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Need help with unanswered questions about a new system

L

luco

Member
Hi,

I'll be building a new PC in the next two weeks, I I'd like your opinion on this setup:

Antec Sonata case (380W)
A64 3000+ S754
TT Silent Boost K8 HSF
ASUS K8V Basic motherboard (or MSI K8T - not sure)
2 x Samsung 512MB PC3200
2 x Seagate 120GB SATA
ATI AIW 9700 Pro
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card (from my current system)
LG GSA-4082B 8x4x12 DVD/RW
Logitech Cordless MX Duo
Viewsonic P95f+B 19" CRT

My current PC was built in June of 2001 and I don't overclock. So, I'm looking at something that will last me maybe another 3 years. I figure that next time I will upgrade I'll be getting BTX, PCI express, DDR2, and smoking LCD system.

I was hoping for Socket 939 CPUs/mobos to arrive, but I don't think that will happen. I heard they are introducing them June 1st. So, I take that mobos and CPUs won't hit the shelves until two weeks later. And even if they do, their price will likely be significantly higher than 3000+ S754 I'm looking at. Any opinions are welcome.

What do you think about the HDD configuration? Should I just go with 2 x 80GB Seagate SATA drives and save up for a storage IDE drive? I'm even thinking about saving cash and just go with one 120GB drive for now. Is RAID 0 really worth it?

I only do light gaming, although with this rig I'll be playing UT2004 with my friends. 🙂

Also, I know BENQ has a DVD/RW out there (DW822A) now that is supposed to be dual-layer upgradeable in September. Should I switch to that one?

And final itch that I have is a Samsung 172X LCD, but I think that will stretch my budget too much. Plus I'm not sure how great would the TV from my AIW look on it from angles.

OK. So, what are your thoughts? I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks.
 
Personally, I'm building a VERY similar system in the coming weeks. My advice is this first... ditch the 9700 AIW, and get a 9800 pro and a $40 TV card. It should run similarly in price and the 9800 will last you longer and play games much more smoothly.

Aside from that, the storage is a lot for me... you're talkin 240GB, it's a lot. I'd just get two smaller drives and put them into raid 0, or just one good SATA drive. The only benefit you'll get from the HD is loading levels faster in games, but once they are loaded... it's all your FPS and graphics card.

Aside from that, I think you got a winner. I'm lookin to build a very similarly speced system myself.
 
Originally posted by: Scribe
Personally, I'm building a VERY similar system in the coming weeks. My advice is this first... ditch the 9700 AIW, and get a 9800 pro and a $40 TV card. It should run similarly in price and the 9800 will last you longer and play games much more smoothly.

Aside from that, the storage is a lot for me... you're talkin 240GB, it's a lot. I'd just get two smaller drives and put them into raid 0, or just one good SATA drive. The only benefit you'll get from the HD is loading levels faster in games, but once they are loaded... it's all your FPS and graphics card.

Aside from that, I think you got a winner. I'm lookin to build a very similarly speced system myself.
Click to expand...

Actually, I agree on the video change, but I would get a single 74gb raptor, and a single 120 storage SATA drive. Who knows on the DVD burner. You still can;t get media, and the only place I found them was $13 each.
 
that's good advice Scribe gave. I'd also hold off on the burner till you can definitely get a dual layer, and suggest you buy one of the nF3 250 chipset based boards from Chaintech or Gigabyte because it's a faster chipset for gaming than the K8T800.
 
Thanks for your advice everyone.

(Note: all of my prices are in Canadian dollars)

You're right about the storage. That is too much considering I may be able to get a dual layer burner and have 9GB backup disks. The Raptors are nice, but a 36GB Raptor is $40 more than a 120GB Seagate plus I want the quietest drive possible. So, I'm gonna go with a single 120GB Seagate for now.

I was looking at the nForce3 250Gb chipset. Can you recommend a specific motherboard?

In the video department...
Well, I'm getting the AIW 9700 Pro for CDN$300. That's CDN$80 cheaper than AIW 9600XT and same price as a Sapphire 9800 Pro.

The 9700 Pro is still on its way and I can easily return it, but I wasn't able to find a good TV card that would work as PVR for a reasonable price. I'm open for recommendations.

Thanks again.
 
Plenty left at FutureShop 😉

Yeah I can get Sapphire 9800 Pro Atlantis retail box for $304 plus a Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert for $91, but I'm not sure if I should go this way or not. One downside is that AIW 9700 Pro doesn't have a remote. Leadtek has one.
 
Get the 9800 Pro, and then spend some money on getting a proper Hauppage WinTV PVR250MCE card from PCAlchemy.com; you can buy it with Sage as a bundle and have a *real* PVR solution instead of the half-assed one you're going to get going your route. It will work WONDERS (trust me I know). And you'll have spent what... maybe $50 more over the cost of just the 9700AIW 🙂
 
Well, not exactly. The AIW 9700 Pro is $300 and includes the tuner. The 9800 Pro + Leadtek is stretching my budget significantly already.

Going with 9800 Pro ($300) + Hauppage WinTV-PVR250 ($200), I would be spending $200 more not counting 15% tax on top of it! Way more than I want to spend.

These prices are in CDN dollars and yes the WinTV card retails for CDN$200.

So, if I cap my budget at CDN$400, what would you recommend?
1. AIW 9700 Pro
2. 9800 Pro + Leadtek WinFast TV2000 Expert
3. ???

And please don't say X800. LOL
 
Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
that's good advice Scribe gave. I'd also hold off on the burner till you can definitely get a dual layer, and suggest you buy one of the nF3 250 chipset based boards from Chaintech or Gigabyte because it's a faster chipset for gaming than the K8T800.
Click to expand...

