fill in the gaps? small incentive.

[Stealth4]

Need a new computer, was going to get a dell (dell because my company has a discount through them), but thought it would be much more fun to build one, learn something and get a better system for the same amount ~$1500.

Been doing reading, but the more I read the more I realize I dont know, so if you guys could help me out a bit that would be great. Id like help filling up the unknowns in the parts I need, but any helpful install info, good links also appreciated.

Goals for this computer: 1. Reliable 2. Good for all todays games(spec: rome: total war, AOE II, BF2 perhaps other FPS games (ive been out of the game loop for about 3 years because I didnt have the money for a new computer) 3. Quiet. 4. Good enough for 2 years.

My System so far:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego

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

Memory: 1 or 2 Gig?, 'value' ram or better?. Any helpful links explaining timing and whats better and why would be great.

HD: Thinking 200 or 250 GB is plenty. When I used to know more about computers WD was great, but from reading current threads/reviews seems like seagate isnt bad. Any recommendations? I dont mind buying 2 HD's if having one fast drive/ one large storage is a good idea.

Video Card: eVGA Geforce 6800 256MB PCI Express x16 (256-P2-N383-TX) note: I already purchased this from newegg during that one day sale so no going back here, hope I made a good decision.

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12-430 ATX12V 430W , Dont see the need for the 500W since I'm not going SLi. I like that this brand is quiet.

Case: Antec P180 ...not sold on this as its a bit $$. Anything else? Also will the above PSU work? seems like the cables might be short. Can I get extension power cables?

DVD-burner: NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - Do I need a seperate CD-ROM for loading CD's, games etc?

Sound Card: Nah -- I have one from my previous computer (which is 4 yrs old). If theres one worth getting under $40 Ill consider it.

Monitor: BenQ 19" 8ms model looks good and its under $300. Do I need to buy a dvi cable to mate up to the video card? doesnt look like its included with the video card.

floppy drive: yeah ill get one.

keyboard and mouse: Need them, wireless would be nice. whats good under $100?

OS: Windows XP home OEM - the oem scares me a bit that its technically not transferable to another HD or mobo, but its $100 cheaper than retail. This a good way to go?

Anything else I need that I havent listed?


Since you probably see posts like this all the time I'd like to offer an incentive to reply with some good info. To the person who gives me the most informative reponse by say midnight tonight (EST) if theres something at newegg you want thats under $15 (fan or something) ill get it with my order when I buy it and ill ship it too you for free. I feel like Ive done a decent amount of reading, but still a little unsure.

Thanks all.

 

[thescreensavers]

oem is fine get 2 gigs of ram wired mouse and keyboard no wirelewss you dont want to be playing a game and woopes my batterys died and I think there is a small delay that effects my play. Get a seagate Hard drive b/c it has NCQ and I am using a MSI k8n neo4 /sli witch has a sound blaster 24 bit intagraded sound .

OEM is fine there is nothing rong it is exactly the same as retail just with out all the pakaging. PM So I can tell you somthing About windows you probly dont know

The monitor Make sure in the reviews it says ppl gamed with and it is good for it

everything ealse looks good

 

[Maluno]

Get 2 gigs ram, maybe a dual core 165 instead of the 3700. Value ram, btw. 250 Gb seagate drive, etc...

 

[bob4432]

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego good choice but you could get near the same speed if you want to o/c a 3000 or 3200venice

Motherboard: EPoX EP-9NPA+ Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD good choice

Memory: 1 or 2 Gig?, 'value' ram or better?. Any helpful links explaining timing and whats better and why would be great. 2GB, no questions and get the value stuff. timings are not very important on the a64 platform unless you are going for the ultimate top 1% of performance, just stay with a good company. personally i like ocz as they have been exceptionally good to me when i had a memory issue, no questions they just rmaed it to me, extremely friendly people and excellent tech support

HD: Thinking 200 or 250 GB is plenty. When I used to know more about computers WD was great, but from reading current threads/reviews seems like seagate isnt bad. Any recommendations? I dont mind buying 2 HD's if having one fast drive/ one large storage is a good idea. personally i would only go the 1 fast/1 storage hdd if i was going 15krpm scsi for the system hdd, otherwise just get 1 hdd. todays hdds are very fast and you need to spend a lot of $$$ to gain over the current 200/250GB hdds. personally i would not go seagate due to personall reasons (not that they are not a good hdd) but wd, hitachi, maxtor (maxline III has a 5yr warranty like the seagates) are all good

Video Card: eVGA Geforce 6800 256MB PCI Express x16 (256-P2-N383-TX) note: I already purchased this from newegg during that one day sale so no going back here, hope I made a good decision.

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12-430 ATX12V 430W , Dont see the need for the 500W since I'm not going SLi. I like that this brand is quiet.good brand, probably one of if not the best

Case: Antec P180 ...not sold on this as its a bit $$. Anything else? Also will the above PSU work? seems like the cables might be short. Can I get extension power cables?

