Building a New PC

[DisgruntledElf]

Hello Fellow Forum Members,
I'm currently in the process of building a PC, and would like any advice on parts I should change, and anything else you would like to say about it. Also, I can't seem to decide on a video card, so any help with that would be appreciated, as well. Yes, I am aware I have three optical drives; I'm really anal about that sort of thing. =)

Motherboard: Asus P4C800-E
Processor: 3.0 GHz (although by the time I order it, it may be the 3.2 GHz)
Case: Thermaltake Xaser III V2000+
Power Supply: Antec TrueControl 550W
RAM: 2 Gigs of Corsair XMS PC3500 (4x512MB)
HD: 2xSeagate Barracuda 160GB SATA
DVD-RW: Sony U10A
CD-ROM: AOpen 56x
DVD-ROM: Samsung 816BEPD
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum Ex
Speakers: Creative Megaworks THX 6.1

Now, which video card (either the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256 meg or the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra) would go best with this setup? I've read all of the articles comparing these two I could get my hands on, and it seems the FX 5900 wins out in speed, while the 9800 Pro wins out in image quality.
I guess my question is: is the GeForce really that much faster, and is the 9800 Pro really that much better looking?
Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[GaryShandling]

Radeon 9800Pro 256MB.
What monitor are you gonna use?

 

[Confused]

I would personally drop the CPU to a 2.6 or 2.8 and overclock a little, as the peformance difference between those and the 3.0 (or 3.2) isn't worth the price difference, and overclocking the 2.6/2.8 will be quite easy to do

RAM, same, I would stick to maybe 1GB for now, that is enough for most things (unless you're playing something like SimCity4, with a city of 200k or more!! ) But, if you need more, then you can add more later when the prices will hopefully be a little lower, or you can get some better stuff!

As for graphics card, I would go for the 9800 Pro, as it has better peformance when Antistropic Filtering and Anti-Aliasing are on.

I agree with your thoughts of having seperate DVD-RW and DVD-ROM drives, save the wear and tear on the more expensive DVD-RW, but is that a plain old CD-ROM (in which case use the DVD-ROM drive) or a CD-RW? I would make that a CD-RW, and again, save the DVD-RW the wear and tear from writing CDs, as it's much cheaper to replace a CDRW than a DVDRW!

Other than that, it looks like a beautiful system, and you will be very happy with it i'm sure


Welcome to Anandtech Forums, by the way I hope you enjoy your stay here!! That system will make a brilliant cruncher for Distributed Computing. There will be a lot of CPU power that is going unused while you're surfing the web, which could be of great use to a distributed computing project Check the thread stickied at the top of the DC forum, and pick one that interests you You will be welcomed to whichever project you choose My personal favourite is Seventeen Or Bust and your system will fly



Confused

 

[bocamojo]

Welcome to Anandtech. I would say it looks like a very nice system. In my opinion, I would go with the ATI 9800 over the GeForce. I've had several earlier versions of the Radeon, and I love the image quality and the 3d quality. Also, ATI has made huge strides in terms of releasing driver updates on a very frequent basis. I continue to get performance gains out of the cards that I've had for many months (and years for some of them). In looking at your configuration, I would suggest going with 1GB RAM, and dropping the CD-ROM altogether. DVD-ROM's are cheap, so you shouldn't worry about wear and tear on it, for functioning as your regular CD-ROM reader, as well as your DVD-ROM player. Also, I would suggest adding an aftermarket heatsink to your list, that way, you can keep your processor quiet and cool, and it leaves the possibility open for overclocking, which is very easy to do and popular to do with the Pentium 4's. I use an Alpha PAL 8942 on mine, and it keeps my processor very cool. I overclock my P4 about 500MHz, and my temps still run around 33-36C normal load.

Other than that, you have a very nice rig. Good luck with it.

