Hey all, longtime lurker first time poster...
I built my first PC in '03, it's been giving me a lot of problems lately and I would like to upgrade... If there's one thing I learned when I built my last PC is just because everything "should" work doesn't mean it will. Right now my "old" system has a 9700 Pro, XP 2500+ proc and ASUS a7n8x deluxe mobo, as well as the other stuff listed below.
So I'm looking for advice/thoughts/comments on this build... I've got around 850-875 as a budget for new parts.
The PC will be used for everything, including gaming and video editting. Games I'd be playing would probably be MMORPG with the occasional FPS. I do want to be able to handle RPG's that are coming out later this year as well.
List of the parts I'm using from my last PC:
HDD: Two HDDs, 80gb and 120gb
PSU: Using my existing PSU, ePower Puma 450w (not my PC's original PSU, was put in within the last year to replace a faulty one)
Media Drives: DVD Burner and DVD Rom/CDRW drive, floppy drive
O/S: Windows XP home w/SP2
Winfast TV2000XP TV card
-----
New parts (includes prices w/ shipping from newegg)
CASE: ATRIX CSCI-A9001-C4 Black Computer Case -- $88
MOBO: EPoX EP-9NPA+ SLi Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard -- $141
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor -- $162
VIDEO CARD: eVGA Geforce 7800GT 256-P2-N515-AX Desktop PC -- $280
RAM: A-DATA Vitesta 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory -- $171
---
Please let me know your thoughts on this build, if you'd change anything, or if you see any potential hardware conflicts.
A few questions:
1-Do you think it would be a noteworthy performance hit if I didn't buy the 2 gigs of RAM and instead used the RAM from my last PC (two 512mb sticks of Kingston HyperX PC2700). Since it's not PC3200 do you think it would be a notable bottleneck?
2-Would I need 64 bit Windows since the proc is 64 bit, or will I be good to go with 32 bit windows? I've done a little reading and it seems like 64 bit Windows isn't that great for gaming, due to lack of support among other reasons.
3-Do you think the 450w PSU will be enough for this, or should I consider upgrading? The PSU has gotten pretty good reviews, but if 450w just isn't enough for all this hardware then I understand.
Thanks for your help and suggestions!
I built my first PC in '03, it's been giving me a lot of problems lately and I would like to upgrade... If there's one thing I learned when I built my last PC is just because everything "should" work doesn't mean it will. Right now my "old" system has a 9700 Pro, XP 2500+ proc and ASUS a7n8x deluxe mobo, as well as the other stuff listed below.
So I'm looking for advice/thoughts/comments on this build... I've got around 850-875 as a budget for new parts.
The PC will be used for everything, including gaming and video editting. Games I'd be playing would probably be MMORPG with the occasional FPS. I do want to be able to handle RPG's that are coming out later this year as well.
List of the parts I'm using from my last PC:
HDD: Two HDDs, 80gb and 120gb
PSU: Using my existing PSU, ePower Puma 450w (not my PC's original PSU, was put in within the last year to replace a faulty one)
Media Drives: DVD Burner and DVD Rom/CDRW drive, floppy drive
O/S: Windows XP home w/SP2
Winfast TV2000XP TV card
-----
New parts (includes prices w/ shipping from newegg)
CASE: ATRIX CSCI-A9001-C4 Black Computer Case -- $88
MOBO: EPoX EP-9NPA+ SLi Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard -- $141
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor -- $162
VIDEO CARD: eVGA Geforce 7800GT 256-P2-N515-AX Desktop PC -- $280
RAM: A-DATA Vitesta 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory -- $171
---
Please let me know your thoughts on this build, if you'd change anything, or if you see any potential hardware conflicts.
A few questions:
1-Do you think it would be a noteworthy performance hit if I didn't buy the 2 gigs of RAM and instead used the RAM from my last PC (two 512mb sticks of Kingston HyperX PC2700). Since it's not PC3200 do you think it would be a notable bottleneck?
2-Would I need 64 bit Windows since the proc is 64 bit, or will I be good to go with 32 bit windows? I've done a little reading and it seems like 64 bit Windows isn't that great for gaming, due to lack of support among other reasons.
3-Do you think the 450w PSU will be enough for this, or should I consider upgrading? The PSU has gotten pretty good reviews, but if 450w just isn't enough for all this hardware then I understand.
Thanks for your help and suggestions!