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First timer: Confirm my $2k rig

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petesamprs

Senior member
Been around AT for a while but never really looked into the hardware side. Now I need a new desktop since mine is going to my little brother. After buying Dells for years I've decided enough is enough...it's about time I built my next computer myself. Watching these 13 year olds on this forum do it without a sweat was good inspiration!

I know what you're thinking: Not ANOTHER one of these "What do I need to build a computer?" threads. But it's not. I've done the work. I've spent the better part of a month researching it, including using (read: abusing) the search feature on this forum and I've gotten a relatively good handle on what I want.

For background:
- Experience = Never built a computer. My "experience" is limited to slapping in more RAM, a video card, and a DVD drive onto my existing dell.
- Budget = $2,000. Want a high performance rig that's somewhat future proof as well.
- Use = Gaming at high to very high settings, along with the other basics (browsing, burning CDs/DVDs, listen to music, etc).
- Overclocking = I most probably will *not* oc, since I have no idea how to do that (yet!). Not even sure how much of a difference it makes to my gaming experience. If my components do oc well, that?s a bonus for later on, not a requirement now.
- Noise = Case needs to be quiet since I'll be sleeping in that room.

My proposed rig (with lowest shipped pricegrabber price for reference):
Case: Antec Sonata II ($99.90)
PSU: 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 (included with case)
Motherboard: ABIT KN8-ULTRA ($95.95)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ ($322.00)
RAM: Gigaram 2GB DDR 400 2.5-4-4-7 ($165.00)
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7800GT ($309.99)
Hard drive: Seagate 7200.9 SATA NCQ 3Gb/s 160GB ($92.98)
CD-RW/DVD-RW: NEC ND-3550A ($43.95)
Sound Card: Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Edition $111.24
Speakers: ~Already have~ ($0.00)
Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse ($46.95)
Mouse: Cheaper of: Logitech MX510 or MX518 ($32.02)
Monitor: DELL Ultrasharp 2001FP LCD ($534.65)
Operating System Windows XP Pro SP2 OEM ($77.00) -EDIT: oops, this wasn't a legit version. disregard the price.
TOTAL: $1,931.63

Questions:
- My biggest "ifs" are the mobo and RAM - since it all seems the same to me. I won't need to SLI
- Please confirm that I haven't setup any conflicts (RAM and mobo don't mix, resolution on video card vs. monitor, etc, etc). My limited experience can easily miss these things.
- Also, what?s the bottleneck here? ie, where?s the best place to add another $100 if I wanted to?

I would love if you guys could take a quick look at my setup and offer ANY criticism or suggestions.

Thanks for all your help. :thumbsup:


*****EDIT*****
Well guys, thanks to your help I finally got all of my components:

Antex SONATA II w/ 450W SmartPower $99.20 (ebuyer)
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego $210.00 (zzf)
eVGA Geforce 7800GT $369.99 (combo deal - zzf)
eVGA 133-K8-NF41 $0.00 (combo deal - zzf)
Mushkin 2GB PC3200 $131.49 (w/ $25 rebate from outpost)
Seagate 160GB SATA/150 8MB Buffer $49.99 (w/ $50 rebate from outpost)
NEC ND-3550A $46.50 (zzf)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic $113.00 (zzf)
Saitek Eclipse $46.95 (amazon)
Logitech MX518 $40.50 (zzf)
Windows XP Home OEM $89.99 (zzf)
DELL Ultrasharp 2001FP LCD $416.00 (Ebay brand new in box)

Total: $1613
 
get an x-fi card instead of the zs for a few dollars more

good monitor

are you kidding about the price of that OS? on the site it's $146.95 not 77 bucks...
 
Ok, the budget is really like $1500 for the PC. 🙂

Thoughts.

=Get an opteron 170 or 165 instead of the x2 3800.
=Drop the audigy 2 zs and get a x-fi xtrememusic.
=Get the mx518.
=Get an Epox 9NPA+ Ultra.
=Get G.Skill DDR500 2X1GB ram 🙂
=Power supply won't cut it, so you might have to drop your monitor. Get an enermax 500w liberty, or an antec neohe.
=While doing so, get an antec slk3000-b for the case 🙂...
 
Originally posted by: fire400
get an x-fi card instead of the zs for a few dollars more

good monitor

are you kidding about the price of that OS? on the site it's $146.95 not 77 bucks...
Click to expand...

I actually liked the bundle in the gamer edition since I took a break from gaming and haven't played those. I'll look into upgrading to the x-fi though.

The OS price was simply the lowest XP Pro OEM on pricegrabber
 
Id say forget about the monitor and get a cheaper 19inch CRT for about 200. Its not really needed to go dual core for gaming, id stick with the AMD 64 2700+. Its about 210 dollars. Get a new PSU also. The ones that come with cases usally blow.
 
Sorry guys forgot to mention that space is DEFINITELY a constraint, so it'll have to be a flat panel. No CRTs. My choice of a dual core was ONLY to future proof my rig. My initial choice was the Athlon 64 3700+ (San diego).