 

[Schadenfroh]

welcome to the forums elf. that is one heck of a system there. i am jealous

 

[DisgruntledElf]

In an effort to not have a bunch of unnecessary replies, I'll just reply to everyone right here! =)

Gary, I'm using my couple of year old 17" CRT. =) I MAY get another one later, but this one works fine for me right now. Of course, since this is primarily a gaming system a bigger monitor or one with outstanding visual quality (the latter, of course, being the most important.....to me, anyway) would be nice.

Confused, price is, really, NOT an issue with this computer. Well, I shouldn't say not an issue. I'm not going to spend more than $4,200-$4,500 on it, but I'm certainly not approaching the $4,500 mark yet, so as of right now performance far outweighs price, even though it's not that much more power. =)

Confused and bocamojo, I'm not doing the three optical drives so much for saving wear and tear as I am because I want my CD's (especially when I'm in a game and it's pulling textures from it) to run as fast as possible, and no DVD-ROM or DVD-RW runs at 56x.....yet.

bocamojo, I was considering getting a new heatsink, but I'm not sure yet if I'll need one. I don't know how hot this will run. I'll just have to wait and see if the heatsink it comes with is enough.

It seems to be a general consensus that I go with the Radeon 9800 Pro, which is exactly what I got over at ExtremeTech. =)

I'm sure I'll be happy with this. At least moreso than I am with my 667 MHz with 256 megs of RAM and.....this is so embarassing.....4 megs of video memory.....and that's intergrated onto the motherboard. I don't have a "real" card. I decided I needed a new computer because.....well, we have to go back a ways (I have a tendency to get longwinded). See, time was I could play games (albeit at the very lowest of settings). Any and all games. I play Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex and those on this little trooper. But newer games just refuse to run. I don't mean I get crashes or it freezes, I mean when I go to load the game, it flat out says I can't run it. =) I was perfectly happy playing games at the lowest of settings, mind you, but now that the opportunity has arrived for me to get a new one, I'm going all out.

Whew.

 

[Budmantom]

If you are really going to build that system you are one of two things:

1. Pretty well off, you don't worry about money.

2. Not too bright.



Good luck, that is one stout system.

 

[Confused]

I know you probably want to spend a lot of money and have a total top of the line system, but think of it like this. You have 2 options. 1, get a top of the line everything, pay the premium, and wait for it to drop to be really really slow, and spend the most money again, this is keeping at the "bleeding edge". Or, 2, go a level or two below "bleeding edge", and with the money you saved, you can upgrade later on, and again, get a level or two below the top. This will future-proof your spending.

I wouldn't think about spending more than about $2000 on a system, let alone $4000, as I am one who believes it's best to not pay out to get the best all the time, but still have a decent system by staying constantly behind.

I would save some money on some of the other bits (less RAM, slightly slower CPU etc) and get myself a nice 22" CRT monitor, which will make everything seem so much nicer!! If you want to spend all of your budget, then a nice monitor is the thing I would spend my money on. After all, that is the thing that you're looking at all the time, that is how you "enjoy" your system!


As for the speed of the CD-ROM: I have a Artec 16x DVD-ROM, and that can sustain 35-40x transfers. My 52x CD-ROM had trouble sustaining 25x transfers. Plus, with most new games, all the textures etc are on your hard drive anyway, the CD is only needed now for authentication.

Now, I know you probably won't want to listen to me, and you'll go out and buy the top of the line, but i think you'll enjoy it more if you have some cash left over to upgrade in a year or two when it's starting to feel a little sluggish, rather than have to wait 5 years until it can't play any more games!!


Confused

 

[DisgruntledElf]

Well, that is very correct, staying a step or two behind will allow you to continually upgrade (unless you have a really, really high income). However, this is the last PC purchase I'll be making for many, many years. This is my college PC, and once I get there, I won't have the money to upgrade, and then once I get out of college, there's no telling how much money I'd have. =)
So we're looking at 6-8 years before I can really upgrade again. Well, aside from things like graphics cards. But processor, mobo, RAM, etc. will have to last me, sadly.

