Gaming Build

[Payne]

It's been awhile since I have built a PC, I am comfortable building them but I havn't had time to sit down and completely research whats available. I was hoping you could give me some opinions on the build I have chosen:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 4000+
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI-Deluxe
Video Card: Asus AX800Pro-TD-P-256
Memory: 512M Corsair PC5400 DDR2 (XMS2-5400) x2
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Hard Drive: Seagate 300G 7200RPM SATA-150 8MB Cache

Now there is alot of it I am willing to change, I am pretty strict with Asus although the MSI K8N is an option. Sound card is not all that important but is available to me cheap.
I'm deciding between Hitachi and Seagate at the moment as well as the RAM. I have no need for anything beyond a gig. All the other parts (optical drives etc) I have decided on and cooling is something I'll deal with later. Including the case which will most likely be Lian Li I am looking at around $3500AU for everything minus display. I hope I am going in the right direction and if not, point me there.

Thanks!











<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Payne on 07/13/05 05:28 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[endyen]

The A64's do not use DDR2, and corsair is generally overpriced anyhow.

 

[AiloveHaibara]

yes!!AMD don't need ddr2 now,you 'd better buy 1gb ddr400
4000+ is easy to buy?? if not ,buy fx55,it has super gaming
perfermance !
do u really need sli?if not ,it's not necessary to use sli,
asus A8N Deluxe may fit u
(to use sli,u need to buy 2 video cards,and double $!!)^_^

 

[dunklegend]

Instead of the SLI board why don't you get a regular nforce 4 ultra board. I don't think you can use SLI with an ATI board.
The nvidia 7800 gives you the performance of 2 6800 video cards (In some benchmarks) and it's not double the cost of a 6800.

<font color=red>It's impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious<font color=red>

 

[pickxx]

For a gaming rig you shouldn't get a 4000+ and a X800pro....

Thats backwards, get a high end GPU and a lower end CPU. That will yield better results.

Buy a 3200+ and with the saved $300(US dollars from 480 down to 190) and buy a 7800GTX. The 3200+ will limit the GPU but so will the 4000+. You will still get insane gameply. and with a small overclock you can limit how much you are CPU limited.

Buy 1 gig of RAM, i like OCZ but others like COrsair, crucial, kingston, and patriot will all work.

Also look for hard drives in the 200GB range as they are more in the sweet spot for dollar per gig. 250GB go for as little as 99-109 (US of course) all the time. It just takes some time looking around for deals.



Also if it were me, which its not but these are my two cents, i would ditch the lian li case and take that money saved and bump up the CPU or maybe get better RAM for OC'ing or maybe take the money saved for some watercooling for my system.

__________________________________________
Chaintech VNF3-250/A64 2800+/1GB(512x2) OCZ VX GOLD 2-2-2-5/BFG 6800GT/Thermaltake 420W/WD 200GB/Maxtor 300GB

 

[theholylancer]

i thoought that bigger hdd are easier to break harder to maintain and slow to access (at some places) and that 120 GB was the best for performance and lasting... or can anyone correct me?

 

[liquidpaper007]

Yah you do not need ddr2. fx55 and 57 beats out the 4000+. If your going all out gaming I recommend A WDraptor Those are the fastest sata drives.

 

[Zoron]

Or if you actually want a decent amount of space, consider one of Hitachi's new drives with 16MB cache... there is a 500GB model... not sure if there are smaller ones.

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

 

[fishmahn]

bigger hdd are) easier to break

Don't know where that came from - though I guess someone could come up with the idea that an HDD with 2+ platters is more fragile than one with a single platter, or there's more chance of failure because of more things that CAN break. The difference is pretty small, if there even is a difference.

harder to maintain

Large partitions are harder to maintain because there's soo much stuff in the directory tree. To solve that problem, use smaller partitions and its easier to maintain.

and slow to access (at some places)

All drives today have slower and faster spots (near the hub is slower, outside is faster), but the only difference between an 80gig and a 400gig is the number of platters and heads - and more platters and heads actually helps increase access because the drive can read more data (sequentially, of course) without moving the heads.

and that 120 GB was the best for performance and lasting...

A year or so ago, 120gig was a single platter drive with 2 heads (reading both sides). Now, that is a 160 or 200gig drive, and moving forward single platter drives will continue to increase in size. If whoever came up with that idea was looking at the top reason (less reliable)... why is it that Seagate has a 5 yr warrantee on their drives?