Edit: I guess I could always get a single core and swap later into dual core IF/WHEN thats where the software goes. Probably a smarter idea.
 
yea its a good board if not OCing, Epox is a OC board EVGA is great A+ support.

games are begining to support widescreen. only more to come.

duel core can be neto and games like COD2 and Quake 4 now utillize them with probly more games to come.
 
ok I jumped on that evga combo. quake 4 for free would be cool. are you sure the PSU that comes w/ my case won't cut it? I'm just powering 1 hard drive, 1 video card, and 1 optical.
 
antec PSU is a good PSU. Sonata II is best combo case and PSU i know.. other case/psu combo's have realy bad PSU but Antec is good i wouldn't worry.
 
You read what the $70 version of XP is right?

This is an OEM MS Windows XP Pro w/ sp2. No COA (product code) included. This is the sealed OEM packaging and holographic cd ONLY. NO COA

All sales final. No returns/refunds allowed for this item.

you will not be able to even install it.
 
My understanding was that a COA was different from the key code. why would they sell you a dead CD that couldn't be installed? btw, thinking of getting XP Home instead. No real need for Pro.
 
Well guys, thanks to your help I finally got all of my components:

Antex SONATA II w/ 450W SmartPower $99.20 (ebuyer)
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego $210.00 (zzf)
eVGA Geforce 7800GT $369.99 (combo deal - zzf)
eVGA 133-K8-NF41 $0.00 (combo deal - zzf)
Mushkin 2GB PC3200 $131.49 (w/ $25 rebate from outpost)
Seagate 160GB SATA/150 8MB Buffer $49.99 (w/ $50 rebate from outpost)
NEC ND-3550A $46.50 (zzf)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic $113.00 (zzf)
Saitek Eclipse $46.95 (amazon)
Logitech MX518 $40.50 (zzf)
Windows XP Home OEM $89.99 (zzf)
DELL Ultrasharp 2001FP LCD $416.00 (Ebay brand new in box)

Total: $1613

thoughts? Now I gotta put the sucker together. pics to follow if all goes well.
 
Originally posted by: Ricemarine
Ok, the budget is really like $1500 for the PC. 🙂

Thoughts.

=Get an opteron 170 or 165 instead of the x2 3800.
=Drop the audigy 2 zs and get a x-fi xtrememusic.
=Get the mx518.
=Get an Epox 9NPA+ Ultra.
=Get G.Skill DDR500 2X1GB ram 🙂
=Power supply won't cut it, so you might have to drop your monitor. Get an enermax 500w liberty, or an antec neohe.
=While doing so, get an antec slk3000-b for the case 🙂...
Click to expand...

I agree with everything there except for saying the PSU in the Sonata II won't cut it....I am using it to run my X2 @2.618ghz, with a 7800GT, and 2x160gb SATA 3G raid-0.
 
Whoa, I got a thought. Dell 2001FP from ebay? Hmmm, warranty on a monitor is not transferrable like a system. You may want to re-think that.
 
PSU: The PSU that comes with the case is plenty. 15A+17A(32A) @ +12V.

SOUND: I wouldn't bother with a sound card. If you dont like onboard sound you can always get a soundcard later.

CPU: Also, I would have kept the dual core (either an X2 3800+ or opteron 165). Dual cores are already being utilised by games (e.g. COD2, Quake4), and will become more important in the future.

HDD: Also, you may want a larger HDD - i guess it depends on how you use your computer. I think the best dollars-per-GB is around 250GB at the moment.

O/S: If you already have a copy of win2k, or even win98, you may want to wait 6-12 months, and purchase Vista/Longhorn. Otherwise, just get XP home, because you're probably going to want to replace it within the next year anyway.

Hope that's helped.
RoD
 
Rod -
Sorry one of my middle posts shows that I've completed my purchase. I decided to go w/ the 3700+ since I can upgrade to a dual core when more software utilizes it. Don't really need a larger HD yet, but can add more later. Got XP home, as you suggested.

I've edited my original post to avoid confusion.
 
If you want a quiet case get an Antec P-180 and put an Seasonic S-12 in their. That will be really quiet. You also probably will want to get a fan controller bay or a couple of Zalman's fanmates. You also will want to get a silencer for that graphics card if you want it to be quiet. I mean that will defintily be the loudest thing in your system right now and you will defintily not have a quiet case. Also, if you want a quiet PC do NOT get a mb with a chipset fan. If I were you I would either A.) Get a motherboard with a heatsink on it (which is hard to find for 939 socket...... or B.) Get a Zalman passive heatsink for your motherboard and take off the fan and use it instead. The Zalman option should work fine unless you ever decide to OC.

If you really want a silent PC you really need to check out thiis site. Everything I've told you will help TREMOUNDOUSLY in building a quiet PC, but the guys over there are the experts. http://www.silentpcreview.com/
 
Originally posted by: petesamprs
Rod -
Sorry one of my middle posts shows that I've completed my purchase. I decided to go w/ the 3700+ since I can upgrade to a dual core when more software utilizes it. Don't really need a larger HD yet, but can add more later. Got XP home, as you suggested.

I've edited my original post to avoid confusion.
Click to expand...
Oh, ok cool. Adding another HDD is easy, and XPhome was a good choice.

RoD
 
Originally posted by: bamacre
Whoa, I got a thought. Dell 2001FP from ebay? Hmmm, warranty on a monitor is not transferrable like a system. You may want to re-think that.
Click to expand...

bamacre: see this post. what's the final concensus on dell lcd warranty transfers?
 
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