Help Me build a new system with $2000 Dollars and the pile of hardware on my desk :)

[Perpetual]

Help me build a system and get the biggest bang for my $. I am not a fanboy of any particular brand, I like what works well. I last built a system over two years ago and have added a few components since. I purchased an x2 4400 on a whim recently. I was really wanting to upgrade bad since I was in the habit of doing it every 12-18 months before. However things seemed to have slowed down a little in the advancement of overall speed and performance in the past two years.

I?ve got $2000 dollars and want to upgrade. I need your help and experience in building the best system around my current hardware and available funds.

If funds allow I would like a new case something cool and quiet.

I was looking at the Pc Power and cooling 850w SSI PSU do you think it would be overkill, I want plenty of power and stability. I had an issue with a Antec 550 truepower not long ago and had to pull a fan and a hard drive to have enough juice to boot properly.

I like to Overclock, and my Mushkin DDR PC3500 BH5?s will volt high. However, if new DDR is needed for the new system then so be it.

Though I like to overclock, I Like rock solid stability also. So if you know of a good bios and settings for your configuration let me know.

I like to digital paint in Photoshop, do DVD encoding, surf, and what should have been listed first ?Game?.

I am not attached to the X2 4400+ and could sell it easily for more than I purchased.

I think I might need some more storage for DVD encoding and back up. However, Power comes first.

I currently have on hand the following hardware:


AMD X2 4400+
Zalman 7000cu
First edition Antec True control 550w PSU
4 x 512 Mushkin PC3500 BH5 @ 2-2-2-5
ATI X800XT PE (AGP)
2 x 74GB Raptors - SATA
2 x 36GB Raptors - SATA
80GB seagate SATA HDD
2 x 120GB WDJB1200 HDD - IDE
Lighton DVD-rom (color ? beige)
Plextor 708 DVDR (color ? beige)
Lighton CDR (color ? beige)
Lian-li PC68 case
NEC FP2141SB 21" CRT (Black)
DELL 2405FPW 24" Wide Screen, 12ms LCD (Black)
Griffin Powermate
Altec Lansing 221 speakers (Black and silver)
Wacom intuos 6x8? drawing tablet
Microsoft internet keyboard (Black)
Intellimouse Explorer 3.0A (Silver and grey
Windows XP HOME


I could sell any of the above on ebay I am not attached to any of it. It?s just hardware to draw from for the new system.


And I can come up with a little more $ if necessary

I usually shop at NEWEGG.COM

Thanks Guys I am curious what you all will come up with!!!

 

[imported_itr]

what motherboard do you have?

 

[Perpetual]

I currently have an Abit IC7-Max3 P4 Northwood board.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

get a car, it'll be sweet

 

[Skyhanger]

A new 939 nF4 mobo, a GeForce 7800GTX, and trade in that 4x512 for a 2x1024 setup should be all you need.
Add PSU and HDD as needed.
I doubt that will exeed $1000 at most

Sell what you don't need on eBay and put the rest in stocks (or at least the bank)

 

[Perpetual]

Inspector Jihad -

LOL

I got a car, I need to cherry up my sweet ride sitting here on my desk. Help me pimp it out and make it a dragster that performs.


Skyhanger -

Give me some Mobo recommendations, and what would be the best 2x1024 sticks to go with it?

Thanks for the input but my stocks are rockin! I am upgrading with excess cash made on investing in AMD stocks Thanks AMD!!!!

 

[jakedeez]

dude - if you already have everything listed above, the screw it, upgrade your cooling, go with a two stage phase changing unit from pcice....

 

[xTYBALTx]

Wow, you have a lot of stuff to draw from. Before we talk power supplies, we're going to figure out what is going to be in there.

Keep the 4400+, it's a sweet chip. You should be able to overclock it a good bit while keeping excellent stability. As recommended above, you might want to trade in the 4x512mb RAM for 2x1gb. It's not vital, but if you're already comfortable playing the eBay and trading game, there's no pain in it. I'd recommend either Corsair ValueSelect or OCZ Value. With AMD chips, memory latencies don't seem to matter much, so there is little point in getting "high performance" memory.

