What to build

[LastCapitalist]

I recently found tom's hardware and have quickly come to appreciate this website. Now I would like to ask advice on the pc i was thinking of building. I had gaming largely in mind as the x800xl will signify. thank you in advance for any insights.

Asus a8v-e deluxe k8t890
Amd 939 athlon 3000+ 90nm
2 pc 512 corsair ddr (400) 3200 twinx1024-3200c2pt
Sata WD 200 gb hd
Antec Neopower 480w Atx
Thermaltake Soprano Atx midtower case
Sapphire x800 xl
SONY Dvd rw 16x dual layer

Well all this will cost about $1400 i think and that's a huge amount of money to me so please let me know if you think i should consider a pentium system or maybe a less expensive system. Also i was thinking of spending the last bit of my nest egg on one of those 19" 8ms hyundia LCD's. thanks again everyone.

 

[tweebel]

Most people around here prefer nForce over VIA.

Most people also think that Corsair is too expensive for what if offers and think Crucial is better. I don't know.

Did you include a floppy drive to install Windows with the SATA harddisk?

The newest LCD displays seem to be alright for gaming but I'm still not sure. You should really test it to see if you like it.

 

[Starfishy]

I personally have purchased 2 LCD monitors for gaming PC's in the past 3 months, and I can't tell you how much I think they suck. On most of the tests I have seen, as well as in practice I have noticed that the dark colors are just not as good on them, which really sucks in some games. That said, they sure look sweet, and everytime I have someone come over to my house, they always look at my 21" LCD and say: "sweet computer". If you are limited for space they are worth it, but they cost a heck of a lot more.

 

[Starfishy]

Oh, and I forgot to tell you, that your system specs look good. I don't think there is alot I would change. When I built a very similar system I went with the MSI K8N Neo2 plat mobo, but I also got a good deal on it, but I have found that it has everything that I could ask for in a mobo.

 

[pat]

"Did you include a floppy drive to install Windows with the SATA harddisk?"

If he dont plan to use RAID, no floppy necessary. Native controller, either VIA or nforce, when used as ordinary SATA, not RAID, will be recognized as ordinary IDE drive. Problem that people have is that they forget to read their manual to know if they used native controller or onboard one, like the Promise on certain board, and forget to set the BIOS to have the SATA controller RAID disabled, as on some motherboard, as the latest nforce4 gigabyte k8nf-9 I setted up, RAID is enable by default in BIOS. Andthen guess what.. they blame the board for not recognizing their drive... funny!!!

Once correctly configured, just put the Win XP CD in, and let the nstall go. No special drivers needed.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[scottchen]

Just my personal opinion, get an Nforce4 board, i have no major complaints against the VIA S939 boards, just that driver support from Nvidia's better. And it seems that the X800XL is still priced somewhat high right now, Anandtech mentioned that the card's price should drop to about 299US(currently priced at about 370), but then again the waitgame is bullsh*t, if you plan to buy now, do it, but it may save you some money if you wait a month. And I urge you to look for other brands of DVDRW.

 

[tweebel]

Yeah you're right, forgot about it cause I've had some trouble with sata when it'd just arrived.

 

[Guest]

Ok question Pat. If I'm planning on using a WD IDE HDD and a 74gb Raptor together in non RAID setup w/ Raptor as boot drive, do I need to have RAID disbaled in BIOS or not?

<font color=green> Woohoo!! I am officially a <b> Member </b>!! </font color=green>

 

[pat]

"a 74gb Raptor together in <b>non RAID setup</b>"

You answered your own question...

RAID is for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drive ... so if you dont plan on creating an array, I dont know why you'd want to have your controller behaving as if there was one...

I think you should read a little bit about RAID... This way, you'll know what it is and why ou when use it.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[Zoron]

I always thought it was Redundant Array of <b>Independent</b> Disks.



I wouldn't call SCSI drives (where RAID originated) inexpensive.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[pat]

well it can be either one, as IDE raid is rather inexpensive ...compared to SCSI. I think the real definition is Independant, as you said, but I dont know why I had inexpensive in head... well, I know, yes, but not enough time to explain ...

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[endyen]

When the phrase RAID was first used, very large drives had a serious price premium. Raid was a way to get a lot more storeage without the extra cost. It was called Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives.

 

[Guest]

Ok, I see , I meant the RAID controller. I wasn't sure if that had to off or not. Thanks folks

<font color=green> Woohoo!! I am officially a <b> Member </b>!! </font color=green>