Considering New Computer

[Revolution09]

Well, I've decided that it's time to start building a new computer! I've been researching parts for a while now, and I've pretty much decided what I want to get.

I'm thinking of getting:
AMD Athlon64 Dual Core 3800+
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 mobo
OCZ 1gb stick of RAM
Pioneer 16x DVD-RW
CoolerMaster Centurion 540 case
and for now I'm going to keep my old vid card, Radeon 9000 (will upgrade that later)

I would just like someone else's opinion on this setup, and I also had a question about the power supply.
The case comes with a 380W power supply, but will this be enough to run this setup? If so, will I need to upgrade it later, when I upgrade my video card?

Thanks for any replies!

 

[Cinna696]

is that the SATA Pioneer drive? if so waste of money as i recall its 72$ vs an equivlant NEC drive that is IDE for 38$

the psu will be enough to run that, but the 12v is a little weak at 16amps to run a nice video card, i'd advise to upgrade it when you upgrade the gpu

otherwise looks good, nice job researching

 

[Gagan]

HEy there Revolution

I suggest that you get 2 gigs of ram minimum as it's the stnardard for good gaming.

For a PSU, it depends on your budget ,if you have a little extra get the OCZ Powerstream 520W

Or the Season 600w they ar eboth very good PSU's, and a PSU is something you do not want to skimp on (I have a 600w ocz)

The proc is great, the mobo, well I hear good and bad things about ASROCK, I would suggest finding a lighly used A8N SLI premium for upgradeability to SLI down the road(or a xfire board, whichever you prefer).

The Pioneer slot load drive is sexy, don't listen to cinna, get it, it's hot no matter what, need some aesthetics somewhere.

your case looks great, the vid card is fine if you know you're going to upgrade later.


if you're ever going to upgrade go later this summer when G80 is due out(new nvidia chipset, 8 series). Anything else just ask

 

[Revolution09]

thanks for the reply

and cinna- honestly, I'm not sure which one it is. I'm kinda lost in the area of DVD drives and that- I don't really know what exactly I should be looking for... the way I see it, they're all pretty much the same. Maybe you can explain what I should be looking for?

Or possibly, could you help me pick a better one out? I'd prefer to buy it from a local store, here:
http://www.pcvonline.com/products.aspx?...rives/Burners&sub=DVDRW%20Drives&sub2=

 

[Gagan]

You can get a NEC 3550, no doubt , get that guy right there.

Everyone loves it, cheap quick and quiet!!! No questions asked!

 

[Cinna696]

Originally posted by: Gagan
HEy there Revolution

I suggest that you get 2 gigs of ram minimum as it's the stnardard for good gaming.

For a PSU, it depends on your budget ,if you have a little extra get the OCZ Powerstream 520W

Or the Season 600w they ar eboth very good PSU's, and a PSU is something you do not want to skimp on (I have a 600w ocz)

The proc is great, the mobo, well I hear good and bad things about ASROCK, I would suggest finding a lighly used A8N SLI premium for upgradeability to SLI down the road(or a xfire board, whichever you prefer).

The Pioneer slot load drive is sexy, don't listen to cinna, get it, it's hot no matter what, need some aesthetics somewhere.

your case looks great, the vid card is fine if you know you're going to upgrade later.


if you're ever going to upgrade go later this summer when G80 is due out(new nvidia chipset, 8 series). Anything else just ask

are you a moron, he doesn't need anything over a good quality 400w psu when he upgrades his video card

he wants the agp & pci-e slot because he is not going to upgrade his Radeon 9000 which iS AGP until later down the road. there is no other motherboard of choice

2gbs of ram you can get online for about 150$, as far as in a retail store im sure the price will be absurd so stick with 1gb

this is the dvd drive i was referring to for 38$

http://www.pcvonline.com/productDetails.aspx?id=2067

however they list it as 53$, but looking at the rest of their website for the pioneer drives they only list ide drives for about the same 53-58$ range, no slot loading pioneer drive

if you can try to get the stuff from newegg or monarch, the retail store prices on those parts will be quite higher as you can see with the dvd drive. both online shops are very reliable and you can ask anyone in this forum about that

 

[Gagan]

No need to call people names noob. Seriously.

Anyways, it's good to have a BEEFY PSU NOW, why pay more for another one down the road, might as well get it now

 

[Cinna696]

are those canadian prices?

 

[Gagan]

Should be, conversion would abe about 5 bucks off

 

[Revolution09]

alright, no need to argue!! thanks alot for all your help so far, both of you

i've decided to go with the NEC dvd drive, however it is IDE, correct? i'm slightly confused about the whole SATA/IDE thing.
will I need a certain type of connectors on my mobo to be able to use it? or will it come with both SATA and IDE connectors?

I just wanna make sure I don't mess anything up with the parts, since I'm picking them out myself.

 

[Gagan]

sata and ide drives are the same

The earlier is for convienience. I have a 716sa but there is no difference between the non SATA Version, it's all disillusionment.

You will get the ata cable, your mobo will have a connector for it don't worry man

 

[Revolution09]

alright great, thanks for clearing that up.

I was just looking at other CoolerMaster cases, and I'm now considering the Centurion 5 instead of the 540 simply because it looks alot nicer, however it's bigger too... so that would also mean better airflow? so it would naturally stay cooler?

 

[Gagan]

Well I guess, for air cooling just make sure it has 2 in the front 2 in the back and 1 or 2 on the top for a blowhole

Usually higher size means better convection but that's not always true, take a look at the stackermaster as well

 

[pkrush]

The Asrock 939dual board won't fit in the Centurion 540, because it's an ATX board and the case is microATX.

 

[Revolution09]

oooo damn, really? thank you soo much for telling me that. I guess it's settled then, I'll go for the Centurion 5... that will fit it, right?