You have a lot of options as far as storage drives are concerned. You say you might need more storage, if so I'd recommend just keeping the 2x74gb Raptors and adding on 2 or 3 Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 drives. I think the 250gb flavor is a good sweetspot for price/storage. Oh, and Seagate has an excellent warranty, low noise, and high speed.

I couldn't find the Lian-li PC68 on Newegg, but I assume from the components at your disposal that it will hold 5 HDD's. So we're good there. You're also good with your DVD-rom, DVDR, and CDR should you need all three. Your monitors are obviously awesome.

We're going to have to get rid of that X800XTPE. It's a great card, but the 7800GTX is better - and your new system isn't going to be AGP. From here, it's a question of wether you want one or two GTX's in your system. Unfortunately, you pay double the price for less than double the performance, so it can get a bit iffy. You might want to get one 7800GTX and just upgrade to a faster GPU down the road.

The motherboard. As you know, the most important component. This choice depends on how you intend to use your computer. The DFI is a favorite of many on this forum, but can be difficult to setup. It is favored because it has the best overclocking abilities. The MSI comes with more documentation, is easier to setup and troubleshoot, and still offers excellent performance and overclocking.

Finally, the power supply. With five HDDs and three opticals, this is going to be a power hungry system, and I think you have three options. Seasonic's 500W is remarkably powerful and quiet. PCP&C's 510W ASL will be more powerful than the Seasonic and louder - and more expensive. The PCP&C 850 SSI is, as you probably already know, uber. It is your safest and most expensive choice. Kensai has two 850SSI's, maybe he will weigh in with his opinion.

In summary, here are my recommendations.

Single GPU
MSI K8N Platinum $129
AMD X2 4400+
OCZ Value Series 2x1GB $210
BFG 7800GTX $515
2x74GB Raptors
Seagate 7200.8 250GB $117
Seagate 7200.8 250GB $117
Seagate 7200.8 250GB $117
Your optical drives
Dell 2405FPW (or the NEC if you like CRTs)
PCP&C 510 ASL $239
Total: $1444

SLI
MSI K8N Neo4 NF4 SLI Platinum $170
AMD X2 4400+
OCZ Value Series 2x1GB $210
BFG 7800GTX $515
BFG 7800GTX $515
2x74GB Raptors
Seagate 7200.8 250GB $117
Seagate 7200.8 250GB $117
Seagate 7200.8 250GB $117
Your optical drives
Dell 2405FPW (or the NEC if you like CRTs)
PCP&C 850 SSI $449
Total: $2210

The cash you get from selling your X800XTPE, 4x512mb RAM, and other misc items should put you below $2000.

 

[w00t]

dude, your comp is already good.

edit: i would just upgrade to socket 939 board for pci-e.

 

[Skyhanger]

Value Ram is all you need. If you like, you can go one step higher and get Peformance/Premium/One-notch-up ram. Ram is where you get the least increase in performance for the buck spent. And w/ the AMD onboard memory controller, latency doesn't matter that much. OCZ is one of the better brands on the value/premium level.

The mobo suggestions above were quite good. The best board for OCing is of course the DFI lanparty series, but the customization options can be overwhelming and it's really picky about ram and PSU. In short, it takes alot of work to get it right. Thus, unless you plan to OC, don't get the DFI.

Mobo ~130
RAM ~200
7800GTX ~500

I've heard good things about Seasonic PSUs. Plus they have a good reputation for being quiet.

 

[DavidoFoo]

Sell
First edition Antec True control 550w PSU
4 x 512 Mushkin PC3500 BH5 @ 2-2-2-5
ATI X800XT PE (AGP)

Buy
DFI nf4 Ultra-D/SLI-DR
PC P&C 510SLIorASL/850SSI
Crucial Ballistix PC4000 Z503
eVGA 7800GTX (SLI)

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

For the love of god get some nice speakers to go with a setup like that

Just get that 4400+ in there, and nice overclocking motherboard.

