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Help me build my computer

A

AngryGuy

Junior Member
Okay guys, I need some serious help building my new computer. Here is what I have so far:

Processor: AMD 64 3400+
Mobo: Asus K8V SE or MSI K8N Neo Plat or ABIT KV8
Graphics Card: BFG 6800GT
Ram: I have no idea. Looking at Corsair right now. Opinions? Want 1 or 2GB
Hard Drives: Need two 80GB's or two 100GB's.
Case and PSU: I don't know. Want something quiet that will offer great cooling options without adding anything

Okay, so that was my basic plan from the start. Problem is, I'm having second thoughts on my processor. Is the 3400 worth the price difference over the 3200? I don't mind paying for the performance difference, I just want to make sure it's somewhat worth it. I also thought about going up to the 3500 939 pin or even the 3700, but it doesn't seem logical to spend more money on that with PCI-E right around the corner. What do you think?

As for my mobo, if I do go with the 3400 or 3200, what do you think is the best out of the above three? I've heard good things about the MSI, and another person told me that there were some problems with the Asus, but I haven't heard anything about that.

Hard Drives: Well, I don't know. I don't know how RAID works very well, but it doesn't function with S-ATA drives, right? So what's better?

Ram: Looking at Corsair with PC3200. Want either 1GB or 2GB right now. 1GB should be fine but I need to be able to go to 2GB later on if I need to. A friend of mine swears by Crucial, but I'm liking the Corsairs right now.. I just have no idea what model to look at.

Case and PSU: Another subject on which I am clueless. I need at least 400W, but I'd like more than that. What case would you recommend? Also, what are my options if I wanted a water cooled case?

Okay, I think that's everything. Wow, I thought I was more decided than that, but I guess I'm not. So as you can see, I'm in need of a lot of help.

Thanks!
 
Well for the M/B if possible hold out for BTX, or Nforce 4. But if you cant wait get the MSI. RAM Corsair OCZ any of the big names will do good. For HDD go for WD raptors. They are the absolute fastest HDs out there.
Im not sure on case i still like the old chieftec dragons. But for PSU definately the OCZ powerstream. They are supposed to be incredible!

-Kevin
 
Are you going to be incrementally upgrading, or all at once, after you already have this rig? If the latter, there's no point in waiting for PCI-E and stuff, otherwise, there's merely little point, as there'll be AGP versions of cards for quite a while yet.

Anyways, I'd get:


MB: Asus K8N-E Deluxe
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2GHz 512K or 3400+ 2.4Ghz 512K - depends on what you'd use the money saved on... I assume you aren't overclocking?
HSF: Stock cooler if you don't care about noise, otherwise Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu
RAM: 2x512MB PC3200 value RAM - lower latencies/higher bandwidth affects performance minimally, and costs a lot more. I like Crucial myself, but Corsair value RAM is fine.
VGA: GF6800GT, ideally BFG, but it's fully $100 overprice at newegg so whichever is cheapest
HDD: RAID 0 is useless on the desktop, both AT and Storage Review proved this. Get whatever nets you the most GB/$, from a manufacturer you like. (And you *can* do RAID with SATA, just so you know.)
PSU: Something 400-500W from Antec, Fortron, Sparkle, Enermax, etc.
Case: Personal preference. Like various Lian-Lis myself.
 
Originally posted by: Illissius
Are you going to be incrementally upgrading, or all at once, after you already have this rig? If the latter, there's no point in waiting for PCI-E and stuff, otherwise, there's merely little point, as there'll be AGP versions of cards for quite a while yet.

Anyways, I'd get:


MB: Asus K8N-E Deluxe
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2GHz 512K or 3400+ 2.4Ghz 512K - depends on what you'd use the money saved on... I assume you aren't overclocking?
HSF: Stock cooler if you don't care about noise, otherwise Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu
RAM: 2x512MB PC3200 value RAM - lower latencies/higher bandwidth affects performance minimally, and costs a lot more. I like Crucial myself, but Corsair value RAM is fine.
VGA: GF6800GT, ideally BFG, but it's fully $100 overprice at newegg so whichever is cheapest
HDD: RAID 0 is useless on the desktop, both AT and Storage Review proved this. Get whatever nets you the most GB/$, from a manufacturer you like. (And you *can* do RAID with SATA, just so you know.)
PSU: Something 400-500W from Antec, Fortron, Sparkle, Enermax, etc.
Case: Personal preference. Like various Lian-Lis myself.
Click to expand...

I won't be overclocking the minute I get the computer set up, no. But down the road it is probably going to happen.

I take it that in your opinion, going for a 3500 is not worth it? Even for the 939 socket upgrade options?

Thanks a lot for your response, it was helpful.
 
Well, currently, a 3500+ is $500, while a 3200+ 2.2GHz 512K which has very nearly the same performance is half that. 939 will have better CPUs to upgrade to, but at these prices, the money you save with 754 is more than enough to cover the motherboard you'll eventually have to buy once you upgrade again (though with PCI-E, dual cores, nForce4, and all that coming, you'd probably want to upgrade the motherboard anyways).
As for PCI-E, it'll only be coming around October from what I hear, and by that time there'll certainly be something else just around the corner to wait for. There'll still be AGP and PCI versions of mostly everything for a while, simply because you can't get everyone and their grandma to upgrade to PCI-E overnight, so you'll be able to hold out well enough until your next upgrade cycle to upgrade to PCI-E. (And performance deltas range from negligible to nonexistant, so you don't have to worry about that, either.)
As for the overclocking thing, I was only asking because getting a faster clocked CPU by default yields little to no additional headroom. A 2GHz CPU (3000+ 512K / 3200+ 1MB) will go to 2.4-2.5GHz fairly reliably; a 2.4GHz (3400+ 512K / 3700+ 1MB) will go to 2.5, or 2.6GHz at the most.
 
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