New $2000 PC take 2

[Stumben2]

After some well appreciated feedback on my first build choices, here is the latest. After doing more research I realized where I made some not so smart choices in my first set up. However, there may still be things I can improve/save money. I am going pre-built from monarch ( current plan anyway ).

I am NOT going to SLI.
I may overclock in the future, but for now I do not see the need... just covering options.

The DFI board just sounds awesome, granted I may not need its OC'ing potential. I realize the Epox board may be better value by 20$ but its not available at Monarch.

Question on the Ram below, which I BELIEVE is the value select... If I DO overclock... can I get by with this ram or would I want the expert/pro series? Once again overclocking isnt my biggest concern, but I would like to know.

Power supply.. this Enermax liberty got great reviews, but do I really need 500W if I dont SLI? Probably not. But the next lower by Enermax ( 485w, or 400w ) only saves me 25$ or so. should I consider the 485w noisetaker?

I finally decided to go Dual Core. The X2 4400 seems to be a great buy ( the "sweet" spot " ). And it also comes with the newer stock heatsinks which sound awesome, so no need for aftermarket here! Same with the 7800GT for "Sweet spot". $300 just seems like a great value but I still have not ruled out the 7800gtx. Im not going ATI ( not that they bad, I like my 9800 pro , just prefer NVIDIA. )

CD/DVD/RW - not a biggy but feel free to recommend a better value for everything in one.

Here we go:
Case: 100159 - NO PS - Antec Performance One P160 ATX Mi
Power Supply: 100338 - PS 500W - Enermax Liberty ELT500AWT ATX 2
Monarch Logo Stickers: 800058 - Nemesis Logo (pictured above)
Motherboard: 110224 - DFI Lan Party UT NForce4 Ultra-D Audio/GB
Processor: 120241 - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual-Core 1MB Per
Thermal Grease: 800018 - Shin-Etsu G675 Thermal Grease
Heat Sink Fan: 800083 - None - Fan REQUIRED - except with RETAIL
Memory: 140210 - DDR (400) 3200 - 2 GB (2 pcs 1GB) Corsair
Hard Drive: 150352 - SATA3G - Western Digital Caviar SE 160 GB $88.71
CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD-RW: 160022 - Combo - Lite-On SHW-160P6S-05 16x8x8x/16x
Sound Card: 180427 - Creative Labs X-Fi Platinum 7.1 24-Bit So
Video Card: 190465 - eVGA GeForce 7800 GT 256MB DDR3/PCI-E/VIV
Operating System: 210112 - Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition w/SP2

This brings me to JUST over $1800. Real tempted to tack on the Logitech speakers... will just put me over $2k, but... maybe some nice sweet talking to the Wife and will still avoid the doghouse!

***EDIT, OOPS I accidentally didnt select a DVD/RW. I am getting a DVD RW/ CDRW combo. not sure which... the pioneer is 56$..... or plextor 85$...***

Thoughts?

 

[Broly]

spend that extra hundred on a PSU
What are the timings on your ram?
You don't need 2 cd drives man, just get one.

Other than that, that's pretty good

 

[Crescent13]

Here is my opinion on it.

First: Build it yourself.

Case: Antec P160 is good.
PSU: Enermax Liberty is awesome.
Motherboard: Stay away from the DFI CrashParty series, I had one for 3 days, it was nothing but headaches. RMA'ed it and got a ASUS A8N32-SLI instead
Processor: Get an opteron, i don't care if you don't want to overclock. The opteron 175 is 2.2GHz with 2mb of cache, just the same as the 4400+
Thermal Grease: Get some AS5
HSF: I highly reccomend Zalman CNPS9500
Memory: Get the OCZ equivalent of that corsair ram
HDD: WD is pretty good.
DVD burner: You don't need two
Sound Card: either get the X-FI Xtreme music, or the x-fi Fatal1ty (for the x-ram).
Video Card: SLI 2 7800GT's and slap some Zalman VF-700Cu's on them. (You get the most SLI bang for your buck with 2 7800GT's)
Operating system: Get xp Pro.


EDIT: Nice rig Broly :thumbsup:

 

[dclapps]

Everything looks good...I agree with your take on an epox board or another because of your uncertainty about overclocking, but if they don't carry it, they don't carry it. You can run a divider with a minimal performance hit on your ram to avoid having to buy the super expensive series. If you were on a smaller budget I would suggest to find a better price for that hard drive (or any drive). I think it was the other day I saw a 300gb sata for $90 so the deals are there, but I don't know if monarch will put all the other components together without a hard drive, so maybe you spending more here is worth the hassle.

two cents of course

 

[Broly]

Thanks man.

