First build (in eight years, that is...)

[CV73]

Hello, everyone. I've lurked here for a while, and this is one of the hundreds of forums I've visited where almost everyone seems to be willing (not to mention very capable) of helping.

I haven't built a system since Windows 3.11 and 64 megs of RAM were state-of-the-art. However, I've recently fallen in love with Battlefield 2, and my aging retail machine just can't pull it off. It's been time to upgrade for a while now, anyway.

My PC needs to do very little other than some occasional Office projects, connect to the web, and feed my BF2 fix. I won't be overclocking, I don't want a flashy LED-filled case, and I seriously doubt I'll ever need SLI graphics and a handful of RAID drives. However, I'd like to build a reasonably future-proof machine that'll serve me for another few years without needing to do any major upgrades. My entire Newegg wish list is around $830 delivered, but I don't necessarily have a budget.

Please take a look and see if I've missed anything, or more importantly, if I've picked something stupid. Any comments and suggestions are welcome.


MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard

CHAINTECH SE6600G Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

TOSHIBA Black IDE DVD Burner

Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2


I already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse, speakers, an old FDD lying around, and an Antec case. The only places I'm wavering all that much are the processor and the PSU...

I seriously doubt I'll notice any difference in the performance between the 3200 and the 3000 Venice, but for some unexplainable reason, I have it in my head that the 3200 is what I need. Is it really worth a 45-ish dollar price difference?

And yes, that PSU is most likely overkill, but I trust Antec, and I feel as though that model is a pretty good choice future-proof-wise, because if I decide to upgrade within the next year or two, chances are that it'll still be able to handle a hotter CPU and/or video card. The problem is that I'm not entirely sure about modular supplies; some people rave about them, and others caution that they tend to starve your components. Who do I believe?

But anyway, like I said, any and all comments are welcome, and thank you in advance.

[Amazin Caucasian]

do you plan on running BF2 on high settings?? because I have heard that you need at least a 6800gt to run it on high settings. I believe glc said this in another thread when a guy chose a modular PSU its not a good idea....I dont want to speak for him just telling you what was in another thread.

[nicolaus corelius]

BF2 is very power hungry. u need like 2 GB of ram to run it smoothly

[glc]

Hmm - so that is a modular power supply. I'd be safe and get a nonmodular - this Enermax is a winner:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103457

Concur with 2gb ram and a 6800GT. Recommend replacing the WD drive with a Seagate and the Toshiba burner with a Lite-On or NEC.

If you need to recoup costs, get the 3000+ Venice. The video card and ram are more important for gaming.

Make sure the case you choose is well ventilated.

[Antistupid]

I second the Enermax.

Replace the 512X2 with a 1GBX2 kit like the others said and get the 6800GT, as others suggested.

There aren't really any ways to be future-proof, but the 6800GT and the 3000+ should get you through atleast a year without any upgrades.

[glc]

Only a year? I'd say at LEAST 3 years if not 5, and it should do office work and surf for close to 10 years.

[Antistupid]

Office, yea 5 years. But games, not that long... 2 or 3 at most.

[CV73]

I'll go with two gigs and the non-modular Enermax. The case I'm planning on using is the first Antec Sonata series with 120mm fans front and back and a side panel mod with a pair of 80mm, so it should keep everything cool.

But as far as the video card goes, after reading your responses and thinking about it, I should probably just go big or go home. I might settle on this instead:

eVGA 256-P2-N538-AX With Battlefield 2 Bundle Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

One final question, though. I only really need a HDD in the 120-160 gig range, with 160 being more than what I'll probably ever need. I'm more than willing to take your advice and go with Seagate, but they all seem to have NCQ, and that's something I've never really looked into. Does the motherboard need to support NCQ?

Two or three years is exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks so much, everyone.

[glc]

NCQ is a good thing with any SATA drive on any controller.

[CV73]

The final machine...

MSI K8N Neo4-F
3200 Venice
eVGA 7800GTX
2Gb Corsair ValueSelect
Enermax Noisetaker 485
Seagate 200Gb HDD
LiteON DVD burner

Just finished the build yesterday, and it went off without a hitch. Plugged everything together, double checked it, and hit power. It fired right up without a single hiccup, and was totally up and running in about an hour. It boots up in about 15 seconds and BF2 runs between 70 and 80fps on max settings.

As much as I hate to bump old threads, I needed to thank everyone for their input and for countless other threads I fell back on through the whole process. The knowledge here was invaluable. Thank you.

[kram 2.0]

Congratulations - no doubt the 7800GTX should be very stellar on BF2

kram

[Antistupid]

Congrats. That's gonna be one sweet system.

[Two|Bit]

How can you tell if a PSU is modular? How do they function differently?

[kram 2.0]

Originally Posted by Two|Bit How can you tell if a PSU is modular? How do they function differently?

Modular power supplies have detatchable cables.

kram

[Two|Bit]

And how could I tell if I were purchasing online? would it say "Modular" or "detachable cables" or some thing like that? What makes its unreliable?

[glc]

Every extra connector between the PSU and a device has the potential to add resistance and cause connection problems.