Please rate my new PC [Final build - Thanks for the help guys]

[wchou]

Originally posted by: RahulM
No, I'm not building it myself. I'm having it assembled from:

www.microbytes.com

a wise decision, now why didn't i do that years ago, I could have saved myself an arm and a leg!

 

[RahulM]

Did you buy it from another store that overpriced the PCs, wchou?

 

[rise]

Rahul, buying a pre-built is not necessarily a bad thing but keep in mind it really isn't rocket science. hell, i'm legally blind and i built my last 2 rigs, albeit slower than others can. the important thing, pre-built or DIY, is to research the parts in relation to what you want. your budget is substantial so you should have a great set up either way.

i think the sli option is worth it, even if you end up running one card for the time being. a $50 risk/insurance policy was worth it to me. if i end up with another 6800gt in sli fine. if the new cards are indeed as powerful as speculated and i need just one, then i sell this and get the one 7800gt. hell, maybe i'll get two and sli them. either way, i can drop an x2 cpu into this board when the prices become reasonable if i want.

with your budget there is no reason to skimp on anything but in particular make sure you get a top notch PSU. the ocz has some of the tightest tolerances around. my antec tpII550 has ~.02 on the 12v line between load and idle.

after that, your cpu looks fine although maybe i'd save some of that $$ and get a 3700+ san diego until the dual cores come out and prices drop a bit.

and i am a fan of the dfi nf4's. so long as you have the proper PSU and ram, this board is great. and as it is built to be clocked like hell it has only top notch parts and a good layout for keeping things cool. a lot has been made of the chipset fans on the nf4's from all manufactures but i found just using some as5 allows me to run at 2000rpm and my temps are 45c load with 1.6 volts.

as for ram, i didn't get the vx as it needs some serious volts to really shine and therefore needs some serious cooling. i'd get the ocz el plat rev2 3200. it clocks great and need much less voltage.

 

[RahulM]

Thanks for the informative reply, rise.

"with your budget there is no reason to skimp on anything but in particular make sure you get a top notch PSU. the ocz has some of the tightest tolerances around. my antec tpII550 has ~.02 on the 12v line between load and idle. "

Sorry for the ignorance, but are you saying the OCZ is a good PSU?

 

[rise]

yep, if i hadn't got a deal on the tpII i would have got the ocz. if you have the $$ get the ocz 600 powerstream or at least the 520 powerstream. i wouldn't get the modulars (modstream) myself.

 

[mordantmonkey]

yeah TT is not the best power supply. be leary of wattage ratings. many companys will use the highest possible ratings in the most ideal conditions(low temps).
Power PC and Cooling (is that right i am fuzzy on the name now) has a reputation for reporting much more accurate numbers for wattage. i.e. their 350W is more powerful than many lesser 450-500W PS's.
OCZ has gained quite a good reputation as well.

also, forget two raptors in RAID0. i know RAID0 sounds like a huge performance gain, but it really isn't at all for single user use.
You should instead use 1 raptor for OS, games, frequently used apps. and use a seond, larger HD for storage, media files, etc. i'd reccomend a 7200rpm seagate, your choice of size.

 

[pulsedrive]

I personally have the Modstrem 450 and am VERY pleased with it. It provides very consistant power, and I like that I don't have a rats nest of cables in there, beause I only connect the ones I need. I haven't seen any problems with the modular so far. However I can back up the OCZ push, because they have very good amperage on the rails, which if you are going to for a hi end system is a must.

 

[rise]

i should have said if i were to get a modular it would be the modstream 🙂 wire management isn't a big problem for me, i tuck whatever isn't needed away behind the mobo tray. the powerstreams are a bit stronger on the 12v.

 

[Chosonman]

Why would you spend $1000 extra on SLI when you can get the next gen GPU for half the price and better performance?

 

[boran]

I agree with most opinions here to not go sli. I suggest you check out the (very short) list of SLI supported games, and those games all run very fine with a single 6800 GT or Ultra, this will save you lotsa cash which you can use to get the leatest and greatest when that comes out (as mentioned, it wont take that long) I'd also make sure that the case suits you (it's the thing that will end up making the most noise when it has those nasy 80 MM cooling fans) and check out some rumour sites to see when AMD has a price cut planned (it's the same time intel has one planned) because you're buying high-end and it can save a ton.

in the end my advice is, it's fine to throw a lot of money at a PC but it's better to throw enough money at a PC and have some left to keep it up. your CPU will be uber fast and suited for damnd near everything the next 3 years in single apps (read: games) dualcore which is the next thing coming up will be slower in single apps, and by the time the apps get optimized we're three years further. So I suggest you keep some money behind to spend later on where you'll be hurting, which in your case will mainly be the GFX card because that's the only thing that's on it's Every-Year-the-old-tech-is-obsolete cycle anymore the CPU speed scale has topped off, and 2 GB of mem will last you a long time and it's not like it's expensive anyways. (relatively speaking and compared to the rest)

Make sure that your periphials are up to spec too and suited for you.

