need advice on new gaming rig hardware

[vierra]

I'm building a new gaming system and was wondering what I should get.

Opteron 165 or X2 3800+? I want to OC whatever cpu i get, preferrably with the stock heatsink/fan.


DFI Lanparty?

I was thinking of going with a single 7900GT (looks like a good card at a good price) for now, but want to go SLI a little down the road, so I guess that needs to be taken into consideration when i choose my mobo, but i don't know which one. I was thinking DFI Lanparty, but some people seem to not like them. I don't want to spend crazy money on a mobo. Any mobo reccomendations?


Ram - no clue. I guess I want something that has a good price/performance/stability balance.


Power Supply - how about this - Antec Smartpower 500w? http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=273503

I saw it on the Hot Deals Forum.


I've been out of the game for so long - and there are so many choices now - that i'm kinda lost. thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[secretanchitman]

if you're going to OC, i would go with the opteron. they tend to OC better from what ive seen on this board.

dfi lanparty? thats totally a good choice, but personally, i would go with the asus a8n sli delxue/premium or the a8n32-sli deluxe.

7900GT is fine for your video.

ram? 1GB of some corsair valueselect is perfect for most people. yes it will OC. how about 2GB? this is all in dual-channel of course.

PSU wise, that antec looks fine, but people will recommend PC&P, fortron, enermax, and those brands. ive used multiple antec psus and they've all worked flawlessly.

and dont hesistate to ask any question you have!

and welcome to the forums!

 

[Effect]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
if you're going to OC, i would go with the opteron. they tend to OC better from what ive seen on this board.

dfi lanparty? thats totally a good choice, but personally, i would go with the asus a8n sli delxue/premium or the a8n32-sli deluxe.

7900GT is fine for your video.

ram? 1GB of some corsair valueselect is perfect for most people. yes it will OC. how about 2GB? this is all in dual-channel of course.

PSU wise, that antec looks fine, but people will recommend PC&P, fortron, enermax, and those brands. ive used multiple antec psus and they've all worked flawlessly.

and dont hesistate to ask any question you have!

and welcome to the forums!

^^^Good build.

If that build doesn't break your budget, i'd move up to 2gb of RAM.

Oh, and welcome to the forums =).

 

[vierra]

thanks for the replies. A few questions, though.

What speed memory should i get? i'm pretty confused. it seems like a ton of choices.

And if I go SLI, can i use two different models of 7900's or do i need the same model card?

 

[atybimf]

Originally posted by: vierra
thanks for the replies. A few questions, though.

What speed memory should i get? i'm pretty confused. it seems like a ton of choices.

And if I go SLI, can i use two different models of 7900's or do i need the same model card?

PC3200. But if you want to just raise the memory speed when overclocking instead of using a RAM divider, then get some PC4000.

 

[vierra]

thanks for the reply

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: vierra
thanks for the replies. A few questions, though.

What speed memory should i get? i'm pretty confused. it seems like a ton of choices.

And if I go SLI, can i use two different models of 7900's or do i need the same model card?

PC3200 is just fine. PC4000 has higher bandwith and is basically guaranteed a FSB of 250+ (see my sig), but the timings are a bit looser.

yes, you can use SLI with 2 different models, like evga and bfg, or leadtek or pny. but they both have to be a 7900GT. no mixing gpus...>.< but if one is clocked higher, then that card will drop down to the lower clocked one. but...you can OC them both once they're in SLI. so i would recommend just getting 2 exact OCed cards like evga's superclocked/CO/KO series, or just the regular versions.

 

[vierra]

thanks again for the advice.

Is my power supply good enough for an SLI setup? Or do i need like 550W?

I guess for my memory choice, i should go to a DFI forum to see what works well.

 

[Bobthelost]

Nope a 500W SPII is more than enough for a SLI system. I am not a fan of antec PSUs, they are one of the better budget options but not as good as FSP, Enermax and seasonic to name a few.