 

[Budmantom]

6-8 years wow

 

[Reebdoog]

alienware

 

[GaryShandling]

Originally posted by: Reebdoog
alienware

Bingo. Plus the new Samsung 192T and youve got yourself the best home system in your state.

 

[DisgruntledElf]

Can't you get the same PC, though, by building it yourself, for up to a thousand less?
I want top of the line performance, but I'm not MADE of money. =D I've just been saving for quite a while.

 

[bocamojo]

Another thing to consider is this: When you have a whole bunch of optical drives, their performance could be affected negatively if you end up having to run them connected to the same cable / IDE connector on the mobo. Make sure you take this into account when building your new system. Also, as far as speeds for CD-ROMS / RW's, etc. goes, I would say 40x read speeds should be more than enough for anything out there today. Most CD-RW's and DVD-ROMs can do that, so you should be covered there.

P.S. If I were going to spend that kind of money on a rig, I would get some dual or tri monitor action going, say triple LCD's... Like when Parhelia came out, they were hyping that as the ultimate in PC gaming.... That would be sweet to have.

 

[DisgruntledElf]

Well, keep in mind that I had to save up for this myself. If my parents were buying it for me I'd try and convince them to get a multi-monitor setup. I, however, just do not have the funds. =(

 

[Budmantom]

I have $947 in my system from Dell and I bought it March 25th, here are the specs:
1 221-0994 DIM4550,P4,2.666GHZ W/533MHZ,MMT,INT SND
1 311-2074 1152MB DDR SDRAM AT 333MHZ, TIED
1 310-1582 DELL QUIETKEY KEYBOARD,104,ENGLISH,TIED
1 320-3000 VIDEO READY W/O MONITOR,DIM2,XPS2
1 320-0617 128M DDR ATI RDN9700 TX W/TV OUT AND DVI
1 461-9797 60GB 7200RPM ULTRA,DIM,01,TIED
1 340-1927 3.5IN,1.44MB,FD,MG
1 313-7222 DELL APPLICATION BACK-UP CD,FACT
1 412-0306 DELL SUPPORT 2.0 FOR DIMENSION 4550
1 420-1921 WIN XP HOME,SP1,ENG,DIM,TIED
1 310-1871 DELL 2-BUTTON SCROLL MOUSE,DIM
1 430-0412 INTEGRATED,INTEL PRO 100M PCI NIC CARD
1 313-3607 NO MODEM REQUESTED
1 461-9221 4X DVD+R/RW CD-RW COMBO DRIVE,DIM,01,MG
1 430-0426 DECODING SOFTWARE,DVD,CYBERLINK
1 430-0428 DIGITAL CONTENT AUTHORING SFW,V4.0
1 313-0847 INTEGRATED ADI 1885 AUDIO,TIED
1 313-4514 NO SPEAKER REQUESTED,DIMENSION
1 412-0326 MCAFEE.COM,OEM, ENG,90DAY,DIM
1 412-0298 MUSICMATCH 7.1X BASIC
1 412-0271 DPS IMAGE EXPERT STANDARD,DIM
1 412-0273 DPS PAINT SHOP TRY AND BUY,DIM
1 412-0377 EARTHLINK 5 ISP,FACTORY INSTALL
1 412-0371 AOL 8.0 - BUDDY ROM
1 412-0302 WORDPERFECT PROD PK W/QNUE BRITNCA,DIM
1 950-1230 NBD,DIM,BSC,INIT YR,BSD
1 950-9797 NO WARRANTY,YRS 2/3(DIM,INSP,NBD)
1 412-0360 SOFT CONTRACTS - BANCTEC
1 462-4010 $100 MAIL-IN REBATE 38301
1 461-0859 TRACKING,D AND C
1 set of Logitch Z560's

It's not the fastest but it's more then capable and I can uprade every years X5 to a new system and still be ahead and thats if I don't sell 1 system to buy another.