Mike.

<font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>

 

[Zoron]

Higher ariel density = higher performance.

The more GBs you can cram onto a single platter, the higher the drive's performance will be.

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

 

[endyen]

Most hdd disks are the same diameter. Newer bearings are better and disks are better balanced (depending on manufacturer).
The key factor in disk speed is linear distance, in bits per second. For example, the outer 1/4 of a 5400 rpm drive will read/write faster than the inner 1/4 of a 7200 rpm drive.
Basicly the most important factors would be
1- Disk fill
2- Disk speed
3- data density

 

[pickxx]

i dont think i said anything about performance.

I just said get a 200-250 because of the lower price point.
If you can get a 200GB for 99bucks and a 250 for 99bucks which should you take?

__________________________________________
Chaintech VNF3-250/A64 2800+/1GB(512x2) OCZ VX GOLD 2-2-2-5/BFG 6800GT/Thermaltake 420W/WD 200GB/Maxtor 300GB

 

[jmwpom3]

if your willing to spend the $$ on a 4000+, why not go with like X2 4200 or 4400 instead.
Drop the ati card, spend the cash on a 7800 GTX and then go like at least 2x512 dual channel ram on a nforce4 board w/o the sli. Asus,DFI are kinda the top runners. What's the ASUS board w/o sli,,, A8V or something? The DFI lanparty guy's pretty decent too if your thinking of OC'ing. It just seems that your putting the most of your $$ on the wrong things for a true gaming rig: Best vid card, 1G ram, maybe smaller HDD, not necessarily the costliest CPU, and good PSU.

Just my 2 cents.

Maybe 2 1/2

<font color=blue> Failure is not an option -- it comes bundled with Windows. </font color=blue>

 

[endyen]

What gaming engine can utilize dual cores?
Do you think the Doom3 engine will be dropped soon? or HL2?
I dont think dual core will be good for gaming for a while.

 

[jmwpom3]

none.

Just be nice to have that cd burning in the background while playing BF2 at full spec.


<font color=blue> Failure is not an option -- it comes bundled with Windows. </font color=blue>

 

[jmwpom3]

And I was mostly making a comparison:
Why pay the premium for the 4000+ when you could get an X2 for a very similar price point? (Yeah, not exactly, but close)
If he's stayin single core, the venice 3500+ or San Diego 3700+ are much better deals.
That's all.

<font color=blue> Failure is not an option -- it comes bundled with Windows. </font color=blue>

 

[Payne]

Thanks for everyones input, seems I have alot more to learn about. Since I'm in Australia and based on the provider for my components I don't have some of the selection you guys have. I assumed with SLI that I could upgrade later, arn't Radeon coming out with Crossfire or something. I read something breifly. As for OCZ, it isn't available for me yet, seems I will have to get some components elsewhere. I'll wait for a little bit.

Thanks guys!

 

[pickxx]

Why the hell did you post that reply to me?

you said some of what i said and then the rest was stupid.
Pay attention to who your replying to you stupid bastard!

how hard is it to click to reply to the right person?

__________________________________________
Chaintech VNF3-250/A64 2800+/1GB(512x2) OCZ VX GOLD 2-2-2-5/BFG 6800GT/Thermaltake 420W/WD 200GB/Maxtor 300GB

 

[pickxx]

Seriously a CD takes 2min and 30sec to burn.
you wouldn't want to waste 3 min to burn it, wait, then play....

DVD's take longer but not a rediculous amount of time and your not burning DVDs all the time.

A dual core CPU is not better then a single core for gaming, so why would you reccomend it? Maybe to *YOU* its something that you want to spend your money on. But dont say he SHOULD do soemthing that doesn't increase perfornace for exactly what he said.

__________________________________________
Chaintech VNF3-250/A64 2800+/1GB(512x2) OCZ VX GOLD 2-2-2-5/BFG 6800GT/Thermaltake 420W/WD 200GB/Maxtor 300GB

 

[jmwpom3]

First of all, that was my opinion, not tech law. Sorry if I see more advantage in the dual core option than buying one of the priciest single cores available. Why not be ready for the future possibilities if the price difference is negligible??? We're talking maybe $50 to add that second thread of processing.
It was a question; why not go this way for the $$ not "DO IT NOW!!!!, cuz I know best." I sincerely apologize for not being clear that this was meant to be a general query to all in the thread, not any one person necessarily. It was late. I was tired. I was being lazy. Sorry.

