Building complete gaming system from ground up

[terry107]

I'm getting a bonus in a couple of weeks and decided to build myself a nice gaming system. I want to keep it around $2500 shipped. I've picked out most of the parts, but had a couple of questions on some of the selections.

Case:
Antec P-180 - Seems to be very popular around here.
or
Lian-Li PC-60APlus - This one has good reviews and seems to be quite cool, but does anyone have any first-hand experience with it?

Processor/Heatsink:
AMD X2 4400+
Thermalright SI-120 with Vantex 120MM Fan

Motherboard:
DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D

Powersupply:
Fortron AX500

Video Card:
eVGA 7800GT N517

Memory:
For gaming, is it better to have low timings or a faster speed? These are the two sets I'm looking at:
OCZ Gold 2GB DDR500 (3-4-3-8)
or
G.Skill Extreme 2GB DDR400 (2-3-2-5)

Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 300GB

Monitor:
Samsung 940b 19" LCD

Sound Card and Speakers:
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
Logitech THX Z-5300

Keyboard and Mouse:
Microsoft Digital Media Pro
Logitech G5 Laser

Thanks in advance for taking the time to look over this and make some suggestions!

 

[Quiksilver]

Your better off with a Single core processor for gaming, as most games is graphic instensive and not CPU intensive.

For $10 more you can get the Viewsonic Vx924 19" which has a faster response time for gaming.

IMO lower timing would be better, especially when you wont be doing any overclocking.

 

[Ike0069]

Case choice should be whicheve one you like the looks of better. Both are high quality cases with good air flow.

Get an Opteron dual core. A 170 is cheaper than the 4400+, and should OC easily to well past 2.2 GHz. I like the HSF choice

That MB is an excellent OC'ing board, but I suggest the Epox EP-9NPA+ Ultra board. Costs less, OC's very well, not nearly as picky about RAM. Second choice would be the MSI Neo4.

There are equal PSU's for less money, but they won't be pre-sleeved. If that's important, then this is a perfect choice. (This is the exact PSU I'm getting for an upcoming build myself.)

7800GT is the best VC deal right now IMO. Good choice.

I'd suggest the Corsair VS 2x1GB RAM for $166, but not with the DFI board. With that board, you'd probaly want the OCZ. (Here you can save even more money by geting a different MB.)

Maybe it's just me, but I seem to ahve read more problems with 7200.8 Seagate drives that any other model lately. I'd go with a Samsung spinpoint, or a WD.

I'd say that LCD or the Viewsonic VX924 are the best gaming monitors you can get for under $350. You should be happy with either one.

All the rest looks good.

 

[terry107]

Thank you for the input; I'll read up on the monitor. I guess I should have mentioned in the original post that I will be overclocking the system (nothing extreme).

 

[videogames101]

I can say the z-5300s are excellent, even more so when your budget doesn't allow for the z-5500's🙁

 

[terry107]

Thanks for the suggestions! I just had a couple of follow-up questions:

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Get an Opteron dual core. A 170 is cheaper than the 4400+, and should OC easily to well past 2.2 GHz. I like the HSF choice

I'll probably end up getting this processor. I've read about the overclocking abilities of the Opterons; listing the 4400+ was an oversight on my part.

Originally posted by: Ike0069
There are equal PSU's for less money, but they won't be pre-sleeved. If that's important, then this is a perfect choice. (This is the exact PSU I'm getting for an upcoming build myself.)

What do you mean be pre-sleeved?

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Maybe it's just me, but I seem to ahve read more problems with 7200.8 Seagate drives that any other model lately. I'd go with a Samsung spinpoint, or a WD.

Hmm...I'll have to do some more looking at the Seagate drives. Do the Samsung or WD make similar NCQ drives?

Thanks again to everyone for the help.

 

[Ike0069]

That Fortron has all the wires already sleeved in blue. If you look at the pics, then look at a different PSU, you will see what I mean.
The sleeving really helps "clean up" the inside of your case IMO, and can help with airflow thru the case also.

Edit: You can buy a different PSU and sleeeve it yourself, but it can be tedious job.
Here is a good walkthru: http://www.gruntville.com/howtos/psu_sleeve/index.php

 

[jkresh]

westurn digital has the 3200ks sataII/16megs cache/NCQ price is reasonable. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003

 

[Quiksilver]

Well because your plan on overclocking, any RAM by g.skill is your best choice, it is made for ocing.

Somone mentioned the Logitech Z-5500, those are the speakers i'll be buying for my system, i'll let you know how that turns out.

Currently the best gaming LCD's out right are probably the monitor he choose, the viewsonic vx924 and viewsonic vx922.(Im buying the vx922 for my system)

 

[darXoul]

As for the monitor, it's true that VX922 and VX924 offer the best responsiveness for games, however keep in mind that both are TN panels with 6-bit color (+ dithering), only decent contrast and pretty poor viewing angles. No height adjustment, swivel or pivot either.

Purely for gaming, they might be a good choice but after much research I'm now leaning towards a *VA matrix LCD with 8 ms or less gtg response time, e.g. the ViewSonic VP series, for more versatility and allround performance.

I would also choose the MX518 optical mouse rather than G5 because I find it simply better (better, softer scroll wheel, more buttons, sensor less picky in terms of pads used).

The CPU is definitely a good choice. Since I had the opportunity to see a dual core processor in action, I don't think single core is worth it for the frame or two in game X or Y. Dual core = future, superior performance in case of multitasking, plus even in a single threaded, isolated game environment it doesn't really matter that an A64 4000+ might be a tad faster, since you'll be GPU-limited anyway. You just might consider the X2 3800+ cheapest model because of the price and overclocking potential.