Rookie Builder Looking for Feedback

[Streckfus]

I've got an old PIII Dell system, and instead of going through Dell/Alienware/CyberPower etc I've decided to bite the bullet and build my own system. My current setup was top of the line once, but we all know how that goes. I've almost got enough $$ saved up and I'm about ready to order all of my parts, but I'd like to get some feedback on my proposed system before I spend the cash and get started.

First of all, my primary uses for the PC:

1) Digital Video/Audio Production (Sony Vegas+DVD, After Effects, Photoshop, Sonar 3, etc.)
2) Gaming, of course.

The proposed system:
Antec PlusView1000AMG
OCZ PowerStream 520W
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Athlon 64 3500+ (Newcastle) Retail Box
2GB OCZ Performance Series Dual Channel PC3200 Memory (1GB x 2)
eVGA GeForce 6800 GT PCI-Express
Seagate 80GB 7200RPM IDE (OEM) [Primary]
WD 120GB 7200RPM IDE [Slave] (Carry-over from current PC)
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 (Carry-over from current PC)
Sony DRU-710A DVD +/- RW Dual-Layer Burner (Carry-over from current PC)
Windows XP Home SP2 (OEM)
New/Used 19" Flat-Panel / Trinitron CRT Monitor, or perhaps 21" (ideal for video/audio editing apps, maybe overkill for gaming) - Not sure which model, probably pick something up at azatech.com

Future upgrade for Video/Audio Capture/Editing:
2 Seagate 200GB 7200RPM SATA HD set up in RAID 0
(Don't have the money yet, but will purchase & install within a few months)

Distant future upgrade for Gaming:
Depending on the "success & practicality" of the new SLI technology, in 3-5 years if (when) I need more video power I'll either -
A) Add another eVGA 6800 GT PCI-Express video card for SLI mode or
B) Add the current top-performing (or close to it) PCI-Express video card

Have I overlooked, over/underestimated anything? Any forseeable problems? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance for the input.

 

[Twigstir]

Looks good. If you plan to replace you hard drives down the road, why not just get one Seagate 200GB 7200RPM SATA HD now and add the 2nd in later.

 

[Streckfus]

Originally posted by: Twigstir
Looks good. If you plan to replace you hard drives down the road, why not just get one Seagate 200GB 7200RPM SATA HD now and add the 2nd in later.

I'm actually going to ADD the SATA drives to the existing ones. The 80GB IDE will be the system drive, the 120GB IDE will be a data drive. The RAID SATAs will be dedicated to my video/audio editing apps...firewire video capture, NLE editing...all of that stuff.

One concern of mine is power, especially if I end up getting an additional 6800 GT in a few years. I'm hoping that the 520W will be sufficient, but from what I've read it should be okay, at least for now.

 

[JBDan]

Get the Winchester 3500+ (runs cooler/better oc'er). I would also go with some less expensive RAM such as Kingstons/Corsairs/Mushkins value RAM. Nice lookin system! 520 should be just fine. If your lookin to save $$ then go with the 3000+ as you can reach 3800+ (90nm) speeds easily.

 

[SrGuapo]

Originally posted by: JBDan
Get the Winchester 3500+ (runs cooler/better oc'er). I would also go with some less expensive RAM such as Kingstons/Corsairs/Mushkins value RAM. Nice lookin system! 520 should be just fine

Or just get a 3000+/3200+ and OC it slightly...

I personally would not get the SLI board, but it is your call. The PCI-e 6800gts are priced WAY too high for me. I just got an AGP board (EPoX 9NDA3+) and am gettin an AGP 6800gt as soon as I have $400 saved up.

 

[blackinches]

blackinches thinks you should get the value memory from a reputable brand name instead of the expensive stuff if you aren't going to overclock. as for the sli blackinches doesn't think that it's necesarry either, because by the time you need the extra juice from adding a new card, a new card with more bells and whistles will be out by then. if you really are wanting a pci-e board, it may be better to just go with a nforce4 ultra board (if you can find one). www.monarchcomputer.com has the bfg 6800gt pci-e for 470, one of the few places that seem to have them in stock. it also has dual dvi.

is the seagate 80gb you're getting the ncq drive?

have you considered the diamondmax10 w/16mb cache. they are supposed to be rather fast and they can be had for rather cheap. just be sure to get the oem version to get the 3 year warranty. the retail only has a 1 year warranty.

