What do you guys think of my planned Computer

[BigFatCow]

Heres what ive come up with for my new computer. This computer will be used for everything, im building it for Ghost Recon:Advanced Warfighter, and other games. My laptop isnt cutting it anymore.

Two question i have, whats the difference between a Manchester and Toledo core processor? And do the Retail AMD Processors come with a Heatsink/Fan?


eVGA 256-P2-N565-AX Geforce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $339.00

ASUS A8N-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $106.99

Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply - Retail - $68.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model - $357.00

CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered - $154.00

Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM - $160.00

LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write Beige ATAPI/E-IDE - $49.99

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM - $5.99

Subtotal: $1237.96

Im gonna buy the case locally. You guys see anything i forgot or that i should upgrade/change. My budget is around $1500.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Not sure about the names of the cores (I don't mess with AMD stuff much), but yes, the retails do come with a HSF.

 

[Bobthelost]

Well i'd go for a better PSU than a smartpower, if you're going SLI then a 500W enermax liberty, seasonic, PCP&C, fortron, silverstone etc. Will be enough. If you're never going SLI then a 400W would be enough.

Manchester has half the cache of the Toldeo core, some chips with 512kb cache are labeled toldeo i think this is because they are made as toldeos and then have half the cache disabled. Cache doesn't make much difference for the most part so i wouldn't worry.

Retail heatsinks do come with fans. If you're not overclocking the CPU then that's a very good build, if you are then you can save some money by getting a 3800X2 or an opteron 165

 

[dBTelos]

If you are overclocking, go for an Opty. If you will NOT be upgrading to SLi EVER, then get the non-SLi flavour of that mobo, and get a Fortron 450W.

 

[BigFatCow]

Ok, so its not really worth the extra money for the Toledo? I dont know what cache is used for.

I wont be overclocking, i used to do that kind of stuff alot but im not into it anymore, too busy now adays. I was thinking about going SLI a while down the road. Im looking at some other PSUs right now.

 

[dBTelos]

Enermax Liberty 600W (or is it 620W?) for a PSU, and keep the mobo. Maybe upgrade the RAM to OCZ Plat. (really reliable) or XMS (both have low timings).

 

[Bobthelost]

The cache helps in some games and programs, think of it as superspeed RAM built onto the CPU. Most games and apps don't benifit from it so it's rather inconsequential imo (i worked this out after buying a 4400X2 myself, whoops 😀)

 

[emilyek]

Epox nf4 Ulra

X1800xt

Opteron 165

GSKILL 2 x 1 gb 'HZ'


WD 16mb cache 250g HDD

Epower 500w SLI ready PSU

$160 less, more performance.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: emilyek
Epox nf4 Ulra
Opteron 165
GSKILL 2 x 1 gb 'HZ'

No overclocking, so either no improvement or a performance drop

Originally posted by: emilyek
X1800xt

Yeah, worth thinking on

Originally posted by: emilyek
WD 16mb cache 250g HDD
Epower 500w SLI ready PSU

Slower hard drive and a PSU from Epower? No way is that an improvement.

 

[Praxis1452]

Oc'ing an X2 3800+ to 4200+ speeds won't be hard at all. Can probably do it at stock voltage.

So in my opinion

X2 3800+

X1800XT

Only 1 raptor? I mean if your gonna get a raptor might as well just get the faster 1. The 74gb raptor is overpriced. Well all raptors in my honest opinion are overpriced for the performance they give....

So yeah I second the 16mb 250gb hard drive. Unless he already has one...

Epower isn't bad... made by tagan or is it the other way around?

Value ram should be fine or a bit better if you might want to oc in the future.

Are you really sure you want to do SLI? Cause it isn't really worth it unless you buy 2 7900gt's right now and oc the crap out of them with the volt mod for 7900gtx sli. 😛 otherwise THe X1800XT is a much better choice. No volt mod 512mb of memory or 256mb for $50 cheaper than the 7900gt and faster at stock.