Building my first PC (version 2)

[PotatoSandWitch]

CHANGED SOME STUFF ACCORDING TO PENTIUM GUY'S SYSTEM RECOMMENDATION:

Windows Home OS $88

EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard $106

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor $190.00

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $49.99
well, I just love how it looks, tell me if theres any problems with it or if the one from Pentium Guy's system is much better.

THERMALTAKE Silent Purepower W0014RU 480W Power Supply $55.00

2x512MB Corsair ValueSelect $81 link to make sure its right kind

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ ST3160827AS 160GB 7200 RPM 8M Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive $91

ATI 100-435508 Radeon X800XL 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail $277.00 Link

AOpen Black IDE CD burner $22

Samsung 19" CRT Monitor $199.99

2 Cheap keyboards (in case one breaks; and just to have two because for some reason I'm into keyboards $10.00

Logitech MX510 Gaming Mouse $28.00
tested this out at the store, really can't match the feel of it (better for me than the MX518 plus its only 28 bucks compared to usual 40)

Cheap logitech speakers $7.00
I live in a small house and never put volume high at all, so just cheap speakers is good enough.



PRICE (tax included) $1324+shipping, dunno how much
couldn't find anything to cut down on from here, I want the great graphics and a 19 in monitor, want the 3200+ venice CPU, and already cut down on other stuff. If the shipping ain't too much, I can afford this. Still open for suggestions.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm sorry Potato, that was my fault.

I think The Pentium Guy made a very nice suggestion for you in the old one:

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
After checking out that LCD, I'm gonna have to say that it's an excelent deal. Not sure about the quality, but ignore my comment. 19" LCD for $229?? Awesome.

I'll update my recommendations for ya .

-Coolermaster Cavalier 3 ($55)
-Antec Smartpower 400W ($55)
-EPOX 9NPA+Ultra ($105)
-X800XL ($250)
-2x512MB Corsair ValueSelect ($80)
-3000+ Venice OEM ($117, I saw an excellent deal somewhere)
-XP-90 + Panaflo L1A 92mm ($50)
-Seagate 120GB ($85)
-BenQ DVD Burner ($45)
-Floppy ($5)
-LCD Monitor (AG Neovo) $229
-Logitech Comfort Cordless Keyboard/Mouse (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823126121 $71)
-Audigy 2-ZS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102178 $72
-Logitech X530 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121118 $54
-
$1283 (calculated a bit quick, might wanna check it over)

I think if you need to bring the price down a bit to include windows, the comments below would be good adjustments:

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I put them all in my cart now and the total comes to like $1160.

Potato, I think if you have $1300-ish to spend, The Pentium Guy's pick would be a very good place to start from rather than modifying your system.

You might have to cut down on something though if you have to buy windows....

Maybe get a cheaper Antec case/psu combo...
cut the DVD burner down to a cd burner if you don't think you'll be burning dvds...
skip a soundcard and use integrated sound (maybe still spend $140 and get Logitech z-5300s or something)

EDIT: I wrote that before Pentium updated his info and made that new list.

If you need to get windows and your budget is tight, I'd say skip the Audigy2 for now and add in a soundcard later if you think you want one.

and

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
Bah! I forgot about windows.
If you need windows: Skimp on the keyboard and mouse (spend maybe $40 instead of $70, so save $30) and get an Audigy 2 instead of an Audigy 2-ZS (Save $20).

So you save $50 and bring the total down to $1233. Windows is $90 right? Heh..... Not too sure what you need to cut down on. But your system'll be $1320 instead of $1300 if that's ok with your budget.

-The Pentium Guy

 

[PotatoSandWitch]

ummmm, whats a heatsink? may sound stupid, but I dont know >_<

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: PotatoSandWitch
ummmm, whats a heatsink? may sound stupid, but I dont know >_<

something you put on top of your CPU to cool it.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: PotatoSandWitch
ummmm, whats a heatsink? may sound stupid, but I dont know >_<

A heatsink is a big hunk of metal that attaches to the CPU to help keep it cool. The XP-90 is the example in The Pentium Guy's suggestion. In yours, the retail CPU comes with a heatsink already.
Almost all heatsinks for modern processors also require a fan for operation. In the retail package it already comes with a fan. In Pentium Guy's system, he's suggesting the Panaflo for the fan.