 

[imported_brad]

can i just say holy crap thats a monster of a system. with the exception of the CPU (newcastle, i would go for the winchester), thats everything i would get if i were loaded.

Dream system there man. Im sure you already know you'll save tons building a system of expensive parts like that.

 

[Streckfus]

Wow - there's a flurry of responses...thanks!

At this time, since I'm a rookie, I don't have any intention of doing any overclocking right now, so I think I'm going to stick with the 3500 instead of going lower and OCing up. Then, if I ever feel the urge to try it, I'll be even more pleased!

Yeah, I have read that the Newcastle runs a lot hotter than the Winchester, but then I'd have to fork out an extra $60. If I don't do any OCing, I can pretty much stick with the stock HSF, right?

I don't know much about the heart & soul of hardware issues, so forgive me - but if I went with value RAM instead of the OCZ Performance wouldn't that mean "slower" RAM?

The reason I want the SLI board is because I want to have a lot of upgrade options (unlike my dinosaur system now). Since PCI-Express will be the new standard, I definitely don't want to limit myself to AGP. So whether or not I do SLI or not, I definitely want to be up-to-speed on the newer PCI-E cards when it's time to upgrade (a few years away, hopefully!). And I've heard rave reviews about ASUS, and the only 939 socket Asus board with PCI-E right now is the A8N-SLI Deluxe. Plus I can get that board for about the same price as the P4C800-E Deluxe, which was in my original P4 proposed setup. So I'm not really spending too much more on a technology that I might not need....but it'll be nice to have it if it turns out that 2 6800 GTs actually will be better than whatever the new PCI-E card is.

The Seagate HD is here:

[*]http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-015&depa=0

Don't really know if that's ncq or what that means.

And actually, with the exception of whatever monitor I get, all of that clocks in at around $2000, so for all the technology, it's not all that expensive. (It's still a chunk, but if I got the same sort of setup through Falcon NW or Alienware I'd be spening $3000 at least!)

If you guys have any suggestions on cheaper RAM (that I could still OC if I ever got the urge) then send it my way!

 

[Streckfus]

I know the PCI-E 6800 GTs are spendy and hard to find right now, but I've got my heart set on the 6800 GT (simply because with that I should be able to play new games for quite some time) and the PCI-E interface so I guess I'll just run with it.

Cheapest places I've found them thus far are at Monarch and BuyXG - they change prices daily, though.

 

[laurenlex]

RAM - Corsair Value Select

I would really look hard at getting a dual monitor set up for photoshop. Make sure your vid card can handle that if necessary.

Stock CPU heatsink is fine.

 

[Streckfus]

Originally posted by: laurenlex
RAM - Corsair Value Select

I would really look hard at getting a dual monitor set up for photoshop. Make sure your vid card can handle that if necessary.

Stock CPU heatsink is fine.

I'm actually going to get an external NTSC monitor for the video editing apps, but right now a single monitor works fine for Photoshop for me.

I'm hell bent on getting 2GB Dual Channel PC3200 RAM right now (again - so I don't have to worry about upgrades for a while - that and the fact that I want as much as I can afford for the NLE stuff).

That Corsair RAM looks good - but in order to get 2GB with that RAM I'd need to max out my DIMM slots, then IF I ever needed 4GB of RAM I'd have to start all over and buy all new RAM. I didn't see Corsair Value RAM in 1GB sticks - is it out there?

 

[CraigRT]

I'd switch the 80gig Seagate for a 120 at least, it will have 8meg cache that way. a worthy upgrade.

 

[Streckfus]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
I'd switch the 80gig Seagate for a 120 at least, it will have 8meg cache that way. a worthy upgrade.

Yup. Didn't even notice that. Thanks.

