Building New PC.

[Ruffrider]

Well it has come time time to build a new computer. BF2 is killing my current pc so it?s time to upgrade I guess . Anyway, I really just want suggestions/comments on the parts I?ve picked out. This will be the second pc I?ve built so I?m still kind of nervous.
Anyway, here?s what I have picked out.

Thermaltake Kandalf VA9000SWA
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
AMD Athlon 64 FX57
2GB of OCZ PC 3200 (Platinum System) (2 x 1GB)
WD Raptor 74GB
WD Caviar 120GB
Sony DVD-Rom
Sony CD/RW 52x32x52
eVGA GeForce 7800 GTX KO
PC Power & Cooling 510W
Viewsonic VP191b 19"LCD

Here are some of the questions I have.

1. Will the TT Kandalf supply ample cooling for everything? I?ve tried to find reviews on but have had no success. I really just want a case that looks different and that one caught my eye

2. I plan on adding another 7800 sooner or later. Is the 510W P&C going to be capable of powering two 7800s? From what I read on these forums it comes highly recommended.

3. Is the VP191b LCD a good LCD? I?m more of a fan of CRTs for gaming but I figured I?d give the LCD a try.

Other than that if you guys have any comment/suggestions please let me know. I?m ready to order whenever I feel confident enough that this set up is worth the money I?m spending lol.

 

[Bona Fide]

Get rid of this stuff:

- FX-57
- Raptor

And replace it with this stuff:

- 4800+ or 3700+ (dual-core or single-core)
- SEAGATE hard drives

 

[mwmorph]

or Samsung HDDS. The new Seagates(7200.8) are noticibly louder.

also, get rid of this
2GB of OCZ PC 3200 (Platinum System) (2 x 1GB)
and get 2gb value ram. aMD64 are not impacted by latencies or ram speeds.

and get rid of this
Sony DVD-Rom
Sony CD/RW 52x32x52
and get a NEC 3540A

1. meh. it's an okay case.

2. yes.

3. Good lcd but not the best. CRT is best for gaming 22" Mitsubishi Diamondtron rool; or a dell FPW(LCD) are the better choices,

 

[biostud]

Personally I would choose a Seasonic S-12 600W PSU because of the reduced noise.

 

[Bona Fide]

Yeah this guy seems to have the money, so here are some more revisions.

PSU - Seasonic S-12 600W
Monitor - Dell 2005FPW or 2405FPW
Mainboard - MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI or DFI NF4 SLI-DR

 

[Valkerie]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Yeah this guy seems to have the money, so here are some more revisions.

PSU - Seasonic S-12 600W
Monitor - Dell 2005FPW or 2405FPW
Mainboard - MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI or DFI NF4 SLI-DR

hell yeah

 

[bob4432]

no reason to add another 7800 unless you get a different lcd than the VP191b as its resolution is 1280x1024, which the 7800 will work fine with including bf2 with everthing on high, hell even if you get a monitor, either crt or lcd than can handle it, looks like a single 7800 will give good fps all the way upto @1920x1440 4AA or 2048x1536 noAA, 2048x1536 4AA looks like you may see a hiccup - here are the benchmarks

does anybody play bf2 at 2048x1536 4AA? if so could you take a screen shot for me so i can see how clear it looks?

 

[Topweasel]

CPU I would Recommend a 4400+ or 4000+ (or 3700+). OC if you really want to get those Higher speeds but you don't need it all. With that saved $400-$500 you could purchase a Second 7800 which would be a much better buy for a game then the exta 400Mhz. As for Monitor The Viewsonic is nice But I would suggest looking at either the Hot deals here or at HardOCP and Looking for Cupons on either the 2005FPW or if you havea couple of extra bones the 2405FPW. One Last Thing Get a NEC or BenQ 16X DL DVD burner instead of the Sony Solution both of those drives suck in comparison to almost everything out their and either one of the 2 manufacturers I mentioned Makes a Drive that does everything those 2 Sonys do plus more and are cheaper and better built then the drives together.

1. Yes But if your worried bout cooling Look at a Antec P180, best cooling caracteristics and awesome noise reduction.
2. Yes
3. Look at the FPW monitors mention earlier in my post first.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Get rid of this stuff:

- FX-57
- Raptor

And replace it with this stuff:

- 4800+ or 3700+ (dual-core or single-core)
- SEAGATE hard drives

 

[Waylay00]

Awesome choices.