On this note I have to inform you that your chosen display is a wide-screen and will in general be a big pain in the ass for everything gaming related. I suggest you get a nice 21 or 22" LCD with a normal (read: accepted by all recent games) 1600x1200 native resolution. it'll save you a lot of hassle.

hope this helped a bit.

 

[rise]

chosenman, maybe you should read the thread and then post?

 

[CreativeTom]

Originally posted by: Chosonman
Why would you spend $1000 extra on SLI when you can get the next gen GPU for half the price and better performance?

Yeah that was my point exactly, I was trying to say he would be better off waiting and going with an R520 next gen ATI card and one of the dual core Athlon 64's. I guess he didn't want to listen cause he didn't comment on my suggestion. SLI is a waste of money spend it on the dual core and the R520.

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: rise4310
chosenman, maybe you should read the thread and then post?

I'm too lazy to read.

Maybe you should read my name then spell?

 

[RahulM]

" I guess he didn't want to listen cause he didn't comment on my suggestion"

Umm, this is what I said BEFORE you even replied on this thread:

"Yes, people have been telling me to get a good (but not high-end) card NOW, and then wait for the new gen cards that are apparently just around the corner. It seems like sound advice, so I think I might do that. "

Yes I was paying attention, that's what I posted on the first page. The thing is, I wouldn't really mind shelling out extra cash for those next gen cards and selling these on eBay or something in 8-9 months' time when they are released. I'm considering it at the moment. But ATM, is the hardware I listed good and high-quality if I were to buy the computer NOW? That's all I wanted to know.

I've been delaying a purchase of a new PC for years now cause a new technology had been "right around the corner". A few months back, I didn't purchase the FX-53, because I was told it would be renamed and become cheaper (4000+), so I waited. After that people told me to wait for SLI, and I did. Now I'm just sick and tired of waiting, I want to be able to enjoy these cool new games. I don't mean to sound hostile, and I honestly appreciate all the advice and take it into consideration, but god damn it, I wanna play Half-life on a 24'' widescreen monitor with all the settings maxxed. Haha. 🙂

 

[ArsenHazzard]

Originally posted by: mordantmonkey
Power PC and Cooling (is that right i am fuzzy on the name now)

Close, it's PC Power and Cooling. If you have the cash for it, I highly recommend their PSUs.
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/home/

 

[RahulM]

This is the final build, I've already ordered and the parts should all be here in a few days:

CPU: AMD64 4000+
CASE: ATX Antec SLK3000B NOPS BLACK
MOBO: DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Sli-DR
HDD: 2x Raptor 10k RPM (RAID0)
VidCard: 2x 6800 Ultras
Psupply: 600W OCZ Powerstream
Ram: Kingston KVR 400mhz DDR NO-ECC 2gig kit
Monitor: Dell 2405FPW (arriving tomorrow 🙂 )
Extras:Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu heatsink and a Vantec 120mm Stealthfan
Opt. drive:NEC 3520A

I decided to splurge a bit and get the two vid cards, I wouldn't mind shelling out a few bucks when they become obsolete. Thanks a lot for the help guys, I got myself a much better mobo and PSU because of all the helpful recommendations.

The total came up to be around 3500$ US, minus the expensive frickin' monitor. In your opinion, did I overpay by a lot? How much could I have saved had I built it myself?

Next time, I'll be building it myself, posting here has made me realize that I really should know a lot of about hardware than I do currently. I opened up my old PCs and took a look inside, something I had been sort of afraid of doing when I worked on them due to my inexperience. It was fun! 🙂 I figured out where most of the things go and I'm much less clueless than I was two weeks ago.

One of them had a carpet (not a layer, a frickin' carpet) of dust on all the parts... I really hadn't been taking care of my PCs, no longer though, I'm more informed and will maintain them, especially since the latest one has been the biggest investment.