How is this system for 1k?

[Suzuka]

intel core 2 duo low end of course 189$
Raptor 150gb 10,000rpm 229$ this is <3 <3 <3 I lub this HDD
250gig 7.200rpm seagate 84$

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory 240$

ASUS P5B-E Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail either 154$ with 1 pci express

a nice case with 500watt PSU 74$

BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - 143$,

Some DVD burner, they go 30$ or so
Flash Reader

Question, should I raid0 the raptor and baraccuda or leave 'em alone?

My OC'ing and Raid knowhow is near 0, sine I only briefly read about it. BUt I am able to build a pc by myself. Was just asking if this is good for budget gaming system.

Oh my old PC is, p4 1.8 526 ram- some archaic ram type. When I try to play h264 encoding I get nice slide shows. This is with optimizing the pc, running with minimal background processes and disabling many internal windows things, heh.

 

[dietzjack]

You need DDR2 for that board.
Asus website says DDR2-533/667/800 will work.
Everything else looks good.

 

[Suzuka]

Will this PSU with the case pull my system? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811156062

Was also thinking of getting this instead of 7600. What do you think?

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130056

 

[x3900xt]

I wouldn't go for it... very few case PSU's are reliable. This would be better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155

But the 7900 GS will do completely better in everything that that 7600.

You may want to skip the Raptor, put the money somewhere else.

You can't RAID 0 those two drives... not identical.

This will do well for RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220095

If you up the voltage to 2.2 volts it should run at DDR2 800.

 

[Suzuka]

I wouldn't go for it... very few case PSU's are reliable. This would be better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155

But the 7900 GS will do completely better in everything that that 7600.

You may want to skip the Raptor, put the money somewhere else.

You can't RAID 0 those two drives... not identical.

This will do well for RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220095

If you up the voltage to 2.2 volts it should run at DDR2 800.

Thanks for advice, how would I exactly go about upping the voltage?

Oh and deciding on Mobo... this or this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131070
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813128012

 

[x3900xt]

If you choose the DS3, the second on the list you just gave, you would go into the bios, press ctrl+f1, then go to the bottom left item on the bios screen, M.I.T., i think.

Go down to where it says voltage controls, then switch to manual from auto.

Change DIMM voltage from normal to +.4

Then change speed to DDR2 800.

It should work, as the same chips are used for both Patriot's 667 and 800 RAM.

The process on the P5b-E should be similar, just without the ctrl+f1.

I'd can't recommend one of the two; I have the DS3 though, and it's working fine.

 

[Suzuka]

I thought about dropping the raptor but after all, it's one of the things that will make big difference and I don't mind paying a bit extra for that. Can always drop the storage HDD for now and buy it later.

Here is my semi final List.

On my old PC I got Skyhawk power One 520 Watt PSU which in some reviews seems to handle pretty well, even though some features are not there. So I am getting the Smilodoon case, and if the generic 500watt aint enough, I can always switch them, since my old PC can prolly run on 250watt psu ;p

Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail --- this will run prety much anything fine for now, and can always upgrade later.

Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC22G5300LLK - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6300 - Retail

all together, that comes out to be aprox 1038$ with delivery

 

[x3900xt]

Switch graphics card to this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150186
Minor price increase, and the best performing 7600 out there.

The Raptor is probably overkill, but if you only need 150 GB, and think that it is best to keep it, then keep it.

And you might want to be careful with the Skyhawk PSU... it's 12 volt rail may not be enough.

Make sure you have dvd drives, keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.

If so, then good luck. Hope you won't need it.

 

[Suzuka]

My Skyhawk is ok I think, my PC is on 24/7, been using it for a while now and 0 problems. I am not sure how demanding my PC Is but I have one old 40gb HDD and 300gb Maxtor on this, Ok vid card, I am able to play WoW, with some lag of course but that's to be expected. 1.8 p4 with 526 ram. DVD burner and normal CD-rom.

 

[xeenrecoil]

Sup Suzuka;

If it were me i would go with the C2D e6400 instead, its only $30 more and is a better starting point, a little more longevity, with good OC potential.

I would recomend Ballistix instead of Patriot, its hard to beat Crucial. However i cant fault patriot its good memory, get whichever is cheaper. Get modules with a little headroom incase you get a wild hair and decide to try overclocking.

Drop the Raptor and buy a similar drive with larger capacity but keep the Native command queueing functionality, its good stuff, really seriously, drop the Raptor.

Take the money you save and spend it on a DX10 card, just buy a midrange card for now, something cheap in the $120 range then later buy the DX10 card and sell the other one on e-bay :lol:

I like your mobo brand choice, its Asus, 'nuff said.

As far as your case goes its hard to beat a Thermaltake, they dont come with Power Supplies, so you will have to provide your own, but they are one of the best you can buy, i have a Tsunami Wave and it wtfpwns i love it!

I could spend all day on this but i gotta help other people too, i will get back to you later on this.

 

[dietzjack]

On my old PC I got Skyhawk power One 520 Watt PSU which in some reviews seems to handle pretty well, even though some features are not there. So I am getting the Smilodoon case, and if the generic 500watt aint enough, I can always switch them, since my old PC can prolly run on 250watt psu ;p

These PSU worries are for no reason IMHO. The PSU manufacturers want you to believe more is better but it really makes no difference.
I have a ANTEC 380W case-bundled PSU that powers a non-overclocked C2D and ATI Radeon X1900 series GPU. 350W should be enough for any single GPU system. For 2 GPUs, which you do not have, I would recommend 450W.
Another thing... I have not personally experienced this, but I hear certain case-bundled PSUs (value segment) cannot actually deliver their stated power under real-world conditions. As long as your bundled "500W" PSU can actually deliver 350W, you'll be fine.
If you want to overclock, you need a more powerful PSU as measured by THG in their Pentium D 805 OC Article.

