Generic "help me build a system" post (thanks!)

Hi,

I've been quoted on the following setup:



[*c43130a4d] Prestige(?) AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+ Dual Core System

[*c43130a4d] Quality CoolerMaster Centurion 534 case

[*c43130a4d] FSP BlueStorm 500W PSU

[*c43130a4d] 1024MB PC2-5300 DDRII DIMM RAM (2x512MB modules dual channel)

[*c43130a4d] nVidia GeForce 7950GX2 Dual GPU 1024MB PCI Express graphics card

[*c43130a4d] 250GB Serial ATA hard disk drive 7200rpm with 16MB cache



No mention of a motherboard or soundcard.

Personally I am thinking of going for 2x 1024mb RAM and changing the processor to an AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ Processor for little extra cost.

If you could make some constructive comments on the setup, and any major weaknesses with it, and recommend changes, I'd be grateful.

If you could answer a few queries I have, I'd appreciate it:



[*c43130a4d] Is it worth changing to an Opteron processor -- as I understand it, you can overclock the crap out of them?

[*c43130a4d] Worth going for two 7950GX2s? Is it really worth the extra cash?

[*c43130a4d] Would buying an additional HD at 10 000 RPM such as a Raptor make much of a difference for gaming? Or a RAID 0?

[*c43130a4d] What's the best motherboard I can get?

[*:dc43130a4d] Cooling -- liquid or air? Either way, what can you recommend in the way of parts?



ANY comments you can make, I appreciate.

Thank you for your time,

NegativeSpace

lke prozac said if you have the patience. but if u have enough money for oath go for it so u can do some benchmarking, lol

DX10 cards will be out with Vista. Vista will require a DX10 card for max performance.

Core2 is up to 87% faster than AM2 A64 in some benchmarks. 20-30% average in favor in Intel which does not lose a single test.

DX10 cards will be out with Vista. Vista will require a DX10 card for max performance.

Core2 is up to 87% faster than AM2 A64 in some benchmarks. 20-30% average in favor in Intel which does not lose a single test.

Wow, so it's much better than the AMD CPUs... maybe it will be worth waiting for DX10 and Intel's CPUs. Any thoughts? Are AMD coming up with anything new soon?

Thanks for all your input, guys, it's much appreciated.

AMD is coming out with 4x4 sometime in 2007, which is 2 dual core AthlonFX CPUs working together with Coherent HT.