Custom Gaming Rig

[fadedur]

I have done quite a bit of research before deciding to build my own PC. This site seems to be far more knowledgable than the others I have come across. I'm looking to build a 'best bang for yer buck' type of gaming rig. This is what I have come up with so far..

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego)
Asus A8N nForce4 SLI Deluxe
CoolerMaster Wave Master Black ATX
eVGA GeForce 6800 GT / 256MB DDR3 / PCI Express
Corsair TWINX Dual Channel 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz
2X Western Digital / Caviar SE / 200GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-150 (RAID?)
Coolmax / CR-550 / 550-Watt / ATX / 24-Pin / 140mm Fan / SATA-Ready / Power Supply
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Gamer

I'm not so sure about the case/psu, I just want something simple but elegant and efficient. Also, do I need a controller for the RAID function on this motherboard? I don't know much of how RAID is setup.

Any Suggestions?

 

[SVT Cobra]

welcome to AT!

-everything looks good, except if you are looking for the best bang for your buck, then 1. check out gigabyte's mobo's becuase they offer a lot of features. 2. Are you planning on upgrading to SLI? becuase if not then i would suggest getting the Ultra version, SLI would be a waste if not using as an upgrade path and certainly not best bang for your buck...

-The Mobo comes with an onbaord RAID controller, but for gaming and desktop use RAID does not offer any real performance advantages, just go with one good hard drive and save some money...search the homepage for the RAID article, it covers it in depth

I do not know anything about the case, but i would not recomend going with a cheap powersupply like the one above, a PSU is one of the most important parts of any system...i would recomend for that system a 420w OCZ Mod Stream...a good solid PSU and it wont fry your components like a cheap one could

Are you planning to OC?? if not save some money on the RAM and go with something else...same with some of your other stuff..

 

[Cheesetogo]

I would recomend that you go with seagate instead of western digital, as they have a better warranty and are more reliable. For your ram, I'd recomend this for overclocking. For your graphics, I'd go with a x800xl instead, as unless your planing on going sli, x800xl is cheaper and same performance. DO NOT go with a cheap power supply. Buy one from a good brand like antec, enermax, ocz, seasonic, fortron, or zippy.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Drop the TwinX and go with $100 or less RAM. Drop the SLI board and go with either the MSI Neo-4 Platinum because it has tons of awesome features, or the DFI Lanparty for it's insane overclocking potential.

 

[thegimp03]

I second the power supply change. With that hardware its better to get a better powersupply like what cheesetogo suggested. They're all good brands.

 

[bob4432]

i too agree with what has been said here. if you want to stay with sli, the msi board has onboard audigy sound. will the computer have any other hard uses or just gaming? do you do video editing? cad?