DVD-burner: NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - Do I need a seperate CD-ROM for loading CD's, games etc?no need to get another optical hdd, 1 works just fine

Sound Card: Nah -- I have one from my previous computer (which is 4 yrs old). If theres one worth getting under $40 Ill consider it.imo, it depends on the quality of speakers. i have used onboard sound for a long time because i am using just 2small speakers with a "sub" or a mono headphone/mic setup

Monitor: BenQ 19" 8ms model looks good and its under $300. Do I need to buy a dvi cable to mate up to the video card? doesnt look like its included with the video card.

floppy drive: yeah ill get one.

keyboard and mouse: Need them, wireless would be nice. whats good under $100?

OS: Windows XP home OEM - the oem scares me a bit that its technically not transferable to another HD or mobo, but its $100 cheaper than retail. This a good way to go?

good luck and welcome to the forums also, you don't have to pay for information around here, if you are cool, people will tell you what you want to know

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

CPU - Now is definitely the time for dual core. Try to get your hands on an Opteron 165 Socket 939 dual core. It's 1.8ghz, but it has 2MB of cache, and it's supposed to be an excellent overclocker too. People have gotten ~2.8ghz on air with those.

Motherboard - Nice choice. Great overclocker at a relatively low price.

Memory - Definitely 2GB. 1GB just won't cut it now, especially for the latest games. Go with value RAM, because premium RAM really isn't worth the money. They may have lower timings and more overclocking headroom, but the lower timings don't really give that much of a performance increase, due to the Athlon 64's very efficient memory controller. You can always run a memory divider when overclocking too, so you don't need to buy expensive RAM. I recommend Corsair/Crucial/OCZ value RAM.

HD - Seagate drives are supposed to be quieter than WD's, but they're just a tad bit pricier (maybe a couple bucks). WD is fine though.

Video Card - Iit's okay, but you won't be able to play BF2/F.E.A.R. at max resolution/details.

Power supply - Good choice. Seasonic is awesome.

Case - Excellent case. The PSU power cable is a bit short, but you can pick up and extension cable for like $2.

DVD Burner - Go with the BenQ DW1640. It's slightly faster than the NEC. You don't need a CD-Rom drive. A single burner does everything.

Sound Card - You can probably get an Audigy 2 ZS on sale for about ~$50...

Monitor - Nice choice. The DVI cable should be included with the monitor.

Floppy Drive - Always nice to have a floppy...

Keyboard and Mouse - Logitech Cordless Desktop sets are pretty nice.

OS - There are some guides in people's sigs here on AT about how to use WinXP OEM on different hardware without having to reinstall, so I think you'll be fine.

 

[Stealth4]

ok, it wasnt clear cut, but id say t3h l337 n3wbgave me the most info and answered most of my questions. Thanks to everyone else of course. Hopefully when I get my system running I can contribute a little to this board rather than just taking.

t3h l337 n3wb - PM me please.

3 follow up questions.

1. Regaring RAM if I get this 2 GB OCZ (2 X 1GB) will it work for sure with the EPoX board I mentioned? Its not listed on the OCZ website, but I imagine its hard to keep up with all the boards out there. 2 GB OCZ 184 pin DDR400 (2 x 1GB) at newegg

2. Any other recommendations for a case thats a little cheaper than the P180, but still looks simple and has good form/function?

3. If I decide to go with a 'wired' mouse and keyboard instead of wireless - any recs under $100 for general and gaming use?

 

[TheoPetro]

this may get ya some better prices http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=1730554

 

[Boris teh Spider]

1. The RAM and mobo should work fine, I plan on putting that same combo together in my build soon. I am not sure though so you might want to get confimation from someone who knows for a fact, but they should work fine.

2. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119074

3. Mouse=MX518 for about $40 and as for the keyboard, I don't think it really matters.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Stealth4
ok, it wasnt clear cut, but id say t3h l337 n3wbgave me the most info and answered most of my questions. Thanks to everyone else of course. Hopefully when I get my system running I can contribute a little to this board rather than just taking.

t3h l337 n3wb - PM me please.

3 follow up questions.

1. Regaring RAM if I get this 2 GB OCZ (2 X 1GB) will it work for sure with the EPoX board I mentioned? Its not listed on the OCZ website, but I imagine its hard to keep up with all the boards out there. 2 GB OCZ 184 pin DDR400 (2 x 1GB) at newegg

2. Any other recommendations for a case thats a little cheaper than the P180, but still looks simple and has good form/function?

3. If I decide to go with a 'wired' mouse and keyboard instead of wireless - any recs under $100 for general and gaming use?

as the ocz guys in this thread - http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1511119&forumid=1

 

[alimoalem]

all looks good. get 2gb value ram unless u have money. if only u get replace your 6800 with a 6800gs....just came out and at $200, there's no better gpu for the price. outperforms the x800XL in most benchmarks too

 

[Stealth4]

The processor comes with its own fan right - and new ones are just an upgrade in sound/cooling performance correct?

Do I need to get a cooling fan like this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118115


Or will I be fine with stock?
Thanks.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

You'll be perfectly fine with the stock HSF. My 3200+ Venice with stock HSF is overclocked to 2.5ghz easily with 1.425v vcore. It's running about 40C max load right now.