New to PC building...

[Banks]

hi there! (first post so, i'll say a nice and warm... > hello! < // first on, english isn't my mother language, so please have some mercy with my english skills..)

okay - now ontopic, i'm relativly new to pc building - and i wanted to build my new pc , all by myself. i started reading reviews, surfed some forums (anandtech of course!), asked some friends .... and came up with a system - that looks good to me. (remember, newbie )

so i wanted to ask some of you, to discuss my newly build rig ... i would love to see some helpful comments, because i don't want to spend my money on parts, that don't really match ..

okay - here it comes :

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ - socket 939 - (will try to oc it to 3800+ specs, if that's possible)

MOBO: MSI K8N Neo2 nForce3 Platinum - socket 939 -

COOLING SYSTEM [CPU]: Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu

RAM: Corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPRO / latency: 2-2-2-5 [perhaps will change this, because it costs alot (well, at least i think it costs alot...).

(OS) HD: Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive (pretty sure i'm going to get this baby..)

PSU: Antec - True Power 480 - 480 Watt ATX12V (good ?! - enough for cpu\gpu\mobo ?! - does it match with the case ?!)

CASE: Thermaltake Highest Xaser III Super Tower Case, Model "V2000A" (really like this one, friend of mine has it, and he's really happy with it ... oh.. and I do like it too )

GPU: BFG 6800 GT OC - 256MB GDDR3 Memory (yap..think i'm going to take this baby - will perhaps oc it to ULTRA speed)

COOLING SYSTEM [GPU]: Zalman ZM80D-HP [maybe i'll buy the option "ZM-OP1" fan, does it make a much better cool down effect ?! // so, is it worth it ?! (sry for this sentence, hopefully somebody out there will understand it .. ]

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okay, that's it , in general , a storage HD and cd\dvd drives will be bought too, but isn't soo neccessary right now.

okay - well, a few words from my side, i choose this rig, because:

"64 bit cpu > future \\ skt. 939 > future \\ 6800 (shader 3.0) > future" (am i right?!)

so i'm hoping to have this system for a longer amount of time (let's say 3+ years..). of course - if neccessary - i'm going to oc\buy new parts if my pc gets too old\slow. [again, sry for my english..)

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okay, now i'm hoping to get some answers from you peeps, discuss 'my' system - and please - name new\BETTER parts .... which i can buy\should buy.

thanks, and have a nice day!

-Banks-

 

[PhoenixOrion]

If you are planning to oc your cpu, you might want to check heatpipe technology for better cooling from Thermalright or Alpha.

I'm assuming you are getting at least 1 Gig of system memory. You might be able to shave a couple of dollars by looking at low latency offerings from OCZ or Kingston or Ultra, etc.

GPU cooling system may not be needed as bfg stock is adequate for oc to ultra speeds and you have case with side fan to blow onto gfx card.

You are correct about future-proofing if it stands that AMD is trying to unify under 939.

 

[spazo]

Ya know, your English is a helluva lot better to read than that of most other forums I go to...

And as far as the computer parts go, theres not really much more you can add to make it "better"..

 

[Banks]

okay, thank you PhoenixOrion for your reply.

so, the zalman system isn't good enough (for oc'ing) - so you recommended me thermaltake or alpha.....okay - i looked a bit on the thermaltake site , and i found this - Thermaltake Venus 12 Highest Performance Cooler

so - is this better?

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and yes, i'm going to get 1 gig of sys. mem, but i haven't had experience with OCZ (heard of kingston , yes ) memory ... can anybody recommend me a OCZ memory 'stick' ?! thanks!

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oh, didn't know that the bfg stock CS was good enough.... wanted to get sure - and buy an extra gpu cooling system - but in that case, i think i'm going to stick with that stock one then.

okay - thx so far, hoping to get more answers - thanks.

//edit: thanks spazo

 

[Gurck]

Hi, welcome to AT

These are just my opinions...

- I wouldn't buy an MSI motherboard, too many people have complained of problems with them. Personally I prefer Asus, but DFI and Abit are well-respected manufacturers as well, and there are other high quality brands.

- SATA drives, even the Raptors, have been tested to be only slightly faster than 7200rpm, 8mb cache IDE drives - but they're a lot more expensive. You can shave a lot off the price here by getting an IDE drive.

 

[Banks]

okay thanks Gurck , nice tip with the Raptor HD .... didn't know that. (good to know, so - any suggestion for a very good IDE HD? [7200rpm, 8mb cache , etc. ... as Gurck mentionend] ).

okay, so .... mobo > so i have heard , that EPoX boards should be good too.... anybody can clear this out? - oh, and also heard that 'i' should wait for "DFI "nF3 ULTRA-D LanParty" - socket 939" ...... is this any good?

thanks so far!

