Building new PC--Your input needed!

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Ares878

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I'm building this PC for a friend who will be doing some medium level gaming, nothing like Unreal Tournament 3 or CoD 4. Stuff like The Sims 2 and Guild Wars.

The motive behind this post is for me to get some input from a PC intelligent community. I do have experience in this field, I have built a PC once before and learned from my mistakes, but of course, more input and advice is very valuable to me.

So please.
Offer all of your input, comments, ideas, feelings and theories--I value and need it all!

My budget was not for top of the line, more for overall value, and lasting value.
Where the prices currently are, they can't change much, so keep that in mind if u suggest a different item.
However, for example, if you think I should go with a value price on one item and go to a higher level/price in another area; please offer your advice.

All my shopping was done at Newegg
Here it is, including my reasons for their selection:

EVGA GeForce 8600GTS 512MB. Link
EVGA seems to be the leader in video cards. I have one in my PC and it works great. EVGA wins all the customer choice awards on Newegg. This card is selling very well at the moment.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 2.6ghz. Link
AMD has always been my fav, have one in my PC that works great. This processor has wone a customer choice award at Newegg.

Corsair XMS2 2GB(2 x 1GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800. Link
Corsair seems to be the leader in mem. XM series is very popular.

Gigabyte AM2 Nvidia GeForce 6100 AMD Mobo. Link
Had best reviews on Newegg. 2x winner of Newegg customer choice award. Has ob sound.

Western Digital Caviar 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA. Link
WD seems to be the leader of the HDD market. Very popular model. Customer choice award.

Rosewill 550W ATX12V V2.01 PSU. Link
Rosewill PSUs have good reviews on Newegg. Have one in my PC that works great.

Sony NEC Optiarc Black DVD-ROM/CD-ROM IDE. Link
Good reviews and customer choice award.

Cooler Master Cavalier 3, Aluminum/Steel ATX Mid Tower. Link
Friend picked out for looks. Has good reviews, cpu vent and fans.


Windows XP

Thank you for looking this over
Now please
Input, comments, ideas, feelings and theories.

Thanks!
 
my only beef with it is your choice of power supply and choice of processor maybe. everything else looks fine to me.

Rosewill is a TERRIBLE brand. it's not recommended for any computer because it is that terrible. there's a list of the best and the worst power supplies found here:
http://forums.firingsquad.com/firingsquad/board/message?board.id=hardware&thread.id=111309

i was looking into what sort of power supply i could use and found that list. the one that was recommended to me was an antec neo 550watt power supply. that thing will power any cpu well, and will even leave some headroom for future additions to it. however, it's 100 dollars and by the looks of things, you or your friend are on a budget. so there's a slightly less expensive one that is just as good for about 80 dollars. also from antec. it's the antec earthwatts 500 watt. here's the link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007

Also, if you could, try to go with at least the amd 5600. it's 2.8 ghz and it's not that much more expensive. that will put the whole computer into a better spot in terms of keeping up with games and technology. given your friend doesn't want to do heavy gaming. but any gaming at all can be taxing on the system due to server lag. and it's nice to know that the computer will handle anything you throw at it.

other than that, it looks ok. i could find you some cheaper RAM that will suffice seeing as you might be on a budget. i have some in mind that is a good 15 dollars cheaper if you're interested. here's the link for that too:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098

that computer should do very nicely indeed. i hope i helped.
 
I would suggest a 7900 gs video card. Same price as the 8600 but twice the bandwidth. Not DX 10 but that's really not a problem. A much better performer. Otherwise, looks good.
 
Thank you link590o for that excellent reply!

I'm very glad u mention the psu! I'm going to pick out a different one, maybe that antec.

And the mem, I almost went with the one u suggested but I noticed it was 1.8-2V....
On my mobo it says it supports 1.8v and thought it would not be a problem that the mem is 1.8-2 but I wanted to play it safe and find ram that was listed as just 1.8 (I even check the mobo's manual for more info on mem it supports but found no more than what Newegg has [poor manual] ).

Taking another look at CPUs I'm thinking about going with 6000 newegg link
For only 40 bucks more I think ill get a good performance increase for the money. And if i went with the mem u suggested, it would only be 24 dollars more than my current total price
Add in the psu u suggested: 14 dollars more than current price.

Thank you!