Next, I solemly swear I will never ever save time by just adding to the last post as opposed to going back through the thread to find the absolute best person in the thread to make a general suggestion.

Last, I deffinately will never waste my time aggreeing w/ anything you say as it obviously upsets you for some reason. As for being a stupid bastard; you're right, it takes alot of intelligence and a father to make random insults to unknown people on a web forum.

If you don't want accidental emails from people replying to one of your posts, just unclick that box. Don't take it out on me.

I hope this post meets your high standards of public forum posting and your obviously superior grasp of the subtleties of english composition.

<font color=blue> Failure is not an option -- it comes bundled with Windows. </font color=blue>

 

[pickxx]

Here is the thing....read the first post i wrote.

I told him to get a $190 cpu. Which, last i checked, is WELL below anything that you can get that is dual core.

Also, giving an option for DC is alright, but dont mislead people buy telling them its better. Because if you are talkings 50bucks for a 2nd core, which *I* wont use, then that money is wasted. 50bucks may be neggligible to you, but to me thats not so minimal for something i personally wont use. So if you want to throw out an option, do it...but don't make claims about it being better. Because we all have different needs.


Also it has nothing to do with e-mails. I have unclicked that a long time ago. but when you reply to an entire thread in one post it can get confusing. And your right, you saved time. 10seconds. WOW! 50bucks is negligible to you and yet 10seconds is saved.

Replying to the right person helps focus the thread and helps people, myself included, figue out who is being refered to.

I hope this post meets your high standards of public forum posting and your obviously superior grasp of the subtleties of english composition.

LOL!! This comes across super bitter and like a 4yr old saying 'I'm taking my ball and going home!!'

__________________________________________
Chaintech VNF3-250/A64 2800+/1GB(512x2) OCZ VX GOLD 2-2-2-5/BFG 6800GT/Thermaltake 420W/WD 200GB/Maxtor 300GB

 

[jmwpom3]

I see. My sarcasm is bitter but your post wasn't???
I have no desire to start a flame war. I felt insulted by your remarks so I bit back a little. Like I said, I was commenting on HIS cpu decision not your reccomend, some of your ohter recommends partly, and bits and pieces of other [-peep-]. I made the cpu rec. cuz I figured he was spending more than necessary on it anyways, so might as well get the better deal of the two extravagances.(note the later post recommending single core options not so costly) And since you are still pushing this, it was "why not get this instead" not "this is better".I WAS throwing out an option and not making claims about being better. Anyway, I wasn't very concise with it, it was late. And I didn't feel like looking back through all the posts again or making 3 or 4 separate replies (which would have taken quite a bit more than 10 secs) so I replied to the last.. My bad.

As for the last little burn you just had to add. It was more like kicking YOUR ball over the fense cuz you threw it at the back of my unsuspecting head, then going on with my business. I know, sarcasm doesn't work well in print.

Whatever, nothing in there should in no way have earned the flame I got from you. I'm over it.

P.S. You are the one who told him what he "should" do, not me. My entire post started with "why not" and ended with "just my 2 cents". At no point did I say one or the other cpu was better for gaming. And if I had, it wouldn't have been the first time a bad recommendation had been given here .

<font color=blue> Failure is not an option -- it comes bundled with Windows. </font color=blue>

 

[jmwpom3]

ATI's nulti gpu system and SLI are completely different animals. A SLI board is for running Nvidi's SLI setup with two identical Nvidia SLI enabled cards. You would need a completely different motherboard with ati's chipset to do the other.
As for upgrading later; you can. But, if you buy one card now the card you get later probably won't be identical to the one you get now. So, it won't work and you'd have to buy 2 new Nvidia cards.

Do SLI or don't do SLI.. There's no real halfway there.

<font color=blue> Failure is not an option -- it comes bundled with Windows. </font color=blue>

 

[Payne]

SLI makes more sense to me now, but due to the lack of parts I have available it doesn't seem like the best option. I will probably wait awhile before I decide to build this thing and have more money to burn. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Payne]

It seems pricespy doesn't exist at all, page won't open