Need help with this new build!

[Argonian]

Hiya im building a new pc at the beginning of december and need advice how yo get more performance, but value for money? Or if any one knows how to get any of these components any cheaper? Any advice would be greatly appriciated!

AMD Athlon 64 (ADA4400CDBOX) X2 4400+ socket 939 2.2Ghz 1Mb and 1Mb Cache
http://www.ebuyer.com £360

Motherboard, DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR PCI-E (Socket 939) Motherboard
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=603876 £140

RAM, 2*512mb Crucial Ballistix Tracer 184-pin DIMM DDR PC4000 2.5-4-4-8
http://www.crucial.com/uk/ £130

Graphics card-XFX GeForce 7800GTX Extreme Edition 256MB GDDR3 comes OVERCLOCKED TO 490MHZ
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=238829 £410

I cant decided between the asus premium motherboard and the dfi any suggestions, plus would any one recomend getting windows media centre to do me untill windows vista comes out?

 

[Crescent13]

for more value, get this

x2 3800+, overclock it to 4400+ speeds, the 2mb of cache doesn't make that much of a difference

2GB of value ram will get you more performance than 1GB of this ram. (I think)

DO NOT BUY XFX!!!! THEY ARE THE WORST BRAND EVER!!! get the EVGA from newegg, zipzoomfly, or monarch, and you will get a FREE SLI MOTHERBOARD!! It outperforms the SLI-DR in almost all gaming tests.

I will find some links soon.

Welcom to the forums!!

EDIT: oh, and what monitor do you have? If you will be playing at a resolution below 1600x1200, then a 7800GTX is overkill. A 7800GT would suit you better at lower resolutions. and I am assuming that you have a case, power supply, dvd drive, hard drive, floppy drive, mouse, keyboard, speakers, sound card, and monitor.

7800GT + free motherboard
or
7800GTX + free motherboard

review on free motherboard (don't be fooled by the name, EVGA simply rebranded that jetway motherboard so the performance will be the same)

Athlon X2 3800+

OCZ Value RAM

 

[GamerExpress]

Originally posted by: Crescent13
for more value, get this

x2 3800+, overclock it to 4400+ speeds, the 2mb of cache doesn't make that much of a difference

2GB of value ram will get you more performance than 1GB of this ram. (I think)

DO NOT BUY XFX!!!! THEY ARE THE WORST BRAND EVER!!! get the EVGA from newegg, zipzoomfly, or monarch, and you will get a FREE SLI MOTHERBOARD!! It outperforms the SLI-DR in almost all gaming tests.


Don't go with SLI for one thing.

Don't get that memory get some OCZ Platinum EL Rev. 2 2x1GB instead

Don't listen to this guy about his bashing XFX, they are not the worst brand out there. I think EVGA is better, but XFX is just fine!!!!

 

[NatePo717]

Originally posted by: Crescent13
for more value, get this

x2 3800+, overclock it to 4400+ speeds, the 2mb of cache doesn't make that much of a difference

2GB of value ram will get you more performance than 1GB of this ram. (I think)

DO NOT BUY XFX!!!! THEY ARE THE WORST BRAND EVER!!! get the EVGA from newegg, zipzoomfly, or monarch, and you will get a FREE SLI MOTHERBOARD!! It outperforms the SLI-DR in almost all gaming tests.

I will find some links soon.

Welcom to the forums!!

EDIT: oh, and what monitor do you have? If you will be playing at a resolution below 1600x1200, then a 7800GTX is overkill. A 7800GT would suit you better at lower resolutions. and I am assuming that you have a case, power supply, dvd drive, hard drive, floppy drive, mouse, keyboard, speakers, sound card, and monitor.

7800GT + free motherboard
or
7800GTX + free motherboard

review on free motherboard (don't be fooled by the name, EVGA simply rebranded that jetway motherboard so the performance will be the same)

Athlon X2 3800+

OCZ Value RAM

XFX ROCKS!!! Haven't had a single problem with them so don't listen to this guy when he says the are the worst.

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: NatePo717

Originally posted by: Crescent13
for more value, get this

x2 3800+, overclock it to 4400+ speeds, the 2mb of cache doesn't make that much of a difference

2GB of value ram will get you more performance than 1GB of this ram. (I think)

DO NOT BUY XFX!!!! THEY ARE THE WORST BRAND EVER!!! get the EVGA from newegg, zipzoomfly, or monarch, and you will get a FREE SLI MOTHERBOARD!! It outperforms the SLI-DR in almost all gaming tests.

I will find some links soon.

Welcom to the forums!!

