My new build

[Dusda]

Alright, I came upon some unexpected moolah, so what better way to blow it than on a new machine!

ABIT AN8 SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

MSI NX7800GT-VT2D256E Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-480 BLUE ATX12V 480W Power Supply - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz HT Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700CFBOX - Retail

mushkin eXtreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model 991483 - Retail

Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SHW-160P6S - OEM

Subtotal: $1,146.95

Yea, I know I can probably get better prices by shopping elsewhere, but this is just for reference on the right parts. I'm not certain how much I can o/c the 3700+, but I want to be able to take full advantage of that mushkin ram. Do you think the rest of this system does it justice?

Also, I got the AN8 SLI board so I can just throw in another card in the future, though I'm not sure how viable that is (it's been about 2 years since I've built anything, and I've kinda been out of the loop for a while).

 

[AliasX]

How much moolah do you have?

 

[markkleb]

The only better thing to do is give the money to me...

But if you would rather build a comp try the opteron cpu instead. Have fun!

 

[Dusda]

Originally posted by: AliasX
How much moolah do you have?

I'm trying to keep the final price under $1300.

 

[markkleb]

You can build crazy fast for $1300

 

[Dusda]

/bump.

 

[Dusda]

/bumpforgreatjusticelastoneIpromise.

 

[SpeedZealot369]

This is what I would do.

Motherboard- ok

wait for 7900 chips before making any decisions.

power- donno much about antec but should be ok

processor- get a duel core 3800+, $50 more and so much performance gain.

ram- your call, 2x512 instead would save you alot of money

get a larger hard drive instead, they have huge cache and perform almost as well as raptors imo, and raptors don't give higher fps's in games.

What the heck do you need such an expensive keyboard for?

Listen, the ONLY thing SLI is good for is EXTREME performance. The whole "ill get a card now and upgrade down the road" mentality is useless since 1. who knows what lies down the road 2. one card thats worth twice as much as two cards will always outperform them. example- two 7800gt's $500, one x1900xt $500 the 1900 will outperform. So therefore sli is only justified when having the two best cards.

Also, I would consider getting a zalman for your cpu.

Enjoy building your pc!

 

[Dusda]

I'm not sure about the idea of getting an X2...I have had some really bad experiences with a system built with one. HL2, for example, performed like utter crap on that machine. From what I was able to uncover, it was due to dual core issues with the X2.

Also, do you have an alternate, Non-SLI mobo to recommend?

 

[Crescent13]

Asus A8N32-SLI
Wait for 7900 series to come out
Get PCP&C Turbo Cool 510SLI PSU or Enermax Liberty 500W PSU
Get an Opteron, dual core or single core, your choice
Awesome ram!!
Get the 150GB Raptor

 

[SpeedZealot369]

I don't know why your freind had issues with x2, but 99% of people dont have issues with it, love the performance gain, and listen to this- some games now recognize the x2 processor and move some stress from the gpu to the second core. Awesome no?

All in all x2 is where its at.

Motherboard I would suggest getting a company that your comfortable with and trust.

 

[atybimf]

Originally posted by: Crescent13
Asus A8N32-SLI
Wait for 7900 series to come out
Get PCP&C Turbo Cool 510SLI PSU or Enermax Liberty 500W PSU
Get an Opteron, dual core or single core, your choice
Awesome ram!!
Get the 150GB Raptor

In a single hard drive and video card setup, both the PSU's you've suggested would be overkill.

 

[Dusda]

So I'd be good with the Antec TP2, then? Also, removed the G15 and added a running subtotal for all the parts.

 

[SpeedZealot369]

Like I said before, you should really wait to see what happens with the new nvidia cards. Apparantly the 7900gt is gonna be $300 and will outperform a 7800gtx

 

[Dusda]

Originally posted by: SpeedZealot369
Like I said before, you should really wait to see what happens with the new nvidia cards. Apparantly the 7900gt is gonna be $300 and will outperform a 7800gtx

Grr...the annoying part is your probably right. Waiting for the 7900GT would definitely be the better way to go. I just hate waiting, though . Oh well, from what I've read online, it looks like they're going to hit stores around the 9th? That's less than two weeks; I'll manage.