But He said no SLI so I assumed thats what he wanted...

Also check out his double cd drives he doesnt need it. The ram he didn't tell us the timings and there is some pretty bad cheap corsair 2gb kits that are xms if you do not look at htem properlY (saw one guy link em at fries)

Also... I suggest that he get something along a seasonic power supply since enermax may be good but again all cheap psu's have low efficiency wit hthe exception of a few (fortron seasonic). I got my phantom 500 for quietness and efficiency and it has not disappointed me one bit yet

just some food for thought

 

[Stumben2]

Correct, I am not going to SLI.

And, I understand the benefits of building my own but at this point I just want it, dont have the time, I have heard nothing but good things about Monarch, and just dont have the time to drive my self nuts hunting for deals only to save a couple hundred bucks. Mind you... I really do want to do this.. for fun... but maybe AFTER I have a new working rig

Yeah I am a aware I screwed up the DVD/RW choice honestly I just selected it real quick as its not all that important in comparison - for this boards feedback anyway But thanks for pointing it out.

I wish they had the fortron Power supply as a choice. Trade off for not building myself , but I am confident in the Enermax Liberty.

That was the first negative post I have seen on the DFI board. I suppose every board has a defect now and then. Should i be afraid? I know DFI used to be "ghetto" but now.. they seem to be one of the most highly regarded. My last Asus board FRIED and took the RAM with it.

 

[alimoalem]

i'd change the psu. you don't need that much power. if you want to spend the same amount, get a smaller seasonic or something

thumbs up to the optereon 175

 

[Caly]

My first LAN Party board fried but it was under odd circumstances.

(I hot plugged in an ancient external firewire hard drive that was mac-formatted and they both died.)

My 2nd board has been fine.

 

[Broly]

Stumben, the lanparty really does suck...

Believe me man. I had the ut series with the rdx200 and sometimes the pos thing would freeze up before post
at memory testing
after the raid bios


It sucks man stay away from it rust me. This is coming from someone who gave it away and shell out for a 32sli

 

[Crescent13]

I had excactly the same experience as broly. I gav it away and got a 32sli and it was the best choice i have ever made.

 

[Stumben2]

WOW. Ok... amazing how people can have completely different experiences. People were raving about it on the Motherboard forums ( last I looked )

Basically I would like a good Nf Ultra board. what about either of these?

Motherboard: 110679 - MSI Neo2-FI Audio/GB-LAN/USB/IEEE/SATA-RA ( not sure if this is the "ultra" )

Motherboard: 110308 - Abit KN8 Ultra nF4 Audio/GB-LAN/USB/PCI-E

They also have gigabyte, evga, asus ( read lots of bad things about the latest Asus boards )


For the power supply, I could knock it down to the 400w Enermax Liberty. Is 400w enough?

Man I have changed my mind on so many things so many times, but at this point I want it as close to perfect as possible!

 

[customcoms]

I DISAGREE ENTIRELY with the above comments on the Lanparty board. My best friend and I bothe have DFI Lanparty nForce4 boards and love them. IMHO, it is THE BEST board available in the price range. I would stay away from the crossfire one, which has been plagued with problems from the beggining (this isn't dfi's fault, the chipset isn't as mature as the nvidia nForce4 one). The asus and epox boards are good as well, but the epox doesn't match the overcloking potential (the asus is an excellent baord but is $100 more than the dfi). Stick with OCZ ram (Gold series)+lanparty+latest bios and it will be good. I don't think you should cahnge the psu. If anything, go higher. All these boards should have 480 watts minimum. The OCZ psu's are great as well (as is the tagan series I use). An opteron would be a good choice as far as processor.

Sam

 

[Broly]

price range?
are you kidding
the a8nsli32 spanks it silly in single card formation but I Think you should read htebenchmarks before you say "for the price" range since it's one of the most expensive computer parts out there

chem lab ttryl

 

[Stumben2]

And another vote for the DFI board kicking butt.

Seems its either awesome or fries ....

As for the OCZ ram, your not the first to recommend this to me. Actually they have 2 gig of the Platnium for same price as getting 2 gig of the gold ( would need to order 2nd gig seperately from this site ). So... seems like a good deal.

Why do you recommend the OCZ? better for overclocking? Price difference is minimal so I may consider it over the corsair.

 

[stevty2889]

I have had 0 problems with my DFI Ultra-D.

