I need some advice for new system!

Dentilicious

Member
Sep 27, 2003
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FYI, I used my last system for 5 years which utilized P3-500. I'm trying to build a system that could last me for about the same while. Please let me know what you think of this setup.

System:
AMD 64/939 3000+
-Thermalright XP-120
MSI K8N Platinum SLI
PDP 2x 512mb PC3200XBLK (2-2-2-5 TCCD)
2x 160gb SATA w/ NCQ, RAID-0 config(haven't bought it yet)
Lian-li PC-V1000 w/ Antec Neopower 480w
2x Leatek nVidia 6600gt in SLI mode

I've been out of the scene for quite sometime as you can see. And I'm basically choosing the top rated parts from the anandtech's reviews and roundups to build my system. I understand that those reviews are excellent source of information for each individual parts, but not sure how a system built based on those reviews sound. Any feedbacks would be greatly appreciated.

Jay
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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I would highly recommend against 6600gts in SLI. The performance gained from those cards in SLI mode can be had by buying a single better card that will cost less and you wont have any issues with games not supporting SLI.

There are plenty of threads in the video section about SLI if you want to check it out.

Instead of two 6600gts in SLI I would suggest a nice nforce4 ultra PCI-e board and a single X800XL. This card will perform close to 6800gt levels and it's $100 less.
With the money saved from that you could bump up to a 3200+ A64... maybe even a 3500+.

I assume you're going with an OEM CPU since you're using a 3rd party HS/F. In case you don't know, an OEM CPU will have a 30 day warranty vs 3 years for a retail one. Just something to keep in mind.

Are you planning on overclocking? If you aren't, you can save some more money by going with budget ram. Low latency will get you a little performance gain, but I think the $100 you could save by going with budget ram would be better spent elsewhere ( or saved :) )

 

Dentilicious

Member
Sep 27, 2003
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Thanks for your reply.

The system will be overclocked and I'm aiming for 3500+ level performance. Looking back, CPU prices, especially AMD, drop like there's no tomorrow. So 3 years warranty is really not worth all that much to me.

My plan is to go with single 6600gt for now which would be more than sufficient as I get used to newer games. The 2nd 6600gt will most likely be purchased when the prices drop and will give me better performance than single X800XL or 6800gt.

I guess my main concern is the compatibility and reliability of overall system.
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,204
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Ok. I assumed no overclocking due to wanting to get a long life out of the system... and when you said two 6600gts I assumed at once.

I looked at some benchmarks today and if I remember, as soon as you turn the setting up (AA and AF) then a single 6800gt or X800XL would perform better than two 6600gts. I guess we could be looking at different benchmarks though :)

EDIT: Whoa, that took a long time to post... lousy connection. Looks like I'm looking at the same stuff as you Ribbon :)


 

akugami

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2005
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The stock HSF will get you easily to 3500+ speeds. Forget the Thermalright XP-120 and get a retail A64 3200+. You'll be limited by the CPU rather than by the HSF if you can't get to 2.2ghz and it's very likely you'll reach 2.4-2.5ghz. On the stock HSF I have it at 2.56ghz. Temps are perhaps not the greatest but still very acceptable at 53C on full load after 24 hours.

Forget SLI. It's not there yet. Two 6600GT's won't equal a single X800 or 6800GT. Yes it will cost you more for the video card in the short term but you won't have to worry about if the game you're playing has a SLI profile which is needed for SLI to actually be enabled.

RAID-0. Forget RAID-0. It will not provide any noticeable boost in performance for every day tasks such as web browsing, word processing. The truth is even in cases where you're loading a lot of data like the levels in a game, RAID-0 will only provide a slight boost in load times because today's HD's are much faster than they were a few years ago. The difference between RAID-0 and non RAID performance has shrunken considerably. There is also the added cost of using two HD's for a slight performance boost.

Another and more important factor is that using RAID-0 you are 2x as likely to have one of your HD's fail and take out your whole OS and everything on it. If one of those HD's die, the data on the other one is useless. The costs and risk vs reward for the performance gain is IMHO not worth it.
 

Cares

Senior member
Mar 8, 2005
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The Thermalright I believe IS NOT compatible with the MSI SLI board. You'd have to check Thermalright's website for compatibility but I'm pretty sure that was one of the reasons why I didn't get the board.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
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If you go SLI, get 1 6800GT for now, and then pop in another one 1 year down the road or so.

If not SLI, get X800XL for $300. Then in 1 year buy another mid-high end card for $300. Given that 1 6800GT costs $400 and say even in 1 year's time if it drops to $200, the 2 options will roughly cost the same. However, the mid-high end card on R520/580/NV70 might be faster, have support for DXNext (longhorn) and be faster in all games (because SLI doesnt support all games). This alternative will also give you less headaches, and be cheaper today given $50 reduction in motherboard cost and $100 reduction in 6800GT vs. x800xl cost. That is why I'd go this route and upgrade later if you find it necessary.

Get value ram for $100-$120 for 1 gig.

Otherwise looks good :)
 

ArnoldLayne

Member
Feb 25, 2005
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Avoid SLI, get a normal retail processor with a normal HSF, and avoid RAID 0. Get a cheaper case. With the money you save, get
a better processor or graphics card (or just keep it).