 

[imported_brad]

Originally posted by: Streckfus

The reason I want the SLI board is because I want to have a lot of upgrade options (unlike my dinosaur system now). Since PCI-Express will be the new standard, I definitely don't want to limit myself to AGP. So whether or not I do SLI or not, I definitely want to be up-to-speed on the newer PCI-E cards when it's time to upgrade (a few years away, hopefully!).

From what i recall, i wanna say that Nvidia SLI based systems will only be able to perform like we're led to believe on games that have been designed specifically for an Nvid SLI system. Otherwise you may as well just have one good card.

From HardOCP:
"According to NVIDIA?s marketing, NVIDIA?s Scalable Link Interface (SLI) "can deliver as much as 2x the performance of a single GPU configuration for unparalleled gaming experiences." What NVIDIA fails to make clear, however, is that SLI currently requires NVIDIA to write driver profiles for each game to support SLI. Are all the games you want to play supported?"


Read More Here

 

[Streckfus]

Originally posted by: brad

Originally posted by: Streckfus

The reason I want the SLI board is because I want to have a lot of upgrade options (unlike my dinosaur system now). Since PCI-Express will be the new standard, I definitely don't want to limit myself to AGP. So whether or not I do SLI or not, I definitely want to be up-to-speed on the newer PCI-E cards when it's time to upgrade (a few years away, hopefully!).

From what i recall, i wanna say that Nvidia SLI based systems will only be able to perform like we're led to believe on games that have been designed specifically for an Nvid SLI system. Otherwise you may as well just have one good card.

From HardOCP:
"According to NVIDIA?s marketing, NVIDIA?s Scalable Link Interface (SLI) "can deliver as much as 2x the performance of a single GPU configuration for unparalleled gaming experiences." What NVIDIA fails to make clear, however, is that SLI currently requires NVIDIA to write driver profiles for each game to support SLI. Are all the games you want to play supported?"


Read More Here

You are correct. There are games right now that support SLI (Doom 3, Farcry, etc) but at this point a single 6800 GT is sufficient to run these games...SLI is overkill...right now. But in the future, if SLI doesn't take off and the new games of the future don't support it, then I can just run a good PCI-E card in single card mode. However, if SLI does take off and becomes a standard feature on new games, then I'll be able to make the move to SLI without having to buy a new board. Right now I'm only going to run one video card. But the way I see it, I might as well have the option to use SLI if/when it becomes mainstream.

 

[Regs]

nm

 

[Twigstir]

SLI is going to change. You won't be future proof with the current SLI. However, it does give you some future options and I would go with the SLI mother board.

Look at ATI's future SLI solution and you'll see why it will change. I think it will be some time before SLI get hashed out into a mainstream standard.

As I said before, I would go with the SLI mother board. Just don't count on being to future proof.

 

[ts3433]

I like the setup. Some pointers:

Go for cheaper RAM, something like Corsair Value Select (2x1GB PC3200 as cheaply as possible from a good brand). "Fast RAM"/value RAM makes no difference. Link

Try a 3000+ or 3200+. Winchesters overclock very well even on stock cooling, and you won't fry anything by OCing. If you shiver at the thought, though, go ahead and get the NC.

You can save money by going with a Powerstream 420 or even a Fortron 530 or 550; they'll be much more than adequate.

Another tip would be to save some money now and get an AGP board and AGP 6800GT. This saves at least $225. Save the money to upgrade to PCIe or whatever when it's really worth it.

Go ahead and get a 21" monitor (NEC and Viewsonic make great ones); your 6800GT can handle most things at 16x12 anyway, and it'll still scale down to lower resolutions.

 

[Streckfus]

ts3433,

Good call on the RAM - I'm gonna get the Corsair Value Select from Newegg - 4x512MG for my 2GB total instead of 2x1GB sticks. (Can't find the Value Select in 1 gig sticks, plus 4x512 is cheaper!)

I'm gonna go with the Winchester core but stick with the 3500+. That way it'll be fine without needing to overclock, and someday if I feel the urge to OC, then all the better!

