Need Help With A Computer Build

[Testosterone]

Hi People

Im new to the forums and wanted to ask for your help. I plan on spending around $2500 on a gaming computer. I prefer a Intel computer over a AMD. I have nothing against AMD as I currently own one but im looking for maximum performance here. With $2500 I want to see what you could build for me. If you have the time to list the parts that would be great.

I have read alot of you that always talk about a overclockable 2.4gig computer that will run as fast as a new prescott. Maybe you could rig me up some type of set up with the best possible parts within my price range. If you AMD fans have a better build than tell me what my options are. Thanks in advance.


Parts I know I want included in the build:

Tsunami Dream Case with (2) 120mm fan, (1) 90mm fan
Western Digital 78G Raptor 10,000RPM Harddrive
1GiG of best possible ram(suggestions?)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
550W Antec Power Supply

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

first off "im looking for maximum performance here"...that's amd. look at the socket 939 benchmarks, amd is better for nearly everything, especially gaming. if you need convincing look at the doom 3 benches

second a 2.4Ghz overclocker won't run as fast as a new presscott or amd64 once you overclock them

third, a 2.4 ghz processor is nowhere near your price range of 2500 unless you plan on spending most of that on displays.

i like the parts you have, just what i'd pick, but i'd suggest getting another raptor and raid0-ing them.

here's my parts list, too lazy to link to newegg, but

amd fx 53
msi k8n neo ultra or whatever they call the socket 939 one
nvidia 6800 gt (maybe the ultra if you are that crazy)

Tsunami Dream Case with (2) 120mm fan, (1) 90mm fan
Western Digital 78G Raptor 10,000RPM Harddrive ----- (2)
1GiG of best possible ram(suggestions?) -------anand's latest performance charts i like any of the ocz's there, look around to see what you can get cheap

Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
550W Antec Power Supply

do you want more than 146 gigs of storage?
do you want to go watercooling?

 

[Testosterone]

Not looking to watercool at this time.
I planned on ordering another 78gig raptor a month later so I could raid 0 them.


Your saying for the FX-53 you would take the socket 939 over the 940 Asus SK8V K8T800 board? That video card is nice as I had it pretty much picked out.

Can anyone vouch if the new x800 xt 256mb PCI E 16 would be alot faster than the 6800gt? Im curious if PCI makes a difference at this time.

Is ddr2 PC4200(2) for an Intel build faster than the ddr PC3200 I could get for the AMD build?

 

[Testosterone]

Ive heard alot of good reveiws on the msi k8n neo. Is it used for overclockers? If I was to go AMD I would want it to at least hold up to the power of todays Intel Extreme Edition chips. If you could recommend the best unbuffered ram that will fit the msi board that would be great.

 

[miketheidiot]

crucial ballistix is always good. Or so i've heard. DDR2 offers meager improvements at best, and x800XT is somewhere between the 6800gt and 6800 ultra.

Personally I would wait for the new chipsets from nvidea and via for dual PCIe x16 and get a pair of 6800gt PCIe and run some SLI, and go with the 3800 (same clock speed as the fx-53) once the 4000 comes out and 3800 price gets cut $200 or so. You will need a huge powersupply for that though. 550watt antec shoulg do the job though.

 

[GnomeCop]

just get a FX-53
MSI K8N Neo2 Platuinum
1Gb of PC3200 Corsair XMS memory
74Gb raptor
another large sata HD for storage (say.. 160gb)
6800 GT or Ultra (dual DVI)
Sound card of coice, say a Audigy 2, the platinum is not necessary and a pain in the ass unless you are gonna use all those inputs.
Your case and PSU you picked,
Nice 16x dual layer burner for Under 100 bucks, whatever brand, why spend so much on optical, these drives keep getting faster every few weeks it seems.

 

[GnomeCop]

Or you can get a Voodoo PC Hexx, with a 6800GT/160gb HD, onboard sound, and a dvd burner for under 2500 ....

