First Home-Built Gaming Rig, Advice Please!

[H3adshott]

Hi, I'm soon going to be buying the parts for my first home-build and I would love to hear your opinions/suggestions on how I can improve it - without too much of an increase in price - as I am a complete n00b when it comes to home-builds. Thanks in advance. Note, will be used primarily for gaming, such as BF2 mod Project Reality.

The proposed system is as follows.


mobo: ABIT AB9 Pro Intel P965 Express

cpu: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+

RAM: Corsair 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 (Dual Channeled)

HDD: 320 GB SATA

Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card

OS: Windows XP home

Not too use what the best options for relatively cheap and effective cases are, please enlighten me.

Also, what kind of wattage will I be looking for in a PSU?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom and guidance

 

[pous]

Hi there, you've got a few options for video cards...

1. Radeon x1950pro (150 dollars or so)
2. GeForce 8800gts 320mb (280 dollars or so)
3. GeForce 8800gts 640mb (380 dollars or so)

There's plenty more options, but from everything I've read and been told those are three of the big ones. Any of them should be able to play the game you mentioned just fine.

As for the case and power supply... you could look into the Antec NeoHE 500 or 550... either one should power that system without any problems.

Case-wise... depends on budget, the Centurion 534 for 50 dollars is really nice, or if you've got a bit more to spend you could look into the Antec P180/182 cases, or the Thermaltake Armor.

I'm kind of guessing you have cd/dvd drive, monitor, keyboard and mouse..

I hope that what I've written down helps you in some way... it's getting late, and I'm tired.

Best of luck to you!

 

[sharp910sh]

why go with amd? seems like a waste of money when you can get the e6750 which is better and around the same price, which is a much better performer. just look at the benchmarks. therefore i would get the gigabyte p35 dsr3 mobo. a killer board can overclock like mad, you should be able to get the e6750 to 3.6ghz easily and it supports the 45nm cpu's coming out this year.

i would gow for the 8800 gts rather than the x1950 pro as the x1950 pro is about half as good as the 8800 gts.,

 

[lghtmup98]

First of all, If you are going to build an AMD system, you need a motherboard that supports an AMD processor. The motherboard you show is for an intell processor. You need an AM2 socket motherboard.

We need to know you're budget. It is important so we don't recommend high end parts if you don't want to spend the money.

 

[ryan7107]

Are you an audiophile? If not, the X-Fi shouldn't be making it's way into a budget build. Onboard sound is pretty good these days, and 95% of people wouldn't really notice the difference, at least not enough of a difference to justify the cost.
Like everyone said, look at a reasonably priced Core2 CPU. Maybe something like this, depending how much you want to spend.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115015
As for the PSU you don't need a lot of wattage, just look for a quality brand. Something like this would be more then enough juice and is fairly cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104954

 

[H3adshott]

Thanks for your suggestions

Pous: I did mean to put in the GeForce 8600GT 512MB but I forgot, doh..
Also, following your suggestion I've edited my build as for cases and PSU.

sharp910sh: I went for AMD processor because I can get them here really cheap

lghtmup98: Thanks I think I was originally looking at the fatal1ty mobo and got confused, thanks for pointing that out!

ryan7107: Well I chose such an expensive sound card mainly because a lot of people on the Project Reality forums hail it as the one of the best investments in your PC. Plus PR really is a resource hungry game to play on high.

PS budget is around say .. ~£700 - £800 or ~1400 - $1600 USD

Here is UPDATED system.

mobo: ABIT FATAL1TY AN9 32X Motherboard

cpu: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+

RAM: Corsair 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 (Dual Channeled)

HDD: 320 GB SATA

Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card

GPU: GeForce 8600GT 512MB

Case: Antec P180-EU

PSU: Antec NeoHE 500

OS: Windows XP home

Please feel free to critique, suggest different parts and point out any problems Thanks.

 

[ryan7107]

Well, the X-Fi is nice, but unless your very demanding about your audio quailty forget it. You'll see a *much* bigger improvement by spending that money on upgrading your videocard.
Look close at that video card you selected. Not only is the 8600gt only an ok card, but most of the 512mb versions use DDR2 ram instead of DDR3. If the one you are looking at uses DDR2 ram, it's absolute garbage. Even if it is DDR3, you'll most likely not seen any benefit from the extra 256mb anyways.
You should really try for the 8800GTS 320MB. If you have to ditch the soundcard and get a $50 Centurion case, it will be well worth it.

 

[sharp910sh]

you have a huge budget and you are limiting your self to a 6000+ i built a similar if not better system for 660 pounds.

you can afford a e6850 or a better q6600 ( i have the e6850) no problems)


e6850/q6600- 175 pounds
Gigabyte p35 ds3r- 85 pounds
Ram- OCZ 2GB Kit PLATINUM XTC- 70 pounds
Hdd- seagate Barracuda 320 gb- 50 pounds
Graphics 8600 gt/x1950 pro- 90 pounds
case- antec 180/ nine hundred- 65 pounds
PSU- Corsair HX Series 520W Modular- 70 pounds
Sound card- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card 100 pounds
OS- 60 pounds
dvd drive- 20 pounds

Total-765 pounds!!!

i would change the cpu to the e6750 120 pounds and get the 8800 gts for 180 pounds
total- 820 pounds

this will kick the *** of the AMD 6000+ much faster system

the irony is the 6000+ costs 116pounds http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125202

so for less than 4 pounds extra you can get a e6750 which is much faster than the 6000+ don't believe me http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-3115-view-Athlon-64-X2-6400+-review-and-benchmark.html there is a review with benchmarks.

Also you can overclock the e6750(2.66ghz) to around 3.7ghz or higher on air, which is a 40% increase. and the 6000+ cant compete with that. no chance.