 

[Suzuka]

That case got good reviews and some of the reviews stated that it pulled high end vid cards. So I am not too worried. The cases PSU has 28amp on 12v. Which is plenty since GS only needs 20-26 amps.

Already ordered this. Decided to go with 7900GS.

How do you like this list? Ghost Recon was free with CPU

I assume this system will pull almost anything atm.

Item List

CARD READER ROSEWILL|RCR-100 RTL - Retail (Qty=1, Price=$12.99)
DVD BURN LITEON|SHW160P6S05 BK % - OEM (Qty=1, Price=$27.99)
UBI SOFT GHOST RECON GRAW PC % - OEM (Qty=1, Price=$49.99)
CASE RAIDMAX|ATX-612WBP 500W BK RT - Retail (Qty=1, Price=$89.99)
MB GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 P965 775 - Retail (Qty=1, Price=$142.99)
VGA EVGA 7900GS KO 256-P2-N624-AR R - Retail (Qty=1, Price=$179.99)
CPU INTEL|C2D E6300 1.86G 775 2M R - Retail (Qty=1, Price=$181.99)
MEM 1Gx2|PATRT DII667 PDC22G5300LLK - Retail (Qty=1, Price=$249.99)
HD 150G|WD 10K 16M SATA WD1500AHFD - OEM (Qty=1, Price=$229.99)
DISCOUNT FOR COMBO #11061 (Qty=1, Price=$-5.00)
DISCOUNT FOR COMBO #11920 GIFT (Qty=1, Price=$-49.99)

Extended Warranty Fee: $0
Subtotal: $1110.92
TAX: $0
Shipping and Handling Charge**: $36.35
Total: $1147.27

 

[AMDThunder]

As others have mentioned, I think you're overspending on the Raptor HDD. Yeah, it sounds good and all, but are you really gonna notice the difference? Doubtful. Save that money and get a 7900GT or 7950GT. Or save money on both ends and get the X1950 Pro.

If you've already ordered, well, still a nice rig. Enjoy!

 

[weskurtz81]

I would drop the raptor and invest the left over money in a better video card. I have owned a number of raptors, and even though they are great hard drives, the biggest difference in game load times and such came from having more memory. I did not notice a difference between 2 raided 74gb raptors and one raptor. Or you could get a perp. Segate drive that would offer more storage at about the same performance as the raptor. After owning a number of Raptors, I can honestly say I would not buy any more of them. Like I said the quality is second to none, but the very minor gains if any in level loading time did not justify the cost of the hard drives. Personally I would add the money to the video card and get a refurb X1900XT off of newegg for under $300. My two cents.

wes

 

[Suzuka]

I got a question, CPUz prog says my DDR 2 is running at 333mhz.. am I missing something here, shouldn't it go for 667?

in timings it says.

Frequency 333.3
4:5
4.0
4
4
12

 

[weskurtz81]

DDR=Double Data Rate if i remember correctly.

Double the number=666..... but for whatever reason it is rounded up to 667. Maybe 666 is to evil, or maybe it is 666.666666=667

 

[Suzuka]

Update, so I loaded FEAR MP demo(MAX sets), started Antivirus full scan, Defrag HDD, WOW(max sets, in IF log in, fluid right at start of loggin in to IF), about 50 tabs opened in FF, Photoshop cs2 loaded, had 3 Videos playing at same time, it was dai mahou touge, Kanon and some ova. cpu usage was like 60~% used and I had 80 ping in FEAR with fluid FPS, didnt even notice a differnce between running it without all those programs in the Background save for the longer load time.

so Yeah...... I don't regret buying that Raptor one bit.

 

[weskurtz81]

Well, only about two of those things would have been accessing the hard drives. That would have been the virus scan and the Defrag. I thought defrags would run if some other program was trying to access the hard drive. Anyway, I couldn't ever run a virus scan on my comptuer and play BF2 at the same time. I could do alot of other stuff and play BF2, just not that. And the dual core CPU and memory is the biggest reason you could do all that.

wes

 

[chuckshissle]

150Gb Raptor, now I wouldn't call that a budget. Better off spending your money with a better graphics card.

 

[weskurtz81]

agreed.

 

[Suzuka]

150Gb Raptor, now I wouldn't call that a budget. Better off spending your money with a better graphics card.

Raptor will last a lot longer than a vid card. I think 7900GS KO I got was a good deal. It can pretty much anything atm with highest settings, at my native Res 1280x1024 cause of my lcd and I saw it can still run max sets at 1600 res. So I am not worried, besides if the new dx10 cards are coming out soon, there is no point spending on more expensive card anyway. I'll save money by upgrading later.

 

[chuckshissle]

Why not wait a bit longer for them 8800 to come out. You know it's coming out really soon. I would and I wanted that 8800GTX. Those things are wicked, so it would be nice for you to wait and get the E6300 and 8800GTX.

 

[Suzuka]

Couldn't wait at all, upgrade was well overdue, my old PC simply wasn't pulling things I needed to be run and that is unacceptable. I did enough waiting as it is. Ther eis no point waiting all the time, there will be new graphic cards again, dx11 or something and people will tell you to wait.