Need a little help

[entropy1982]

Hey guys I will be purchasing a system within the next month or so. I play a lot of games
Here is what i have so far:

Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego (Plan on overclocking to at least 2.6 from 2.2 ghz)

2X Raptor 74gb drives

6800GT 256meg (haven't decided what brand yet maybe you can help with that too)

Probably a Thermalake Kandalf case (it's about 200 bux a little steep maybe if you know another one that performs really well for cheaper that would help)

I plan on getting 2X512meg chips of ram I want a high performance ram. I am interested in what is more important the timings or the operating frequency. I was looking at OCZ lines, they look good but I don't know which would be best for me.

I would also like to replace the stock heatsink on the CPU. Any suggestions?

The motherboards i was looking at seems to come down to 4 different ones
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR
Epox EP-9NPA+ SLI
Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI

Any suggestions on which is best?
Also, what is the difference between the deluxe and the non-deluxe models of the Asus

Finally, I have absolutely no idea what kind of power supply I need/should get.

I know none of these answers are black and white but any reasons why I should get one over another would be really great.

Please keep in mind I am a student and am trying to keep the cost below 2K for the comp

Thanks guys

 

[Bucks]

!) You could get the Venice 3200 instead of the SD 3700 - will overclock the same
2) get the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR
3) ditch the raptors for a seagate 250gb sata hd - the performance doesn't yeild the price difference
4) get a Thermaltake XP-90 heatsink
5) and with the money saved from the cpu, etc, get 2gb ram instead of 1gb.

So here are my suggestions

AMD Venice 3200
Thermaltake XP-90 w/panaflo fan
DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR
2gb Corsair Value ram
Antec Sonota II case w/ 450watt psu (comes with it)
250gb Seagate sata HD
6800GT or if you can fit the 7800GTX in your budget (it should be with the money saved from reducing parts...also you may need a better psu if you get the 7800) :thumbsup:
You will definitely get a better bang for your buck

 

[wffsoccergmail]

I wouldnt get 2 raptors, kinda waste of money. You could buy 3 SATA 250s and put them in a RAID and they would be just as fast. Also I have an AMD 4000+ if you really want some serious CPU power. PM me if you want and I can work through the purchase with you 1 on 1 via msn or AIM, good luck

 

[entropy1982]

Actually i already bought the 2 raptors I dont mind spending the extra 140 bux on the 3700 san diego (how much of a difference would i see anyway?) if it's worthit.

I just have a few questions

Why do you think the DFI is better than the ASUS?

Is the 2 gigs of value ram really going to go well with my overclocked cpus? i mean i can spare the extra 150 bux or so if i'll get a nice performance boost with like the OCZ ram or something.

I really appreciate your help

 

[Bucks]

2gb ram doesn't overclock as well, but it helps in today's games such as BF2. You can spend the extra money on the SD 3700 if you want, but I think it can be better spent elsewhere. Also, the DFI mobo tends to overclock better and have better overclocking features than the Asus one . And value ram goes ok with A64 cpus since they have oncore memory controllers