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pc gaming build

D

dk1m

Member
my budget is around $2k-2.5k

Case: (hm not sure.. feel free to add any recommendations that mite work with this build)

PSU: (hm not sure as well but i want to make sure it has enough power so i wouldnt mind if its overkill recommendations here would be nice as well 🙂)

Mobo: DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard ~ $194.00 (still not really sure whether to go dfi or asus a8n premium <both sli nf4>)

CPU: Athlon 64 x2 4200-4800 ~ $500-1000 (depending on whether i go over the $.. iv considered the fx 57 if enough $ was left but single threading jus sounds like outdated technology 2 me 😛 <IMO>)

RAM: OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K - Retail ~ $259.99 (have really no clue which ram is best just picked out the 1 with the best timing 2-3-2-5 <i think its the best timing not sure 😛)

HD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA II Hard Drive ~ $151.00 (or sata 150 western digital raptor not sure wuts really better here)

Video Card: Nvidia Geforce 7800gtx ~ $599.00 (im pretty sure about this 1 😀.. for the sli i mite add another gfx card if games start to require higher specs in the future)

Cooling: i want to go h2o but not really sure on which kits to use or really how it works.. does a water cooling system have no fans at all? and wut about the gpu can it cool that as well?

thanks (feel free to comment on anything 🙂)
 
Personally, I would spend $1000 and get a nice machine that will last a year or more. Getting the top of the line of everything is much too expensive and you can get most of the performance for a lot less money.
 
personally i would limit the $$ to ~$1000-$1500 at most.

the dfi board is nice but ram finicky and the ram you selected should work but who knows

do you need the x2 cpu? most games are single threaded. if you do go with a x2 go with the 4400 and o/c, personally i would go with a single core 3200 venice and o/c it

hdd looks good, try to get one on sale. the only benefit with the raptor is loading times, that is up to you.

most h2o kits have to have some type of radiator with a fan, but unless you are going to o/c like mad, i feel they are useless.

put the $$ you save into an ing savings acct and make 3% on it 🙂
 
First build the rig, run it on air for a few months.

Then if you want to go with water, you can do so. Setting up water cooling is pretty much just building another whole computer, and you can really break stuff if you don't know what you're doing. Be patient.

Also 2000 - 2500 is a little much, 1500 tops I'd say.
 
thx for the replies 🙂

hm moneys not too much of an issue i jus wanna make sure i have the best parts (long as im not ripped off im ok 😀)

hm ic so waters complicated.. its not that i wanna do mad overclocking but h20 seems too good to pass since its very silent i hear and NO DUST! i love that.. all my fans always get dust in them n u have to clean them so often which is a burden

hm how bout for the ram which brand do u recommend and model and for the mobo w/o ocing which would have the better performance dfi or asus

im still pretty new at this so any advice will help thx
 
Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
Personally, I would spend $1000 and get a nice machine that will last a year or more. Getting the top of the line of everything is much too expensive and you can get most of the performance for a lot less money.
Click to expand...
If you're spending 1k+ the pc will last 3 yrs at least with possibly a couple of minor upgrades. $1000 for 1 yr is craziness (ya i see you said "or more" but I want to be sure this guy understands...)

DFI and Asus are both good manufacturers and for RAM i'd say stick with Crucial or Corsair.
 
we understand you are new to this, that is why we suggest ~$1000-$1500 max, as you won't see significant perforamance improvement by spending and extra $1000.

computer will always attract dust, it is not the fan that attracts the dust, just the whole machine due to static electricity. you will still need to clean the machine out every so often. as far as boards are concerned, personally i would go msi as their nf4 boards seem to be a little more relaxed in the ram dept and really run nice.
 
hm yeah i did notice the higher up you go the more $ you have to spend for very slight performance increases.. spending less is even better.. i jus want to make sure the comp doesnt get outdated too quickly

static electricity ic.. never knew that lol but antoher thing im wondering about for the h20 systems is do they leak? i could just imagine how much trouble that would be if it leaked all over x_x
 
Add me to the chorus of people who say spend $1500 max now, and upgrade it down the road with the rest. Buying top-of-the-line now and having no money to upgrade it with in a years time means you'll get less mileage out of the system.
 
money does seem to add up pretty fast tho.. a athlon 2x 4400 + a geforce 7800 (or even a 6800 ultra) already equals over 1K and thats jus 2 parts to ur comp!
 
Originally posted by: dk1m
money does seem to add up pretty fast tho.. a athlon 2x 4400 + a geforce 7800 (or even a 6800 ultra) already equals over 1K and thats jus 2 parts to ur comp!
Click to expand...

the x2 is overkill for gaming, in fact it is overkill unless you plan on doing a lot of mulitasking or video editing/encoding. a 3200venice o/c would be excellent.

the 7800 is brand new, so you are going to pay out the a$$ for those.

the h2o system is overkill and not necessary to build a quiet machine unless you plan on o/cing hard. and yes, they can leak if not put together correctly. sometimes they are more of a novelty... get a case that can handle 120mm fans on the intake and exhaust and put a large hs/f combo on the cpu. the larger the fan the slower you can make it turn and still move a large cfm. 92 & 120mm should be your fans of choice, for a quiet pc.

get a p/s with a large fan too - i would look at enermax, seasonic, fortron, ocz, antec to name a few. get one that is native 24pin, x2 and sli ready. this is a nice p/s and i would recommend spending (don't get a piece of sh!t 600W $24.99 ps) for a good p/s as it will live for some time. cpus/mbs/gpus all have major changes atleast every 18mos, sometimes faster. i have been using some p/s that are over 3yrs old and they are still doing good.
 
