Gaming system: final check

[Guido06]

After a week of reading many reviews/posts/suggestions this is my proposed build:

I plan to use it for gaming on a Dell 2001 FP.
I don't have a firm upper limit on my budget, but going for good overclocking and good value.
In 6-9 months I plan to upgrade to an X2 and a newer video card if needed.
Prices are currently too high to justify an X2 or a 7800GTX.

MotherBoard $129
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Processor $190
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice - Retail
Power Supply $105 (-15 rebate takes it to $90)
OCZ ModStream OCZ52012U ATX 520W Power Supply - Retail
Case $99
Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Black AL
Hard Drive $126
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B250S0 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
Optical Drive $43
NEC DVD-R
Floppy Drive $9
Samsung Floppy

The above items are pretty solid.
I chose the 3200+ because it OC's well and will be a good match in terms of computing power with a 6800GT.

I chose the DFI board becuase it offers the most options when overclocking.
Also, there is the possibility of an SLI mod. (Unlikely to happen, but the option is there)

I chose the Modstream 520 for several reasons. 1) I plan to OC, plenty of extra power.
2) It's modular 3) Provides room for expansion later.
I have also read a couple reviews of problems with the Modstream vs. the PowerStream.
I think the advantages of the Modstream outweigh the disadvantages as seen in this review at X-Bit.

Undecided Parts
Heat sink/fan for OC'ing 3200+ venice. What will provide the best cooling unit?

XP-120
XP-90 <-- Favored part after several posts of input
XP-90c (copper)

Planning on a panaflo L1A if I get an XP-90/c.
Vantec stealth if I get the XP-120.
Looking mainly for personal experiance here. I have read the reviews, XP-90c seems to cool the best
but the aluminum parts have the advantage of being very light, and the XP-120 can use a less noisy 120mm fan.
Looking to get a good match to cool an OC'ed 3200+.

RAM
Most posts seem to favor value RAM, while most reviews call for higher end RAM.
The higher end RAM doesn't seem to offer a good performance increase for the cost increase involved.
Looking to get either 2x 512 or 2x 1024.
UPDATE: 2 sticks of mushkin SP3200 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory - Retail

This is the one I am least sure about, so any help here choosing good RAM would be very helpful.

Video Card
Plan to get a 6800GT 256MB PCI-e.
I would also like to OC this at some point in the future but I will run it stock initially.
Any particular difference between the main brands listed on newegg?

XFX
eVGA
BFG Tech
Gigabyte
MSI
PNY
Leadtek


Any other suggestions are welcome, but the main help is needed on HSF, RAM and video card. Thanks.

 

[nick1985]

cant comment on the heatsink, ive never used those units.

as for RAM, id suggest a gig of Mushkin value RAM for ~$80

as for the video card, EVGA, BFG, and leadtek would be the manufacturers of choice from that list

 

[imported_Kensai]

:thumbsup: XP-90. 🙂

 

[biostud]

AFAIK the XP-120 cools the best, but it will block the PCIe 4x port, check thermalrights homepage for compability.

 

[SrGuapo]

I love my xp-90. I doubt you would see much of an improvement with an all copper one to justify the price. The xp-120 is also not much better for cooling, but it also doesn't fit on some boards (too big). I would just get the xp-90: performs almost as well (within a few degrees), is cheaper, and will definately fit on most boards.

Since you are using the DFI board, maybe you could look at the OCZ value VX RAM. If you can give it quite a few volts (3.0-3.4) I have seen reports of it doing 2-2-2 timings up to 250 MHz. With a 5:6 divider, that would be a great choice for OCing... I think it runs around $110.

For the video card, eVGA, BFG and leadtek are top notch. MSI and gigabyte are decent as well. You probably want to avoid XFX and PNY, since I have heard quite a few stories about defective cards and horrible customer service...

 

[overst33r]

i suggest this HDD, very good performance and advantage of SATAII, if it matters to you. Also if you have some extra cash and to try to get a 1:1 OC, the OCZ Rev E's are excellent for OCing, they are TCC5 chips instead of the TCCD, but their performance is identical for the most part. You could drop the 3200+ and get the 3000+, ultimately, the OC is going to be the same... (3000's OC just as well and better than the 3200's from what i have seen, plus your board can definitely handle FSB speeds of 300+.) Basically drop the 3200 and/or get better ram or use value ram and a divider.