 

[Crescent13]

Good setup! the only thing I would change would be the graphic card. Personally, I like BFG better than Evga.

EDIT: WAIT!!!!! DO NOT BUY THIS SETUP!!!!! THAT RAM IS DDR2!!! YOU NEED REGULAR DDR!!!! THE NOTCH WILL NOT LINE UP AND YOU WILL HAVE WASTED YOUR MONEY ON THE RAM!!!!! I QUOTE FROM THE WEBSITE

DDR Standard DDR 400 (PC 3200)

. phew!

EDIT2: oh yeah and if you are going to go 1280x1024 for the monitor, 17" will look better than 19" (smaller pixels).

 

[PotatoSandWitch]

ok, different RAM for sure (THANKS ), and just use the same CPU and no additional heatsink/fan because it includes everything. The vid card- eh, the BFGs are a lot more expensive, but if theres a really good reason ill get one.
HAVE AN IMPORTANT QUESTION:::
how do you overclock a proccessor to gain more speed?

 

[PotatoSandWitch]

and another question:
now i know you can overclock vid cards too, how does that work out?

 

[TraumaRN]

Originally posted by: PotatoSandWitch
and another question:
now i know you can overclock vid cards too, how does that work out?

Easy as pie with an Nvidia card, download Coolbits place it in your registry(you can d/l it from like guru3d.com or something) and then it opens the rest of your video card console and you adjust a couple sliders. Really easy...

 

[PotatoSandWitch]

I don't know much about cooling, but do I need any additional fans or anything? Don't know bout water cooling but what is that?
or am I ok with my PSU and the heatsink included with the CPU?

Oh, just noticed that the mobo supports SATA II HDD's but the samsung above is a normal SATA, gotta change that right?

 

[PotatoSandWitch]

SATA II HITACHI HDD

This will work right?

 

[Dystien]

2 things, Purchase the Venice 3000+ from ewiz, 119 if I am not mistakened. Secondly purchase the Crucial 2X512MB PC3200 from Newegg, similar price, higher capabilities if you were to overclock.

 

[shoRunner]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440 <--- cheaper ram from a more reputable company

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817189003 <--better PSU also cheaper

but really go with the build that yoyo quoted, it will be a much better gaming system, only thing i'd change is the PSU for the xclio


-Coolermaster Cavalier 3 ($55)
-Antec Smartpower 400W ($55)
-EPOX 9NPA+Ultra ($105)
-X800XL ($250)
-2x512MB Corsair ValueSelect ($80)
-3000+ Venice OEM ($117, I saw an excellent deal somewhere)
-XP-90 + Panaflo L1A 92mm ($50)
-Seagate 120GB ($85)
-BenQ DVD Burner ($45)
-Floppy ($5)
-LCD Monitor (AG Neovo) $229
-Logitech Comfort Cordless Keyboard/Mouse (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823126121 $71)
-Audigy 2-ZS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102178 $72
-Logitech X530 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121118 $54
-
$1283 (calculated a bit quick, might wanna check it over)

 

[Crescent13]

The SATA hard drive will work, you just won't be taking full advantage of SATAII features. If you plug the SATA (150mbps) into the SATAII (300mbps), it will only run at SATA speeds (150mbps).

Overclocking vid cards is super easy (at least with nvidia). I like nvtweak. You download it, it will add overclocking settings to your driver control panel, and you click on find recommended speed or something. That usually isn't as fast as you can go, (it recommended 573/1190 and i got to 570/1250), and if you want to squeeze as much power out of the card as you can, first do the recommmended speed thing, then raise a setting up a notch (whatever a notch is, for me it's 3mhz core, 10mhz memory), and click test settings. if it says it can run at those settings, then push it up another notch and say test settings, keep doing this until it says the test can't be run, then start lowering settings and clicking test, until the test runs okay. Then play games, and look for artifacts (anything out of the ordinary, for me I had little green dots everywhere). If there arn't any artifacts, then you're good to go! if there are some, then lower your settings and try playing the game again. Watch your temps too, and remember the temps in the driver control panel are only for the core, you can still fry your memory.

