First Build gaming PC Advice

[Ruggy]

HI im sorta new to the gaming/computer world. I am building my own system and was wondering what you all think. I have not purchased anything yet but I plan to next monday. I will be playing alot of first person shooter type games. I know this system will work but I was wondering if it would be great performace wise or if I shouldd change anything around. Also should I stick with XP or go with Vista. Thanks in advance for any help.

Case: NZXT Nemesis Elite Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Motherboard: MSI K9A2 Platinum AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX6000CZBOX - Retail


Videocard: SAPPHIRE 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail <switched out old card with surfbums advice>


Harddrive: Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3500320NS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive -

dvd/cd: LITE-ON Combo Black SATA Model DH-52C2S-04 - OEM
SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F - OEM <switched thanks to bdollar>

Power: ABS Tagan BZ Series BZ1100 1100W ATX12V / EPS12V Patent Piperock Modular Power Supply - Retail


internet: Killer NIC M1 Gaming Network Card %u2013 10/100/1000Mbps PCI Network Adapter -- Less Game Lag, Smoother Gameplay - Retail


Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card -

Ram: OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2RPR10664GK - Retail <2 sets>

mouse/kbd: RAZER Copperhead RZ01-00050300 Chaos Green 7 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Optical Gaming Mouse - Retail
Saitek PZ30AU Black USB Wired Standard Eclipse Keyboard - Retail

headset: PLANTRONICS GAMECOMPRO1 USB Circumaural Gaming Stereo Headset


OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 English for System Builders 1 Pack CD - OEM

Moniter: SAMSUNG ToC T260 Rose-Black 25.5" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail <switched to a bigger moniter thanks for the article dirtmountain>


Sorry its so long ty for your help.


Ruggy

 

[surfbum]

get the HD4870 instead of the 280, or if you really feel like you need the power the HD4870x2. the single 4870 trades blows with the 280 for a lot less $$ and the HD4870x2 blows it out of the water for $50 more.

 

[bdollar]

i say this on all of them but my personal opinion is to get the wd 640gb hard drive. great performance and best price per gb out there. similar price to the seagate

killer nic is a waste of money in my opinion. lots of upgrades that you can do that will put that $ to way better use. if you are maxed out on everything then maybe you could use it but 99% of the time it isn't worth it.

get sata burners and don't get the same brand. every brand has strengths and weaknesses so by getting 2 different you won't be as hampered (this matters more when both are burners but it could still effect reads on discs you have burned).

have to go will probably have a little more to say later.

 

[dirtmountain]

Read this review about the HD4870x2 especially what they say about CPU bottlenecking it, especially at 1680x1050 and lower resolutions.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/9225-palit-radeon-hd-4870-x2-2gb-video-card-review.html

 

[omicron_15]

For gameing I think the C2D gives you more value with its overclocking potential, if you arent afraid of overclocking i think a 8400 or 8500 with a xigmatec cooler will give you the most gameing buck.

I would also say you could save money with a 4870 instead of the 280.

Onboard sound also works pretty well nowadays, I would suggest waiting on the extra sound card untill you hear what your onboard sound can do.

 

[Noya]

If you can afford a 4870x2 you can afford an e8400/e8500 Intel chip and x38/x48 motherboard.

Also, go for two separate hard drives. Put Windows on one and games on the other...much faster load times and responsiveness compared to a single HD.

 

[Ruggy]

If you can afford a 4870x2 you can afford an e8400/e8500 Intel chip and x38/x48 motherboard.

Also, go for two separate hard drives. Put Windows on one and games on the other...much faster load times and responsiveness compared to a single HD.

If I was to get a 2nd HD what size should i go for? Also I lloked up both e8500 and e8600 any reason not to go with the 8600? I also looked up the x48 if I went with it would I need to change anything else around?

Thanks for your help.

Ruggy

 

[agrimm1]

Yes you would... I would suggest the 8400-8600 over any AMD dual core right now. I would also tell you to stay away from the X48 chipset unless you want to pay alot more money to get DDR3 memory, of the two i would say X38 is better as far as price performance goes because it uses DDR2 which right now is almost cheaper than gasoline and the performance increases of ddr3 over ddr2 are almost laughable. $200 more gets you less than a 5% performance increase. If you're going to use a large monitor... eg 1920X1200 there's no reason you shouldn't go with a 4870X2 it really is a great card, just make sure you buy a quality power supply. You can literally save hundreds of hours of troubleshooting simply by getting an excelent power supply. Also a western digital Raptor 150 GB is becoming very cheap, this 10K drive is excellent for storing games i bought mine at Best buy for 100 bucks. Or even a velociraptor 300GB which costs quite a bit more but offers a noticable performance increase over most 7200 rpm drives. A western digital caviar black 1TB is only 169.99 on the egg now and I believe seagate has a comperable 1 TB drive. As far as windows goes I would tell you to get Vista some would say XP, If you want to play all the latest DX 10 games you have to get Vista. And don't use the 32 bit version, Get as much ram as you can and use the 64bit version of vista. I have ultimate and It's allright, REMEMBER YOU NEED A 64 BIT OS. Otherwise you will not be unable to use more than 3GB of RAM.

Let us know how things go
David -dvgrimmer@aol.com

 

[Ruggy]

Yes you would... I would suggest the 8400-8600 over any AMD dual core right now. I would also tell you to stay away from the X48 chipset unless you want to pay alot more money to get DDR3 memory, of the two i would say X38 is better as far as price performance goes because it uses DDR2 which right now is almost cheaper than gasoline and the performance increases of ddr3 over ddr2 are almost laughable. $200 more gets you less than a 5% performance increase. If you're going to use a large monitor... eg 1920X1200 there's no reason you shouldn't go with a 4870X2 it really is a great card, just make sure you buy a quality power supply. You can literally save hundreds of hours of troubleshooting simply by getting an excelent power supply. Also a western digital Raptor 150 GB is becoming very cheap, this 10K drive is excellent for storing games i bought mine at Best buy for 100 bucks. Or even a velociraptor 300GB which costs quite a bit more but offers a noticable performance increase over most 7200 rpm drives. A western digital caviar black 1TB is only 169.99 on the egg now and I believe seagate has a comperable 1 TB drive. As far as windows goes I would tell you to get Vista some would say XP, If you want to play all the latest DX 10 games you have to get Vista. And don't use the 32 bit version, Get as much ram as you can and use the 64bit version of vista. I have ultimate and It's allright, REMEMBER YOU NEED A 64 BIT OS. Otherwise you will not be unable to use more than 3GB of RAM.

Let us know how things go
David -dvgrimmer@aol.com

thanks I went with the 8500 and a x38 and switch XP to vista 64.

I apprciate everyones help and once i get it put together i will let everone know how it runs.

 

[agrimm1]

good luck ...

 

[balearic]

I am also new at building computers. I can't believe no one here advised you to get Intel instead of AMD.

Get an Intel Q6600 or an E8400, best bang for the buck. If you can afford anything higher up in the line of these two CPU's, go for it. But stick with INTEL!
Get an Gigabyte Motherboard for Intel chipset. (GA-EP35-ds3L)these boards are very cheap and totally easy to set up as you can read about them in the toms article onbudget gamer pc guide)
Get Vista home premium 64 bit OEM, not retail! With 4 gigs of ram of DDR2-800. G-skill makes these for about $65 on newegg!
I just made another computer for my bro who has a Q6600 and he is flying. Windows booted up on its own the first time I powered up the computer.