 

[Tavoc]

Seriously, I think you would be making a huge mistake if you went all out and bought all the way overpriced top of the line stuff. Build a approx $1500-1750 Rig now that will blow away all the latest games and save the rest. If you want to go all out on something, buy a really nice Display and Speakers, those are the items least likely to become obsolete.

I did basically what you are talking about doing, and 3 years down the road I was wishing I had the 1k instead of the 10 percent faster comp. Now that I have gotten a chance to upgrade, I am taking the smart route, and staying a step behind the top.

 

[GaryShandling]

Originally posted by: Tavoc
If you want to go all out on something, buy a really nice Display and Speakers, those are the items least likely to become obsolete.q]

Exactly, your computer emits sound and visual. You dont enjoy the components unless you have the best products to distribute them.

 

[vaporize]

Hey DisgruntledElf, I got two options for your computing needs:

1. if you are a filthy rich millionare and dont care about money go with this computer i configured for you:
ALIENWARE -Type this into "Retrieve Configuration": stupidbuyer@yahoo.com-480631

2. if you are a poor college student, go with this:
ABSawesome

good luck with your new computer. which college are you going to? anyway this pc should last you for a year or so...

 

[Corporate Thug]

PSU: overkill
2gb ram? prolly overkill
2.8 or 2.6 Over 3.0

 

[nick1985]

why are you getting a dvd player when your dvd/rw already will play dvd's????

 

[randumb]

I'd get a Radeon 9700 Pro. Better deal.

 

[GaryShandling]

Originally posted by: nick1985
why are you getting a dvd player when your dvd/rw already will play dvd's????

The dvd/rw emits an annoying drilling sound when playing dvd's/games. It's on and off, depending on the code the re-writer is reading at that moment.

 

[Regs]

I just find it funny you picked the most expensive items in every category. 2 gigs of ram? Right. Thats 600 dollars just on ram.

Most people ask for help with a budget in mind but you take the cake. If you have that money to blow, what advice do you need? Sorry if I seem construed, but I see many posts here where people just state a dream machine that they will likely never purchase.

Maybe you should hire a guy to build it for you.

 

[DisgruntledElf]

Alright, here I will try and respond to everyone in a single post. Sorry if I miss anyone.

Regs: I most certainly did not pick the most expensive item in every category. If so, I would have gone with a $1,000+ professional level video card, a 30" flat screen (although there's no way I would ever want that, even if I did have the money), water cooling, the Gigabyte Ultra and stuck in 3 gigs of RAM.....the list goes on. You can easily push a computer above the $7,000 mark, which I don't have the money to do. And, yes, I asked for advice on my computer, but keep in mind the main point of this post was to help me choose a video card. We just got off on a little tangent (which is fine with me.....I'm getting advice, which is why I came here). I'm not by any means trying to spend $4,000.....and, with what I listed in my first post, I'm not. As far as never purchasing it, I have the money ready to go right now, just as soon as I get a final list of parts. But I figured I would glean some knowledge from your far more technologically informed heads.

Vaporize: Virginia Tech. And I would rather do it myself, so I don't think I'll be going with Alienware.

Shady06: Yes, I'm considering dropping it down to a single gig. Two gigs would probably lower my performance. Then I can spend the extra on Gary Shandling's favorite thing.....a monitor.

Nick1985: Two reasons really. 1) I want to use the DVD-RW as little as possible, and 2) It doesn't play DVD's at a very good speed. DVD-RW's can't match DVD-ROM's in speed, just as CD-RW's have never matched CD-ROM's in speed.

Randumb: Yes, it is by far a better deal. Any time you buy the best in anything you're not getting a good deal. =) But this has got to last me many years, and any money I don't spend on this has to go into my college fund. That may seem like a good idea, but it's not. Any money I do not spend I basically lose. If you want me to elaborate on that, then I will, but I won't waste any more of your time if you don't care. =)