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Building a new comp for gaming and mild video work

P

powerup

Member
I have been reading these forums for years. The information I have gathered has been very helpfull. Thank you all. This is going to be my first full PC build. I have put together a few comps just not the mobo/processor or attatch the mobo to the motherboard. I have a few questions about this set up.
Is this a good mobo/processor combo? Will I have to flash this mobo? If yes, is it easy (I tried once and fried the mobo?) Is artic silver needed or will there be adhesive already? Good ram or better suggestion, not going to overclock anything. My budget is $1300 plus vista home premium 64. Is 64 a good idea right now. This build will have to last 3-4 years (wifes rules.) any suggestions or comments are welcome. Thank you


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. gaming, VHS to DVD transfer, normal pc use office ect.. Must last 3-4 years.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread $1300 plus vista home premium

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from. USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture. AMD and nVidia, just because thats all I have ever used. Except for that 3dfx I had a long time ago

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are. Creative sound blaster audigy 2

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads. I have been reading these threads for a few years. lots of good info

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. not an overclocker

8. WHEN do you plan to build it? 1 month or so



<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=9133608&WishListTitle=new+build+for+fall+08">https://secure.newegg.com/N......+build+for+fall+08</a>
 
My initial thoughts:

In that price range, you're probably better served with Intel than AMD. That would mean changing the motherboard as well, (look at the P35 chipset since you're not overclocking.) You don't need thermal material, it will be pre-applied on the stock heatsink.

I've never heard of Coolmax. Unless someone around here can vouch for their quality, I would stick to name brands like Corsair, Seasonic, Silverstone, etc.
 
Before I get into parts discussion, let me just say that building to future proof for a 3-4 year time frame is generally not the best way to plan your upgrade cycle. I can see you're under "wifely orders", but try and spend a little less now and then plan on upgrading in the 2-3 year time frame instead and you'll get much better bang for your buck. Technology changes quickly these days. Now, keeping that in mind...

1. Case is a personal choice, but that case is in the upper end of cases for sure. Could easily save $50 or so by stepping down a bit into a CoolerMaster or Thermaltake case.

2. Intel is where it's at these days. A good P35 Motherboard and an Intel Dual Core should be just fine for your needs. Quad core chips are only for those into things like professional photo/video editing or distributed computing applications. For general use/gaming dual core chips are more than fine and should remain so for some time to come.

3. For $5 more, a better video card option can be found right here.

4. As DSF said, that PSU brand is a bit questionable and the wattage rating is way more than you need. A good alternative can be found here for $30 less.

5. Do you need both a DVD drive and a DVD writer? I'd just get the writer and be done with it but if you rip/burn a lot of CDs than perhaps you do need them both.

6. Better hardrive option for can be found here for $115.
 
Thank you for your input. I currently have a socket 754 k7 motherboard with agp. I am pretty much out of luck for upgrading what I have right now. This time I am hoping to aviod that. Do you think the current Intel motherboard is going to be around for a little while?
 
Originally posted by: powerup

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. gaming, VHS to DVD transfer, normal pc use office ect..
Click to expand...
One item you'll want to budget for is the Canopus ADVC-110
It captures to your PC via firewire, so onboard or a TI firewire card would be in order.
It locks the audio in synv with the video. Audio & video sync are big problems when capturing anything of any length.
 
Originally posted by: powerup
Thank you for your input. I currently have a socket 754 k7 motherboard with agp. I am pretty much out of luck for upgrading what I have right now. This time I am hoping to aviod that. Do you think the current Intel motherboard is going to be around for a little while?
Click to expand...

Intel is changing sockets around the beginning of 2009. Your CPU upgrade options will probably be limited down the road. PCI-e is here to stay for a few years though, so you should be ok as far as graphics upgrades.
 
Depends whether or not you're happy with a PC that will, in 3-4 years' time, still be good enough for some games, most office stuff, DVD ripping etc etc all you do today, or something you'll be able to upgrade and use again in 3-4 years time. The latter is much more expensive and somewhat infeasible.
 
The only issue with the OEM operating system is that it's tied to your motherboard as far as I know. It doesn't necessarily mean moving it to a new system is impossible, but I imagine you'll have to phone microsoft and jump through a few hoops at the very least.
 
I like having one C drive and one backup drive. All of my vids, music ect.. are on my backup.

Wow I spent about 25 minutes looking for ram. all were out of stock and over $130. Thanks.
 
Originally posted by: DSF
The only issue with the OEM operating system is that it's tied to your motherboard as far as I know. I doesn't necessarily mean moving it to a new system is impossible, but I imagine you'll have to phone microsoft and jump through a few hoops at the very least.
Click to expand...

Phone MS, tell them your motherboard died and you had to replace it and they're generally pretty good about reactivating it.
 
Originally posted by: Roguestar
Originally posted by: DSF
The only issue with the OEM operating system is that it's tied to your motherboard as far as I know. I doesn't necessarily mean moving it to a new system is impossible, but I imagine you'll have to phone microsoft and jump through a few hoops at the very least.
Click to expand...

