Please help my decision for my new rig!

[DaVorhazer]

Yeah so I'm new in many forums, don't call me a newb, I just want help.I'm a big gamer, So I'm thinking about getting a rig that will be windows vista ready, able to upgrade to one of the new DirectX 10 cards, and maybe try this new AM2 interface. So help me out, I got about 1500 bux budget and I could spend a little more if I have to.

So maybe around the lines of...
4800+ X2 or 5000+ X2 AM2 processor
some kind of pc6400 ddr2 RAM dual channel 2 GB
7900 GT to start out
SLI AM2 board
not sure HDD, i heard 320 GB go for like 100 something, SATA the best?

I really don't want to go 939 because they stopped making all those good processors and now they make them for AM2...

My current rig (don't laugh)
6800 ultra AGP Nvidia Card
3700+ Athlon Processor
250 GB HDD
1 GB Ultra RAM
Abit 754 Mobo

 

[The_Prophecy]

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 <--- This will beat any AMD chip out there at stock.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 <--- This one will support Conroe out of the box, and it's a good overclocker.

RAM: Corsair XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-800

Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7600GT <--- Drop to this until the DX 10's come out. There's no sense in wasting $300 on a video card you're only going to use for 8 months. Crossfire and SLI are a waste of money as well. If you aren't going to be gaming at resolutions over 1600 x 1200, AND you're not going to be gaming at resolutions over 1600 x 1200, don't even give Crossfire or SLI a second thought.

PSU: Antec Truepower 550W

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2

Total before taxes and shipping: $1139.96

 

[k-]

If you want to spend about 30 more bucks and get a better graphics card,
get the Sapphire 256mb version of x1800xt at newegg.

it's $200 and performs about equally as the 7900gt you wanted.

 

[chewbenator]

For AMD if you are set on it change the CPU and Motherboard suggested by The_Prophecy to:

CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103751

and Motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186098

If all goes as planned you could upgrade to future AMD chips using the AM2 socket. This is one of the best boards out there for AM2 and SLI if you plan on going that way.

I would go with the E6600 as The_Prophecy suggested because the increased performance and future overclocking abilities. Make sure you stick with some ram that is officially supported by the DS3 like the ram he suggested, the board is very picky with memory voltages.

 

[tawilson]

i think prophecy nailed it, but i think the Antec Neopower HE 550w would be a little better, ive had excellent performance and 85% efficiency, so youre getting a little more, cleaner juice out of it. and its totally quiet. just a thought.

also, i dont know about the waiting 8months for dx10. i know everyones heard a million times "buy what you want now, or youll always be waiting for a new tech to come out" but i think in this case its more true than others. vista isnt out yet, and theres no concrete release date. a 7900 gt is a great card (and im in the ati camp, x1900xtx) at a great price, with great performance TODAY, especially in sli, but prophecy is correct again, unless high resolutions are your bag, its not gonna be that big of an increase with 2 cards as opposed to one.

waiting 8 months is tough, especially for a gamer. i say yes to everything, and get the video card that you want. if its a 7900gt, more power to you, becuase its great.

 

[The_Prophecy]

If he wants a high end card today.... I say go with a Sapphire Radeon X1900XT. The XTX is just too power hungry for the marginally better performance it provides.

 

[DaVorhazer]

Wow I have to thank you guys for really helping me out. Personally I would go Intel but I know almost nothing about it (though i heard Conroe is the sh*t)
If that intel setup is the way to go yeah that sounds sweet. And thanks for the AM2 setup thats really what I wanted. I don't think I'll go SLI right away till some good cards come out. The 7600 will do me just fine.

 

[Doughbuy]

You might want to try this ram, performs about as well as the Corsair, and much cheaper...

http://shop4.outpost.com/{Hn6Y9AI1yGR9lJLWOzbWgQ**.node1}/product/4815800

Or maybe the platinum edition rev 2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227139

OCZ is having a big sale right now at newegg, so check for OCZ memory, its about 40 bucks cheaper than normal!!

 

[rahul_cracker]

Hey there if you still are planning to buy a AMD chip(I wont after conroe )
then go for the AMD FX62 which are better for gamming than the X2 series and if you really can afford more go for the conroe X6800 it's amazing .

 

[DaVorhazer]

FX-62 would be hottness... but idk if i'd put that much cash into it. I only heard that conroe is good... hows the specs and price on that?

 

[The_Prophecy]

The E6300 when overclocked can beat the FX-62 in most every benchmark. Don't waste your money on the FX-62....

 

[DaVorhazer]

Well I've never tried overclocking because...
1. My A+ teacher told us never to do it because its like draggin it behind a truck and seeing how long it would last (not long), depending on how much overclocking you do will take the life out of it. Maybe that goes for older machines?
2. I don't want to screw with BIOS and stuff and totally mess my computer to hell. I mean I read forums n stuff but I just didn't see the real deal comin out of it.

So what is a good Athlon or Intel processor that would fit me? Think Gaming

 

[The_Prophecy]

Your A+ teacher shouldn't be there then. There are real performance benefits that come with overclocking. So long as you have sufficient cooling, it won't shorten the life of the product enough for you to notice. Screwing with the BIOS is fine so long as you are careful about it....If you mess something up.... it's not a problem. Just move the BIOS reset jumper on the motherboard (the manual will say where that jumper is located) to the appropriate pins for a few seconds and move it back. Then start over and don't do what you just did to screw it up. In fact, many motherboards will automatically reset the BIOS (without having to move jumpers around) if a problem is detected which was caused by a recent change made to the BIOS.

For example, my motherboard supports this feature(Asus P5P800). I made good use of it after I attempted to lower my RAM timings. The changes I made didn't take, and when I saved the settings in the BIOS and rebooted, I got nothing but a black screen. All I had to do was hit the power button on my tower, wait a few seconds and turn it back on. Everything worked fine after that.

Edit: I have been running my P4 630 at 3.4 (3.0 at stock) since I got it. I have had nothing but VERY minor problems with it since that time (almost 6 months ago).

 

[waylander]

Go the conroe route, it will perform better than most of the current AMD line.

If you still want AM2, the X2 4400 would be a better price for performance, and you can OC it if you want to 5000+ speeds. Take the money you save and put it into the video card as most games are gpu limited not cpu.

 

[DaVorhazer]

K last question, I noticed the first mobo that was suggested was Intel w/ out SLI, is there a good mobo that supports conroe and is SLI?

 

[The_Prophecy]

The P5N32-SLI SE does, but SLI is a complete waste of money unless you can get both cards within 2 months of each other, AND you're going to be gaming at resolutions over 1600 x 1200. If you're thinking of getting one card now and then adding a second when you need better gaming performance, don't bother. SLI is a HORRIBLE upgrade path as well. By the time you would get the second card, 1 (or 2) newer generation card will have come out that would easily beat both of your cards in SLI.