Time for a new PC - Does this look good?

[Hi Ho]

Lately I haven't kept up on the progressing PC technology as much as I should have. I have been more into home theater audio stuff especially since starting my job as a home theater installer.

My current PC is getting old and tired. It is becoming unstable and it is simply not up to the task of running newer games and applications.

I will be installing Windows Vista on this PC (assuming I can get ahold of a copy) and I hope to purchase it within the next month. Here are the specs. Please let me know if there are any glaring issues with my parts selection. I am especially cluless about the newest motherboard chipsets from Nvidia. The board I have chosen has an nForce 570 SLI. I'm assuming this is a new chipset to go along with the AM2 socket but is it any good? Should I go for two 2GB sticks of RAM instead of four 1GB sticks? Forgive me for falling behind, I'll be playing catch-up for a while but I'm getting back into it.

Case - SILVERSTONE TJ07-S Silver 2.0mm Aluminum body ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail - $299.00

Motherboard - ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $149.00

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail - $276.00

RAM - Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail x2 - $178.99 x2 = $357.98

Video Card - eVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail - $399.99

Power Supply - FSP Group (Fortron Source) FX700-GLN ATX12V/ EPS12V 700W Quad. SLi Power Supply - Retail - $134.99

Hard Drives:

Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM - $219.99

Seagate 400GB SATA 7,200 RPM Hard Drive - $119.99

Optical Drives:

Plextor 16x SATA DVD Burner - $105.99

LG Beige 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-ROM E-IDE/ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive Model 8164BI - Retail - $17.99

Sound Card - Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series - $125.99

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________

Sub Total - $2,208.89
Shipping - $29.62

Total - $2,238.51

[flanzig1]

Any thoughts going to the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600?
As for HDs, the Seagate 7200.10 are almost as fast as the Rapter and good warranty.
DVD burner: Lite-on retail about $40. I like Plextors but are a bit pricey.
If staying with the AMD, DDR2 800 is the preferred ram speed.

[glc]

Using 667 ram with AM2 takes a performance hit, even clocked stock. If you do a C2D, you can use 667 at stock speeds with no performance hit. However, if you are spending that kind of money, get the 800 ram and get Corsair. Besides, a E6600 makes that 5200+ look sick and if you plan on overclocking, there's not much room left in that 5200+ but the E6600 will scream. You gotta read up on what's been happening in the processor world in the past 6 months - AMD got knocked off the throne soundly.

Raptors are no longer the drives of choice because the Seagate 7200.10 drives are just about as fast for a fraction of the price.

[Hi Ho]

I'm not an overclocker. So the Core 2 Duo is a real step above the AMD now? What board would you reccomend to go with the C2D?

[flanzig1]

The Asus P5B series are good choices. Pick one with the options you want. P5B is the starter board.

[Hi Ho]

Ok I swapped out a few parts and removed some. I can use the sound card I already have. I switched to two Seagate 400 GB hard drives and changed the CPU to Intel. I have what may possibly be a dumb question about the motherboard. I never kept up much on Intel chipsets in the past so I know very little about them. The motherboard has two PCI-E x16 slots. I assume it supports SLI. Is this correct? The only reason I ask is that I do not see SLI mentioned.

Here is the updated list:

Case - SILVERSTONE TJ07-S Silver 2.0mm Aluminum body ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail - $299.00

Motherboard - ASUS P5B Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $179.99

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail - $316.00

RAM - G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - $489.99

Video Card - eVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail - $399.99

Power Supply - FSP Group (Fortron Source) FX700-GLN ATX12V/ EPS12V 700W Quad. SLi Power Supply - Retail - $134.99

Hard Drives - Seagate 400GB SATA 7,200 RPM Hard Drive x2 - $119.99 x2 = $239.98

Optical Drives:

Plextor 16x SATA DVD Burner - $105.99

LG Beige 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-ROM E-IDE/ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive Model 8164BI - Retail - $17.99

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________

Sub Total - $2,184.91
Shipping - $32.42

Total - $2,217.33

[Mr.Ferrari]

The 2X2 thing is very new, and the chip's they use have never been tested on that chipset. So I would stay away for now..Instead I suggest you get 2 2x1gb kits of Corsair Valueselect DDR2 667.

And no, no SLi. The chipset does not support it, and the second PCI-E slot will be downgraded to 4x when used in a dual card config.

[Hi Ho]

So there is a negligible difference in performance between 667 and 800 RAM? The Corsair 2x1GB kits would save me $80 so if that's the case I'd be happy to go with that.

[Mr.Ferrari]

With Core 2 Duo there is absolutely 0 difference. Its gonna down clock it to DDR2 533 anyways..

[glc]

There's a nice rebate on the Corsair 800 2x1 kits now - I'd go for a couple of those.

Have you thought about waiting a while longer till the DX10/Vista dust clears before jumping onto the only DX10 card on the market? I'd postpone the build or throw a $90 7600GS in there as a placeholder. Even the 7600GS will make your AGP 6600GT look sick. It may be to your advantage to wait a bit if you really want 4gb ram - I anticipate there will be more 2x2 kits out and compatibility will get better as time goes on. You will need a 64 bit OS to address all 4gb anyway.

[Hi Ho]

I have been reading about the DX10 cards and I am definetly going to read up on the experiences of others after Vista is released before I commit to buying a DX10 card. It sounds like Nvidia has had some trouble getting the performance up to snuf in Vista.

Is there a real advantage to going with a 2x2GB kit instead of two 2xGB kits? I do plan on installing the 64bit version of Vista. From what I understand, both the 32bit and 64bit versions are included in every version but Vista Starter. If the 64bit version is too troublesome I can always go back to the 32bit version. Maybe it would be a good idea to start with 2GB of RAM and add more if the need arises.

