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Building a gaming PC

D

drizzler

Junior Member
First post, here goes, hope this is the right section;

I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to hardware and building computers, but I did some reading and I think I have a decent build. I'm building a gaming PC with a budget around 1700$, including the monitor.

Basically I want to make sure these are all compatible, and if you have some better suggestions for components.

Antec Sonata II Piano Black
ASUS A8N-E, nF4 Ultra, S939, DDR, PCI-E, ATX
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Socket 939) Boxed
Club 3D GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB PCI-E
2048MB ValueRAM, CL2.5 333MHz DDR, 184-pin DIMM, kit (2x 1024MB)
250 GB, Caviar SE16, 3.5", SATA II/300, 16MB, 7200RPM
ViewSonic VA902 (19", 8 ms)
LG CD-RW/DVD, GCC-4522RBB, 52x32x52x/16x, black, bulk

 
Very nice gaming rig. Price is a little high. Is this price from Newegg, Mwave or Monarch?

What you have listed comes to $1264 before shipping on Newegg. A Fortron 450W PSU comes to $51 = $1315 + shipping.

So you have almost $300 to play with. Hope you got something else in mind? Soundcard, Speakers, Software? :thumbsup::wine:
 
As they sez it seems high. I would go with g.skill ram. New egg has the ddr500 for $160 and the ddr400 for $140 (for 2x1gb). I would drop the 3800x2 and go with 3700 san diego or 3200 venice and use the extra money for a x1800xt 512mb) or 7900gt (both of which can be had for $280 or less if your patient).

Basically the system your building will be a disappointment because the gpu isn't fast enough to take advantage of the cpu. You might as well get a cheaper cpu and save a few $$$$.
 
Club 3D GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB PCI-E - Would NOT recommend that.
Definitely get an EVGA/ XFX/ BFGTech 7900GT, they are spectacular, highly
overclockable and underpriced. Comparable to the 7800GTX. I would also
go for a 8ms 17" LCD for around $200, same 1280x1024 resolution as 19"ers.
 
If you get the XFX Geforce GeForce 7900 GT EXTREME (520MHz) 256MB PV-T71G-UDE7 Video Card for $299, and AMD 3200+ for $162. You actually save about $25 by getting the better card and switching to the 3200+.

Now you have $300+ and can upgrade any area of build. If you don't have an O/S, get Win XP Pro for $145 on Newegg, or elsewhere.
 
If you'll be using it almost exclusively for gaming, I'd consider something more along these lines:

Asus A8N5X motherboard $78.99

2GB G. Skill PC3200 $179.99

A64 3700+ $235

7900 GT $299

Pioneer DVD burner $36.99

Western Digital SE16 250GB SATA 3.0 $89.99

Enermax Liberty 500 psu $99.99

Total: $1019.95 before shipping.

I'm still a happy CRT user, so I'll leave it to others to recommend a gaming LCD display. Choosing a case is a tough one, but look for something which (preferably) uses 120mm fans and has good ventilation in front.
 
1. where did you get your prices from?
2. will you be overclocking?
3. 17" and 19" monitors have the same resolutions. do you want the 19" monitor because of the size?
4. if yes, would you be interested in a 20" monitor for ~$400? it has 1600x1200 resolution instead of the 19"s max of 1280x1024.

a lot of people are mentioning the 3700. i would've recommended it 6 months ago but now i would say get the 3800x2. dual core will be a smart investment for future games. and don't get the g.skill $180 ram. get either the $160 ddr500 g.skill ram or the $140 g.skill ddr400 ram. if you make those changes to loafbred's recommendation, you'll have a good system to start with
 
Originally posted by: alimoalem

a lot of people are mentioning the 3700. i would've recommended it 6 months ago but now i would say get the 3800x2. dual core will be a smart investment for future games. and don't get the g.skill $180 ram. get either the $160 ddr500 g.skill ram or the $140 g.skill ddr400 ram. if you make those changes to loafbred's recommendation, you'll have a good system to start with
Click to expand...

I think I lean toward the higher clocked single core because I'm an addict of multiplayer shooter games, and the ones I've been playing are single threaded. I guess I want to think that it's better to get a cheaper and higher clocked single core now, then upgrade to a dual core of ~2.4 GHz at a much cheaper price in six months. On the other hand, if he wants to play only the newest games which actually benefit greatly from dual cores, then it's surely sensible to pay more for a lower-clocked dual core.

As for the cheaper RAM, I'm one of the suckers who will pay $40 more for CAS 2, because it gives you a little extra, and will usually overclock well. Since he has a budget of $1700, I thought "what the heck".



 
The Antec sonata 2 is a good value if your looking for a decent case and a quality psu in one, but really the case is garbage for the overall price. I suggest you get the Cooler Master Centurion 534 and then maybe add a 450watt antec separate.
 
dunno who this guy is (he's new here) but he hasn't come back to respnod to us.
1. he doesn't give us prices of parts hes buying
2. he isn't planning on buying a psu
3. $1700US for those parts is horrible
4. i'd get an x1800xt over the 7600gt anyday.
 
