Some advice on my new gaming rig

[Crassus]

Hello folks,

I'm moving from Germany to the US and am selling most of the parts of my old rig here. Roundabout the 28th Dec. I will start building a new rig in the US mainly for gaming, but also office stuff and anything else a normal geek does with a PC, so I am aiming at the following:
The items with the (-) I will bring with me, the ones with (?) I don't know about yet.

Processor(s): AMD .09 Athlon 64 3000+ (planned to do 290MHzx9) $ 140
RAM: 2 x 512Mb OCZ 3200 Platinum Rev. 2 $ 136.94 * 2
or Crucial Ballistix, not sure yet
Mainboard: MSI nForce3 Ultra (939) K8N Neo2 Platinum $ 138
or something with nForce4, if they're availible by then
Cooling: Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 Heatsink/Fan $ 30.49
Video Card: Albatron nVidia 6600 GT 256MB $ 194.49
Case + Power Supply: Thermaltake Black Xaser III $ 164.99
Sound: Creative Audigy 2 -
HDD: WD Raptor 36 and three others -
Monitor: some 19" CRT ?
Speakers: ?
Optical Drives: ?

So what do you think of that? Suggestions are greatly appreciated, especially concerning the (?) parts.
Is it still a good idea to buy an optical ROM-drive beside a writer - havn't looked into that since 2000.

Thanks,
Crassus

edited to clarify the rig usage and monitor

 

[Ioo]

Personally I think the Thermaltake cases are fugly, but thats just my opinion. If I was getting that style of case, id just go with a regular Chenming/Antec case.

For your optical drive, i'd reccomend the NEC or Pioneer 16x dual layer DVD-RW.

Speakers, something like Altec Lansing, or even Logitech makes a decent pair of speakers. Which models I'd suggest depend on what kind of setup you want, 2 speakers, 2.1, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, .... Lots of different arrangements. Id even reccomend going into a Best Buy/Fry's/CompUSA and use their in-store displays where they have them all set-up so you can listen to different brands. Then go look on the net for the cheapest price for the one you like best.

 

[Crassus]

I think their cases are very high quality and they have dust filters. I don't care sooo much about looks.

Right now I have 4.1 Cambridge Soundworks and I'm looking into 5.1, I think thats reasonable. Is analog oder digital better for a Audigy 2?

 

[Edward Lee]

Personally, I like thermaltake, I have a Tsunami "Dream" case and it's the best I've ever owned or been near.

I regards to your system. Looks nice but for the money you're going to spend I would get a better graphics card. Sure the benchmarks on the 6600 are good, but it's only got 126 bit. I would go with with 256 bit. I like the 9800 pro as a replacement for the 6600. Or better yet do what I did and get a Vanilla 6800 for about $260. (I've seen them on sale for $200)

Everything else looks good. Very similiar to my rig, except I have a S754. Just put it together last night.
It was fun =)

For Monitor and Speakers, do what I did. Get a 40"+ Wide screen LCD, Plasma, or DPL. Hook it up to a wicked home theater system (I use an 800W Sony "Dream" system). I haven't noticed any ghosting with my 43" Samsung DLP. I place Counter Strike just fine. OH, you might want to get a very good wireless mouse and keyboard.

I seriously think this will be the future of computers and gaming.

 

[Transistor]

You have not stated how many inches you want your monitor to be. You have not stated what you will be using the computer for. I'm going to assume you are a gamer. Let us know your total budget and we may be able to make some better suggestions.

I would go with a lite-on dvd burner combo.

I'm going to suggest that you get the best graphics card you can afford. Even if it means getting a case that's not as cool, or a sound card that is not as high end, or cutting something else back. IMO, you need to make the graphics card the largest chunk of your budget by a considerable amount. Looking at the stuff you have selected so far, it looks like you are shooting for a $1500 dollar budget. With that much money, you can get a 6800GT easy.

The 6600GT is a very respectable graphics card. It is an amazing value for the price. However, IMO that card would be good in a $1000 pc, not a $1500 dollar PC.

