skinrock

Hey guys, what's up. I saw a link here on another forum, and after doing a little reading, I figured I'd get your opinions on my wishlist. I've been tweaking it for the last few months, and got some new ideas on a few of the components, so it just got updated:

http://www.tinyurl.com/becmg

btw, I'm using that as a URL because I've posted it before and I've seen it stretch out the margins

The motherboard and CPU haven't changed from the start. The video card used to be the same type, only the XFG model, I recently switched to eVGA because it's slightly faster, and I heard the XFG is actually overclocked, whereas the eVGA isn't.

Basically I'm just looking for opinions on what could be switched out, and to make sure that everything is compatible. I'll take any advice seriously, thanks.

suprasteve

the link doesn't work for me, but I know people are gonna want to know your budget

Ctcoyote16

1. you sure you want two harddrives?
2. May I reccomend the 9500LED Heatsink, it's amazing

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AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester @ 2.5 Ghz
XFX Geforce 7800GT 256MB
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) Dual Channel Platinum
W.D. Caviar SE16 250GB 7200 RPM 3.0Gb/s HD
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 550W
All on a DeLL 2005FPW:P
3DMark03- 16,352 3DMark05- 7,710 3DMark06- 4292

Greggie Boy

The selection of components look pretty darn good to me

skinrock

Thanks for the replies guys, let's see if I can cover everything:

Regarding the link, here's the full version, I didn't realize this forum shortens them:

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/...OCK%27S+SYSTEM

Budget, what you see is about the range I want, ~$1500. I know I still need a few things like soundcard, wireless networking accessories, and an LCD monitor. But what's in that list will be enough to get me up and running. I have a spare CRT that I can use, and the sound isn't a big issue. I have the JBL Alien 2.1 setup, it's pretty sweet.


Regarding two harddrives. Ya, I'd like the space. Plus, a friend said I could do a RAID setup. I'm not too familiar with RAID, but he said I could get better performance that way.

I'll check up on that heatsink. Thanks for bringing that up though, that's something I forgot to ask. Does anyone know if the heatsink in that list will even fit? I see a heatsink next to the CPU, I think it's the Northbridge heatsink? I'm worried that the one I have is too wide.


And thanks greggie, I've been very picky, I want to get this just right

Ctcoyote16

you will need a RAID card to run in raid configuration I believe....

__________________
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester @ 2.5 Ghz
XFX Geforce 7800GT 256MB
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) Dual Channel Platinum
W.D. Caviar SE16 250GB 7200 RPM 3.0Gb/s HD
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 550W
All on a DeLL 2005FPW:P
3DMark03- 16,352 3DMark05- 7,710 3DMark06- 4292

skinrock

The mobo says this:

S ATA RAID NV RAID 0/1/0+1/5 JBOD
Additional RAID Controller Sil 3114

I think I want to run in RAID 0, isn't that for combining two drives as one? I figured the mobo could handle that.

ReturnToEmpire

you should be good for using RAID 0
that RAM is only 1 gb and it is 200 dollars?
if so then thats a hefty price to pay for that. even if it is corsair XMS, i think corsair XMS is way over priced, there is comparable RAM made by OCZ and Kingston. could drop 50-60 bucks off ur total right there.
also if you went with the 4200 processor youd save a hundred and its only the cache difference.
motherboard is garbage. ask around, id get a non SLI board if you really want ASUS, but if you want SLI get the ASUS a8n32-sli deluxe, its a great board just low end asus sli boards arent very well liked. DFI boards are good, and other brands, abit, MSI. ask about a different motherboard.

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skinrock

I don't think I'll be switching to the 4200. That was one thing I spent a lot of time on, and I decided I should go with the 4400. You say the cache is the only difference, I think that plays a pretty big role though. This rig is not only for gaming, but for development as well, I do a lot of web development, and while that in itself isn't very intensive, I definitely do a ton of multitasking. So I don't want to skimp out.

After doing a lot of research on dual core cpus, it seemed very important to keep an eye on the cache, because even though you say you have 2 cores with 512 kb cache each, now a single core becomes limited to 512 kb. From what I understand, there were some single core cpus of the same speed, but with higher cache, that were outperforming because of that limitation on each core.

In regards to the memory, this was another thing a friend of mine helped me with, and he suggested looking for 2-2-2-5 timing, which that memory has. I know it's expensive, but I want good performance. I did find this though:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146890

30 bucks cheaper, I can't say I can tell the difference though. If there is no negative reason why it's cheaper, I guess I could go with that.

I'd like to go SLI to have the room to upgrade. I'd like to run dual cards in SLI mode eventually. I took your advice and looked at ASUS board you mentioned, it's a little pricey, but if anyone can back that up, and prove that it would be worth the extra $100, I could go with that.

ReturnToEmpire

rams good, and i understand you viewpoint of the processor, also that board is amazing and with an SLI setup it destroys other SLI boards because of the true x16 speed on both pcie x16 slots.
when u say this do you mean that the single core cpu was beating a single core from the dual core cpu or both cores?
and can i see this review i would just like to look.

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