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My First Build

A

akassasin

Member
After 2 weeks of researching I've come up with this for my very first build:

Motherboard - DFI NF4 Ultra-D -- $169 @ ZZF
Processor - AMD 3500+ Winchester -- $289 @ ZZF
Harddrive - Seagate 7200.8 SATA, NCQ, 250 GB - $165 @ Newegg
RAM - 1 GB Corsair Value Select, DDR PC-3200, 184 Pin -- $138 @ Newegg
Monitor - Samsung Syncmaster 19" -- $186 @ Newegg
Power - OCZ Powerstream 520W -- $140 @ Newegg
Sound - Audigy 2 ZS -- $91 @ Newegg
Speakers - Klipsch Promedia 5.1 -- $343 @ Newegg
Case - Coolermaster Wave Master -- $138 @ ZZF
DVD - NEC 16x - $60 @ Newegg
Video Card - No Idea.

Total = $1719 without video card ($2500 max budget)

The RAM and Video Card are the two things I really have no idea about... I picked out some RAM based on people's posts on this board but I don't know if I got the right speed or number of pins, any help on that would be great. Also, is 1 gig of RAM enough these days for gaming?

Suggestions on a Video Card? I was leaning toward either a 6800GT or a X800 XL PCI-E card but I really dont know.

Any answers to my questions are much appreciated as I want to get this ordered asap!




 
A 6800 Ultra IMO is still a waste of money regardless of how much money you are willing to spend. The 6800GT is basically the same exept it hgas a slightly lower memory and core clock speed. So the 6800GT can easily be overclocked to Ultra speeds.
 
And a 3200 winchester can easily be overclocked to 2.4 GHz(3800 Speeds) with stock cooling without vcore adjustments.
 
Originally posted by: KoolDrew
A 6800 Ultra IMO is still a waste of money regardless of how much money you are willing to spend. The 6800GT is basically the same exept it hgas a slightly lower memory and core clock speed. So the 6800GT can easily be overclocked to Ultra speeds.
Click to expand...

Look at the guys specs and his budget. Does it seem like he's concerned about saving a dollar or 2? If you want to think that way the the whole system is a waste of money.
 
Originally posted by: Chosonman
Originally posted by: KoolDrew
A 6800 Ultra IMO is still a waste of money regardless of how much money you are willing to spend. The 6800GT is basically the same exept it hgas a slightly lower memory and core clock speed. So the 6800GT can easily be overclocked to Ultra speeds.
Click to expand...

Look at the guys specs and his budget. Does it seem like he's concerned about saving a dollar or 2? If you want to think that way the the whole system is a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Actually it's 100 dollars. And it would seem pretty stupid to me not to get the 6800GT just because your lazy enough to move two tabs in cool bits. Not to mention the GT is a single slot solution, smaller HSF, and is not as much as a power hug.

 
LeadTek 6800GT -- $455 at Newegg
eVGA 6800 Ultra -- $639 at Newegg
Refurbished ASUS X800 XT Platinum -- $580 at Newegg. Refurbished meaning it was used already?

Leaning toward the 6800GT out of those. Im willing to spend a good amount of money on something (example: Klipsch speakers) as long as im not wasting the money. It seems to me that for those high end cards at least $100 of the price is due to the fact that they are the top of the line right now.
-Like paying $300 for an Xbox when they first came out.

As for overclocking I plan to mess around with it a bit once I get familiar with the system. I've never messed with hardware settings though so I probably wont be doing anything too extreme.
 
Well, if he is budgeting himself then by all means get a 6800GT. The Price/performance it is a very good card.


While he's at is he could go with a DFI LanParty Nforce3 + 3400 Newcastle and save himself about $160.00... The performance difference would be negligable. But that's just a suggestion. (There are rumors that the 3400 is faster.... shhhh...)
 
Originally posted by: Chosonman
Look at the guys specs and his budget. Does it seem like he's concerned about saving a dollar or 2? If you want to think that way the the whole system is a waste of money.
Click to expand...

I'd like to think I'm not wasting any money.
 
Originally posted by: Chosonman
No you're not. I was using that just of the sake of arguement.
Click to expand...

Yeah.. I know I could spend a lot less and still have a decent system, but I kind of want to start off strong so I don't have to upgrade for awhile.
Wasting money, though, is not cool.
 
Originally posted by: Chosonman
Well, if he is budgeting himself then by all means get a 6800GT. The Price/performance it is a very good card.


While he's at is he could go with a DFI LanParty Nforce3 + 3400 Newcastle and save himself about $160.00... The performance difference would be negligable. But that's just a suggestion. (There are rumors that the 3400 is faster.... shhhh...)
Click to expand...

This'll probably last you as long as that system. Just a thought.
 
I agree with the HD suggestion. You can get IDE drives for much less and add more to gain more drive space. There is not noticable performance difference between IDE and SATA. I'll use my SATA slot later when I need to expand my HD space. I have 2 IDE HD's right now.

2 160GB IDE HDs (320GB of Drive Space total) go for a little over $100.00 now. Pricewatch.com
 
Good point. That hard drive was pretty much a random choice.

As was the Samsung Syncmaster monitor. Any suggestions on that?
 
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