Comments on my first build

[webtek23]

Ok, well I am about to take the big plunge and begin building my own computer. I have assembled a list of components from quite a bit of research. My goal is to have an upper end PC for intense gaming and video/image editing. I want to keep the price to $1500. Here is the list

CASE : Raidmax Sagitta Mid-Tower 420W Gaming Case w/ Side Panel Window (BLACK COLOR)
CPU : (939-pin) AMD Athlon™64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD : (Sckt939)ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio
MEMORY : 2048 MB (1GBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD : ATI Radeon X1800XT PCI-E x16 512MB VIDEO CARD
HARD DRIVE : Gaming Hard Drive (10,000RPM SATA150) (SATA150 - Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM 8MB Cache WD740GD)
Second HARD DRIVE: my Hitachi 250GB
Optical Drive : NEC ND-355
SOUND : Ill be using the sound card I have in my computer now.
PSU: Enermax 500w Liberty

I was originally looking at a 4800+ CPU but I think that was definately overkill so I downgraded to save $$$. I also had questions about if the value select RAM is good, or should I go for the XMS? Comments would be greatly appreciated. Any ways to save money? Thanks!

[pam123]

If you are going to buy an SLI motherboard then an ATI card is a mistake your best bet would be one of the 7XXX cards.
Also ATI has essentially discontinued the X1800 card so one of the X1900 cards makes more sense, the price isn't that much higher and you'll get much better performance ( Remember the X1800 lost badly to nVidia and ATI made sure to get the X1900 out fast before they lost any more time/marketshare in the tech race.) since the X1900 rules, for now.
Get the XMS ram only if you intend to overclock, it's wasted otherwise and you can put the cash you save toward the X1900.

[webtek23]

The reason I was going to purchase an sli motherboard is that currently I think that ATI has some better offerings in the graphics card area, but nVidia is always right beside them. I wanted to ability to use their SLI technology if I decide to upgrade at a later date when I have more money. I had also heard great things about that board and it seems to be very popular meaning that it would have a large support group

Another question: Is the WD Raptor HD really worth it for the extra speed? Would I notice that big of a difference over the Seagate Barracuda Drives? (link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148107) It would save me around $100, so if the difference between the two is not that noticable then I definately want to save some cash there.

Any other thoughts?

[jayb1234]

If you change the hard drive to one with a 16Mb cache, they perform almost as well as the Raptors, beat them in a few benchmarks and you can get a much larger capacity for the price. In my opinion the Raptors are overrated, overhyped and overpriced.

Edit: 16Mb cache HDs

[webtek23]

Suggestions for a HD? because I had heard great things about the Barracuda's and they are all 8mb cache.

[blue60007]

I believe Western Digital has some SE16 drives with a 16mb cache.

[MakeYourslf2012]

As blue said, check out some of the Western Digital Caviars. They have huge sotrage capacity and great speed and realiability.

this one is cheaper by $50 than a raptor, but gives you about 175GB of more storage

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144701

[webtek23]

Would the larger size make it slower? Wouldnt the 250GB be slower cause there is more data to search through? So you think this would be quicker than the Barraccuda?

[MakeYourslf2012]

As long as you dont have fragments all over the drive, the capacity should have no effect on the speed.