Phone MS, tell them your motherboard died and you had to replace it and they're generally pretty good about reactivating it.
Click to expand...
I don't think his MB is shot.

 
will I need to flash this mobo or will the driver disk work? If I have to flash is it like re flashing, where I could possibly ruin it? Did that once, hve not flahed again.

I was looking at the mobo picture and noticed that it says PCI e x16 the 8800gts says PCIe x16 2.0 Should I look for another mobo?
 
Because it's very new and some current ones don't have it. PCI-E 1.0 hasn't even been saturated yet by current graphics cards, and cards compatible with 2.0 will work in a 1.0 slot so there's no need to worry.
 
As far as I know, it's dependent on the motherboard's chipset. P35 and Nvidia 600 series are PCI-e 1.0. X38/48 and Nvidia 700 series are PCI-e 2.0.
 
Originally posted by: Blain
Originally posted by: powerup

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. gaming, VHS to DVD transfer, normal pc use office ect..
Click to expand...
One item you'll want to budget for is the Canopus ADVC-110
It captures to your PC via firewire, so onboard or a TI firewire card would be in order.
It locks the audio in synv with the video. Audio & video sync are big problems when capturing anything of any length.
Click to expand...

Just emphasizing... You want the Grass Valley device (they bought Canopus). GV support page has folks using it in Vista 64 and with some of the card solutions, you will be sorely challenged to find good drivers. The ADVC works as a firewire device giving a digital video (DV) firewire stream like a camera. PLUS, it is superior and syncing audio and video as Blain points out.

If you have an editor choosen that is a bit more advanced than Windows Movie Maker, make sure your video card is supported. Some video solutions are dependent on the editor (my pro package supports the ATI 1950 best and hates DX10 cards or almost anything nVidia).
 
intel will drop socket 775 as early as the end of 2008. It will begin to phase out, and reach eol by mid 2009. Supposedly amd is sticking with their am2+ compatibility into am3, but they are so shot down right now, they might make a sweeping change, and go back on that. I say go intel.

If you need it to last longer, get an E8400. I don't feel quadcore will realize performance potential across the board in 3-4 years: the problem is with the software code being linear and not parallel, and hardware optimizations and mapping of threads across cores has a peak efficiency at dual-core for windows-based consumer pcs.

With the E8400, you're getting the highest production part (in terms of arch/tech) intel will release until that eol in 2009. 45nm is it for socket 775. So say you're not overclocking, 3ghz is pretty good. In two years, if you choose to overclock, the E8400 will still be there for you (and you can go from 3ghz to 4ghz). Also, you can always add speed later by overclocking, but as 775 cpus get scarcer, you will loose the ability to get a new cpu- point being, you can add speed, but not cache- so the 8400 has 6mb, a great amount for a dualcore.

Cooling: zerotherm nv120. It cools along with the best, you don't have to choose a fan, and I believe it comes with paste on it- no arctic silver needed (mx-1 or mx-2 is better anyhow).

Stepping away from the pack here, I would suggest basing the future-resistant (proof is a fool's lie) properties of this build around the motherboard. P35, or X38.
Go ddr2 or ddr3- don't straddle the line- the mobos with mixed compatibility reduce the amount of installed you can have (only one at a time), and the ddr3 performance of them is lacking compared to systems with only ddr3 support. I can't tell you which to pick, but DDR3 will eventually have higher density (think 16gb of ram on 3-4 dimms), but is really expensive for what you're getting now. A mobo supporting 1333/1600mhz fsb is more future-resistant than one with only 1066/1333.

That being said, for your uses, I would use ddr2-1000 (or 1066) in a 2x2gb config. If you overclock later, you will have to deal with memory dividers (which are a pain) if you go with 800. The 2x2gb is so you can have slots open for more ram if it is needed in the future. W/ vista, get no less than 4 gigs. also get the 64bit version so you can use all 4gigs. Get 4 gigs now, because from here on out, if DDR3 starts being manufactured more, ddr2 will be less. ddr2 will start to get scarcer, the high performing (and overclocking) stuff will dry up, and prices will go up- living proof you can find by looking up DDR1 prices and comparing to ddr2 .

Don't let pci-e 2.0 lure you. You can stick any 1.0 card in a 2.0 mobo, and any 2.0 card into a 1.0 mobo. agp went and died, and the bandwidth wasn't filled. Most agreeably priced mobos with 2.0 don't have it natively- the slot is compatible, but the chipset only supports 1.0, so an intermediate bridge chip handles it (this is why the first sata drives didn't show a difference, they weren't native).

for HDD, i would suggest the samsung f1 750gb drive. it has 32mb of cache, good density, and is only 119 @ the egg. Another good consideration is the WD 640gb drive

for optical- I'd definitly go sata to keep the number of ide cables at 0- they are an annoyance to run neatly, block airflow, and are slower. Samsung and asus are good choices.

if you like having two harddrives, save an image of the system drive after the first install on on the other- you'll be able to avoid any vista-oem problems if reinstalling on the same mobo, and save money by buying the oem version.
also, move your pagefile to the second, longer-term storage drive. it may give a small edge in performance in extreme conditions.

monitor:
make sure it is hdcp compliant. in 3-4 years, you may be interested in blu-ray. you can actually add a blu-ray drive to a comp now for 140 dollars. but you won't see a thing without a hdcp monitor.
 
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