The A8N-SLI Premium is an awesome board. It's a shame that people still think that it's the same as the Deluxe. Just because the Deluxe was a relatively bad overclocker doesn't mean that the Premium is bad too. IT is a completely different board.

Stick with the A8N-SLI Premium.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

You seem to have a ton of money to blow... Here's a better list

Case: Antec P180. Really nice case, and it's really quiet too. Cooling is excellent.

Mobo: DFI Lanparty Ultra-D (for heavy overclocking) or MSI Neo4 Platinum (for its very rich features). I wouldn't recommend SLI, because it's a waste of money. 1 7800GTX performs about as well as 2 6800 Ultras in SLI, but costs like $450 less.

CPU: Athlon 64 4800+ or 3700+. 4800+ if you want to do more multitasking, and it will also prepare you to play future games that are multithreaded. The 3700+ is an excellent overclocker, and it'll save you a ton of money while offering really great gaming performance.

RAM: 2x1GB of some value stuff. No Corsair if you're using the DFI board. Latencies and speeds don't affect Athlon 64's much, and the money would be better spent somewhere else.

Hard Drives: Pick up Seagate/Samsung drive(s). They're cooler and quieter, and Seagates have a 5 year warrenty. Raptors are a huge waste of money. Not much of a performance increase at all.

Optical Drives: NEC 3540A is nice. Sony's are really overpriced. There are a lot of other good DVD burners out there for like $50.

Video Card: How much is that 7800GTX? An MSI one was just on sale on Newegg for like $470. eVGA and Leadtek make excellent cards. Don't get a factory-overclocked one though. You can easily overclock it yourself.

PSU: That PC P&C power supply is way too expensive. Get a nice 500W+ one from Antec, OCZ, Enermax, Sparkle, Fortron, or Seasonic.

Monitor: If you can afford an FX-57, get a bigger monitor. I don't really know much about monitors myself, but the Dell FPW monitors seem nice.

 

[Bona Fide]

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
You seem to have a ton of money to blow... Here's a better list

Case: Antec P180. Really nice case, and it's really quiet too. Cooling is excellent.

Mobo: DFI Lanparty Ultra-D (for heavy overclocking) or MSI Neo4 Platinum (for its very rich features). I wouldn't recommend SLI, because it's a waste of money. 1 7800GTX performs about as well as 2 6800 Ultras in SLI, but costs like $450 less.

CPU: Athlon 64 4800+ or 3700+. 4800+ if you want to do more multitasking, and it will also prepare you to play future games that are multithreaded. The 3700+ is an excellent overclocker, and it'll save you a ton of money while offering really great gaming performance.

RAM: 2x1GB of some value stuff. No Corsair if you're using the DFI board. Latencies and speeds don't affect Athlon 64's much, and the money would be better spent somewhere else.

Hard Drives: Pick up Seagate/Samsung drive(s). They're cooler and quieter, and Seagates have a 5 year warrenty. Raptors are a huge waste of money. Not much of a performance increase at all.

Optical Drives: NEC 3540A is nice. Sony's are really overpriced. There are a lot of other good DVD burners out there for like $50.

Video Card: How much is that 7800GTX? An MSI one was just on sale on Newegg for like $470. eVGA and Leadtek make excellent cards. Don't get a factory-overclocked one though. You can easily overclock it yourself.

PSU: That PC P&C power supply is way too expensive. Get a nice 500W+ one from Antec, OCZ, Enermax, Sparkle, Fortron, or Seasonic.

Monitor: If you can afford an FX-57, get a bigger monitor. I don't really know much about monitors myself, but the Dell FPW monitors seem nice.

Get a Pioneer or Plextor DVD-RW. Get a Seasonic S-12 600W PSU. Get a 2405FPW monitor.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
You seem to have a ton of money to blow... Here's a better list

Case: Antec P180. Really nice case, and it's really quiet too. Cooling is excellent.

Mobo: DFI Lanparty Ultra-D (for heavy overclocking) or MSI Neo4 Platinum (for its very rich features). I wouldn't recommend SLI, because it's a waste of money. 1 7800GTX performs about as well as 2 6800 Ultras in SLI, but costs like $450 less.

CPU: Athlon 64 4800+ or 3700+. 4800+ if you want to do more multitasking, and it will also prepare you to play future games that are multithreaded. The 3700+ is an excellent overclocker, and it'll save you a ton of money while offering really great gaming performance.

RAM: 2x1GB of some value stuff. No Corsair if you're using the DFI board. Latencies and speeds don't affect Athlon 64's much, and the money would be better spent somewhere else.