And I'm still taking more feedback/tips from others!:slurp:
 
not a problem :)

if i see the name Rosewill anywhere with power supplies, i almost make it my duty to interfere because otherwise someone will not be very happy down the road. a friend of mine on these forums is unfortunate enough to have one. and we're just about waiting for it to explode.

if i'm not mistaken, the 1.8-2V idea is for overclocking purposes, or it may also resolve issues with booting and other things. sometimes RAM is set to a lower voltage than it is supposed to be at, and you have to manually adjust it higher to make it work. i've seen that happen before. that's really my best theory to why i says 1.8-2v.

theoretically it shouldn't be a problem. perhaps one of the other gurus on this website can inform you better about compatability on that issue. i'll admit i'm not expert when it comes to voltages and motherboard compatibility with memory. i just know it's compatible with the other specifications, i.e. pc2 6400 ddr2 800 mhz.

i'm building my own computer. and from what it looks like, you and i built almost an identical computer. :D
 
i'm not so sure about the 3850 or the 3870. it gets the crap kicked out of it by the latest 8800gt models. as highly anticipated as these cards were, they were disappointing imo. some of the reviews and benchmarks i saw didn't show any signs of a good impression either.

the amd 5000+ unlocked isn't the best of the business anymore. the 5600+ can now overclock better than the 5000+ can. in addition, the 5000+ does NOT come with a standard heat sink and fan. not even the retail version. you'll have to buy it at your own cost. i know that i certainly wouldn't want to get it.

as for the PSU you offered, it's a fairly good one, but it's from zipzoom. he wants to have all his shopping done from newegg to avoid additional shipping costs and the like.
 
Here is the guy with the Rosewill. :D
As link said get a different PSU, which seems you have already. :D
I got the same PSU as you had up originally and I can say that I have had no problems but they are not recommended so definitely don't get one. Looks like you will have a nice build here when it is all done.
 
bwahaha. welcome to the thread sam! always nice to have the official word from the victim of circumstance. as mean as that sounds though, you can't say that i don't feel sorry for you though. you will never live it down. for years to come, people will say "hey remember that kid sam johnson? that poor ***** got a rosewill lol". it will echo through the hills, and through hearts and minds of the young as folklore.

"and then sam bought a new power supply, and it was good".
 
i'll give it till the end of the year. then it will start sparking when you hit the power button, or catch cancer or something.
 
link590o said:
i'm still hoping for the video of it on fire is all :3
Click to expand...
If your done remenising back to the subject of the thread.
Your replies have what to do with the budget constraints of the OP?
Psu-same one-add $15
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
OP said:
"I'm building this PC for a friend who will be doing some medium level gaming"
"My budget was not for top of the line, more for overall value, and lasting value."
With that being said:
X2 5000 is 65nm, 65w (newer technology), 5600 is 90nm and 89w
HD3850 is 55nm (newest technology) and $170, 8800GT is $300 if you can find one (I have one).
What are your recommendations for your suggestions to keep the OP's budget in-line?
 
do you maybe want to read some earlier posts of ours? i already suggested an alternate power supply and processor and kept it within the bounds of the OP's budget suggestion, and i was expressing my views on the other suggested video cards. i said that if anything, the OP should buy an 8800 gt, but that's out of the budget scope.

sam posted and related to how i said the OP choice of power supply was terrible and we even posted a detailed list of power supplies and it suggested which ones were tier 1, and which ones weren't recommended.

the OP even posted that he wished to purchase an amd 6000+ in place of the other suggested processors. his exact reasons have yet to be explained.

and since he hasn't raised any other objections, we decided to reminisce for 2-3 posts each in the meantime. is that so terrible, out of the broader scope of posting like..12 times in various other forums and being serious?

take it easy kpo. we're just being friendly and relaxing for a change.
 
No problem.
Suggestion: why don't you download cpuz?, it will tell you what your mobo is and other things.
btw: the 3850 would be alot better than a 9250
 
maybe i'll do it at some point. but i'm planning to buy a system within the coming 4 months. so it's barely even worth listing the stuff in this piece of crap anymore. if you're really that interested though, i'm fairly certain i have an intel 845GV mobo. it only supports at max 1 gig of ram, comes with a piece of crap integrated graphics chip, has 3 PCI slots, 1 IDE slot which can hold maybe 2 hard drives at most with the right ribbon, and a single core intel celeron processor 2.2 ghz from almost 7-8 years ago.

it has 1 stock 80mm fan, a 200-250 watt power supply which surprisingly hasn't exploded yet, and any other specs were personal modifications.

so...with that in mind, i'm building a new one that's going to have the amd 6000+, the 8800gt 512mb, at LEAST 2 gigs of RAM pc2 6400 ddr2 800mhz, 80 gigs of hard drive space (i plan to reuse my current hard drives to save money), and the antec earthwatts 500 watt power supply, all attached to an aliven nf6g vsta motherboard. with any luck i'll be able to improve my amount of RAM, and i want to stick it all in a silverstone case which will come with 2 stock 120mm cooling fans.
 