If you want to have more video power, ditch the X800XT AGP and go with one or two 7800 series cards and an SLI motherboard.

If you're looking for silence, check out Seasonic for powersupplies. They make a 600watt that should be plenty for your system.

I haven't been keeping track of how loud the 7800 series cards are, but you might need to look into third party cooling to keep things cool and quiet.

With a big budget you might want to check out a new mouse and keyboard too. I don't know if you really like yours, but there are some nice game oriented products from Logitech out.

If you case isn't quiet enough for you now, check out Antec's 3000b (or any other quality case that's 120mm based really). The 3000b would easily fit 5 drives but you could get some adapters to run some in the 5.25" bays or run a couple where floppy/zip drives are intended to go.

If you're looking for even more storage than what you have now though, you might want a case with more expandability. (Coolermaster stacker etc.)

So maybe

4400+
New agp motherboard if you keep the x800xt for some reason
or
New PCI-e motherboard or SLI if you want to spend a lot on video
(If you're running the 2405 for gaming you'd probably want to get SLI to drive that large of a resolution... of course the 21" CRT will be no slouch if you want to turn the res up).
Keep the two 74gb raptors for a OS drive (Raid if you want)
Sell the two 36gb raptors unless you're attached to them
Keep the three other harddrives you have and add some larger ones to the mix if you want more storage and are getting a case that can hold a bunch of drives... otherwise sell these and replace with some higher capacity drives
Optical drives are up to you. I'm a fan of black/silver cases so I'd end up getting some black drives to replace the beige ones
You already have a nice case. Does it have 80mm fans... and that's why you're getting rid of it? Maybe just add some quieter 80mm fans and keep the case?
Obviously keep at least one of those displays.
Keep your powermate, I've never seen one and had to look it up, cool stuff.
NEW SPEAKERS!!! After most of this other stuff is old news, a nice set of speakers will still be enjoyable.
Cool tablet
New KB/Mouse if you so desire
Keep XP home

If I were you and was not happy with my gaming performance I'd spend the bulk of the money on a new videocard/videocards. You'll need a new motherboard for this, and possibly a new PSU.

With the rest, get a sweet audio system if you so desire. (top of the line offering from Klipsch or Creative/Cambridge Soundworks or venture into a real HT system to go with your computer) Oh, and a new soundcard to go with the new set.

 

[merc14]

I'd get an Asus A8n SLI Premium and plug that 4400+ and 7000 cooler into it. I would get 2 x 1024MB of decent RAM (2336 1T), not great RAM just decent and sell the 512MB sticks. As for video cards I would pair up two 7800GT's or GTX's in SLI. The Lian Li PC V-1000A+ Case is a great new design that uses BTX standards but is made for ATX form factor equipment. I just got one and it is like installing water cooling. Dropped my CPU temps 6c-8c. Monarch has new ones on sale for $166. Keep the two 74GB raptors and RAID 0 them and then get a couple of 300GB WD SATA HDDs for storage.

The monitor is already the best so forget about that. Plug in all the optical drives if you want. Get a ZBoard and Razer mouse.

Finally get a PC P&C 510 SLI PSU. It will fit into the PC V1000 just fine and will provide plenty of power. You don't need the 850. Remember the 510 provides 510 watts nominal and actually peaks at 650 watts. Any other company would advertise it as a 650 watt PSU. If you purchasd everything listed and ran it all full tilt and overclocked simultaneously you might hit/peak at 500 watts. The 510 SLI can run at 510 all day and night and peak at 650 wgich this sytsem can do

 

[Perpetual]

xTYBALTx -

Thanks for the work on your post!

Is the MSI K8N a very stable board?

The 7800 GTX looks like the way maybe SLI but I need a stable unit. Will SLI and an X2 work well together. And I want to run games at 1920x1600.

I keep hearing people telling me to go value DDR or loose timings.
Does it not matter with the new AMD 64 CPU?s?