I don't get a chance to be on the cutting edge too often but I do like it. I can live with bugs and I like trying new things. I'll still have this old PC as a backup and I know at some point Vista will be every bit as stable as XP. I'm willing to take the risks of jumping into a brand new OS based on my very good experiences with the beta. If Nvidia gets their Vista driver/performance issues cleared up by the time I am ready to buy I'd like to get a DX10 card.

I have a question about the Intel chipsets. From what I can see, there are no Intel chipsets for the C2D that support SLI. The only SLI boards I see sport Nvidia chipsets. Is a future BIOS update a possibility to enable SLI in a P965 based board like the P5B? I know that Nvidia chipsets and Intel CPU's are traditionally a bad combination but I would really like SLI support.

[flanzig1]

The Nvidia chipset 680i is the latest for use with Intel CPUs doing Sli. There are only 2 or 3 boards out there that have the 680i. Seems to be some bugs with it at this time.
As for Intel doing Sli, probably not since Sli is a Nvidia technology.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Originally Posted by Hi Ho I have been reading about the DX10 cards and I am definetly going to read up on the experiences of others after Vista is released before I commit to buying a DX10 card. It sounds like Nvidia has had some trouble getting the performance up to snuf in Vista.

ATi has its R600 coming out very soon. Supposed to be a monster.

Originally Posted by Hi Ho Is there a real advantage to going with a 2x2GB kit instead of two 2xGB kits?

Not really..as I said, im not even sure your motherboard will work with it due to the chip's being very new into the market.

Originally Posted by Hi Ho I have a question about the Intel chipsets. From what I can see, there are no Intel chipsets for the C2D that support SLI. The only SLI boards I see sport Nvidia chipsets. Is a future BIOS update a possibility to enable SLI in a P965 based board like the P5B?

Intel chipsets have never agreed with nvidia. Actually a while back people were doing sli on 975X by using hacked drivers. But those are now very outdated and that isnt a possibility. Intel 975x is the only Intel chipset thats good with dual card configs, and the only cards that will work on it are ATi cards in crossfire.

Your only choice is 680i. Its raid controller is still having some major bugs, and its not as stable as I would like it it to be, but its a big leap foward from old nforce4. If you must go with this, go with Asus P5N32-E SLI or better.

With 965 your limited to a single card no matter what manufacturer or bios.

[Hi Ho]

Here is the latest list. I switched to a Lite-On DVD burner and an Asus DVD-ROM. I hadn't realized that so many optical drives were using SATA now. Last time I checked Plextor was one of very few. DVD-RAM seems to be making a comeback too.

I went with a slightly cheaper motherboard since it doesn't make sense to have dual PCI-Ex16 slots if SLI is not available.

I changed to Corsair RAM as suggested.

The price gets lower every time I reconfigure (always a good thing). Now I'm curious what OEM cost of Vista Home Premium will be. That's the final piece of the puzzle. Is there an actual date for the Vista release yet? I can only find "late January". EDIT: I found out the release date is Jan 30th.

Case - SILVERSTONE TJ07-S Silver 2.0mm Aluminum body ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail - $299.00

*Motherboard - ASUS P5B-E LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $150.99

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail - $316.00

*RAM - CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - $254.00

Video Card - eVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail - $399.99

Power Supply - FSP Group (Fortron Source) FX700-GLN ATX12V/ EPS12V 700W Quad. SLi Power Supply - Retail - $134.99

Hard Drives - Seagate 400GB SATA 7,200 RPM Hard Drive x2 - $119.99 x2 = $239.98

Optical Drives:

*LITE-ON Black 16X SATA DVD Burner W/DVD-RAM Support - $35.99

*ASUS Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616A3T - Retail - $21.99
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sub Total - $1,853.92
Shipping - $31.43

Total - $1,885.35

[newbuilder14]

Looks solid to me.

[glc]

Still gonna jump on that first DX10 card, huh? That PSU is more than you need with any single card but it's a good one.

[Hi Ho]

Ok, my plans have changed. I had to change my budget and reconfigure my build.

Case: LIAN LI PC-7A plus II Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail - $89.99

Motherboard: Same

CPU: Same

RAM: Same

Video Card: eVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail - $175.99

Power Supply: FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX500-A, 2.0 version, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 500W - Retail - $84.99

Hard Drives: One Seagate 400 GB instead of two - $119.99

Optical Drives: Same

Total W/ Shipping: $1,267.05

[newbuilder14]

Looks like some wise adjustments, good luck.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Swap that for the newer better Silverstone ST50EF and your set. Only $2.50 more.

Just to put it out there, if your still planning on upgrading to DX10 in the future, you will most likely need to upgrade the psu too.

[glc]

If that's a hard budget ceiling - I'd still be ready for DX10 with a proper PSU and cut the video card back to a 7600 series for right now. I saw a 7600GT at the Egg that is under $100 after a hefty rebate.

[Hi Ho]

It's not a hard budget ceiling. The higher the cost, the longer I have to wait to build. I've been waiting over two years so I'm getting a little impatient. I'll probably switch back to the 700w PSU and get the 7600GT. I do plan on upgrading to a DX10 card rather quickly.

[Hi Ho]

Ok, I am grappling with the OS issue. I want Vista, but I'm not sure If I want to deal with the driver issues. The Vista beta worked fine for me except for the video card and sound card drivers which were absolutely horrid. The problem is that I already have my copy of XP Home installed on two PC's and I don't want to try a third. It seems like a waste of money to buy another copy of XP Home that I won't use for very long. It comes with the upgrade coupon but I would still have to pay $79 to get Vista Home Premium. Any suggestions? Also, is it true that the OEM versions of Vista are tied to a single motherboard for life?

[glc]

Buy XP MCE - that has a better upgrade path.