New Rig suggestions please...

[Vasper44]

Going to be buying some new equipment in the next day or so. My wife and I usually play everquest 1 and 2 online and I play some others like HL2 and Doom3.

current setup:
AMD athlon XP 2600+ @ 3000+ speed
Shuttle AN35N Ultra
1gig Mushkin dual channel value ram
ATI 9800 Pro
WD 40gig 7200rpm 2M Hard drive
Aopen case with included 300W PSU


What I am thinking on buying:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 90nm and OC'ing to 2.4-2.6 if lucky
DFI lan party UT Ultra-D
OCZ Gold Series Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 Gold VX
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON X850 XT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only
OCZ ModStream 450W Power Supply with OCZ EZMod technology, SATA Connector, Model "OCZ45012U" -RETAIL
ZALMAN CNPS7000B-AlCu Aluminum + Copper CPU Cooler for Socket 478/462/754/939/940 CPUs -RETAIL

Reason I'm not gettting the DFI -SLI is EQ2 doesn't currently support SLI, although may in the future, but by then I may upgrade again,
and there are alot of problems with the 6800 series cards stuttering in EQ2.

Any additions or subtractions from all are welcome, but 1 question I have is the Hard drive says drive only, should I get a retail one since all drives I have had up to this point were ATA? Buy cables seperately, since theres a 25$ MIR for the OEM drive, which makes it around $150, compared to $225 for retail?

 

[Vasper44]

Sorry, i just realized something.
Since I'm buying a new MB all the cables for the serial Hard drive would be included in MB box? No need to buy others correct ?

 

[TomKazansky]

depends on which oem, but they should include it, check before you buy.

 

[thegimp03]

hmm, most likely.

 

[TheOasis]

looks fine, though i would personally get a antec true 480 and a thermalright XP-90. the motherboad (if it is RETAIL) should have all the cables you need.

 

[masshass81]

Keep your old RAM, it will work just as good as that overpriced 'gold series' RAM. I'd personally get a larger capacity 7200RPM drive for much cheaper. Other than that, it looks good.

 

[Vasper44]

I'm going to try my old ram in the new rig, but I am giving old MB, video, memory to mother in law ( Trying to raise faction level ). If the old Mushkin value ram works well in new rig I will buy more instead of higher priced RAM.

Also should have mentioned, will still use current WD hard drive for photo storage etc., new raptor will be for loading Win XP pro, and EQ2 faster.

 

[Ike0069]

That's a good price for the Raptor and OEM is fine. Personally I've never even bought a retail HDD before.
You might consider getting a 3200+ for the 10X multiplier. Whne OC'ing, you'll be happy you did.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Vasper44
New Rig suggestions please

Read through all the...
"Rate my rig"
"How does my setup look"
"Should I change anything"
"Will these parts work together"
"I feel stupid, hold my hand"
"Help me with my specs"
"My mother is at work, help me order my parts"
...threads to get an idea of what to buy.

Basically it boils down to an AMD 64 3200-3500, SLI MB, fast video card (only one for now), Value DDR, Maxtor HD, and some middle-of-the-road PS.
That's what all the cool kids are doing these days. :laugh:

 

[ribbon13]

Except for the Maxtor HDD, ditto Blain!