Ideas for gaming rig

[Crescent13]

I have been doing a lot of research and have got some ideas in mind. I would like to have an Athlon 64 that overclocks well, and a Nvidia 6800 (non GT or Ultra) but I am not sure what brand to go with. Here is a list of parts I will need, and parts that I have already picked out.

Power Supply:
Info at:
Sold at:

Case: Koolance PC2-650BK $239.99
Info at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...=28_43&products_id=117
Sold at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...=28_43&products_id=117

Case Cooling:
Info at:
Sold at:

Motherboard:
Info at:
Sold at:

Motherboard Cooling: Koolance GPU-180-V06 MB $37.99
Info at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...=29_46&products_id=105
Sold at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...=29_46&products_id=105

Processor:
Info at:
Sold at:

Processor Cooling: Koolance CPU-300-H06 $56.99
Info at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...ath=29&products_id=114
Sold at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...ath=29&products_id=114

Processor Cooling Adapter: Koolance AMD 64 Adapter $6.99
Info at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...h=25_35&products_id=62
Sold at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...h=25_35&products_id=62

Video Card:
Info at:
Sold at:

Video Card Cooling: Koolance VID-NV2-LO6 VID $79.99
Info at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...=29_46&products_id=174
Sold at: http://www.koolance.com/shop/p...=29_46&products_id=174

Hard Drives:
Info at:
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Hard Drive Cooling:
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Memory:
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Optical Drive:
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Floppy Drive:
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Speakers:
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Display:
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Operating System:
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Security:

Total Price:

 

[SrGuapo]

That is over $500 just for a case and cooling! Unless you are doing some seriously hardcore OCing and have no budget constraints, that is way overkill. do you work for Koolance or something ?

You could just buy a cheaper case and use less exotic cooling and have enough to buy a 6800gt.

Personally, I would recommend a 3200+ winchester paired with a decent nForce4 Ultra (once prices stabalize) or a nForce3 Ultra (such as the EPoX 9NDA3+ in my sig). These are all great boards and most are excellent OCers.

Get a gig of value RAM (corsair, mushkin, and Kingston are reputable companies) and run i in dual channel. You won't see much difference with the "low-latency" or higher specs RAM.

Any PSU from a reputable company with plenty of Amps on all the rails should work fine. Some good companies are Antec, Fortron/Source, etc. Make sure there are at least 20A on the +12V rail and preferably rated above 400W.

For a hard drive, any 7200 RPM drives w/ 8MB cache will give greta performance without bursting the bank. The Rapto drives are much more expensive and wil only help load times a little (a few seconds from what I have read). Figure out how much space you really need and buy accordingly.

The NEC 3520A DVD+-RW is arguably the best DVD burner on the maret today. It is also very competetively priced, so I see no reason not to get it.

Any floppy drive will work... If there is a computer store in town, you may just want to pick it up there and not have to pay shipping, since they are so cheap (<$10).

For an OS, Windows XP is probably a must (esecially if you are a gamer). XP home should be plenty unless this is a work computer and is going to be on a network or you will need remote access.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

What's your budget? Are you considering overclocking? I'm sure you are considering you have all that water cooling. What are you planning to do with it, like are you going to play games, do some certain type of work, etc.?

 

[Crescent13]

My budget is around $1500. I was planning to do some overclocking, but I guess that water cooling is too expensive. I wanted to make it flashy, so I was kind of thinking of a DFI Lan Party, and UV reactant in the liquid.

Edit: I don't work for koolance, I just wanted everything to be compatible.

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

$1500????

OMG don't even hesitate:

6800GT PCI-E (Yeah You'll have to look for one)
Asus A8N SLI for future SLI add a second 6800 down the road.
3000+ 939 is the BEST overclocker for the money. Add a FX chip a year from now or something when they are cheaper.

1GB of PC4000
A decent Power Supply

Flashy? Think flashy after you are done with a smoking fast game box.

I just built a system around those parts and would not change a thing.

At least spend most of your money on the video card.

 

[Crescent13]

Thanks for all the info everybody! But I'm wondering, will I be able to get a 3000+ to the same speeds that I can get a 3200+ or 3500+?

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

Probably not what a 3500+ could take you but if it comes down to $150 that you're sure not where to put... put it towards the video card.

I was in the same boat wondering what chip... I originally wanted an FX53 but decided the Vid card was more important. I can always upgrade the CPU later. And since I'm shooting for an SLI system I thought that putting the most money I could afford into the vid card made the most sense.

End of this year I'll upgrade my proc. But I don't think the CPU makes nearly as big an impact as the vid card for gaming.

 

[Crescent13]

What do you think about this? http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/...TEGORY_TYPE=LP&SITE=US, modded into a full SLI chipset. The only thing about this MoBo that I am not sure about is that it doesn't come with a SLI bridge. Does anybody know if I could get one seperately?

 

[Edward Lee]

**Prices from newegg.com
*********************************************************************************
System A

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NXP-SLI" NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL
$249.00

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 939-Pin 64-bit Processor - OEM
$219.00

Chaintech nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card, 128MB DDR3, 128-Bit, TV-Out/DVI, PCI-Express, Model "SE6600G" -RETAIL
$190.00 x 2 = $380.00

Product total: $848.00 2 x 6600GT ($658.00 x 1 6600GT)

********************************************************************************
System B

SOLTEK "SL-K8AN2E-GR" NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL
$89.00

AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512k L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - OEM
$172.00

Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, TV-Out/DVI, 8X AGP, Model "A400
$379.00

Product total: $640.00

*********************************************************************************
System C

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS Ultra-939" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU
$116.00

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 939-Pin 64-bit Processor - OEM
$219.00

Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, TV-Out/DVI, 8X AGP, Model "A400
$379.00

Product total: $714.00

*********************************************************************************

The results bench ranks the above systems.
System C 1st (tie)*
System B 1st (tie)*
System A 3rd

*The AMD 64 939 Winchester is slightly better in Gamming and the AMD 64 754 Newcastle is better in video/Audio applications
Benches courtesy of Tomshardware.com
http://www6.tomshardware.com/c...221/cpu_charts-13.html
http://graphics.tomshardware.c...1/gigabyte_3d1-09.html

Conclusion:
The 754 seems to be the best overall Value for those looking for the Best bang for the buck. The 939 is very close with only about a $80.00 difference seperating it from the 754 system. The 939 proved slightly better in gamming applications may be a good choice for a little more money and slightly longer upgrade life.
The SLI 6600GT seems like nothing but a waste of money. It's not even close to competative on bench tests and the 2 x 6600GT setup is almost $200.00 more than a 754 Newcastle.

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

Yeah I agree about the bang for the buck with 754, but no upgradability. 939 all the way!

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: Crescent13
Thanks for all the info everybody! But I'm wondering, will I be able to get a 3000+ to the same speeds that I can get a 3200+ or 3500+?

My 2.0 winchester does 2.4 GHz. So it was a 3200 A64 and is now a 3800 A64.

And I didn't have to waste money on exotic cooling either.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

Edward Lee, you could've just linked your topic...