 

[Gurck]

I'd go with WD or Maxtor, but any 7200rpm, 8mb cache drive should do (except perhaps for IBM Deskstars - aka. Deathstars ). But WD &amp; Maxtor seem to be the most popular among ATers.

 

[nick1985]

if you wanna save a buttload of money, dump that ram and buy regular PC-3200 instead.

get a couple of these instead, there is hardly ANY difference in speed.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

I wrote thermalright. not thermaltake.

for cpu cooling.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Since your planning on OCing might want to look into pc3500 ram. Pro corsair ram looks awesome in window cases though : ) The Zalman fan also looks really good in a case, but it's more for decent but quiet cooling. The 6800 GT can't fit the zalman cooler so that's a no go. I'm a fan of asus for mobos... but that's only based on the fact that alienware uses asus mobos.

 

[Banks]

okay, thanks - learning so much - that's wonderful.

okay, i'm sry PhoenixOrion ... my brain must have had a bug or something like that ...

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thx nick1985 for the tip, will look for it later on.

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thx AyashiKaibutsu (sry if i mispelled your name) - will look for pc3500 ram then, hm.. is there any good suggestion for this ram? like - little latency, good performance, and so on ...

oh...and... crap didn't know that this zalman system doesn't fit the 68 gt , but as earlier mentioned, the bfg seems to have a nice stock cooling system...so i think it's okay (and it saves me some money ).

okay - thanks so far......going to work this out later, perhaps will edit this post, with my 'new-new' build rig....

keep them answers coming!

 

[cw42]

Originally posted by: Gurck
I'd go with WD or Maxtor, but any 7200rpm, 8mb cache drive should do (except perhaps for IBM Deskstars - aka. Deathstars ). But WD &amp; Maxtor seem to be the most popular among ATers.

u forgot seagate with 5yr warranty.

 

[Pollock]

Originally posted by: Gurck
I'd go with WD or Maxtor, but any 7200rpm, 8mb cache drive should do (except perhaps for IBM Deskstars - aka. Deathstars ). But WD &amp; Maxtor seem to be the most popular among ATers.

Well, since Hitachi has taken over IBM's hard drive line there's been nothing but good stuff coming from them. I also beg to disagree that SATA drives are a lot more expensive than their IDE counterparts. I got my Hitachi SATA 80GB for $66, when the cheapest 80GB 8MB cache IDE was a $65 WD. Of course, WD Caviars are like $58 now, so...

 

[Luthien]

Fist good luck getting that mobo and video card since they are sold out with shifting ETA's everywhere. The raptor is not worth the extra cash. Get two Seagate 200GB SATA drives instead with 5 year warranty etc.

Get the V2000 Lian-Li case which is the same but not black and not labled by another company as their own. All Aluminum and shiny looks nicer.

Also get the Antec 550W true power instead.


Mushkin 512 / 3200 x2 until prices drop. No questions asked warranty replacement.

 

[RadioHead84]

I am building pretty much the same thing you are..

I ordered my GT from EVGA and hopefully it gets hear tomorrow..only thing left to decide before i buy is the RAM and MB....i dont know much about either

 

[Banks]

thanks Luthien, thanks RadioHead84 , thanks everyone who answered.

okay, so..let's see - i know, the mobo and vid. card will be a bit of a prob, i'll have to see if i get my hands on those in europe. so, i have to consider what hd's i'll take....perhaps - i'll go with the 2x200GB [seagate sounds good, with 5 years warranty, but i'm also a 'fan' of WD \ maxtor ... so i'll see..].

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oh, and i checked the price of the "lian-li v2000" case ..... is it really £195.99 ?(recording to that site. ) i didn't want to spend so much money on a case [fyi : the thermaltake i 'choose' costs around £120~ (well, i prefer ? but pound is the first thing i found...so i did choose that as example) ].

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okay, that PSU shouldn't be a problem.... antec, just what i wanted, just a bit more powerful.

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ahh, the ram... well... - i know, it's kinda expensive, it would cost me around 300 ? , but..... i'm going to get a nice bonus out of this, (that's why i'm buying the pc..... lol) , so money (not too much!) shouldn't be a big problem. and, i read about a review on anandtech (heh) , where they've said that this ram [Corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPRO] is one good choise.. . so i'm pretty postive i'll get that ram, but thanks for the tip with mushkin.


