• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Please Critique my First Build!

O

ohdamniskev

Member

We'll here's the deal. Im an 18 year old college student, so obviously I'm not rich. However, my mom is willing to match my dollar for the computer I'm about to build. In other words, if I spend $500, she'll lay down $500. The most I have to spend is $600 (the other $150 for games), so that leaves my budget around $1,200. Take a look at this build. Please keep in mind that I've never built a computer before so I need it to be user friendly as possible but I still want to overclock well. I'm only applying what I've learned and read from the forums and my current knowledge of computers. Primarily, this rig will be used for gaming ( BF2, Guild Wars, Rome Total War, FEAR), but also for school.

CASE: Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA -$102.99
PSU: NO IDEA? DON'T KNOW IF I NEED A 20 OR 24 PIN PSU
CPU: 3200 VENICE - $190.00
MOTHERBOARD: MSI NEO4 PLATINUM - $129.00 or ASUS A8N-E - $115.00
RAM: CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin - $123.00
VIDEO CARD: BFG 7800GT -$339.00 (AFTER REBATE)
HARD DRIVE: 74GB WESTERN DIGITAL RAPTOR OEM -$175.00 (HOW MUCH IS THE SATA CABLE?)
OPTICAL: LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner -$41.75

With that, I roughly hit my $1200.00 limit. As much as possible, I'd like to save more. Now, did I make the right choice choosing the 7800gt? Also, before you flame me on the 74gb raptor, I decided on it since I don't use much space at all and I have an external 7,200 RPM 120GB WD hard drive. With the case and psu, I really have no idea which to get. I was looking at the DFI LANPARTY UT mobo since it has great oc potential, but isn't easy to deal with. So, on with the suggestions please!



 
1. Buy this for your processor

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=A64-3200BW

$56.00 cheaper

You will need a good hsf if you want to overclock. Minimum around $30.00. So add that to your budget. (But you did just save $56.00)

2. The nec 3540 gets awesome reviews for a dvd burner and is around the same price. You will need some software so it might be best to buy the retail, boxed version for a couple of dollard more.
 
First, ditch the Tsunami. I owned one for a few months and the plastic on the inner door cracked because the 5.25 drives had to be forced into the bays, and the plastic hinges on the top door (for the USB ports) also broke very easily. Overall very poorly built. Not to mention, it's extremely loud.

Case: I would recommend a Coolermaster Praetorian or Lian Li PC-7 instead, in that price range.

PSU: I would recommend the Antec Smartpower 2.0 500w. Can be had for $75 shipped, is modular, and very quiet.

Motherboard: Good choices. I would prefer the MSI, I've heard of some RAM pickiness coming from the A8n-e.

Ram: Buy the Corsair Value RAM instead. You will see little to no performance benefit from the slightly tighter timings of the XMS. You are basically paying for heatspreaders.

Video: Excellent choice.

Hard drive: Excellent choice.

Optical: I would instead recommend either the NEC 3540 or the Pioneer DVR110, they are the same price and perform much, much better.



 
Wow.. that Coolermaster Praetorian does look nice. Definitely opting for it. Decided to switch to the NEC 3540. Since I do plan on ocing, is value ram enough? Thanks Boztech. With the 3200 venice at 2.0 ghz, I want to at least reach 2.4. I'm guessing the stock hsf is not good enough on the cpu? Looking at the deal on ZZF, thanks leigh6. I also read on the forums that the new venice chips don't oc quite as well. We'll keep them suggestions coming!
 
I have the Venice 3200+ and was running it 2600Mhz stable for a while with the stock cooler. I now use a Zalman CNPS7000bAlCu because it's slightly quieter, but run my chip at the same speed. The value RAM will be fine because you can run a divider, and with Athlon 64s it's been proven time and time again how little the latency and use of a divider negates performance due to the onboard memory controller.

Example, you can run 10x240 to reach 2400Mhz and run a 5/6 divider to keep your RAM at 200Mhz.
 
OK, you said ALL suggestions. So, here's one although I know many people hate me for recommending socket 754 CPUs but here it goes...

Someone in another thread asked about bottlenecking in a 7800 GTX so I gave him a link to a article on CPU scaling on firingsquad then I found benchmarks comparing X2s against the 4000+ for example in games. Well, the X2 3800+ was at 136 fps in UT2004 compared to 160 fps for the 4000+. The X2 4800+ was around the same performance as the 4000+ although it's FREAKIN' $884 US at newegg. You can get the socket 754 3700+ at ewiz for $158 US or Compuvest for $172 US.

For that kind of price, you afford to get that NOW and get a socket M2 motherboard in 18 months and a dual core at a much better price.
 
The 3200+ Venice is easily capable of FX-57 speeds that will blow away the S754 3700+, at the same price point. A socket 754 motherboard will limit his memory upgrade option for 2Gb as well, being as it only has three slots.
 