YOyoYOhowsDAjello -

New speakers are a must I agree. what to get though. hmmm

Ya the Griffin Powermate rules!! if you dont have one get one.
It was made by some mac guys but works great on the PC.
I even use it as a controler for gaming and video editing, volume
you can program it to do anything.
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/index.php

Thanks for the great input guys! I am getting some great ideas
as to were to go with my system. I gotta head out for a couple of
hours and will reply back in more detail then Keep them coming

 

[Joemoney]

Speakers are overrated. Headphones are the way to go.

 

[xTYBALTx]

Originally posted by: Perpetual
xTYBALTx -

Thanks for the work on your post!

Is the MSI K8N a very stable board?

The 7800 GTX looks like the way maybe SLI but I need a stable unit. Will SLI and an X2 work well together. And I want to run games at 1920x1600.

I keep hearing people telling me to go value DDR or loose timings.
Does it not matter with the new AMD 64 CPU?s?

The MSI K8N Neo-4 is reputedly the most stable amongst current generation boards. I would put ASUS's offerings in the same class, but I am not as familiar with them.

SLI and X2 will work perfectly together - and you will really notice the added performance from SLI at those higher resolutions.

Yeah, memory timings aren't giving people much (if any) performance advantage with AMD's current crop.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Joemoney
Speakers are overrated. Headphones are the way to go.

There are advantages to each.

Get both if you can.

Perpetual, probably decide what you want to get for the rest of the hardware and we can help you pick something out with whatever budget you have left over.

It's pretty easy to spend huge amounts on audio too, so whatever is left will be easy to spend

 

[Hacp]

Take the advice the guys at Hard are giving you.

 

[Skyhanger]

I personally won't get TWO 7800GTX, cuz it's really expensive. I think one is prob good enough, but that's just me. If you are willing to splurge the cash, then go ahead. I'd say the performance increase with 2 cards is more apparent at higher resolutions, which might just be what you want.

 

[Perpetual]

I will try and narrow down my approach here and post were I am heading. But first I need to know about DDR more and timings with the newer 64's does any one know of a link to a review or bench test that shows these findings?

but if I do keep my current DDR it likes lots of volage. What is the max VDIMM on that MSI K8N

merc14-

Do you think a 510w will realy be enough for my hardware. I had a reboot problem before with a 550w antec truepower and had to remove a fan and a hard drive.

jakedeez-
Were can I find this PCICE you speak of and what makes it the BEST? Thanks

 

[Azndude2190]

Two 7800GTX at this point is a waste of money IMO...I would get one 7800GTX and than get a good sound card

 

[Perpetual]

Would I not notice much of a difference running the 7800GTX's in SLI at 1900x1600 on my 24" wide screen?

 

[Perpetual]

Well looks like I will probably go for one 7800GTX or 2 in SLI, PSU, Mobo, and some storage if money allows. and if some is left over I will also get a better sound system.

Will the ASUS SLI board take my 4400+ to 2.6-2.8ghz with good cooling? I have the mushkin 3500 BH5's that like a lot of voltage. how is the VDIMM on the A8N-SLI. Will I need lower voltage DDR and if so can you recommend the best in 2x512mb and 2x1024mb

Please recommend a solid PSU for this board and my components I don?t want a brown out due to a lack of wattage. Do you think 600watts will be enough or should I go for the 850w ssi by PC Power and Cooling? Anyone know from experience with a similar setup?

Will I notice a big improvement when playing games with the 7800GTX or 7800GTX in SLI at 1920x1600 over my x800XT PE..

I hope an upgrade will be noticably better than what I have now. My 2.4c @ 3.4Ghz has been running great for over 2 years and I love it. I wonder if I should go for it or wait for the next gen. I Kind of wish hardware developers would pick up the pace; my money is burning a whole in my pocket, lol. I could sell my X2 and get $500. Then I would have $2500 for the next gen, or should I go for it now!? Hmmm..........

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Perpetual
Would I not notice much of a difference running the 7800GTX's in SLI at 1900x1600 on my 24" wide screen?

Isn't it 1920x1200?

 

[Waylay00]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Use that money for charitable causes.