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nice to hear RadioHead84, i think reading some articels, or reviews on sites, gets you to the same 'point' where i am right now. i'm happy, with that rig i brought up (remember, i'm a newbie to building-your-own-pc). i took my time, and decided whether is a good part, or bad part for my pc. i think everyone who wants to buy\build a new pc, should take time to read (read, read , read...) reviews from well-known (again anandtech as example, lol) sites\peeps to choose which part you want to take, because i think - nobody wants to spend their money on some 'bad stuff' - rather than having a well built rig .
i wish you good luck in building your new pc, just take the right parts.

thanks so far, any suggestions will be helpful - hoping to see some more.

//edit: something was f'd up. oO

 

[RadioHead84]

Originally posted by: Banks
thanks Luthien, thanks RadioHead84 , thanks everyone who answered.

okay, so..let's see - i know, the mobo and vid. card will be a bit of a prob, i'll have to see if i get my hands on those in europe. so, i have to consider what hd's i'll take....perhaps - i'll go with the 2x200GB [seagate sounds good, with 5 years warranty, but i'm also a 'fan' of WD \ maxtor ... so i'll see..].

----------------

oh, and i checked the price of the "lian-li v2000" case ..... is it really £195.99 (recording to that site. ) i didn't want to spend so much money on a case [fyi : the thermaltake i 'choose' costs around £120~ (well, i prefer ? but pound is the first thing i found...so i did choose that as example) ].

-----------------

okay, that PSU shouldn't be a problem.... antec, just what i wanted, just a bit more powerful.

-----------------

ahh, the ram... well... - i know, it's kinda expensive, it would cost me around 300 ? , but..... i'm going to get a nice bonus out of this, (that's why i'm buying the pc..... lol) , so money (not too much!) shouldn't be a big problem. and, i read about a review on anandtech (heh) , where they've said that this ram [Corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPRO] is one good choise.. . so i'm pretty postive i'll get that ram, but thanks for the tip with mushkin.


----------------

nice to hear RadioHead84, i think reading some articels, or reviews on sites, gets you to the same 'spot' where i am right now. i'm happy, with that rig i brought up (remember, i'm a newbie to building-your-own-pc). i took my time, and decided whether is a good part, or bad part for my pc. i think everyone who wants to buy\build a new pc, should take time to read (read, read , read...) reviews from well-known (again anandtech as example, lol) sites to choose which part you want to take, because i think - nobody wants to spend their money on some 'bad stuff' - rather than having a well built rig .
i wish you good luck in building your new pc, just take the right parts.

thanks so far, any suggestions will be helpful - hoping to see some more.

Yeah i have been reading a lot and since i orderded the video card(So hard to find so do it when you can) I am on a time table. I need to get this thing build like next week or my card will be put to waste.

I am going with a 160WD SATA drive..and at the moment i have the XMS Corsair 3200 (2 x 512) sticks picked out for memory. I wanted the MSI but i dont know when that is coming out now. Its all up in the air..i dont really OC either so who knows..

Keep me updated on how yours goes

 

[Macro2]

You're a lucky guy banks but i'd get the Asus nforce3 board over the MSI.

The other suggestions you're getting a great too...

 

[Banks]

thanks again RadioHead84 and Macro2 for your replies.

okay, the 160WD sata sounds positive, and the ram too....well - the mobo is one good choice -->>AnandTech Mobo Article ... so.. try looking for it (i'll do the same ). yes - i will post in my 'updates' for my rig, contacting my friend (father of my friend = pc shop owner > big bonus for 'his' mate [me ] ) right now, to ask him about some parts of the pc..... he told me it shouldn't be a problem to get those (well, i'm lucky, i still have enough time to wait for it.. and i'm not in a hurry either).

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heh, thanks Macro2 [i know, it's a 'gift of god' that my mate's dad owns a pc shop , and he'll grand me a relative big bonus on all the parts i'll order (his son\my mate, will buy the exact pc like i do ... i'm building it - he + me are buying it .. his father will give us bonus ... and we're all happy ... lol ].

okay, Macro , the Asus nforce 3 board you mentioned, i read about it earlier, but i think i'll stick with the MSI (read here : click me! ). but suggestions are still very helpful for me....

okay - again, thanks - you people rock!

 

[LongCoolMother]

since im not an avid OCer like the other kiddies around here, ill just leave my comments. from what i see, the system seems to fit real well together, and its going to be a great performer, and very high quality.

however, if you're going to be OCing, perhaps a switch in the cpu cooler is in order. the CNPS7000 is an extremely good performer (one of the best as you may know), but the pure Cu version should be slightly better for only a few bucks more. you might want to pick up a new fan for it as well if you're planning on OCing, the heatsink is by far one of the best, but the fan wont cut it (its made to run quietely).

btw. thats one sweet system. the 6800gt :Q!!!

