Is this a decent system?

[Fresh Daemon]

Hello everyone.

This is the first system I'm building in many years - my last homebuilt was an Abit BP6 with 2 Celeron 366's at 583Mhz. Life and children intervened, but now I'm treating myself to a new computer. The most demanding thing it will do is games. I do want to play Doom 3 and Half-life 2 at a decent image quality and resolution. It also needs to be quiet. I plan to overclock it as much as possible, I always overclock my systems (even my son's HP Vectra).

Here's what I've put together:

Athlon 64 3000+ (90nm, socket 939)
Thermalright XP-120 heatsink with Nexus 120mm fan
Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard
Sapphire X800 XT (might upgrade to Platinum Edition - not sure if this is worth it)
Arctic Cooling silencer heatsink/fan for the X800
1024MB of OCZ Premier or Kingston PC3200 RAM
Seagate 7200.7 80GB hard drive
NEC 3520A DVD-RW
Antec SX1000II case
Enermax Noisetaker 420W PSU

Any good? Anything that would be better for a similar price?

 

[Budmantom]

Looks good.


Tom

 

[thegimp03]

You could substitute that ram for corsair value select. Newegg is having some great deals on that ram these days. I have my 3000+ clocked to 2.4 ghz on that A8V and corsair. I didn't push it further though, so I'm not exactly sure how much it'll do.

 

[thegimp03]

And to be honest you could stick with the stock hs/f too, as these winchesters run real cool.

Sorry, can't edit due to conflicts with Norton.

 

[pclstyle]

Dunno if it's personal preference, but i wouldn't put a psu under 480w near a new system

 

[jbh129]

nope

 

[ribbon13]

Try one of these ^^

$107 Seasonic S12-430
$107 XClio 550BL
$110 Sparkle FSP-550
$133 Antec Neopower
$146 Seasonic S12-500

 

[imported_Kensai]

Nice..

 

[Fresh Daemon]

Thanks for the responses!

You could substitute that ram for corsair value select. Newegg is having some great deals on that ram these days.

I'm in Canada, so availability is limited to me. I can get the Corsair for around the same price as Kingston or OCZ Premier, though, would you recommend that?

And to be honest you could stick with the stock hs/f too, as these winchesters run real cool.

I'm thinking more of reducing noise. Does that make a difference?

Dunno if it's personal preference, but i wouldn't put a psu under 480w near a new system

For a few dollars more I can go to a Thermaltake Silent Purepower 480W. Is that a decent choice? I can't use Newegg, since they don't ship to Canada, and all of ribbon13's suggestions seem to be being sold for stupid money. I can, however, get a Sparkle FSP530 for about $30 more - what's that like? Or is it honestly a good idea to lay out an extra $70-100 to get a 550W best-in-class PSU?

 

[ribbon13]

how about this?
or this?

 

[wisdomtooth]

Just FYI, Thermaltake is notorious for giving their products with names like "Silent" when in fact they sound like NASA aircraft-testing wind tunnels. At the very least, they are guilty of gross misrepresentation.

I bought a Thermaltake Not-So-Silent Purepower 420. It had two 80mm fans and my computer has a constant loud moan emanating from it. I couldn't sleep with the computer on at night until I swapped in a Seasonic Super Tornado 120mm-fan PSU.

That Thermaltake is a good PSU, but not a quiet one.

Buyer beware.

 

[Cheesetogo]

I think that psu is plenty.

 

[Fresh Daemon]

OK, I'm confused. The Antec at 480W is twice the price of the Enermax at 420W, is that worth the extra? The Seasonic is more reasonably priced but still has less output than the Enermax.

I'm still curious about the 530W Sparkle I can get for $105 locally. Is it good/quiet?

Just FYI, Thermaltake is notorious for giving their products with names like "Silent" when in fact they sound like NASA aircraft-testing wind tunnels.

That's useful information. I'll steer clear of Thermaltake in that case.

I think that psu is plenty.

The original Enermax 420W?

I have my 3000+ clocked to 2.4 ghz on that A8V and corsair.

I missed this the first time around. A 3000+ clocked at 2.4 sounds good to me, especially if you think it's got more headroom. That's reaching 3800+ territory. I thought I'd probably be able to get at least 2.2 out of it unless I end up with a real dud.

 

[ribbon13]

The Sparkle relabel FSP530 only has 18A on the 12v

 

[Fresh Daemon]

That's a little weak. I looked for information on the FSP530 but couldn't find much. I think, then, I'll go for the Antec Neopower 480. It reviews well and has two 12v rails with 35A - that should be enough. In light of thegimp's comment on the hs/f I decided to get an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 instead of the XP120, which saves about the difference between the Enermax 420 and the Neopower.