First Custom Pc Help

[Galacanakis]

Hey all, this is my first time putting a pc together and i need some info on some parts and recommendations. My main concerns are in my memory, case, and hard drive areas. I'm really tight on price, 1150 max, and this this pc's gott abe reliable and last me about 3-4 years (making it a specific gaming computer but a good computer all around as well). Also, would you recommend a .20 monitor over a .22 monitor? Thanks alot

Memory1
Memory2
Soltek K8TPro-939
AMD64 3200+
Radeon x800 pro
Case1
Case2
Samsung 120GB

 

[Jassi]

Get the antec case, antec psu's are good. Dont get the xms memory unless you plan to OC and a lot of people here will tell you to still go with value ram and use a divider. Mushkin Value goes for ~135/ Gig without rebate. I would say get the 6800 GT or a x800 pro that you can flash to XT PE speeds. CPU is a good choice and I have heard the drive is a quiet one. Seagate drives have 5 year warranties if you want to get one of those.

Are you going to OC or not? If so, you might want to get another motherboard. I don't know how this one stacks up but for around the same price, you can get some better ones.

 

[IlllI]

antec all the way.

 

[IlllI]

oh, i forgot to mention, if you plan on doing some overclocking, you might want to get some faster ram. also, you can wait a little longer ati will be coming out with some new video cards soon:

Ati x850

 

[Galacanakis]

Hmm, well i've heard alot of good things about ati and wasn't pleased with my last geforce and the x850 is too expensive. I was leaning toward the antec and the pqi memory, every review i've read (including on this site) about that soltek was good, but i'll wait to get more feedback on here before i decide, thanks for your replies.

Also, how long do you think the x800 pro will last me before i can barely run games on it without it being ridiculously chopy?

 

[Galacanakis]

Also i've read and heard that pci-express is better than agp, comments?

 

[ShellGuy]

Yes PCI-E is better than AGP but you will pay the price for it since it is just emerging tech you will pay more than you should so if you can wait i would suggest you do. The longer you can wait the cheaper PCI=E and the cards that work with it will become. If you want the best gaming rig out look for an Nvidia4 chip set with SLI but then you have to get 2 of the same cards that also work with SLI. SLI will about dbl your frames per second. AMD chips like Low Latency ram as well so i would go with the crucal of the 2 you had listed. also if you want this to be a gaming machine you may want to lookin to the WD raptor drives maybe in a RAID setup. That too will help your system be a bit faster. Mostly get the most bang for your buck with what you can.. Last time i checked there wern't but a few ATI PCI-E cards out. Hope this has been of some help.


Will G.

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: Galacanakis
Hmm, well i've heard alot of good things about ati and wasn't pleased with my last geforce and the x850 is too expensive. I was leaning toward the antec and the pqi memory, every review i've read (including on this site) about that soltek was good, but i'll wait to get more feedback on here before i decide, thanks for your replies.

Also, how long do you think the x800 pro will last me before i can barely run games on it without it being ridiculously chopy?

umm...i'm a little confused. you say the x850 is too expensive? yet in your first post you linked a card that is $399(and a refurb at that too)

(taken from that review)
Radeon X850 XT PE $549

Radeon X850 XT $499

Radeon X850 Pro* $399

Radeon X800 XL $349

 

[ShellGuy]

Skunk where do you get that he linked a referbed card?? The newegg card is just a card produced by MSI and not ATI nuttin wrong with usin MSI..

Will G.

 

[Galacanakis]

Those raptors baffled me when i saw their specs, i'm a sorta noob to hard drives and pc hardware. it's gotten like 400 good reviews but it's only 36.7 gb? does the seek time and RPS make it compare to a 80 gig in storage or something? I read up on the nvidia4 and i've read 2 reviews and it's gotten fair results, the soltek is fine with me but what bothered me is that it came out a year ago or so, i don't want to to be outdated while my other stuff is running fine, is there a possibility with this? i'm pretty dead on with the graphics card too, i just don't want the same problem with what i'm worried about in the motherboard but it too has gotten good reviews and some friends recommended it to me. Thanks for your guys' help btw.

i might as well add one more noob question in here, what is raid and IDE.

 

[ShellGuy]

Here is what raid is. I can't remember which one i was going to use on my new video and photo machine but i was def in a raid.. Come to think of it it wsa 0 i beleive. And i was refering to gettin the 74 gb drives so you now have about 140 gb of storage and i would get a 200gb or so for a true storage drive then a backup drive from all of those. And here is IDE. SATA is the better type of connection than older ATA. Any other questions.


Will G.

 

[Galacanakis]

skunk i see what you mean i just found that page on anadtech but those prices don't amtch up in new egg, weird. I'll ook more into it. The x800 pro that i'm buying is the same price is the same as the x850 pro in anandtechs review, hmmmm....

 

[Keyser0804]

Heh, your deciding between a server case and a small form factor case.

 

[ShellGuy]

Neither case is SFF they are both full towers with at least 3-5.25 bays which in my book makes them full cases. and they dont' really qualify for SERVER status as the larger only has 4-5.25 bays on it. I my self would to with the antech case but that is just me.


Will G.