Building a pc...suggestions please

[Xion_Xiathyne]

Hello everyone, I'm going to be building a new pc soon, my first time doing so, and was wondering if anyone could give me some suggestions. I've got a basic list of what I want, but any suggestions on anything I have down would be nice. The only thing I really have preferance over is the case, and that's just because the xion goes with my whole gaming name. I'm building the pc mainly for gaming. Thanks.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208008 (A must almost)

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103931 (unsure, suggestions welcome)

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131530 (unsure again, but I'm not worried about having 2 video cards)

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103544 (I think)

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822116144 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822116145 if I can afford it.

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145310 (Just wanting good ram that's 1gig sticks, and 2 of them)

Sound Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102179

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814135184

[popgoesthweasel]

Anandtech puts put some good guides like this one: http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2659

I would probably start there.

Your memory and hard drive choices aren't compatible with the motherboard you've selected.

[Foosa]

i would go with a lesser cpu. like either the 3800 and save your self 332$ or the 4200 and save 265$. or go single core and save hella more. (3700+ or 4000+ single cores)

vid card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130256

Sound card: the sound on your mobo should get you by unless you are a sound nut.

psu.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103464
should be more than enough and damn good Company.

ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227210
if you hurry there is a 45$ mail in rebate on it.

HD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136012


hope this helps. i dont know if money is an issue, but that should save you a good chunck of change.

[doctorgonzo]

You can't use SCSI drives without buying a SCSI controller card, which is expensive.

You need unbuffered non-ECC RAM, not what you have chosen now.

I'd wait on the sound card to see if the onboard sound is good enough for you.

[popgoesthweasel]

Ok I threw together a wishlist over at Newegg.

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/...itle=recommend

Now for why. The motherboard is a solid board with bling it will look good in your case with the addition of a couple UV lights. There is also a good forum at dfi-street.com in case you run into specific problems with this board.

The video card is from a good manufacturer that offers a lifetime warranty on that product.

The psu is a good psu and comes with high marks from those over at DFI Street.

Ditto the ram.

The proceesor is a step down but not by much. I'd go with a single core processor in a gaming machine and eliminate the any potential headache of incompitibilities between your processor and the games you want to play.

Since you didn't really blink at the cost of an SCSI hard drive , I figured go for cutting edge. The latest and greatest WD Raptor. There are other more value oriented choices however.

I didn't include a sound card, but on board has never cut it for me. YMMV.

[doctorgonzo]

Link doesn't work.

[popgoesthweasel]

IF there is more dollars in the budget, YOu could go with a top of the line single core processor from AMD.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103558

[Xion_Xiathyne]

Ok thanks for all of the info. Most of that I didn't pay too much attention too...and obviously made some mistakes. I have a probably stupid question though...what's the difference between amd64, 64fx, and x2?

[doctorgonzo]

AMD Athlon 64-bit processors are your basic 64-bit processors. Socket 754 is the cheaper line and only supports single-channel memory. Socket 939 is the general line, supporting dual-channel. You probably want to stay away from Socket 754. X2 processors are dual-core; they have two processors in one package. FX processors are the top of the line, aimed at the crowd that have to have the latest, fastest, and most expensive processors.

[Xion_Xiathyne]

That's kinda what I had thought, but I didn't want to just assume and be wrong. Ok...another question. Someone replied that dual core would be bad for games...is that true? If so that helps what processor I want from those suggested.

[blue60007]

Originally Posted by Xion_Xiathyne That's kinda what I had thought, but I didn't want to just assume and be wrong. Ok...another question. Someone replied that dual core would be bad for games...is that true? If so that helps what processor I want from those suggested.

Dual cores aren't bad for games, dual core just doesn't do any good if there aren't optimizations for dual cores (I believe COD2 and Q4 do have optimizations for dual cores). In the case of games that don't have those optimizations a faster single core would be better.

[doctorgonzo]

Dual-core processors aren't "bad" for games, but current games do not take advantage of dual cores. Thus, a fast single-core may be better for gaming than a dual-core processor with two slower cores. What dual cores allows you to do is more than one thing at once, for example if you play a game and encode MP3s at the same time.