Hard Drives: Pick up Seagate/Samsung drive(s). They're cooler and quieter, and Seagates have a 5 year warrenty. Raptors are a huge waste of money. Not much of a performance increase at all.

Optical Drives: NEC 3540A is nice. Sony's are really overpriced. There are a lot of other good DVD burners out there for like $50.

Video Card: How much is that 7800GTX? An MSI one was just on sale on Newegg for like $470. eVGA and Leadtek make excellent cards. Don't get a factory-overclocked one though. You can easily overclock it yourself.

PSU: That PC P&C power supply is way too expensive. Get a nice 500W+ one from Antec, OCZ, Enermax, Sparkle, Fortron, or Seasonic.

Monitor: If you can afford an FX-57, get a bigger monitor. I don't really know much about monitors myself, but the Dell FPW monitors seem nice.

i do agree that they are expensive, but there is nothing wrong with a 10k system drive. you can actually feel the latency difference. if you don't go with a raptor i would look into a refurbed 36GB 15krpm u320 scsi hdd for ~$130+card and cable.

all of my hdds are about the same gen, so when i switched to 10k rpm scsi it was huge difference over a ibm 60GB 8MB 7200, 80GB WD 8MB 7200 and 120GB WD 8MB drives to be used as the system drive. to me it was well worth the money. i don't know how a sata controller is efficiency wise compared to a scsi controller but i doubt that would matter much on todays machines.

unless you are worried about noise i would keep the raptor or go scsi for the system drive, especially with the class of system you are building.

 

[Ruffrider]

Thanks for the help guys. Some of you have stated I?m not on a budget. Well, I am but I saved almost all 3 of my past paychecks and I'm ready to upgrade. I can always save more I guess . I should have added to the top post I don?t want to OC.

I don't want to ditch the raptor and go to SCSI because I'm new at this and SCSI confuses me a little. All I'm using the raptor for is the OS install and Games. Nothing else will go in there.

As for the FX57, I kind of always wanted an FX but now since the X2s are out I'm torn. I know right now the FX57 beats out the 4800 in games, but that is just for now. Since you guys recommend the 4800 so much I'll get it

Last thing is case. Do any of you know of some cases that are a little "pimp". I just want something that sticks out of the crowd.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Ruffrider
Thanks for the help guys. Some of you have stated I?m not on a budget. Well, I am but I saved almost all 3 of my past paychecks and I'm ready to upgrade. I can always save more I guess . I should have added to the top post I don?t want to OC.

I don't want to ditch the raptor and go to SCSI because I'm new at this and SCSI confuses me a little. All I'm using the raptor for is the OS install and Games. Nothing else will go in there.

As for the FX57, I kind of always wanted an FX but now since the X2s are out I'm torn. I know right now the FX57 beats out the 4800 in games, but that is just for now. Since you guys recommend the 4800 so much I'll get it

Last thing is case. Do any of you know of some cases that are a little "pimp". I just want something that sticks out of the crowd.

1 - scsi is easy, if you want the ultimate in a fast system drive, go that route, we can walk you through it, like i said, it is easy.

2 - look at the 3800, it is the new cheaper x2 that still rocks and is actually reasonable. the reason the fx57 kicks everybodys a$$ in games is because of pure close speed, where a 4800 has 2x2.4GHz(i think that is the number) so in gaming one will run as much as needed and the other will run for the background stuff.

what exactly are you going to use your machine for? is it just bf2? in all honesty, with the 7800 and a venice or even one of the slower diego cores you would be fine as that game is so gpu limited (not with the 7800, it is just not limited then). no sense spending $$ on stuff you are not going to take full advantage of.

[rant]
this whole dual core thing is ridiculous at the moment, it is just basically a dual processor people. everybody would laugh at those that had a 2xAthlon MP for a gaing rig, or a dual xeon for a gaming rig, well this is the same thing.

get a dc when the games can actually take advantage of it, which who knows when that will be. don't spend your hard earned $$$ on a dc when you will not notice a difference in your uses over a 3200venic or 3700diego. wait for the smp/smt games to be out and then buy a x2 and they will be much cheaper then.

and for the people that say "i want to encode a movie while i game", to them i say with the extra $500+ you will save on the processor build another computer for your encoding. you could easily get a 3000venice to 2.2 on air from what i have read, which is like 1/2 of a 4400(which is all it would use if you were gaming anyway)
[/rant]