There is virtually no performance dif between any current socket754 chipset in any major application area. The NF3-250 offers some nice stuff like gigabit LAN, built-in firewall, and agp/pci lock (which he doesn't need since he doesn't oc) but the 250 is not any faster the the K8T800, at least not in any review I've seen (I don't consider a 1 or 2 percent dif to be significant).

I have a very similar system atm, I use a 9800 Pro w/ATI TV Wonder VE instead of an AIW though. Also, I use a single 120 GB samsung PATA drive and have no issues with it, it's really quiet which is all I really care about, only 8MB drive I've ever owned so I can't really comment on its speed. I don't think SATA offers any real improvements over PATA (yet) anyway.

I use a TT Venus 12 which I believe is the same as the silent boost with a different fan. I swapped the fan for a Panaflo L1A anyway though, so it's prolly quieter then the silentboost.

As to the LCD, I have a 172N which I think is the same as the 172X but without dvi (correct me if I'm wrong). The display is good for off angle viewing on the sides a good bit but if you are above or below the optimum angle, the colors get washed out pretty quickly. I watch fullscreen tv on it all the time cuz my couch is right behind my comp, I just have to make sure to adjust the tilt so that it's perpindicular to my line of site.
 
Agreed on the chipsets.... I have seen such a small difference between them it's negligible besides, what you get in speed with one, you get in stability or OCing in another... that's why I'm going with the Asus board when I *do* buy it, since it's rock solid and that's all I really care about.
 
I see you're running K8V Deluxe.
I'm thinking of getting that board, so if the OC bug bites me later on, at least I have the option to OC and get a couple more months out of my system.
 
Originally posted by: Dman877
Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
that's good advice Scribe gave. I'd also hold off on the burner till you can definitely get a dual layer, and suggest you buy one of the nF3 250 chipset based boards from Chaintech or Gigabyte because it's a faster chipset for gaming than the K8T800.
Click to expand...

There is virtually no performance dif between any current socket754 chipset in any major application area. The NF3-250 offers some nice stuff like gigabit LAN, built-in firewall, and agp/pci lock (which he doesn't need since he doesn't oc) but the 250 is not any faster the the K8T800, at least not in any review I've seen (I don't consider a 1 or 2 percent dif to be significant).
Click to expand...
Actually there is a performance difference between nF3 250GB and K8T800 for gaming. If using a FX card with it, the difference can be as much as 35%! Thanks to optimizations in the forceware drivers designed to work best with FX and nv40 based cards. However, the 9800XT benefits for overall gaming performance by being in nF3 250gb too. Have a look at this tech report article that explores the optimizations between FX and nF3 250GB The Radeon picks up nearly 10% in QIII, 7% in Wolfenstein:ET, 8% in SS:SE, and where it doesn't win it is indeed neck&neck. As mentioned for the FX the difference is even more dramatic, and though the OP isn't using a FX card, for those who do, nF3 250GB looks to be the weapon of choice for gaming at the moment. Many of us are wondering why we haven't seen a single review of the 6800U on a nF3 250GB board since nV states that the optimization boost is applicable to the FX line and above cards, while G4 and below will see no benefit, although judging by the Radeon's improved performance the chipset will possibly make the G4 cards perform better too, just not with the some times dramatic gains we see with later gen nV cards.
 
Originally posted by: luco
I see you're running K8V Deluxe.
I'm thinking of getting that board, so if the OC bug bites me later on, at least I have the option to OC and get a couple more months out of my system.
Click to expand...
If the overclocking bug does bite you will definitely want nF3 250GB's AGP/pci lock, the K8T800 has niether. That can be the difference between a 200mhz overclock with A64 and 400mhz+ overclock which is substantial given how well A64 scales with clockspeed.
 
Originally posted by: Scribe
Thanks for that info DAPUNISHER, I think I might be looking for a NF3 board now 🙂
Click to expand...
No problemo brudda :beer: I know I am definitely going to upgrade from nF3 150 to nF3 250GB for the features and performance, particularly since I'm after a 6800GT to go along with one. The beauty is I won't have to do much beyond swap boards since it still uses the same forceware.
 
Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
Um go Socket 939
Click to expand...
Where are the boards and chips? What is the pricing? Why would he wait and go skt939 when he plans on keeping the system for 2-3yrs making skt939's better upgrade path irrelevant? Especially since the performance difference is minimal but the pricing is likely to be higher?
 
Unless 939 hardware is on the shelves in the next two weeks and it costs the same as current CPUs/mobos, it's out. Actually, I hope it will cause a little price drop for S754. But I doubt it.

AFA nForce3 250Gb boards, I can't find a single one in Canada! I've checked many online retailers and there are no nForce3 250 boards. Is it that new?
 
Geez I hate this place. LOL I'm kidding of course.

I was expecting that I'll change my setup million times after posting it here. hehe

Well, I went with 3000+ because it fit my budget and now I see a few people run it comfortably at 2.2GHz.

If I were to go with 2800+, I would want to invest the time to learn how to overclock it. That would mean I would likely want something better than my Samsung PC3200 RAM and a good board.

What can I realistically accomplish with 1MB cache that I can't do with 512KB on 3000+? (Note: I don't care about 3dMark score bragging rights.) 🙂
 
I like the setup, but AWESOME WIRELESS combo! I have an obsession with that series---good choice.

The MX Duo is great!
 
Right now, I have the Logitech Cordless Optical Freedom bundle. It's basically identical combo except the mouse is a little different and has a charger. That's why I'm switching it. I go through batteries when gaming.

OK. Time to sum up what I have so far...
 
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