First time building a (gaming)comp..$2000 budget

[MaxXxy]

Hey there, I'm extremely new to computer hardwear so bear with me here..

GIGABYTE 3D AURORA GZ-FSCA1-ANB Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case

x2 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives

ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce SPP 100 ATX AMD Motherboard

ATI 100-435805 Radeon X1900XTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Xion PowerReal XON-600F14T-201 ATX12V V.2.01 600W Power Supply

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model Twinx2048-3200c2pt

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4400CDBOX

All of this is coming from newegg.com. I was gonna get a 7900 GTX but I heard the X1900XTX will be better for Oblivion. However, I dont think the motherboard I've chosen works with ATI? Anyways, if you guys could help me out with this that would be awsome.

[Staren]

The only issues I see here is the SLI / ATI compatibility that you already picked up on,, power supply, and you're RAM.

Motherboard: The board and video card will work, but it's a bit of a waste. You can't use two ATI cards in an SLI motherboard. The single card you have will work in one slot, but why pay the extra for the SLI parts if they can't be used right?

If you want to go with the single X1900XTX, then go with the Asus A8N5X http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131569 It is the non-SLI ver. of the board you have listed, and very popular for single card builds right now.

Power Supply: If it where me, I would look for a known good PSU maker. Antec, or Sparkle, or something like that. There is a list of brands in the Gen Hardware forum. The output amps on the supply you listed look good, but since I don't know the name, and there are so few reviews, I would look at something else. There are good brands for the same price. Also, it might be worth it to go with an SLI badged power supply even if you go with the ATI video card. They have been tested with high end power hungry parts and have been shown to work.

RAM: As stated on these boards before, unless you plan to overclock or are using one of the picky bleeding edge motherboards like the current DFI offerings, Value RAM will work just fine. Corsair ValueSelect is the favored brand around here. It has served me well.

Other then that, it looks like a fairly solid set-up.

[MaxXxy]

Ok thanks allot

[MaxXxy]

Would you suggest going SLi or is the X1900XTX just fine? As in like a 1900 vs 2 7900 GT's..
Oh, another question is, will any extra cooling be necessary?

[Staren]

No I wouldn't go SLI in this case. Two of the second teir cards (like the GT vs. GTX) would not give you better graphics quality then one of the top cards. Where SLI (or Crossfire if going ATI video with a crossfire motherboard) helps is that the second card speeds up the work and just gives you a few extra frames per second in games. It really doesn't come into play until the next gen cards come out and that second card will give you a few more months until you have no choice but to upgrade to keep up.

I think stock cooling will be just fine. Just make sure you have a retail CPU since it will come with the heatsink and fan. I haven't looked at Gigabyte cases before, but that looks pretty good. You should get rather good airflow with it.

[MaxXxy]

Ok thanks so much for your help Staren. Well that actually took me about 30 seconds of google searching before I realized "rather good airflow" wasn't a company but a figure of speech.

Oh and how long do you think the 1900 will stay up-to-date?

[Alaron]

Oh and how long do you think the 1900 will stay up-to-date?

Thats always a tough one to answer. If you are looking to play the latest titles with all the bells and whistles turned on, its already out of date. But if you just want to play without slowdowns, it will last for awhile longer. And by the time you need a new one, you'll probably need to upgrade more components. Just enjoy it now and worry about upgrading when you need to. :)

[MaxXxy]

Hahaha aright then..that seems like it could be frusterating?

[blue60007]

Yeah, don't worry about it. My video card is several generations old and it still handles any game out there (even FEAR, BF2, HL2) at high, if not max settings just fine.

[Staren]

Ya, you learn pretty quick that most parts will last well beyound the time they're useless. I'm still running my first build as my gaming system. The 2.8 Ghz Processor and Radeon 9800 Pro is only now starting to feel stressed in gaming. I got 3 years of games out that system. Not bad. It just depends on your style. I'm not the type who has to have all the detail all the way on max to enjoy the game. The card I'm looking at as the upgrade is the 7900GT since I go for the best bang for the buck since I'm a college student and don't have the money to buy the top of the line every few years.

[MaxXxy]

Sounds good..3 years eh? Pretty efficient.. anyways since I'll be getting this rig in May and I can't wait that long would you guys suggest upgrading my current video card from a 5500 FX to a 6800XT? It's $175.00 (can.) I think im gonna try Oblivion before I buy one but does this seem like an OK buy?

Oh, and is a video card easy to install? like just take the old on out, pop the new one in?

[Mr.Ferrari]

Im not too familiar with the xt....not too popular. Is your board agp or pcie?

If its agp i would go with the 6800gs. And this is totally your decision. If you have the extra cash and want to then go ahead. And yes its a pretty easy install. Make sure ur uninstall your current drivers b4 installing the new ones in. And always keep your drivers updated. If u ask me that upgrade isnt really worth it for 2 months...and when is oblivion coming out anywayz? If ur gettin ur new rig in may thats like a lil more then a 1 month diff.. ur current card shouldnt have too many problems playing oblivion..not at max settins but it will atleast hold u out till ur new rig.

[glc]

I don't trust that power supply. You can get an Antec TPII-550 for the same price and that's a known quality unit. SLI-certified too if you ever decide to go that way.

[jfk]

Thats always a tough one to answer. If you are looking to play the latest titles with all the bells and whistles turned on, its already out of date. But if you just want to play without slowdowns, it will last for awhile longer. And by the time you need a new one, you'll probably need to upgrade more components. Just enjoy it now and worry about upgrading when you need to. :)

Alaron, the X1900 series will absolutely play all of the latest titles with all of the eye candy turned on. It is hardly "out of date". Not meaning to nitpick, but I have yet to find a current game that my X1900 (or a 7900 series) can't digest at max settings without so much as a hiccup.;) :D

[Alaron]

Its out of date if you compare it to Crossfire or SLI. ;)

I'm just making the point that video cards advance so fast that you can never really stay on top of it. Just enjoy the card you have now and worry about upgrading when you need to.

:)

[MaxXxy]

OK I've decided im going to hold out on the video card..I'll just wait till May and Staren do you know if that motherboard you suggested is Crossfire'able? Just in case.. And finally, is a 550W power supply powerful enough for this rig? Sorry for all the questions but you guys are so helpful :)

[glc]

550 is PLENTY if it's a quality power supply.

[Staren]

Here is 'the' powersupply most people suggest these days: Antec TruePower 2.0 550watt http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103932

And no, the board I listed is not designed for Crossfire. It only has one video card slot. If you would like to be ready for Crossfire down the line, you really need to do some research. Crossfire is a lot newer then SLI, and still has some bugs to be worked out. So you need to make sure you know what you're paying for.