Help building a new Computer

H

Havok3

New Member
I am planning on ordering a computer from Monarchcomputer.com and was wondering what advice I could get about my choices for components. This computer will be used for surfing the internet and word, but mainly gaming ie Rome total war, guild wars, far cry.

Cases: PS 430W - Thermaltake VB1430SNS Soprano M $93.00
Mobo: Asus A8N-E nForce4 Audio/GB-LAN/USB/PCI-E $135.00
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 1MB 90nm Rev. E San D $483.00
Memory: DDR (400) 3200 - 1 GB (2 512pcs) Corsair (TwinX1024-3200C2pt)$119.00
HDD: SATA - Western Digital (WD2500SD) 250 GB/ $135.00
CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/RW: DVD-RW - Plextor PX-716A/SW 4x-DVD+R 8x4x $145.00
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 7.1 24- $31.00
Video Cards: ATI (Sapphire) Radeon X800 XL 256 MB DDR3 $290.00
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional w/SP 2 $156.00
Monitor: ViewSonic 19" LCD VP191B (Black) $455.00

am looking for ways to cut down the price a bit but not sacrifice preformance

1. is there a difference between the saphire X800xl and the 3d connect?

2. Is the 4000+ worth the 483$ or should i consider something less? or would some of the newer ones offer more bang for the buck?

3. Is getting a sound card needed? I hear onboard ones eat up clock cycles.

4. For memory should I consider more? or a different kind?

5. Also could anyone recommend any quality mouse and keyboard combos

All advice and comments are welcomed,
 
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i think you will be wanting a different power supply, usually the ones that come with cases suck, if you dont know what to look for in a power supply you might want to take a look at PSU 101 to get the general idea of what to look for when buying a power supply...

as fo the video card they are all pretty much the same, the only difference that you would ever notice would be the cooling system and possibly warranty info, and the software bundle that comes with them...but the cards themselves are basically all the same..

you could always get a slightly smaller hard drive and save some money...unless you really NEED 250gb of storage, which if you do thats cool, more power to ya..

unless you want to overclock your RAM there is cheaper RAM available that will run just fine at stock speeds, the only time you are really going to notice a difference in RAM types is when you start overclocking it..

as for the cpu i dont know, thats alot of dough for the cpu, a +3800 would take you back under the 400 dollar mark, and i honestly dont know if you need that much processing power for those games...but theres always the future
 
1. In my opinion Sapphire flat out sucks, I have lost numerous video cards to them, 9800pro, 9200, 9550 and the list keeps going. I really wouldn't recommend a Sapphire card. I haven't had any experience w/ 3DConnect though...probably better than Sapphire though.

2. Unless you really, really want it the 4000+ isn't exactly necessary. I have a 3500+ in another rig and it easily overclocks to the specs of a 4000+, even if your not an overclocker the 3500+ still isn't much of a noticeable decrease.

3. I'd recommend a seperate sound card, the integrated ones can slow you down a bit when putting a load on your PC.

4. Unless your going to be running a home game designing company, a gig of memory will be fine. The memory you have picked out there is ass-kickin' and name-takin'. I would recommend that if you weren't on a budget. Try the Corsair VALUE series, it's not that bad for when you're on a budget.

5. Sometimes keyboard and mouse combos aren't the best thing, some of them tend to lack quality in a t least one component. I have a 5 dollar keyboard right in front of me and a 50 dollar mouse next to it, put together your own combo, pick out a mouse and keyboard you like. One extra thing here, I do not recommend wireless mice or keyboards, they can become tiresome w/ constant battery recharging/replacing and they can lose their signal A LOT. (Especially if you run a wireless network)

Happy Building
 
1. dont get sapphire like MadModder said
2. get a 3700 san diego
3. get an audigy 2 zs, onboard is okay but can kinda suck and uses the cpu
4. get 2x512 of mushkin redline 4000
5. mouse-logitech mx518, keyboard-logitech elite

for the mobo if ur gunna overclock then get a dfi f4 ultra or sli
 
Thanx for the replies,

i'll definately go for the 3dconnect now as it is a bit cheaper and and am also going to go for a seagate 160GB HDD. I have been looking through different RAM and having a hard time with all the different types and i think i willl go for the corsair value series, or soem OCZ anyone used them?

I have no intentions of overclocking, so i think i will stay with the 4000+ to be able to play current games and ones that will come out in the future.
 
OCZ is great RAM, I've never had any problems with them, so whichever (Corsair or OCZ) works for you, buy it. Look at the CAS latency of the RAM and make sure it's nowhere above 2.5 (the lower the better).
 
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Just 1,
Get one without "XP or Windows installed" do it yourself.
And get all the manuals and cd's included.This will be your downfall if you don't.
:)
 
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1. is there a difference between the saphire x800xl and the 3d connect?
Click to expand...
no

2. is the 4000+ worth the 483$ or should i consider something less? or would some of the newer ones offer more bang for the buck?
Click to expand...
id prolly consider the 3700 san diego

3. is getting a sound card needed? i hear onboard ones eat up clock cycles
Click to expand...
depends on the motherboard. MSI K8n neo4 has hardware onboard and the DFI lanparty4 doesnt eat an appreciable number of cycles. regardless, you should prolly consider one of those two boards anyways since the ASUS board there isnt so great

4. for memory should i consider more? or a different kind?
Click to expand...
yer fine. RAM 101.
 
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