Building my 1st Computer - Help would be GREATLY appreciated.

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Rod_Massoudi

Building my 1st Computer - Just last piece and comments needed...

Hi TS members. I've had a Compaq Presario for the past 5 years and I think it's time for me to make a change... I'm willing to spend around $1,300, give or take, and I'd like to design my computer for gaming...

So far I've chosen these parts, and I was wondering if anyone would happen to have recommendations and input they'd like to share...

MOTHERBOARD
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Model #: A8N-SLI Premium
Link to A8N-SLI Premium Motherboard

VS

ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard... (Popularly recommended...)

Which motherboard?


~-Rest is Pretty Much Assured...-~
CASE
Antec Performance TX TX1050B SOHO Mid Tower case (Black) Retail
w/500W Power Supply

PROCESSOR
AMD Opteron 148

MEMORY (RAM)
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model Twinx2048-3200c2 - Retail
Model #: Twinx2048-3200c2
Link to Corsair Memory
(Compatible RAM?)

VIDEO CARD
eVGA 256/7800GT - I settled :p

HARD DRIVE
Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: WD2500JS
Link to WD Hard Drive
(Does the 137GB limit apply to this Hard Drive when installed into Win XP Home?)


DRIVES
SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM
Model #: DDU1615/B2s
Link to Sony
NEC Black IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner Model ND-3550A - OEM
Model #: ND-3550A BK OEM
Link to Nec
(Are these Drives good? Any better for a little more or less?)


SOUND CARD
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 70SB035000000 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
(Is this a good sound card for gaming/music?)
Link to Sound Card
 
Hello Rod_Massoudi and welcome to techspot


Your system looks great and both motherboards will do fine for your needs, but if you need alot of extra features like sli and sata2 get the top one, but im no expert on motherboards

Second all you hardware at a glance seems compatable, you were wondering about the ram, and it is

Third you were thinking about getting a poweer supply with the case DO NOT get a powersupply with a case and use it unless its from antec or forton, they are garbage and will most likely fail or give you problems down the road . if you search the fourms you will find many problems come from powersupplys of bad and cheep quility



well good luck with your build
 
I'd get a 6800gs, for about $60 less, which is almost identical performance to the 6800gt.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130258

Get the first board if you think you'll ever want a second identical card to install in tandem with the first card(to increase performance). If you'll never do this, get the second board.

If you get a case with a built in psu, then only consider antec cases, almost all other cases with built in psus have junk psus.
You probably want a 24pin main connector psu that has at least one pci-e power connector, and prefeably two pci-e power cables if you get the sli board.

If you really like music you could get an xfi extrememusic edition, but I've heard they have issues with nforce4 based boards so maybe not then.

If you are considering overclocking you could get this ram.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231021
 
Downgrade your processor to a 4000, and upgrade the video card to a 7800 GT. Also, there is no need to get the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium, get the normal SLI. Everything else looks good though.
 
Looks extremely similar to a system I am currently building for a friend.

Unless you are a hard-core fps addict, you don't need that SLI board. The other asus has the nforce4 chipset and a PCIe slot. Nice board.

Your CPU is an overkill! But a fun one to have.

You don't really need a sound card. It will free up your CPU a bit if you have one, but not necessary as the board has decent sound built in.

Take a look at the antec SonataII case. It is the one I have and I love it. The pictures don't do it justice, it is truly beautiful, and the price is amazing.
 
Rod said:
HARD DRIVE
Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: WD2500JS
Link to WD Hard Drive
(Does the 137GB limit apply to this Hard Drive when installed into Win XP Home?)
Click to expand...
It's not a problem as long as you enable large drives during the setup process. I have a single WD 250GB SATA hard drive as my only hard drive with no limit problem (although mine is not SATA II).
 
Suggestion

I agree with all the other components, but i suggest to choose the Amd 64 x2 because it will work faster and it has 2 proceesors in the core.

It's like you have a car with 2 engines instead of 1.

But it's your choice not ours, depending what you intend to do with this computer of yours.

Have fun with it.
 
Is eVGA a reliable brand?
Click to expand...
Yes, evga is good.
They have a lifetime warranty on many of their products, and a 2yr on others.
http://www.evga.com/support/lifetime/
I think the card I listed is a lifetime warranty card.

I'd go for a dual core cpu. It is much more future ready. When future games are made to utilize two cores, then a single core cpu will be slow in comparsion to a dual core.
(I think also, if you get a dual core, then get xp pro, instead of home to be able to use both cores)

The cheaper asus will do almost anything the others will except take a second video card(It supports one video card, while the sli boards can take two.)
The sli premium is the best board listed, and it also doesn't have a chipset fan that can go bad, it has a "heatpipe" instead, but it costs a lot.
 
By the time Games can take advantage of dual-core cpus, they'll be alot cheaper. Better to get a good single cpu now, and upgrade to dual-core once it's needed. Besides, they may decide to change the structure on the dual-core, and you'll be left with an obsolete cpu. Better to stick to a still good product.

