• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

building a new computer - comment on parts

1

1457

Member
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe ATX AMD Motherboard - 159.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131517
COOLER MASTER Wave Master TAC-T01-E1C Silver Case without Power Supply - 129.50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119023
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - 65.50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148040
CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - 123.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145450
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor - 219.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103533

i also plan on getting either a 7800GT or 7800GTX. can you comment on the parts? also i have two questions. First, would amd 3500 bottleneck 7800GT or 7800GTX? and secondly, which brand should i get for 7800GT or 7800GTX? thanks a bunch.
 
Are you planning on overclocking at all? If so, the DFI SLI board is much better and costs $165 shipped from Monarch. If you do that I would recommend swapping the RAM for OCZ, though. Also consider the Epox and Jetway boards. Asus hasn't been so hot lately.

80GB isn't a lot. Why don't you get a 3200+ or 3000+ processor, overclock it, and invest the saving in a larger hard disk? From your video card choice it sounds like you plan on running the latest games, and once the BF2 mods start coming out expect that game alone to eat up to 20GB. Plus other games, MP3s, DivX/XviD movies, etc.

Firingsquad has an article about CPU scaling with the 7800GTX. Find it here: http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/athlon_64_geforce_7800_gtx_scaling/

In Doom 3 at 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF, the FX-57 offers 0.1FPS more than the 3500+. At 1024x768, it's 4FPS. BF2 shows much less improvement, HL2 shows more, but at 1600x1200 you're still looking at only 2FPS between the 3500+ and the FX-57. It's much more pronounced at lower resolutions, but if you're buying a 7800GT or GTX I somehow don't think you're interested in lower resolutions! 🙂

Eye-candy like antialiasing and filtering places most of the load on the GPU, so it becomes the bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions. So if you like eye-candy and high-res (what gamer doesn't), spend more on the GPU.

Good brands for 7800-series cards are BFG and eVGA (lifetime warranties and factory overclocks). Both cards also have higher-clocked versions that are slightly faster. The only difference between manufacturers is the warranty length and the clock speed.
 
I have heard good things about the XFX 7800GT and 7800GTX. They are also already overclocked a bit.

I dont know about the CPU bottlenecking the video cards though.
 
Originally posted by: Fresh Daemon
Are you planning on overclocking at all? If so, the DFI SLI board is much better and costs $165 shipped from Monarch. If you do that I would recommend swapping the RAM for OCZ, though. Also consider the Epox and Jetway boards. Asus hasn't been so hot lately.

80GB isn't a lot. Why don't you get a 3200+ or 3000+ processor, overclock it, and invest the saving in a larger hard disk? From your video card choice it sounds like you plan on running the latest games, and once the BF2 mods start coming out expect that game alone to eat up to 20GB. Plus other games, MP3s, DivX/XviD movies, etc.

Firingsquad has an article about CPU scaling with the 7800GTX. Find it here: http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/athlon_64_geforce_7800_gtx_scaling/

In Doom 3 at 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF, the FX-57 offers 0.1FPS more than the 3500+. At 1024x768, it's 4FPS. BF2 shows much less improvement, HL2 shows more, but at 1600x1200 you're still looking at only 2FPS between the 3500+ and the FX-57. It's much more pronounced at lower resolutions, but if you're buying a 7800GT or GTX I somehow don't think you're interested in lower resolutions! 🙂

Eye-candy like antialiasing and filtering places most of the load on the GPU, so it becomes the bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions. So if you like eye-candy and high-res (what gamer doesn't), spend more on the GPU.

Good brands for 7800-series cards are BFG and eVGA (lifetime warranties and factory overclocks). Both cards also have higher-clocked versions that are slightly faster. The only difference between manufacturers is the warranty length and the clock speed.
Click to expand...

op - look at a epox board (search the forum around here, it is 9n something that everybody is having really good luck with) it o/cs almost as well as the dfi but is not as ram picky, they are nice and i have read good reviews.

get 2x1GB of ram, like the ocz platinum stuff for ~$230.

then drop down to a 3000venice and o/c it.

that is an interesting article, especially since it shows bf2 is stricly cpu limited if you have a a643000 or faster. i have been really holding back because i want to upgrade since i have not built a new machine in a long time, but it seems i am ok with my P4 2.8C (assuming a64@stock ~= P4@ 2.8C, which seems pretty fair, i know the amd does better at games but at this time for me the price is not woth just changing over to a a64 and getting a small % in increase) since the only game i play is bf2.
 
get 2x1GB of ram, like the ocz platinum stuff for ~$230.
Click to expand...

If he can afford it it's definitely recommended. Platinum may be overkill, Zebo's memory guide shows the performance increase from faster RAM is very small. If money is no object, gte the OCZ Platinum, but if you're on a budget, buy Value VX and upgrade to a 7800GTX - every time. Value VX on the DFI board (which can supply massive voltage) will fly anyway.

DFI is not hard to use, it's just hard to completely optimize. If you know what you're doing you can do amazing things, I've seen ones running at 400MHz HTT prime-stable. The downside is that it can be glitchy and may require obscure settings to run stable (RAM pickiness, etc), so for an inexperienced builder I'd go with Epox.

Games are GPU-limited when you're using AA/AF modes. If you had a 7800GTX SLI rig I'd say you would probably want more than a 3000+, or if you had an LCD and were limited to 1280x1024 or lower and didn't like the look of AA/AF the CPU will probably become the bottleneck.
 
Originally posted by: Fresh Daemon
get 2x1GB of ram, like the ocz platinum stuff for ~$230.
Click to expand...

If he can afford it it's definitely recommended. Platinum may be overkill, Zebo's memory guide shows the performance increase from faster RAM is very small. If money is no object, gte the OCZ Platinum, but if you're on a budget, buy Value VX and upgrade to a 7800GTX - every time. Value VX on the DFI board (which can supply massive voltage) will fly anyway.

DFI is not hard to use, it's just hard to completely optimize. If you know what you're doing you can do amazing things, I've seen ones running at 400MHz HTT prime-stable. The downside is that it can be glitchy and may require obscure settings to run stable (RAM pickiness, etc), so for an inexperienced builder I'd go with Epox.

Games are GPU-limited when you're using AA/AF modes. If you had a 7800GTX SLI rig I'd say you would probably want more than a 3000+, or if you had an LCD and were limited to 1280x1024 or lower and didn't like the look of AA/AF the CPU will probably become the bottleneck.
Click to expand...

Value VX is dead now 🙁 Now all that's left is regular value, but that's okay too. Get 2x1GB of that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top