Could I really get by with a 420W PSU? I've done a lot of reading about PSU on this forum and a common piece of advise is not to skimp on the PSU. I know that as of right now I'd be fine, but after all of my hardware is installed (psb 2 6800 GTs, 4 HD, 2 Optical Drives, plus several USB devices including a scanner & audio/MIDI interface) isn't that going to be cutting it close?

Since PCI-E is eventually going to phase out AGP, I'm going to stick with the PCI-E video card and SLI board. Again, it may turn out that SLI is a bomb, but with the A8N-SLI I'll still have the option to use the newest & baddest PCI-E card whenever my single 6800GT no longer cuts the cake. And it actually isn't THAT much more expensive to go PCI-E/SLI than AGP if you don't get 2 vids cards right off the bat, which I won't.

Thanks for the input, though...and if you can, get back to me on that PSU issue. I definitely want to be on the safe side as far as the PSU is concerned, but if 520W is overkill even with all the hardware I'll be using, then I could save some $$....

 

[Streckfus]

Well, after a lot of research and pricing out, I've decided on my (almost) final system specs. Payday is in two weeks, and unless something changes between now and then, here's what my system will entail:

Antec PlusView1000AMG
OCZ Powerstream 520W
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester
2GB Kingston ValueRAM (2x 1GB kits) Link
Windows XP Home

Items I've already purchased:
eVGA 6800GT PCI-E
Seagate Barracuda 120GB 7200RPM 8MB (Master)
WD 120GB 7200RPM (Slave)

Future Purchase:
2x Seagate 250GB SATA - RAID O (for digital audio/video)

The prices have just jumped on the mobo & CPU, but the Kingston RAM has been dropping like a brick the last couple days so I might pick that up right away....

Any last thoughts before I take the plunge and buy the remaining gear?

 

[rivethead]

I'm curious why you went with the Kingston memory over the Corsair that other recommended.

I'll be building my first system later this month and I've been trying to pick a memory brand.

Is the Kingston memory better than the Corsair? If so, how? I know it's less expensive (which is why I'm leaning towards the Kingston memory right now).

Any comments on this memory choice would be appreciated!

 

[Streckfus]

Originally posted by: rivethead
I'm curious why you went with the Kingston memory over the Corsair that other recommended.

I'll be building my first system later this month and I've been trying to pick a memory brand.

Is the Kingston memory better than the Corsair? If so, how? I know it's less expensive (which is why I'm leaning towards the Kingston memory right now).

Any comments on this memory choice would be appreciated!

Reason #1 - The Kingston is cheaper. From what I've read on here, most people are saying that Kingston, Corsair, Mushkin etc. are all pretty much the same when you're dealing with the ValueRAM.

Reason #2 - The Kingston kit I'm getting is listed on the QVL for the motherboard whereas the Corsair is not. The Corsair would still probably work, but I guess having Kingston listed is just a reinforcing reason to go with the cheaper RAM.

 

[kini62]

If you're serious about video editing, why not go with a dual opteron board. You could get one CPU now and another in the future when you have the money, plus the boards are SLI if that's your thing. I think you'll be little disappointed in the video editing/encoding of the 3500+.

 

[Streckfus]

Originally posted by: kini62
If you're serious about video editing, why not go with a dual opteron board. You could get one CPU now and another in the future when you have the money, plus the boards are SLI if that's your thing. I think you'll be little disappointed in the video editing/encoding of the 3500+.

If I had twice the money, I'd actually build two separate PCs, one for video/audio and the other for gaming. Since the P4's perform better with MPEG encoding and other video operations, my video system would be based on a Pentium system. But since AMD has the performance edge on gaming, I'm optimizing my system for gaming needs, knowing that it will still be able to perform the video operations.

My current system is a Pentium III 800MHz w/384MB RAM, and it can perform the video/audio stuff I throw at it (for the most part), but it cannot run the newest games. So even though the AMD wouldn't perform as well as a P4 or dual-CPU setup for video/audio apps, it will still be leaps and bounds faster than what I've got right now.

 

[ribbon13]

Actually, its better to have a one dual opteron vs 2 pcs for that -> By this fall you could put 2 Italy chips in it and have a 4-processor system.

And this is the best 1g non-registered memory ->
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-045&depa=1