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My first build, what do ya think?

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pokerdoc123

Junior Member
This is going to be a computer used almost exclusive for multitabling online poker sites. When I play, I usually have about 10 tables open at a time along w/a stats program that constantly imports hand histories, and anohter one that puts up an overlay to display them. I will also be running a virus scan, internet explorer on occasion, aim on occasion, and itunes. I will not be doing much gameing so I don't need any high end audio or video. The only real video issue might be that I need to hook up dual monitors w/1600x1200 resolution (Dell 2001FP). I'm also trying to get this computer built for less than $1000. This computer has to last for at least 5 years and I don't plan on overclocking it at all. Now that you know what I'm going to use it for, heres the specs.

AMD Athlon X2 4200+ - $362 I feel the dual processor is important since I will be doing a lot of multi task.

ASUS A8R-MVP Socket 939 ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 CrossFire ATX AMD CrossFire Motherboard - $97 I really have no clue about motherboards but a friend of mine who builds comps recommended this one to me for use w/the chip

Raptor 74g 10k rpm harddrive - $100 don't think I need more than room than this as I don't be dowloading many videos and only have ~2 gigs worth of music

Antec Sonata II case - $100 I read good things about this case. Seems simple w/ample power, I like the look and many people have said the case is really quiet which I like too

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory - $77 Seems like good ram to go with, many good reviews

PNY VCGFX55PPB Geforce FX5500 128MB 128-bit DDR PCI Video Card - $62 Should be good enough to support my needs

LITE-ON Black IDE Combo Drive Model SOHC-5236V BK RTL - $29 Good reviews should get me what I need out of it. Having the option to burn CDs is nice in case I have to transfer data and since its only $8 more than a regular cdrom, why not

The last piece of the puzzle I need is an eithernet card preferably one w/both wireless and a port for a regular cable. any recommendations?

Total price looks to be around $900 What do you all think about the build, is everything matched correctly? any forseeable problems
 
I would suggest you to look into overclocking as the X2 processors and Opteron are very good at that. I don't think the PNY video card can support dual monitors. I would personally take the 3800+ over the 4200+. Simply because you can just bump the 3800 to at least 2.4 ghz and save yourself a hundred dollar or so.

I don't think your PNY video card can support dual monitors. I think if you're running at those resolution and with those 2 monitors you definitely should look into a mid-range card at the very least.
 
The 4200+ is unneccesary, get the X2 3800+. You wont even need to o/c it for your needs.

Wall & LW are right about the Gcard. I am not sure of the capabilities of the FX5500, but you can probably use the money you would save by getting the 3800+ and get a cheap PCI-E card.

Not sure how much benefit a raptor is going to be to you. If you can get a larger drive for the same price or cheaper you may wish to go with that. The raptor dosent give as big a performance boost as its hyped to give. You may not think you need more than 74 gigs now, but that could change.
 
the problem with an FX 5500 or a 9800Pro or any of them cards is that his motherboard has ATI Xpress on it. So he can't have AGP. He needs to get at least the 6600LE I recommended him.(It's got about the same power as a 6200, which is i think a bit above a 5500. Perfect for him since he says he doesn't do much games.)
 
You think the 3800 will provide enough power to be able to run all those programs at once? What are the advantage of the 4200 and when would I want to use that chip instead?

As for the hard drive thing, this is going to be a 2nd comp. right now I have an 80 gig hard drive for my main comp and I'm only using 46 gigs. i think 74 will be fine on this one as I won't be d/ling much onto it. The key question i guess, is whether or not having a 10k rpm hd will increase performance vs a standard 7200 rpm drive
 
The 2 1600x1200 monitor thing is decieving. I need the high res so I can fit 4 tables on each screen. The graphics for my poker program isn't really 2 intense and definatly not 3d. What do you think of the other video card recommended at this thread
 
You can use 5500 on that board. The 5500 is PCI and the new PCI-E motherboards do Have PCI slot. But, I believe that card does not support dual monitors. I believe the 6800 series were the first one in the nvidia product line to have dual-dvi link. You can use your money slightly better. I'd go with the following:

Coolermaster Centurion
Asus A8N-E
AMD X2 3800+
Corsair ValueSelect 1GB (512x2)
eVGA 7800GT (Newegg has it on sale 250 after-rebate)
Forton 450W
Seagate 7200.9

On top of my head, all this costs less or around $950. I know you don't game much, but the 7800GT is a budget card and with those resolution and dual monitors there is no reason not to get one. Besides, the occasional gaming might kick in and you'll be glad you have some muscle to run the games 😉.
 
Wall,

The original card I had picked out was this

null

One of the reviewers said it was fine for running a dual monitor off of. How do I know if a video card can run 2 monitors off it? I dont care if they are dvi or not just that they run 2 monitors off of them.
 
7800gt is not a budget card. the 5500 he linked will work on the board and does support dual monitors as it has dual vga outs, wether his monitor supports vga or not is another question. however it is a pci card not a pci-e card which is the primary graphics interface, if he needs this for 5+ years going with a pci-e card would be a better bet, something like a 6600 or 6200tc.

im fairly certain the dell's are all using dvi now, however they may also have the spare vga connection on the back as most monitors do
 
The monitors have stanadard vga outputs as well as dvi outputs so I can use either. I really don't see myself making many changes to this comp once I figure out what to buy as I plan on using my current laptop as my primary comp. This is strictly a 2nd one for poker.