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

Good advice above.
Here's what I just built.
http://www.nogodforme.com/MyBabyTera.htm
The memory is Corsair PC3200XLPro what has latencies of 2225.
For your hard drive, you can stay with the Raptors if you don't want to go Scsi.
The MB choice is up to you. Many like the MSI because of the recent reviews, but I went with the Asus.
Many are going with the Pioneer DVR-108 like I did. You can stay with the OEM version because you use Nero to run it, and you can download new firmware from web sites, but yours will probably have new firmware.
And your GPU can be an aircooled 6800 Ultra.
Everything you see in my build, was bought from Newegg, execpt the video card.

 

[ScrewFace]

You'll want to drop the inferior GeForce 6800 GT/Ultra for a Radeon X800 XT/XT PE. It's way faster in Direct3D games (90% of all games made) and it's even more faster when you use AA and AF.

 

[ScrewFace]

You'll want to drop the underpowered GeForce 6800 GT/Ultra for a Radeon X800 XT/XT PE as the Radeon is much faster in Direct3D games (90% of games are Direct3D) and the gap widens even more when you use AA and or AF. And with ATI rewriting their OpenGL code with every driver update the Radeon's much higher fill-rate will eventually trounce the GeForce 6800 GT/Ultra in OpenGL, too.

EDIT: Sorry for the double post. My bad.

 

[tphss]

Inferior? underpowered? do you know what you're talking about?
You also forgot a small detail that the X800XT is about $200 more expensive then the 6800GT (that any of them can reach atleast ULTRA speeds).
Also, if you would read reviews, in almost all of them, the 6800GT at it's GT speeds sometimes even outperform the X800XT and at ULTRA speeds, it basically burns the X800XT in almost all the games.

 

[GnomeCop]

basically you can take those 2 posts as from an ATI fanboy, no more, no less.
Just get whatever you can get a good deal on X800 or Geforce 6, they are both good cards,

 

[Pete84]

For gaming, you don't need to RAID 0 a pair of Raptors. storagereview.com and anandtech have decisively concluded that there is no gaming advantage with a raid 0.

 

[rileychris]

Just so you know I don't believe there is an AMD 64 Socket 939 mobo that currnetly has anyhting more than an AGP slot (PCI E) for your video card. They are probably coming soon, but I haven't seen anything for sale yet.

 

[Testosterone]

ASUS A8V seems like a nice card. It would support the 6800 Ultra if I went the AMD route with its 939 socket correct?

Whats the best ram out there right now for the AMD? Lowest latency no matter what the price. Im looking for one gig so ill probably want 2 512mb chips for maximum performance as well?


Im thinking about going with the AMD 64 FX-53/Asus A8V MB.

Ive heard several complaints about the MSI board recommened that it works for some and doesnt for others. The Asus board seems more stable.

 

[drpepper1280]

I just wanted to put in my two cents. First off the processor you have decided on is an excellent choice if you plan on going the 939 socket route, but you also talked about overclocking. If you plan on overclocking then I would recommend socket 754 strictly because of the DFI LANParty UT nF3 250Gb and AnandTech?s review of it (you can check it out in the links below). As far as a motherboard, despite your concerns of getting a faulty board the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum is still the board of choice. As far as memory goes, the only way to go right now is two sticks of 512mb DDR RAM. The best video card in my opinion right now is the 6800GT as it has an excellent price for performance and it provided excellent potential for overclocking. With the amount of money you are willing to spend, I would also recommend getting the new Pioneer 108D 16X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW (or two). Lastly I would recommend getting a single WD Raptor over two because the performance gain (if any) is not worth the extra money no matter how much you plan to spend.

Don?t forget to check out AnandTech?s great reviews and recommendations. I recommend you check out the following articles:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2198&p=1
http://www.anandtech.com/guide...oc.aspx?i=2209&p=1
http://www.anandtech.com/guide...oc.aspx?i=2185&p=1