Hm... I was reading about socket m2 and rumors say it'll be short lived with ddr3 following in 2007. Also is there much of a difference between DDR and DDR2? Did research and benchmarks between the two are relatively the same. Unless the m2 offers extraordinary benefits, I think i'll stik with 939 pins. Thanks for the suggestions though!
 
dont waste soo much money on your case and those raptors raptors arent that uber anymore thisis what i would get

Antec Solution SLK3000-B 49.00
FSP Group AX450-PN 450W 49.99

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 219.00
EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra 105.00
CORSAIR ValueSelect 2 x 1GB 212.15
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 16MB 250GB 93.50
NEC DVD Burner ND-3540A 39.98
XFX Geforce 7800GT 384.00

Total 1152.62

also if you dont liek my case you can that plateron one personally i think its ugly cuase the ones i seen have a dam spartan sticker on the side of it lol

dont waste money on flashy cases and lights or expensive ones

that maxtor hardrive has a 16 mb chache and is almost if not as fast as a raptor
 
case: antec
psu: fortron ax500/seasonic s12 500w/600w
cpu: 3000+ venice
motherboard: epox 9npa+ultra
ram: ocz value 1GB(or x 2)
video card: fine
hard drive: it's fine... but you can switch to a Hitachi 7k250 for comparable speed at a much better price per GB, Samsung SP2504C for quietness, or a Seagate 7200.8/.9 for overall quietness/reliability
optical: BenQ DW1640
 
u could switch your cpu to a 3700 San Diego for ~260-270....but the 3200 venice is a great choice too. stick with the value ram as stated earlier too.....any reason why you want a 10k rpm hard drive? cause if you're just getting it to have it, you can get a SCSI drive for the same price and a bit better performance....
 
If the SATA cable comes with the mobo, then getting the Raptor OEM is fine right? Rather than have more space (since I don't use much anyway and I have an external 120gb 7,200 RPM WD), I'd rather have more speed in load times. If my knowledge serves me right, don't SCSI drives require SCSI controllers? Those range pretty high.
 
I would say get a Sonata II. It's a nice quiet case w/ a Smartpower 2.0 450W. It shouldn't break $100 case and PSU combined. (got mine for $90)

Both the 3000 and 3200 overclock well. I would get a Thermalrite XP-90 w/ a Panaflo fan for cooling. Look at jab-tech.com for cooling stuff

Value ram is the way to go. Ram doesn't give you more performance at higher cost on AMD machines. (due to AMD's already efficient onboard memory controller)
I got 2x1G OCZ performance and I sorta wished I save that $20 and got OCZ value instead.
That said, you should get OCZ value over Corsair value. While Corsair has a good reputation, they sometimes mix chips on value ram (cuz it's value ram!)
Getting 2G of ram over a faster Hard Drive is another possible option. It may make the initial loading times for large software a few secs longer, but after the program starts up, in theory everything should be running off the ram (where it really counts).

The EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra is known to be pretty good at OCing, and probably not as n00b-unfriendly as the DFI.

As for 7800GT brands, they are all pretty much similar in spec. Aside from factory overclocks, the only other thing different are the bundles and packages that come with them. Try to pick and choose carefully, some guys bundle nice games while others don't. (I got my BF2 w/ eVGA. They don't offer that anymore, nor do they offer the free mobo either)
 
As already been mentioned do not waste your money on Raptor. Get a decent 250-300 GB for less money. Maxtor is a good one (or any other: Seagate, WD, Hitachi, Samsung).

The best choice for a DVD burner at the moment are: NEC, BenQ, Plextor. Plextor is way out of your range, so go with BenQ or NEC.

Don't be wasting money on MSI or ASUS either. Get EPOX 9NPA+ U, ASRock 939Dual-SATA2, or Jetway 939GT4-SLI (there is an eVGA mobo that is exactly the same except for stickers). AnAnd has some reviews:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2524
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2506

Everything else (3200+ Venice, 7800GT and RAM) is fine. Get a 450-500 Antec PS (either TruePower 2.0 or TrueControl 2.0, which is the same thing with voltage regulators). The case you chose might be a bit overpriced. I personally like Antec for case/PS, so look at some basic (<$70) Antec cases.

Good luck on your first build.

P.S. Oh yeah, for overclocking get top of the line HSF from Thermaltake, something like this:
http://thermaltake.com/coolers/4in1heatpipe/cl-p0114bigtyphoon/cl-p0114.htm
And you should be good to go 🙂
 
The 3000+ has a 9X muliplier and the 3200+ has a 10X multiplier. I have used both processors in my board and I had much better luck with the 3200+.
 
i think the SonataII is an excellent case/PSU for the price, but not really made for OC'ing IMO. The Sonata's are very quiet, but that coes at the expense of cooling. It all depends on what you want.

I agree that the 3200+ is a better choice for OC'ing due to the 10x multiplier.

As for the RAM, I would go ahead and just get 2x1 GB now. Value RAM is fine. If you go with the MSI or Epox boards in particular, they both OC very well and you can just run a divider for the RAM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top