down to personal feelings, i think we can agree on that. you want cutting edge, you go with AM2 and wait for the socket to come into its own like s939 did with nforce3 and 4 and the variants thereof. or you be like me and just use the tried and true stuff and not spend your money until you feel comfortable with the the new platform. i personally will be making the upgrade from nforce3 to nforce4 at christmas with something in sli...personal preference tells me that i can get the same performance out of two 7900gt's and my X2 without the brough-ha-ha of a new platform...hell, AGP still works just fine, you dont need that new fangled pci-e those kids are all up in arms about these days :lol:

its all just a smoke screen anyway people, the Commodore64 will live again! :lol:

 

[deusex]

Actually, I'm a guy - Just doing this for my cousin!!! LOL

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions still - keep them coming!!!


Thanks

 

[MasterLee]

Actually, I'm a guy - Just doing this for my cousin!!! LOL

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions still - keep them coming!!!


Thanks

Sorry bout that "her" part.

 

[deusex]

Not a problem

She doesn't know a thing about computers, in fact, my whole family doesn't,
so they all come to me for advice - yeah the stereotypical comp geek act XD

She doesn't know a thing, but she's into gaming (i got her to), and she's also
really pretty

 

[MatTheMurdera]

maybe in ram dependant apps 20% but not in real world aps (gaming like shes wants). also it would be wise to wait for the conroe prices drops, but you dont need to stick to AMD look at the price/performance of AM2 and conroe and deside for yourself. If the benchmarks are indeed correct then perhaps it would be better to go for a conroe, but thats just my opinion. Gl with ur build.

 

[MatTheMurdera]

blast should have read that before i posted.

 

[ultrachrome]

Is noise a concern? The northbridge and 7900GT fans are going to make some racket. OEM heatsink might as well.

I'm using the Asus A8N5X. I think the only difference is lack of SATA 3.0 support and $20 cheaper.

I replaced the northbridge fan with a ZALMAN ZM-NB47J heatsink. I'm going to replace the 7900GT heatsink with a VF900 after a few more days of burn in.

For the CPU I'm using a Scythe Ninja without a fan. I fashioned a duct to couple it with the rear case fan. The whole case is cooled with one case fan and the PSU. Also I've had really good experience with the XP-120 but that requires its own fan. I recommend Nexus.

I'm very happy SeaSonic PSU's. I'm powering a Clawhammer 3500+ and an EVGA 7900GT KO SUPERCLOCKED using a S12-380, along with two HDDs and two optical drives and an Audigy. 485W is fine but maybe overkill and its 80mm fans aren't going to be the quietest.

You might also consider sourcing some Nexus 120mm fans for the case. More than two is overkill.

In short, I think it's worthwhile to consider investing ~$100 in making your PC whisper quiet. Makes the machine much easier to live with.

 

[hella-d]

For A Motherboard Id Suggest A Better Nforce4 Based Board (Nforce4 Ultra Preferred) If Ya Want A Good Board Suggestion Id Suggest The Board I Have (If Your Not Worried About SLI) Would Be The Chaintech Zenith VE It Is A Very Good Low Priced Board And Has All The Good Features (Except SLI)

 

[GherkinPekul]

Look at my sig for my rig. I love it.