 

[chrisrod01]

I would change your ram to Cosair Value Select and maybe also change your Graphic Card to either BFG or MSI

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: Crescent13
The SATA hard drive will work, you just won't be taking full advantage of SATAII features. If you plug the SATA (150mbps) into the SATAII (300mbps), it will only run at SATA speeds (150mbps).

since sata drives don't come anywhere near to using the 150MB/s bandwidth availible with normal sata(a WD raptor may average 73MB/s or so) a 300MB/s bandwith is no big deal. bottom line there is NO performance increase between SATA and SATAII (or SATA IO or whatever they want to call it now)

 

[PotatoSandWitch]

Wait, can someone tell me whats so much better about Pentium Guy's system? I'm not saying it isn't, just don't know too much and not sure why everyone insists its better.

 

[Mrvile]

I didn't read any of the posts above me, but I noticed a few things I'd definately change.

First thing would probably be the ram. I dunno about "Rosewill" as a ram company, I'd stick (no pun intended ) with something more trusted and even cheaper, like Corsair Value Select for 10 dollars less.

Another thing I'd change is the PSU. Thermaltake isn't really bad, but I've heard some bad stories about their PSUs. Bump your PSU budget up a bit and get a PSU like mine, an Enermax 460w, for about 70 bucks.

I'd cut back on the fancies like the special keyboard and special mousepad, which are pretty unnecessary, and get a better video card. The 6600GT is nice, but for another hundred bucks you could get an X800XL, which I think is definately worth the upgrade.

Finally the last thing I would consider is I'd probably get a better monitor, but that's stretching the budget too much so the one you have would probably work.

 

[imported_g33k]

Originally posted by: PotatoSandWitch
Wait, can someone tell me whats so much better about Pentium Guy's system? I'm not saying it isn't, just don't know too much and not sure why everyone insists its better.

Well off hand he has a better graphic's card. If you are not going to overclock, Id drop the xp-90 and use the stock hsf. If you are going to overclock then that set up looks good, only I would get the 3200+ venice for the x10 multi (it will help you oc). This will put you slighlty overbudget though.

 

[PotatoSandWitch]

is the system ive got now (at top, updated) good? i just took the Intel Guy's system and changed it a bit to try make it almost the same rig but cheaper with accessories and such. Also, the PSU, my friend has one, it works great, not loud, keeps it cool.

 

[bob4432]

i would change the psu to either a ocz, antec, xclio or enermax and drop down to a 3000venice for the price difference since there is not much of a speed difference and you could easily make it up via o/c.

the thermaltake psus aren't as good regardless of the advertised wattage, it needs to be clean power and make sure the amperage is on the correct rails. the thermaltake you selected only has 18A on the 12V rail where this Enermax has 33A and enermax has a better rep than thermaltake imo.

you need a pci-e video card to go with that board since it does not have a agp slot

get a dvd burner - nec3540, with the $$ you saved on the cpu

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: PotatoSandWitch
Also, the PSU, my friend has one, it works great, not loud, keeps it cool.

maybe your friend should have come on here before he bought that psu...

 

[PotatoSandWitch]

OOPS! the PSU he bought to replace the thermaltake was the good one.

OK so now ive got this
same PSU you said was good 2 posts above

and PCIe x16 asus x800xl

And the good deal on the 3000+ venice at ewiz.com here

thanks for all the help everyone, i think I'm about done with what I need.
I really am sure I don't need a DVD burner, this PC (my dad's) has one, but I never needed to use it (he would let me if I did), and the CD burner is fine if I actually have to burn anything.

 

[bob4432]

i would go dvd-rw, for the extra ~$25 you won't regret it, as more stuff is coming out on dvd now - bf2...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Here's a cheaper X800XL ($249 shipped)

EDIT: oh wait, did you want VIVO?