Originally posted by: shoRunner
4200 X2 $585
or
AMD 3700+ San diego $325

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128279">gigabyte motherboard SLI
$136</a>
Antec Case $50
Enermax PSU 535watt $90
memory $80
DVD burner $49
7800GTX $599
seagate 250GB $123

~$1710

or go with a 3700 if not planning on doing some major multitasking
~$1500


i'm not sure if that board with come with the bios updated enough for revision E CPUs...

if you really want to spend all that money you could go with 2GB of Ram @ $180
Click to expand...

 
haahaha i come here to ask about high quality parts and everyone cares about me saving money i feel so loved ;-;.. its kewl tho ill take everyones opinions into consideration when buying my parts 🙂

pro build btw shorunner much more money effecient then my build haha
 
dk1m, a lot of people get the misconception that watercooling is silent. Well I assure you, it most definately is not. The pump itself is about 35+ dBA, paired with the high powered fan for the radiator which is another 30-some dBA and you've got quite a loud system.

Although dust can be a problem, if you do it right your comp can go up to a year without dusting. Mine went about 6 months before I had to dust, and I even have a case full of holes (look up Lian Li V1000)! Water is complicated and it's hard work (if you don't like dusting, you think you'll like changing out the water every few months?). I'm not trying to discourage you from going with water, but first get the hang of regular computer maintanence before trying someone new.
 
Originally posted by: shoRunner
Originally posted by: shoRunner
4200 X2 $585
or
AMD 3700+ San diego $325

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128279">gigabyte motherboard SLI
$136</a>
Antec Case $50
Enermax PSU 535watt $90
memory $80
DVD burner $49
7800GTX $599
seagate 250GB $123

~$1710

or go with a 3700 if not planning on doing some major multitasking
~$1500


i'm not sure if that board with come with the bios updated enough for revision E CPUs...

if you really want to spend all that money you could go with 2GB of Ram @ $180
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Hmm looking at shoRunner's build, everything looks great except I'd probably go with an Asus or MSI board. I just don't really like Gigabyte (although they aren't bad at all). DFI is probably the best, although you'll have to change the ram to something like Crucial or Mushkin Value.
 
Originally posted by: Mrvile
Although dust can be a problem, if you do it right your comp can go up to a year without dusting. Mine went about 6 months before I had to dust, and I even have a case full of holes (look up Lian Li V1000)!
Click to expand...

it also depends on where you live, i live in phx, az - dry & dusty, so i blow my machines out every 1-2 mos and there is definately a noticeable amount of dust that comes out. after i dust them my temps usually go down by ~1C.

dk1m - i say go with whatever board/ram you want - dif, asus abit, gigabyte or msi but get a 3200venice and o/c it. it is ~$150 and can easily go very high. this would be an excellent learning tool for also. frying a $150 part is a lot easier on you than frying a $500 part 😀 some other peeps can tell you how far you can go with the stock cooling and then next i would assume would be the nice thermalright xp90 or xp120 w/ appropriate fan to match. you should be able to go pretty high with those aftermarket hsf combos.
 
Originally posted by: Mrvile
Hmm looking at shoRunner's build, everything looks great except I'd probably go with an Asus or MSI board. I just don't really like Gigabyte (although they aren't bad at all). DFI is probably the best, although you'll have to change the ram to something like Crucial or Mushkin Value.
Click to expand...

i've used a few gigabyte boards and have always been satisfied with their quality and build. i don' think you can get a SLI board for cheaper and still be as feature rich as the gigabyte. the DFI is great for overclocking, but i'm not sure dk1m is ready for that yet.
 
hm im having trouble looking for a good psu which psu would be best for my build (i mite use the sli in the future and may overclock)

and for the tower which lian li model will work? or perhaps another brand? and why are lians lis better over the other towers

thx
 
the enermax i listed will work for sli...any Lian Li tower should work, they are simply all alumium(light) and well built.
 
Originally posted by: shoRunner
Originally posted by: Mrvile
Hmm looking at shoRunner's build, everything looks great except I'd probably go with an Asus or MSI board. I just don't really like Gigabyte (although they aren't bad at all). DFI is probably the best, although you'll have to change the ram to something like Crucial or Mushkin Value.
Click to expand...

i've used a few gigabyte boards and have always been satisfied with their quality and build. i don' think you can get a SLI board for cheaper and still be as feature rich as the gigabyte. the DFI is great for overclocking, but i'm not sure dk1m is ready for that yet.
Click to expand...

Well the thing is, he doesn't need SLI. Actually, he doesn't want to have SLI. Getting an NF4Ultra board and upgrading the video card as they come is the better option in most cases. So just getting an NF4Ultra saves a good 40 bucks already, maybe even more.
 
well im still gona get an sli mobo jus incase in the future i want a second vid card if games become more advanced

which psu?? i hear enermax and antec psus are suppose to be good? and what makes up a good psu other than the amount of watts it has?

edit: oh yeah and i read that lower ram timings arent neccessarily good for a nforce4 mobo i hear it needs higher ras or something like.. that wuts that about?
 
Originally posted by: dk1m
well im still gona get an sli mobo jus incase in the future i want a second vid card if games become more advanced

which psu?? i hear enermax and antec psus are suppose to be good? and what makes up a good psu other than the amount of watts it has?

edit: oh yeah and i read that lower ram timings arent neccessarily good for a nforce4 mobo i hear it needs higher ras or something like.. that wuts that about?
Click to expand...

as far as the p/s, the amount of watts is second to the quality of watts. and also where the amperage is being put out. some of the cheaper p/s will say 500W, but they are putting it in the wrong places. enermax makes nice p/s and the one i linked to up a few posts ago or the shoRunner linked to would be excellent.
 
ah ok thanks sry i missed some posts.. im reading off of so many different forums im losing track lol so the enermax whisper 2 sounds good 🙂

edit: hm would this whisper 2 give me trouble if i dont use the sli
 
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