...Anyways

..."he wished to purchase an amd 6000+ in place of the other suggested processors. his exact reasons have yet to be explained."

I thought I would go with this because, as I said, "For only 40 bucks more I think ill get a good performance increase for the money."

About the 65nm or 90nm business, is there some noticeable difference? What is it? I'm not going to go with a cpu that dosen't include a fan in the box--that is just another thing I have to research... or have people argue over on a pc hardware forum.

About the video card: I would love to go with an 8800... but not only is it high above my budget, but I'm sure it's not needed for mid level gaming. Now yes, I know I said I wanted to aim for lasting value and the higher level card you get the longer your PC will be in the up-to-date gaming range--this is just a mid level gaming pc--but I have been watching the video card market for some time now and here's what I have noticed: Cards around the $200.00 range seem to support mid to higher (not highest) level gaming. Where $300+ cards are for high-top level gaming. Theses cards, I have noticed, drop their value/price considerably faster than the mid level gaming, $200 cards.

To conclude, when the 8600gt is too out of date to run mid level games (I'm going to guess this will take around 3-4 years) a new card in the $200 dollar range will be what is currently top level.

Feel free to correct me on that--it's just a hypothetical idea.

For picking a PSU I did consider the Corsair; however, I think Antec is the better choice (if they are similar like people are saying) because Antec is more of a psu company than corsair is. On the psu ranking list from the FiringSquad forum, Corsair has only one product (with a good rank), but Antec has 7, 1 tier2, 6 tier3. Antec is also one of the post popular brands to be on that list. (nothing by Antec in tier4 or 5.
Now i'm not saying Corsair is a poor brand for only have one psu on this list, but I need to make a choice and it seems the logical one is Antec.
 
well, to further your knowledge on the 65nm versus 90nm business:

the difference is the size of the circuitry they're using to make the chip. a smaller wire will use less electricity and create less heat. so 65nm technology has a benefit over 90nm technology. running at a cool temperature to begin with, and using less power makes it a great chip to overclock. (ask me or someone else if you don't know too much about that).

as for the video card situation...that's the main reason i didn't recommend a better one. because you didn't need a better one, and because that 8800gt card is rather expensive.

and your theory about the price drops seems fairly logical to me. the mid range ones tend to last longer and perform average for longer, and can keep up with some of the emerging cards. whereas the top of the line ones are practically out of date as soon as the new one comes out. the ones that go out of date usually remain at the top price for a little while, making the brand new card, or the mid range a better deal in terms of performance and value.

the 8800gt was supposedly going to drop in price relatively soon by like...50-70 dollars or something. i don't know if that's true. it may only be true for the 512mb version seeing as the 256 mb version is already at 200 dollars. and they wouldn't want to drop that any further because they would minimize profit.

but anyway. enough about that. the psu i offered, the antec, was suggested for the following reasons
1) value. it's relatively low in price
2) quality. it's very high quality, provides a large output in terms of amperages and wattages to power a top of the line model if need be.
3) it's a good power supply to have if you wish to expand on the system later.

a 450 watt corsair may power the system, but it may not allow enough room to add more parts such as more RAM, a better video card, or a new processor, or even another hard drive.

that antec will allow lots of headroom, and that means you can have confidence that your system won't be underpowered should you choose to upgrade. supposedly, the antec will power a system of the calibre i wish to build, and use up maybe 30-50% of its capacity. that's another 50-70% of power capacity you can devote to expansion of the system, which in my book is pretty fantastic.
 
PC built and running Great--so far!

scored 5,829 on 3D Mark 06 (free edition)

I'm a little upset about the video card and psu.... I learned after I put it all together that the card requires 20-22 amps and the psu only puts out 16, so I may get some crashes, I think?
 
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