Can you explain to me why I would like a PCI-E card as opposed to a PCI card? what the pros and cons of each
 
Originally posted by: pokerdoc123
The monitors have stanadard vga outputs as well as dvi outputs so I can use either. I really don't see myself making many changes to this comp once I figure out what to buy as I plan on using my current laptop as my primary comp. This is strictly a 2nd one for poker.

Can you explain to me why I would like a PCI-E card as opposed to a PCI card? what the pros and cons of each
Click to expand...


There is no difference in performance if u dont play games or using VIVO as running plain windows it will be a cakewalk even for something as old as a TNT2.
Its very useless getting a fx5500 especially a pci one when for roughly the same price u can get much better cards, get something like a 6200. I have got one for my second comp for older games and it roughtly performs like a fx 5700. (thats a 64bit 6200)

Also u might want to condider that the fx5500 has only a 350mhz Ram while the 6200's have 400mhz ones which means they will have beter output at higher resolutions.
 
Yeah....OP better off buying some PCIe video cards than buying PCI. You can buy X1300 at the same price range and you can even make it Crossfire with two of them too. Why do you want old tech when you have latest tech motherboard on your hand?

By the way, did you say you only have 1000 bucks budget? How about this spec for a change:

*AMD Opteron 165-$332 (better buffer and built robust; originally sold for main workstation/small business server)
*CoolerMaster RC532-$109 (currently $89) (as quiet as sonata without the stupid door; the power supply is enough to power your needs)
*A-Data Vitesta 2Gb PC3200-$157 (2GB is always gonna be better than one)
*Asus Radeon X1300 Low Profile Dual Head-$67 (cheap no nonsens V/C; will do things you need to do)
*LITEON DVD Burner SHW-160P6S-$39 (Who still burns CDs nowadays? *j/k* you can burn CDs and DVDs now; the added feature justifies the price hike)
*Asus A8R-MVP-$97 (You should wait for the A8R32 really)
*WD Caviar 250GB SATA drive (Your Raptor actually costs 150 bucks not 100...I don't know where you get that 100 from)

All for $882.46 pre tax and shipping (that is if you have to pay taxes)
 
Originally posted by: Cinna696
well pci-e provides more bandwith but your not going to take advantage of the bandwith even over pci so there almost is no point other than it is the current standard interface

you can also probalby get a cheaper pci-e card, such as this 6200tc for 37$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127204
Click to expand...

Thats the card you want, only thing you need with that is a VGA to DVI adaptor. Most new cards come with these anyways, my 3 year old 9800 PRO came with one. It basically turns the small blue plug into a larger white DVI plug allowing you to use both your dell 2001's.
 
Originally posted by: Soviet
Originally posted by: Cinna696
well pci-e provides more bandwith but your not going to take advantage of the bandwith even over pci so there almost is no point other than it is the current standard interface

you can also probalby get a cheaper pci-e card, such as this 6200tc for 37$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127204
Click to expand...

Thats the card you want, only thing you need with that is a VGA to DVI adaptor. Most new cards come with these anyways, my 3 year old 9800 PRO came with one. It basically turns the small blue plug into a larger white DVI plug allowing you to use both your dell 2001's.
Click to expand...

Sir, with all due respect, you cannot change DB15 onto DVI but you can do it the other way around.

 
Absolut,

Why do I want to wait for the A8R32? what is the advantage over the MVP?

Do you really think an opteron will be better for my purposes than dual athlons? I'm planning on multitasking almost exclusively on this comp.

I'm thinking of changing the hardrive from the Raptor to the baracuda, should save me about $80, i just hope the performance is going to be good.
 
A8R32 has two full x16 Crossfire lanes instead of two x8 lanes in Crossfire (ATI SLI term) mode. What that means is that when you decided to run Crossfire, you will have a two card performance not what is technically a single card performance. In addition, there are a few more tricks that wasn't available on the A8R that is finally available on the A8R32 such as memory timings defaulted at 1T (1T and 2T really makes a difference some say) and a few extra voltage adjustments.

The Opteron socket 939 is the small server/workstation version of that Retail X2s with 512K L2 cache bigger than the dual Athlons. Raptor has the better performance but not the price. I was just showing you the price difference. If you are really gunning for performance I don't think that extra 80 bucks matter much.
 
There is no point in dual x16 pci-e. I'm pretty sure that an X1900XTX will not even saturate an x8 pci-e slot.... Anyway reviews have shown that there is no difference. The A8n32-SLI is a good board though. But you could just get something like the A8n-E
 
Change the motherboard to the Asus A8N-E (nforce4 ultra), why do you want an ATI chipset with crossfire if you're buying a nvidia graphics card... Don't really need the 4200+, the X2 3800+ will work fine. Get the NEC ND-3550 dvd burner... its only about $40 and burning dvds comes in handy if you ever want to store more data.
 
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