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Critique my new system

D

drsafety

Senior member
Hi all, I just joined anandtech. I am going to be building a new system within the next few weeeks, so I just wanted to get some general feedback on my proposed system. this is my first time building a new comp, and I want it to be optimized for gaming at a reasonable price.

Anyways, here's the plan:

NZXT trinity case
AMD 3500+ Venice
ASUS A8N-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX
Radeon x800 PCIe
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150
CHAINTECH AV-710 Sound Card - Retail
Logitech Z-5300 5.1 speakers
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A
generic floppy/keyboard/mouse
1 extra80 mm, 1 extra 120mm fan
19" LCD
PSU? 400W?

total cost: about $1350 from newegg

haven't decided ona a PSU, mainly because I haven't yet looked at tech specs to determine what kind of wattage/rail voltages I need in a PSU. If anyone has any reccomendations for PSU, Iwould appreciate that.. also general comments and feedback would be appreciated, since again this is my first build. Also I hope this system has no compatibility issues. thanks!
 
either a Sonata 2, with a 450W smartpower.

or buy a antec 3000blk case and a Fortron 500W Blue Storm

the latter will cost you more

get a seagate 7200.8, not too much more expensive. are you going to use this pc at stock settings or overclocking?

if you get a Sonata 2, you will save money. use that saved money to get a better processor, such as a athlon 64 3700 san diego

its a nice setup. that motherboard has overclocking potential
 
First, I will swap the Asus board with a DFI Lanparty UT NF4-SLI (not much expensive, but way better).
Second, as JSt0rm01 posted... it is pointless to have a SLI motherboard with an ATI card...
If you need 2 video cards, swap that X800 with any geforce 6800 or even 6600GT (the simple 6000 non-gt doesn't support sli either). If you want an ATI one you can go for a DFI Lanparty UT NF4-UltraD for a little price saving..
Also you can eliminate the soundcard with the excellent audio quality/performance of the Krajan module of the DFI boards.
 
thanks braveheart that helps. I decided on a Radeon x800 video card, so I won't be using 2x geforce or anything like that.
 
It really depends on your budget.
DFI NF4 Ultra-D is not that expensive and has plenty of features and performance to deliver.
If it was MSI I'd prefer the Platinum series in wich you have the K8N Neo Platinum.
For ASUS ones, I've been using ASUS for many years but became very disappointed with them lately. Too many problems... at least that's my experience.
 
ok the problem I have with the DFI Lanparty is that every other review on newegg states that it is very diffcult to set up. this is my first and I think I would prefer a board that is reliable and fairly easy to set up.
 
Don't get the DFI board unless you plan on overclocking. Get the MSI K8N Neo4 Ultra.

Replace that NZXT case with the Antec Sonata II. It comes with a 450W PSU, which is good-quality as well.

Get a 6600GT. It should perform much better than the X800.
 
Try to find any 6800 non ultra at low price. It has 12 pipelines (same as X800) but Shader Model 3.0 instead of 2.0/2.0b of the X800. Anyway both of them will let you play well on all actual games.
 
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