Yeah, I probably should have mentioned i'm not from the US (Finland) so I won't be buying from newegg (do they even ship outside the US? (I wish they did, damn it's cheap ;_😉). The total cost of the build i first posted comes to around 1300euro, which i converted to 1700$ for you. I guess prices are a little higher here.

1. where did you get your prices from?
2. will you be overclocking?
3. 17" and 19" monitors have the same resolutions. do you want the 19" monitor because of the size?
4. if yes, would you be interested in a 20" monitor for ~$400? it has 1600x1200 resolution instead of the 19"s max of 1280x1024.
Click to expand...

1. From a big finnish price comparison site and a couple of smaller online stores.
2. Probably not.
3. Yeah, mostly,
4. That's a bit too expensive, and a native 1600x1200 resolution could get slow for games.(?)



dunno who this guy is (he's new here) but he hasn't come back to respnod to us.
1. he doesn't give us prices of parts hes buying
2. he isn't planning on buying a psu
3. $1700US for those parts is horrible
4. i'd get an x1800xt over the 7600gt anyday.
Click to expand...

well, I posted this thread before I went to bed so couldn't check it before now 😛.
1. yeah, sorry, apparently the prices are a little different here. I've figured that when it comes to components, 1e is about 1$
2. The Antec case comes with a psu..
3. Yes, I guess it is. Those were the lowest prices i could find in reputable stores, though :/.
4. That'd be too costly for me.



I want this machine to be fairly futureproof, and I'm going to be playing new games, so I preferably want to keep the X2 3800+.

Changing the monitor to a 2ms model or a bigger one would bring up the price too much. But I can choose to get a smaller 17" 2ms monitor (versus the 19" 8ms one) for about the same price. Is the diffence between 2ms and 8ms noticeable, or should i just go for size?

I guess i should change the video card though. An XFX 7900GT would be affordable. Also changing the RAM to 2x Corsair XMS 1gb. Good choices?

sry for the confusion :S.
 
If you're not overclocking then you will get better performance in gaming if you were to get a single core CPU like a 3700 and a more expensive graphics card.
 
Originally posted by: drizzler
Yeah, I probably should have mentioned i'm not from the US (Finland) so I won't be buying from newegg (do they even ship outside the US? (I wish they did, damn it's cheap ;_😉). The total cost of the build i first posted comes to around 1300euro, which i converted to 1700$ for you. I guess prices are a little higher here.

1. where did you get your prices from?
2. will you be overclocking?
3. 17" and 19" monitors have the same resolutions. do you want the 19" monitor because of the size?
4. if yes, would you be interested in a 20" monitor for ~$400? it has 1600x1200 resolution instead of the 19"s max of 1280x1024.
Click to expand...

1. From a big finnish price comparison site and a couple of smaller online stores.
2. Probably not.
3. Yeah, mostly,
4. That's a bit too expensive, and a native 1600x1200 resolution could get slow for games.(?)



dunno who this guy is (he's new here) but he hasn't come back to respnod to us.
1. he doesn't give us prices of parts hes buying
2. he isn't planning on buying a psu
3. $1700US for those parts is horrible
4. i'd get an x1800xt over the 7600gt anyday.
Click to expand...

well, I posted this thread before I went to bed so couldn't check it before now 😛.
1. yeah, sorry, apparently the prices are a little different here. I've figured that when it comes to components, 1e is about 1$
2. The Antec case comes with a psu..
3. Yes, I guess it is. Those were the lowest prices i could find in reputable stores, though :/.
4. That'd be too costly for me.



I want this machine to be fairly futureproof, and I'm going to be playing new games, so I preferably want to keep the X2 3800+.

Changing the monitor to a 2ms model or a bigger one would bring up the price too much. But I can choose to get a smaller 17" 2ms monitor (versus the 19" 8ms one) for about the same price. Is the diffence between 2ms and 8ms noticeable, or should i just go for size?

I guess i should change the video card though. An XFX 7900GT would be affordable. Also changing the RAM to 2x Corsair XMS 1gb. Good choices?

sry for the confusion :S.
Click to expand...

if you're not overclocking, getting the XMS ram would be wasted money. the XMS line is geared towards the overclockers mostly so getting the corsiar value select ram would be better for you. getting 2 x 1gb is a smart choice though

i'm not sure on the 2ms vs 8ms thing so someone else will need to answer that.

if the 7900GT is affordable, definitely GET IT. as for 1600x1200 getting slow for games, if you have a decent graphics card it shouldn't be. i guess 19" would be better suited for you in the end.

even though people still say the cheaper cpu and more expensive video card is best, over the price difference is roughly $50 between the single core 3700 and the dual core 3800 x2. unless there's a huge price gap between the two, i would stick with the dual core
 
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