 

[Banks]

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother
since im not an avid OCer like the other kiddies around here, ill just leave my comments. from what i see, the system seems to fit real well together, and its going to be a great performer, and very high quality.

however, if you're going to be OCing, perhaps a switch in the cpu cooler is in order. the CNPS7000 is an extremely good performer (one of the best as you may know), but the pure Cu version should be slightly better for only a few bucks more. you might want to pick up a new fan for it as well if you're planning on OCing, the heatsink is by far one of the best, but the fan wont cut it (its made to run quietely).

btw. thats one sweet system. the 6800gt :Q!!!

thanks LongCoolMother.

i'm happy to hear that you've got good words for my rig...makes me happy (newbie = likes doing something right...).

okay, yes - and i'm probably one of those "kiddies" that is going to oc his pc (maybe not in the near future, but i will). so - yes, i will change almost every stock cooling system\fan to get a better one. i'm going to surf to the zalman site, to get some infos about the cooler you mentioned. as above mentioned , PhoenixOrion said the zalman cooling system i've chosen wasn't good enough, he told me to search for a new one, from alpha or thermalright , and i came up with finding something from thermaltake (lol, my bad...) - it's called:
Thermaltake Venus 12 Highest Performance Cooler. is this any good ?! (or worthless, and i should go with the CNPS7000(CU) you mentioned ?).

and and thanks for the commendation for the system. [yes, i think i'll love this GPU].

keep on posting!

[will edit the first post later on, with new parts added ; old ones or useless crap removed]

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: Banks

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother
since im not an avid OCer like the other kiddies around here, ill just leave my comments. from what i see, the system seems to fit real well together, and its going to be a great performer, and very high quality.

however, if you're going to be OCing, perhaps a switch in the cpu cooler is in order. the CNPS7000 is an extremely good performer (one of the best as you may know), but the pure Cu version should be slightly better for only a few bucks more. you might want to pick up a new fan for it as well if you're planning on OCing, the heatsink is by far one of the best, but the fan wont cut it (its made to run quietely).

btw. thats one sweet system. the 6800gt :Q!!!

thanks LongCoolMother.

i'm happy to hear that you've got good words for my rig...makes me happy (newbie = likes doing something right...).

okay, yes - and i'm probably one of those "kiddies" that is going to oc his pc (maybe not in the near future, but i will). so - yes, i will change almost every stock cooling system\fan to get a better one. i'm going to surf to the zalman site, to get some infos about the cooler you mentioned. as above mentioned , PhoenixOrion said the zalman cooling system i've chosen wasn't good enough, he told me to search for a new one, from alpha or thermalright , and i came up with finding something from thermaltake (lol, my bad...) - it's called:
Thermaltake Venus 12 Highest Performance Cooler. is this any good ?! (or worthless, and i should go with the CNPS7000(CU) you mentioned ?).

and and thanks for the commendation for the system. [yes, i think i'll love this GPU].

keep on posting!

[will edit the first post later on, with new parts added ; old ones or useless crap removed]

lol. phoenixorion meant thermalright. anyway, the venus 12 is a good cooler, my friend recently got one for his athlon xp 2000+ (yes, its old) and it cools very well, although it definately isnt as quiet as the zalmans, even at the low setting. the cnps7000b-alcu or cu is actually better if it were my guess, the only drawback you'll have is the massive size. as long as it fits, it should be one of the best coolers. what i did reccomend though, was to replace the fan with something faster, depending on how tolerant you are of noise.

as for alpha or thermalright, thermalright has a new cooler called the "silent tower" and it looks pretty interesting. i dont know anyone who uses it, but it definately looks cool, and it can probably cool like crazy, especially with the dual-fans. alpha's PAL8942 is still pretty sweet, but i think its starting to get old, as newer, better performers are coming out. if you go around the cases/cooling section a whoollle bunch of people are still on the PAL8942 though. so thats pretty good too.

i would still suggest the cnps7000b though. as long as it fits, it should be one of the best coolers, assuming the low-speed fan is replaced.

 

[Banks]

thanks again LongCoolMother!

ahh, yes - the cooler you mentioned was my first choice .... so - it sounds very nice. i'm right now at a point, were i'm trying to choose between the thermaltake one and the zalman .... hmm .... we'll see (i'll keep the thermalright one in mind.).

okay....... but..... i'm not sure about the "replacing the low-speed fan" on the zalman cooler. can you explain it to me? perhaps give me an example of a better fan. ?!

thanks so far ..... going to sleep now, i'm really tired. ciao