Need help on an ~ $1200 gaming build

[alienbob113]

Im looking to buy a new computer for my birthday , with a budget around 1200$. Ive got the monitor, speakers, mouse, and keyboard. Its pretty much just gonna be a gaming computer, not really used for school. So far im lookign at teh AMD athlon 64 3700+ socket 939 for the cpu, 7800 gt for the processor (and wanna keep it open so that i might get another for sli), a DFI lanparty board, but am not too sure what to get (should i go SLi, since it seems the ULTRA-D board is still SLi compatible...just wanna keep the SLi option opoen), as this is the first computer that im building from scratch. I konw what im doing in building it though, because i built one for a friend of mine, so difficulty of installing the parts wont be a problem at all. Ive got 1 gig of corsair xms ram so ill probably get another gig of that. With that in mind, could someone give me some advice on what hdd's and such i should get? (also, i dont need CD/DVD or Floppy drives). Thx. (also im planning on doing som OC'ing)

(oh sorry english isnt my first language)

[Arcotik]

Personally, I'd change the 3700+ to a 3800+ for around $30 to $70 more, also if you order soon it'll come with a free printer. Get a eVGA 7800GT for your GFX and you'd probably want to get 1.5 to 2.0 gigabytes of ram (ocz or xms). I personally prefer ASUS A8N-SLI boards, but if you like the DFI go right ahead.

[freakitchen]

Would have to disagree with the suggestion to upgrade to a 3800+. At the top end of AMDs, the price goes up MUCH higher than actual gain between the processors. In gaming, it's your video card that does the work, and that 7800GT is a super one

Would agree with your decision to keep the SLI option open.

The quickest drives out there are the Western Digital Raptor drives (10,000 RPM), but they are VERY expensive and small capacity. Seagate drives are very good quality, but I would lean towards the Maxtor Diamondmax drives with the 16MB cache. This gives them speeds approaching the Raptors, and you get MUCH more storage for your money.

Freakitchen

[Druelar]

I agree that the 3800+ option is not worth the money compared to performance gain. I want to build a PC that is very close to yours and I had planned on using the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium board. I just found out that it is not compatible with the Athlon 64 3700+ CPU. Be careful to check if you choose to use the A8N-SLI board.

A8N-SLI Premium The following table shows the support for CPU / Motherboard

Athlon 64 3000+ (CG version) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 3000+ (rev.D) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 3000+ (rev.E6) (Socket939) ALL 1006
Athlon 64 3200+ (CG version) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 3200+ (rev.D) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 3200+ (rev.E6) (Socket939) ALL 1006
Athlon 64 3400+ (CG version) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 3500+ (CG version) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 3500+ (rev.D) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 3500+ (rev.E6) (Socket939) ALL 1006
Athlon 64 3800+ (CG version) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 3800+ (rev.E6) (Socket939) ALL 1006
Athlon 64 4000+ (CG version) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 FX-53 (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 FX-55 (CG version) (Socket939) ALL 1004
Athlon 64 FX-55 (rev.E4) (Socket939) ALL 1005
Athlon 64 FX-57 (rev.E4) (Socket939) ALL 1005
Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+ revE4(Socket939) ALL 1007
Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+ revE6(Socket939) ALL 1007
Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ revE4(Socket939) ALL 1005
Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ revE6(Socket939) ALL 1006
Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4400+ revE6(110W Socket939) ALL 1005
Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4600+ revE4(Socket939) ALL 1005
Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4600+ revE6(Socket939) ALL 1006
Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4800+ (Socket939) ALL 1005

I want to use this board so I will now need to select a different CPU. I like the board because in a couple years after prices drop, I plan on installing an Athlon 64 FX-57 CPU and adding a second card.

Good luck with your new present.