EDIT: oh, and what monitor do you have? If you will be playing at a resolution below 1600x1200, then a 7800GTX is overkill. A 7800GT would suit you better at lower resolutions. and I am assuming that you have a case, power supply, dvd drive, hard drive, floppy drive, mouse, keyboard, speakers, sound card, and monitor.

7800GT + free motherboard
or
7800GTX + free motherboard

review on free motherboard (don't be fooled by the name, EVGA simply rebranded that jetway motherboard so the performance will be the same)

Athlon X2 3800+

OCZ Value RAM

XFX ROCKS!!! Haven't had a single problem with them so don't listen to this guy when he says the are the worst.

Does XFX have a lifetime warraty? Does XFX offer free top-of-the-line SLI motherboards?

 

[Argonian]

Thanks for the input about xfx but im using a xfx geforce 5900 at the mo and have had no problems and the xfx geforce 7800 gtx has being fairing well, especially the extreme addtion in reviews! Ive heard that the msi geforce 7800gtx is meant to be better at stock speeds! not 2 sure which make 2 get! still going for the gtx rather than the gt cause im buying a 24inch widescreen dell monitor that can run resolutions above 1600x1200 easily!

About the powersuppy and case im gettin the antec p180 plus extra fans with a Enermax Noisetaker 600W EG701! Cant decide on hard drive thinking about getting two

160Gb Western Digital WD1600JS Caviar SE (7200rpm,8Mb) - SATA II NCQ Lead Free

in raid 0! would it make a big difference in game load up speeds if i got two western digital raptors hard drive any 1 know?

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: Argonian
Thanks for the input about xfx but im using a xfx geforce 5900 at the mo and have had no problems and the xfx geforce 7800 gtx has being fairing well, especially the extreme addtion in reviews! Ive heard that the msi geforce 7800gtx is meant to be better at stock speeds! not 2 sure which make 2 get! still going for the gtx rather than the gt cause im buying a 24inch widescreen dell monitor that can run resolutions above 1600x1200 easily!

About the powersuppy and case im gettin the antec p180 plus extra fans with a Enermax Noisetaker 600W EG701! Cant decide on hard drive thinking about getting two

160Gb Western Digital WD1600JS Caviar SE (7200rpm,8Mb) - SATA II NCQ Lead Free

in raid 0! would it make a big difference in game load up speeds if i got two western digital raptors hard drive any 1 know?

If you have the 2405FPW (24" dell monitor), you should run all your games at it's naitive resolution, which is 1920x1200. If you run at anything below that, they will look blurry. You should get a 7800GTX for that monitor. you want extreme clockspeeds? . Good Case and PSU! Western digital raptors are overrated, and the don't perform as well as everyone says. It wouldn't make much of a difference in game load times. Even gigabyte's solid state storage device (it's ram that acts like a hard drive) didn't make that much difference in load times. I would just stay with the hard drives that you have.

EDIT: also note that with the cooling on that 7800GTX, you can manually overclock it higher than those "extreme" stock speeds, but you will not be able to get the free motherboard if you get that card. I would reccomend getting the cheapest DFI Lanparty motherboard, and doing this.

 

[Argonian]

Thanks for the advice think i agree with you about the raptors! the only good thing about solid state is faster OS startups so not worth it especially how easily data is lost on them unless you have a spare £100,000 plus to spend on a top of the range solid state hard drive:laugh:

I notice you have Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS whats the sound quality like, would it be a good investment cause i already own a £500 sony external amp with various digital processors!

What about the new sound blaster cards cant remeber the name something like x-fi

 

[love2skate824]

Originally posted by: Crescent13

Does XFX have a lifetime warraty? Does XFX offer free top-of-the-line SLI motherboards?

Yes, XFX does have a lifetime warranty.

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: Argonian
Thanks for the advice think i agree with you about the raptors! the only good thing about solid state is faster OS startups so not worth it especially how easily data is lost on them unless you have a spare £100,000 plus to spend on a top of the range solid state hard drive:laugh:

I notice you have Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS whats the sound quality like, would it be a good investment cause i already own a £500 sony external amp with various digital processors!

What about the new sound blaster cards cant remeber the name something like x-fi

Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS is enough for my little altec lansing vs2121's. If you have high quality speakers, then you would want something better. It's really about average. What speakers do you have? Your external amp is only as good as the signal that's going into it. How about this? That sound card is probably the best price/performance ratio.

 

[Maluno]

If you aren't planning on building this until december, then don't make up your mind on components now, things change quickley in the computer hardware world. You can start looking, but don't expect to have a concrete list of components for a build that is 4 months away.