I just built a PC for my dad for $1500 and we went with a 6800GT. Sure we could have got some nicer memory, a better looking case, or an aftermarket HSF, but that would have meant sacrificing the 6800GT. Maybe that other stuff would allow you to OC your processor or get faster memory timings, but what's the point if you have a graphics card that is your bottleneck? Needless to say, we are not regretting it one bit. The performance and FPS in games is excellent and he can use a high level of AA for some nice IQ. An excellent gaming experience is the number one factor above everything else and the 6800GT is delivering.

 

[imported_Darthan]

I have to agree with Transistor that graphics cards are far and away the most important item in a gamer's rig. Despite what review sites say I have never in my life experienced CPU bottlenecks playing games (up until summer 2003 I was using a PIII 600 and now I've got a crappy P4 2.4C that only oc'd to 2.88). Whenever I've experienced chugging or gaming slowdowns I've dropped the graphics quality and been fine. I'm using a 9800Pro so it's not exactly like I have a crappy graphics card and it isn't even up to running Doom3 in high quality mode or FarCry with higher than 2xAA.

As far as your monitor goes I'd say you have two good choices (assuming you don't want to spend much more than $400: get a 17 LCD with a good response time or get a quality 21 inch CRT. Either of these is a good option for a gamer. A 21 CRT allows you to use higher resolutions than an LCD but the LCD takes up less space and I like them better for viewing text.

As for getting the Plasma or DLP or 40inch LCD, well, if you've got $2000 to spare, go for it but I'd say that money would be better spent by buying two 6800 Ultras and SLIing them and putting the $1000 in the bank to upgrade your rig in a year or two.

 

[dtboos]

Iiyama monitors are the sh*t as far as CRT's go. Iiyama

I don't use LCD's because they just don't have quite the quality image and high resolutions I get out of my 22" Flat Screen Iiyama.

If you really need the space, just make sure to get an LCD with 16ms responce time or less or you will ghost while playing games.

This is the monitor I use, and its absolutely amazing. So are their LCD's.
My Monitor (2nd one with the USB hub on base)

 

[WuGahCha]

ur build is just like the 90nm article in anandtech couple weeks ago

beware that even with all that parts its not garanteed to go 2.6ghz 290HTT
I think it's safer if u get a 3200+ cpu and aim for 260x10 instead, dont need such an expensive mobo that way neither, any decent mobo will take u that high

best gaming LCD rite now is viewsonic 912b for 19", CRT still better if u have a place for it

fugly thermaltake case is a personal preference, some ppl like fugly things, so they are not fugly to them

 

[Crassus]

Well, I sort of started from that review and want to see how far I get ... I just love to play with the BIOS and overclocking is my hobby since I o/ced my 386DX33 to 40 more than ten years ago :c)

Monitor: right now I have a 19" CRT and know LCDs from IBM Thinkpads. Honestly, I want a CRT again. Just can't explain in decent English why :c)

Price is an issue for me (cause I've got to earn it), so the price should be as low as possible. I just want something that will last me again at least roundabout two years. I think pricewise 1000$ would be ideal, but I hate crappy components that don't have some headroom. I'm running Infineon RAM (768 MB) for two years and it won't run a single MHz above spec. I hate that.

Graphicswise I have a Ti4200 right now and I was quite happy with that - for the time being.

edited because the Ti had too many zeros and some stuff was missing

 

[WuGahCha]

if u have a budget, why not fudge the TCCD ram and go for the cheap guys??? not running 1:1 will not hurt u too much, 5% maybe? and u save 100 bucks

 

[Treyshadow]

My gripes with your proposed setup are with the ram and video card choice.

If you went with slightly slower ram you will lose $80-$100 bucks and 3-5% performance. If the 6600GT is $200, you can now afford a $280-300 dollar card.

In that range, I would go with:

6800GT
or
X800 XL

The card you choose would depend on what game you play.

 

[WuGahCha]

i think x800 xl is pci-e only, IF it EVER sees the light of day
I doubt it'd come out smoothly and be priced at $300 even for pci-e though