I recomend the NEC 3550 for a DVD burner. DVD burners are so inexpensive now, it just doesn't make sense to not get one. A 500w PSU is an overkill if you aren't going SLI, but nothing wrong with enermax. A 400-450w Fortron would be the best if you want a good PSU without spending a lot. I wouldn't use corair value ram with the DFI board, there are some known compatibility issues there. Using value ram to OC isn't a problem, thats what dividers are for, and it doesn't have a major performance impact. I recomend OCZ value ram for the DFI board.

 

[Stumben2]

Turning into a good Motherboard debate.

Too bad im going insane trying to decide

I really appreciate all the replies, I have learned so much from these forums

 

[lytalbayre]

I like the DFI ultra-D a lot. The only problem I've had with the board is user error. There are so many options and tweaks in the BIOS that it is really easy for the user to change a setting and introduce instability into their system. The board does support some awesome overclocking features, too.

HOWEVER,

I recently moved to an ASUS nforce4 SLI board because they are rock stable. Their BIOS might be a little limited, but you can still OC when needed and the user doesn't have all the opportunities to screw themselves over. Overall, I would recommend the ASUS for stability and ease of use and as the right board for a user who doesn't plan to tweak his computer more than use it.

my 2 cents.

 

[spwatkins]

I just saw this thread and I thought that I would mention that I bought the DFI Lanparty board for my 4400 X2 processor and it would lock up installing windows. I tried really hard for a couple of weeks to get it to work but I could never get it to boot with two CPUs available (i.e. by forcing some stuff in the BIOS I could get it to boot as a single CPU). In the end I gave up and bought an ASUS. Looking on the forums I found some people who had the DFI working with Athlon X2, and an equal number who didn't. Based on my experience, I can't recommend the board.

 

[Stumben2]

Well, the one thing is it is pre-built and pre-tested. They dont ship something that doesnt work. Or, I would sure hope not.

Still, I got too many negative replies here bout the DFI, so I need to explore the alternatives. Probable that it works great until you have a specific config then boom.

Might need to take this to the motherboard forum. ( again ! )

 

[Broly]

The asus a8n sli 32... No questions about it

case closed for the best mobo on the market kthxbai

 

[Stumben2]

Originally posted by: Broly
The asus a8n sli 32... No questions about it

case closed for the best mobo on the market kthxbai

I dont need SLI.

However, based on what I have read today, I am close to getting it ANYWAY. Mixed reviews on the non SLI asus boards . I do have room in the budget.

Last question Broly ( Ive appreciated your feedback ) ... do you have the PREMIUM version or am I fine with the other?

 

[Broly]

I have had to switch to the premium non 32 sli board, and that one too is rock stable

It's you choice. THe a8nsli32 overclocks better than a lanparty but has the stability of the premium.
the premium has no dual x16 lanes (irrelevant for any sli cards out right now and probably will be for the next 1 2 ish years) and has the 2 pci-e slots fitted togehter unlike the deluxe

bottom line is man, if you wanna have that extra headroom for overclocking whne your PC is geting slouchy, go for the a8n32sli deluxe
if you don't care for overclocking(likeme) and wanna keep you warranty intact... then just get the a8n sli premium, both great boads.

 

[Bobthelost]

I'd take broly's advice with a pinch of salt. Every other thread has him with a different computer...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

An excellent overclocking board, non SLI, half the price of the A8N32. DFI are slightly picky, but it's not as bad as you might think, not to mention that you will be having it pretested so it's NOT AN ISSUE.

Now as to the rest of the build, excellent, but you're wasting money on the PSU. Get a 400W one if you're not going SLI. I'd tell you to buy a 350W but you'd never belive that it would work (and it would).

As to the "improved overclocking ability" of the A8N32, you're looking at maybe 50mhz difference. Who cares? If you want to get that much more performance then buy a better case and fill it with 120mm fans.

 

[Broly]

bob seriously shut the hell up
because i don't post 40 times a day, doesn't mean I am advocating something.

ANd listen up you lying sack of trash,I give advice with things I have experience with UNLIKE You.

WHat different computer? SHow us yours before you start trolling forums to get "rep" with posts you damn fool

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: Broly
bob seriously shut the hell up
because i don't post 40 times a day, doesn't mean I am advocating something.

ANd listen up you lying sack of trash,I give advice with things I have experience with UNLIKE You.

WHat different computer? SHow us yours before you start trolling forums to get "rep" with posts you damn fool

Oooooh!

Well considering you've got a thread where you're getting a computer built to the spec in your sig, i get slightly suspicious, at what point did you decide you needed 2 4800X2 SLI'd 7800GTX 512 computers? (With the same spec, but different cases obviously)

But if you want to take this any further then edit or PM, let's not utterly piss on this poor guy's thread.