Also, I would buy the graphics card from XFX. They have better overclocking, and are cheaper too.
 
Besides being ready for future games, dual core can help your performance now, by letting one core run your game, and the other core run your background processes(or even an av or spyware scan if you wish). That way the cpu working on the game isn't interrupted by background processes.

I wouldn't recommend xfx at all. They look cool, and some of them are oc'ed from the factory, but I've heard they have low build quality.

XFX cards overclock really, really well. However, uve gotta about a 50% chance of it being DOA, and about a 75% chance of it getting depressed and committing suicide within a few weeks after u get it. With Nvidia cards, best brand = eVGA. 2nd best = Leadtek
Click to expand...
http://www.tech-forums.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=543983#post543983

But then again, xfx does have a double lifetime warranty, so if it craps out, you should be able to get a replacement.
 
Tomshardware recommended the XFX cards, as did Maximum PC, and PC World, and PC Gamer. There is nothing wrong with eVga, except they are slightly overpriced.
 
spartanslayer said:
Tomshardware recommended the XFX cards, as did Maximum PC, and PC World, and PC Gamer. There is nothing wrong with eVga, except they are slightly overpriced.
Click to expand...

overpriced? naah.. i think the XFX ones are.. well atleast in canada they are :p i got my 6600GT for 165$ CDN.. while the XFX 6600GT was selling for 195$ CDN

anyway, if ur gonna get dual core, might as well get the SLi premium. If u stick to a still good product.. then get the cheaper board. If u get an SLI premium with a stilll good CPU.. thats like buying a top of the line 7series BMW with no leather seats and no power windows..

I would get the 6800GS over the 6800GT:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=354&card2=180
it costs 60$ and performs a bit better.

as for the case and PSU thing.. only do that if ur buying an antec case.. otherwise dont even think about it. not for ur system

are you going to be overclocking this system? or just leaving it as it is?
 
The X2 is a great choice, but honestly a 7800gtx will by far perform better in games even with a lesser CPU. If you only want gaming performance put your money in a GPU.
Great system you have planed here.
 
wow so thats a 1300 dollar comp. im gonna save up a little bit more money.

my only suggestion is to get a 7800 gt and forget about the sound card.
 
I agree with the others who've recommended a better Vid-card. it seems a little unbalanced - 2GB, 6800GT, A64 4200 Dualcore.

maybe a better balance (without knowing US prices) is:
2GB
A64 3700
7800 GTX..
 
Appreciate the help. (Although, still feel free to contribute.)

I was just wondering, around this time of year, are there Christmas Sales and other sales on Online sites? If so, do you know when they'll be coming in?

Thanks again
 
A Premium Motherboard will allow me to place 2 VCards instead of 1? Or is it the Deluxe that you mean?

Also - would be it be feasible to purchase a 6800GS and then purchase a 7800GT in the near future? Would they work well together, if at all? (Hence, the reason behind the question above.)
 
no they wil not work together. only way to have two cards work together is if theyre identical. 6800GS + 6800GS = SLI... so.. 6800GS + 7800GT = no SLI :p

for now.. i think you should get these:
-ASUS A8N5X (no SLi but good performance otherwise)
-eVGA 6800GS (eVGA because you can step up to a 7800GTX 512 when prices go down.. see the step-up info here: http://www.evga.com/stepup/default.asp?switch=3)
-AMD Athlon 3500+ (I recommended 3000+ because u can EASILY OC it to be at 3500+ speeds.. but yea.. if u have the money then get the 3500+ and possibly OC it in the future..)
OR
-AMD X2 4000+ (if u have even more money :p)
-G. SKill 2GB kit (cheaper ram and good OC-er apparently)
-WD Caviar 250GB (as u listed)
-Sony DVD-ROM (as u listed)
-NEC ND-3550A (as u listed)

I would forget about the soundcard unless youre into some hardcore music, gaming or w/e needs good soundcards... the motherboard already has a decent 8 channel sound (which is 7.1 surround). so meh..

Im not sure about the prices of this set up but im pretty sure its cheaper than 1300.. so that saves u money for tax and shipping...

i'll try and check the prices later :p

goodluck!
 
Rod_Massoudi said:
A Premium Motherboard will allow me to place 2 VCards instead of 1? Or is it the Deluxe that you mean?

Also - would be it be feasible to purchase a 6800GS and then purchase a 7800GT in the near future? Would they work well together, if at all? (Hence, the reason behind the question above.)
Click to expand...

both the premium and deluxe can do SLI (placing 2 similar video cards)

to answer ur second question, it would not be feasible IMO if ur gonna purchase a 7800GT in the near future.. however.. if u purchase from eVGA.. they have a step up program (read my post above) that enables u to trade in ur 6800GS for a better card but u only pay the difference.
 
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