Please critique this system

[AdamW81]

CASE: X-Discovery Mid-Tower Case 420W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display
CPU: (939-pin) AMD Athlon?64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
CD: LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
FAN: AMD ATHLON64 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK
HDD: 160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive [+24]
MOTHERBOARD: (Sckt939)ASUS A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio
MEMORY: 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY [+60] (Corsair Value Select)
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition w/ Service Pack 2 [+89]
POWERSUPPLY: STANDARD CASE POWER SUPPLY
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
VIDEO: NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GT 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Card [+308]


Subtotal: $1,294.00
Tax: $0.00
Shipping Charge: $65.00
Grand Total: $1,359.00


Ok, I've been reading up a bit on these forums and the guides and came up with the above specs for my new system. Any feedback from you guys is appreciated! I put this together on cyberpowerpc, I could build an almost identical one for slightly more at monarch. Any reason to choose one over the other? My goal is to have a very good gaming system without paying the exponentially higher cost for the very last bit of performance. I also want something I can upgrade in a couple years without having to replace everything (like maybe just the CPU and graphics card). Oh and I am not interested in overclocking or building this myself at this time. I know most here would say build it yourself, but I'd rather pay a little extra and know its gonna work and not have to pontentially spend hours troubleshooting problems (not to mention the hours it would take me to put it together and get it running even without problems). I didn't order a soundcard, I'll probably buy one down the road if I don't like the quality. Here are a few things I am had questions about:

1. Do I need more than the 420W case power if I'm not overclocking? No Pre-builts seem to offer a $50 case and $50 Fotron...
2. Is the Asus Premium SLI board worth it if I'm not using SLI? I figured this would save me an upgrade later...
3. I know people say single core is better for gaming, but at $75 more it seems worth going with the 3800 dual. No?
4. Any comments on the HDD? The extra cost for a 10k rpm raptor seemed rather extravagant (like I said before I want to get a very good system but not pay, in this case, quadruple, for a small increase in performance)

Oh I also am using going to be using a 24" LCD, so if there would be any issues from that please let me know. I'm looking to buy something asap so if you see any glaring issues with the above, please let me know! Thanks guys!

 

[essasin]

1. Do not cheap out on a powersupply buy a solid psu. The last thing you want is a psu to crap out on you and ruin your nice components. For 50 bucks there is not reason not too.

2. I would buy a cheaper non sli mobo since your not going to go sli and use that money towards 2gbs of ram. You will notice a fairly big change when gaming and multitasking

3.Why not buy an opteron 165?

4.This depends if you want speed or capacity.

 

[Gagan]

Yes it is worth it. I suggest you get the A8N32 SLi as it has EVEN BETTER Single card performance and is about 30 dollars more (Also much better come down the road when QUAD SLI is avialable for ocnsumers, 2 16x slots is becoming vital very soon and very quickly)

 

[Bobthelost]

1. If they test it then no, it'll work, however it's probably just a generic POS, which means in a few years you may need to swap it out.
2. No it's not worth it if you're not using SLI or overclocking you can save a significant amount of cash there.
3. Yeah it is.
4. The HD looks fine, raptors aren't economical in your price bracket.

 

[secretanchitman]

first off, welcome to the forums!

in responses to your questions at the bottom:

1. i would get at least 430W in that system, because you want a computer that has stable rails/voltages and one that doesnt crash when running intensive programs/benchmarking. i upgraded from my antec 300W to a 500W and i dont get random reboots. i dont really trust "built in" PSUs, but people have been running their systems with them just fine. so i dont know for sure...
2. its nice to have sli if you are planning to do it later on, but i think the sli deluxe and sli premium are the same board, just with passive cooling. if you dont need passive cooling, then save yourself some money and go with the sli-deluxe. in fact, if you think you dont need sli, get a regular a8n, or get a dfi lanparty ultra-D, or some other non-sli board. im sure many users here have them.
3. dual-core is very nice to have. it performs just about as well as a single core. it may be a slight bit slower, but hardly enough to even consider a single core. besides, you'll be thankful once SMP starts arriving in more and more games. besides, windows vista supports dual-core and i think that will help a lot.
4. the HDD looks good, but who makes it? a raptor is basically just for booting windows, apps, games, and such. its not meant for a storage drive. what many people do is buy 1 raptor (36/74/150GB) and buy another 200GB+ hard drive or two for storage.

your 24" LCD will look awesome (i think the native res on that size is 1920x1200) running on that 7900GT. you will see better framerates if you go SLI and you turn up AA/AF while using the highest resolution for the games, FYI.

most people just settle with the onboard sound the motherboard has. its adequate enough. if you need higher quality sound or you are getting some quality speakers, its probably best to get a creative audigy2/4 or an x-fi.

 

[AdamW81]

thanks for the feedback guys, I think I will go without the sli motherboard and get the dfi lanparty ultra-d and get 2 gb ram. Anyone know of any other sites to check for pre-builts besides monarch, cyberpower, and ibuypower?

 

[Gagan]

Why nhot just make it?

 

[AdamW81]

Originally posted by: Gagan
Why nhot just make it?

because from reading the newbie guide linked in another post here, it looks like it would take quite a while to do, and then there is still a good chance something isnt gonna work right and ill have to spend forever trying to figure out what it is. maybe it just seemed more complicated than it really is...