While games don't take advantage of dual cores, Windows itself will and thus it may not be a bad idea to get a dual-core processor if you are doing several things at once when you aren't gaming.

[Xion_Xiathyne]

ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227210

Harddrive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136012

processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103529

video card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130256

mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131530

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813136159
Unsure which of these is really better. I think the only difference is the 2 x16 slots over a few regular pci slots.
case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208008

[Foosa]

the only reason as of now that you would need two pci x16 would be for sli. Which i dont think you want to do by reading your previous posts. i would go with the Asus mobo myself.

I like your list
you should be able to get by with 1gig of ram as opposed to 2. Could save you some more cash if your looking to save. But the 2gigs will benifit you in some games and things.

what is the primary function of this computer going to be? playing games i would asume.


as for that PSU i would get a case that doesn't come with one and get the enermax i suggested previously.

good luck with the build.

[Xion_Xiathyne]

Thanks The case is going to stay for sure. I go by Xion on everything so the name case fits me perfect. But I could always change psu's easily which is something I'm still probably going to do. Thanks everyone for the help.

[jayb1234]

The Antec TPII 550 in your first post is fine. It is one of the best on the market. The Enermax that was posted would probably be OK and the OCZ in the wishlist is a server PSU and would be overkill for your setup.

[Xion_Xiathyne]

Oh duh one more question...again :P...I will also need to buy a windows xp cd to install it right? I'm assuming that doesn't come with any of the stuff I purchased. Or is there a windows 64 or something that I'd need to buy instead?

[blue60007]

Yeah, you'll need to get a copy of Windows. Win XP Home OEM should work fine, unless you need the extra networking features of Pro.

[Xion_Xiathyne]

Ok thanks. Another question that could save me around $200. How big of a difference is an 8mb cache from a 16mb cache in a harddrive?

[blue60007]

I see you picked out that 150GB raptor. Personally, I don't think that's worth $200. I would get a 7200 rpm drive with a 16MB cache. They perform pretty close to the smaller Raptors... Besides, you could get twice as much space for half as much.

[popgoesthweasel]

I see that you've chasen a single core processor, but I wish to illumunate my dual core comment. From my expereince with dual core and newer games I have found no problems that could be attributed to the dual core proceesor; by newer games I mean COD2 and AoE3. On a game like Madden 2006, I get speed ups that are solved by setting the processor affinity for the program.

Heres a link to another forum which discusses the issue, http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=983781

As far as the Raptor hard drive, the 10,000 rpm and the 16MB cache make the difference, but it is definetly not a value choice. You system will work fine with a 16MB cache 7200 rpm, it would also be fine with an 8MB cache, probably the only real loss is bragging rights. Also in the end the differences between SATA and SATA 2 isn't all that great. So if you find a good deal on a SATA drive don't be afraid to pull the trigger.

With speedy drives and limiting start up services and programs my machine can be from a cold boot to finding servers on COD2 in about a minute. My system has 2 37GB WD 10000rpm drives in Raid0. I am sure that they are faster than most 8MB cache, 7200rpm drives. They are probably not as fast 16MB cache 7200RPM drives though. YMMV.

[Xion_Xiathyne]

Ok first I'd like to thank everyone that helped me. I got my parts yesterday, but couldn't build my pc until today. I've got everything put together, and it all seems to be running good with one exception. I don't know how to get the monitor to actually run because the motherboard I got doesn't come with a built in video card so I'm not sure how to connect the monitor and tower. I've got my new video card in, but because I haven't installed drivers or anything yet it's not doing any good. Any help here please because I'm completely lost.

[freakitchen]

Your video card will still give you a picture on the screen on first boot, regardless of the fact that drivers are not installed. If you're not getting a picture, then you have the common 'first boot, no video' problem.

Follow the instructions in this thread:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

Also one to check, have you connected the additional 12v 4 pin power connector to your motherboard? It will be near your CPU and is seperate to the main 24 pin connector.

Freakitchen

[Cricket]

Is the monitor connected to the video card?

Cricket