New rig -- comments on choice of hardware wanted.

[Beard0]

The degradation of my HDD has finally forced me to buy a new comp.

Price range is up to 900 EUR (aprox. 1,300 USD).

The following setup under consideration;

Case: Antec p150 quiet white (Antec 430W NEO HE PSU included)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Mother: GA-EP35-DS4
RAM: Corsair Dominator 4096MB PC2-8500 1066MHz (2x2gb kit)
HDD: Samsung 500GB SATA II NCQ
Graphics card: ?

Bold text signifies parts already in my possession.

I require some feedback regarding the GA-EP35-DS4 motherboard as I have heard rumours about the built-in sound card being problematic.

Also, is 4 gb memory sufficient and is the above choice good?

What graphics card do you suggest, should I wait for the next generation of radeon/geforce to be released or should I get a card that is available already? What advantages might this yield? EDIT: I am mainly looking for single card solutions.

Additional thoughts/comments are welcome.



Thanks in advance,

A

 

[DSF]

Are you planning to overclock or not?

 

[Beard0]

Originally posted by: DSF
Are you planning to overclock or not?

It is a possibility, yes.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

if the pc is fine and its just the hard drive that broke, why dont u just replace the hard drive?

or is there some other reason and you just want to buy a brand new PC?

DDR2 1066 is def overkill for you. you will not be Ocing your FSB to 533mhz so u wont see much any performance increase from it.
the WDD 640gb hdd is a better choice for $100
the ATI 3870 is a great value for the money. There is also the new 4 series that u can read all about in the video section

 

[Beard0]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
if the pc is fine and its just the hard drive that broke, why dont u just replace the hard drive?

or is there some other reason and you just want to buy a brand new PC?

Well, first, I do not want to invest in obsolete technology (1.5 gb/s SATA) and then this finally gave me a real reason to upgrade.

DDR2 1066 is def overkill for you. you will not be Ocing your FSB to 533mhz so u wont see much any performance increase from it.
the WDD 640gb hdd is a better choice for $100
the ATI 3870 is a great value for the money. There is also the new 4 series that u can read all about in the video section

Ok, but is the difference in performance notable between 800 mhz and 1066 mhz memory otherwise? Would it be better then to buy 800 mhz and OC that?

Also, is it worth waiting for GTX 200 cards?

Could someone comment on the motherboard I have chosen, please?

 

[Beard0]

Bump. Thoughts?

 

[jdkick]

First, on the HDD comments, you can use 3GB/s SATA drives on 1.5GB/s controllers... most drives have either a jumper or can be switched in software. So, it's not like your investing in old tech just by replacing the failing drive in your existing machine.

Now, if you just want a new PC, so be it. 🙂 As noted above, look at the WD 640GB. DDR2-800 is fine and I would recommend Corsair (i'm running 10GB between three C2D systems and it's been 100% solid) - i've seen some good rebates recently too. I'd go with 4GB as I find 2GB a little limiting in some games. For video, the 8800GT is a pretty common choice these days and there are some good instant/mail-in rebates on Newegg:

ASUS EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M GeForce 8800 GT 512MB ($45 instant rebate/$30 mail-in rebate = cheap)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121224

There are also some XFX and BfG cards with instant rebates if you prefer one of those instead. If your concerned about upcoming models then you could wait and see where the performance lands. It may also drive down pricing on existing models too...