Building a gaming rig; advice needed

[Pocketfactory]

As the title says, I'm building a new gaming rig. Well, actually it's a creative workstation (Adobe, Macromedia, etc.,) and gaming system in one. But I'm not 100% clear on what I should be putting in this thing. The case arrived yesterday; the Gigabyte 3D Aurora (black), which is a full tower case with plenty of room for growth. My7 budget will be starting at probably $1,500, but I'm sure that will go up. I can pretty much choose what RAM, HD, and Optical drives to use on my own, though I wouldn't mind getting your opinions on those specs as well.

My main areas of indecision are...

Power supply? 500w? 600w? Brand/model recommendations welcome.

Processsor? I was thinking of going dual core - Athlon x2 4200. Your advice?

Motherboard? Asus is my top choice, SLi ready of course.

Graphics card? This is a real stumper. From what I gather ATI's new Crossfire cards are something of a disappointment. So that leaves me with nVidia. One thing that may have a significant impact on choice is screen resolution. I am pairing this system with a Dell Ultrasharp 2005FPW 20.1 widescreen LCD. Gaming at such a high resolution, I'm certain I will need a VERY high-end card for this monster display. That being the case, do I choose the new 7800GT (or GTX)? or will something beneath that model be adequate?

Any critical component I'm missing? What are your suggestions?

 

[Pocketfactory]

One other thing I forgot to bring up is the OS. Should I go with straight up XP Pro, or could I...should I...choos Media Center PC just for the hell of it? Does MCE even support dual core/64 bit processors?

 

[Aznguy1872]

Processor = 3800 X2, great chip and great overclocker.
Power Supply = S12 500w Seasonic is a very good choice, or an enermax one.
Video card = I'd go with at least a 7800 gt since you are gonna have a widescreen monitor.
Motherboard= If you do decide to overclock then go with DFI SLI lanparty if not, your asus one is fine.

Oh with the OS go with windows XP Pro.

 

[FDF12389]

For power supply I would go with one of an Antec true power or a Fortron. (I would recommend 500-600W)

Edit, didnt realize you wanted dual core, go with a dual core opteron. Disregard my previous link.

 

[Pocketfactory]

I chose an ASUS A8N Sli Premium board, but I've heard problems with power supplies. Is this true? Will it work with the Enermax 600watt PSU?

 

[datamestonic]

Originally posted by: Aznguy1872
Processor = 3800 X2, great chip and great overclocker.
Power Supply = S12 500w Seasonic is a very good choice, or an enermax one.
Video card = I'd go with at least a 7800 gt since you are gonna have a widescreen monitor.
Motherboard= If you do decide to overclock then go with DFI SLI lanparty if not, your asus one is fine.

Oh with the OS go with windows XP Pro.

I second everything he just said. Very well picked mods.

 

[Pocketfactory]

Here is what I ended up going with...

mobo: Asus A8N Sli Premium
Proc: Athlon 64 x2 4200
RAM: Corsair Value Select DDR 400 (1GB)
Graphics: eVGA GeForce 7800GT
HD: Wester Digital Caviar WD3200JD 320GB
PSU: Enermax NoiseTaker EG701AX 600W
Optical: Sony IDE DVD Burner

Total price: $1,286.39

Not too bad overall, I think.

 

[theMan]

dont go for the X2 3800+. get a socket 939 opteron. they are the same as a normal athlon 64, except they are way cheaper and have way better overclocking. check out the opteron 165. its a 1.8ghz chip that costs $300. ive seen many many people that have been able to get this chip up to 2.7ghz, while the X2 3800 seems to be topping out near 2.5ghz.

 

[Aznguy1872]

Looks good

 

[Chiller2]

If you are going to be doing Video editing get the Optetron 170 It is about the same cost and speed as the X2 4200 but has a bigger L2 cache. Also I would stay away from Asus their support is horrible.

 

[Phluxed]

I don't agree with staying away from Asus, but its all subjective when it comes to MOBOs. Opteron 170 is an excellent choice for processor.

PSU, id say the 600W Seasonic PSU.

Video card, I agree with the 7800GT. Look at getting the OC'd CO version from EVGA, good card.

 

[w00t]

psu: seasonic s12 500/600W
processor: AMD opteron 170 dual core
motherboard: sapphire PURE
video card: evga 7800gt copper
ram: OCZ platnuim series 2GB
monitor: dell 2005fpw get it for no more than 400
hd: that is up to you just get sata
hsf: zalman flower thing or xp-90 with panaflo low
gpu hsf: zalman or artic silencer
case: the one you already have

leave the rest for you:
keyboard
mouse
mousepad
speakers
sound card