My first PC build - high end system, please help :)

C

cuse

New Member
Hi everyone! Sorry if this post is too long (in advance) - I am just posting because I am looking to build a new PC for the first time and I need some advice/help so that I don’t completely butcher this somehow and waste a whole lot of money lol (I am on an older laptop right now… and… well enough is enough!). Any help is *truly* appreciated!!!

I know intel has a new chip coming out soon but I can’t wait and I don’t want to wait. I am not willing to spend a million dollars on this thing, but I definitely want to build a PC that will last me a while without needing to upgrade it and will give me an advantage while gaming. I also work fulltime (40 – 56 hours per week) online and I run a billion programs at once, so going dual core should really just make my life better and less frustrating lol.

So yeah… this is what I’ve got so far…

Case: NZXT LEXA-NP Black/ Silver Computer Case With Side Panel Window (124.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811146018

Power Supply: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 550W Power Supply ($89.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard ($157.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540 (Do I need the Premium?)

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 2000MHz HT 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor ($632.00) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103544

Memory: CORSAIR XMS PRO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory ($245.00) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145503

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive ($89.00) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148065

Video Card: 2x eVGA 256-P2-N564 Geforce 7900GT KO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card (2x $319.00 = $638.00) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130015 (Is eVGA reliable? Should I be going with a different one? ASUS?)

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card ($75.00) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102178

CD ROM: Sony/Plextor/NEC Combo drive – recommendations for something cheap yet effective would be nice :). I am more concerned with just getting quality + reliability than anything else at this point. ($~40.00)

Monitor: Trying to decide between the following two: ViewSonic VX922 Black/Silver 19" 2ms LCD Monitor 270 cd/m2 650:1 0.294mm Pixel Pitch ($299.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116375 and Acer AL1951C Silver-Black 19" 4ms LCD Monitor 400 cd/m2 700:1 Built in Speakers 0.294mm Pixel Pitch ($339.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824009075

TOTAL COST (minus shipping) = around $2,400.00 + shipping + OS (windows), etc.

Should I be buying any additional cooling devices, or is the standard stuff that comes with everything sufficient? Is everything compatible (I’m pretty sure it is)? Any recommendations to save a few bucks, or recommendations for upgrades/downgrades, etc.

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! :D
 
Swap out the Audigy 2 ZS for the Audigy 4 Pro and you would do better. You could spend a little more for a Sony 52x cd writer and be able to backup a large variety of files as well as software disks. With the right software you could also create and burn vcds. With dual video cards the ATI CrossFire looks even better. The Acer AL1951C does offer the fastest response time. But shop around for beter prices on lcds. On the Premium model Asus board a friend had to return two of those in a row when they were found defective. He finally decided on a different model rather then make. http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA22016
 
There was a big thread about wether 2x7900gt is better then 1x7900gtx we figured that the gtx was better because you can upgrade it and eventually get 2 of those. So deffinatley get the gtx
 
Another one who wants to build a great pc!

Hi, I am looking to build my own PC in the very near future, but am a little dense when it comes to choosing the right hardware, making sure it is all compatible etc!.... with my luck i'd wire it up and cause an explosion that would take out haiti, so if I had a budget of say $2500, and I need the following:

Motherboard
RAM
Power Supply
Case
OS
DVD RW/CD RW
Graphics Card
Hard Drive
Processor

I already have a great sound card i'll be pulling from my old machine, along with a very nice LG LCD monitor, so those 2 things are taken care of, I really want a machine that will will run high end games, PCI-E graphics card is a must, AGP is a little redundant, I would be buying all items from newegg.com, love that site, but I look at for example, the motherboards, and I am lost, I would love to spend $300 on one if I actually knew how to configure it lol.... I read on some other forum, some guy getting WinXp to boot in 6 seconds, that's what im after, this 30 second boot time must come to an end!!

All feedback welcomed!

Cheers

Tjjonny
 
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.4GHz w/ 2GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - $632
Motherboard: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe ATX AMD Motherboard - $189
RAM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 - $140
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7900GTX 512MB - $500
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card - $122
SCSI Controller: (i have no clue about these... this card ($160), is my guess... but i really no very little about thses things... see what other people think before you buy...)

Drives:

C: Fujitsu 74GB 15,000RPM 3.5" SCSI Ultra320 68pin Hard Drive - $363
D: Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $194
E: LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write Black ATAPI/E-IDE - $43
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2 - $144
Case: up to u
PSU: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 550W Power Supply w/ SLI Support - $74

$2565... oops... a lil much... i hope u can manage
 
Wow, thanks guys for all of the responses! Your advice is greatly appreciated!

PC eye said:
Swap out the Audigy 2 ZS for the Audigy 4 Pro and you would do better. You could spend a little more for a Sony 52x cd writer and be able to backup a large variety of files as well as software disks. With the right software you could also create and burn vcds. With dual video cards the ATI CrossFire looks even better. The Acer AL1951C does offer the fastest response time. But shop around for beter prices on lcds. On the Premium model Asus board a friend had to return two of those in a row when they were found defective. He finally decided on a different model rather then make. http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA22016
Click to expand...

What about using the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102188 ) which is almost twice as much as I was planning on spending on the sound card... but if it makes a big difference, it could be worth it :).

bigsaucybob said:
1. Do not get two 7900GT right now, get one 7900GTX and then upgrade in the future. Or get two 7900GTX if you can afford it.

2. I would go with the Viewsonic monitor

3. I would get this hard drive instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

with that hard drive you can combine it with a NEC burner, so its cheaper
Click to expand...

Yeah, I just thought Seagate's quality > WD's cheaper prices - but I could be wrong. I just want a HD that I know won't fail, or has the smallest chance of failing. I don't want to lose any valuable data that I have, and I don't want to have to spend XXX.XX (at least) more for a second HD + RAID controller.

Crazydude185 said:
There was a big thread about wether 2x7900gt is better then 1x7900gtx we figured that the gtx was better because you can upgrade it and eventually get 2 of those. So deffinatley get the gtx
Click to expand...

Yeah, as per everyone's advice, I'm looking at the GTX now.

Any additional suggestions/comments are more than welcome :).
 
Encore4More said:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.4GHz w/ 2GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - $632
Motherboard: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe ATX AMD Motherboard - $189
RAM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 - $140
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7900GTX 512MB - $500
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card - $122
SCSI Controller: (i have no clue about these... this card ($160), is my guess... but i really no very little about thses things... see what other people think before you buy...)

Drives:

C: Fujitsu 74GB 15,000RPM 3.5" SCSI Ultra320 68pin Hard Drive - $363
D: Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $194
E: LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write Black ATAPI/E-IDE - $43
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2 - $144
Case: up to u
PSU: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 550W Power Supply w/ SLI Support - $74

$2565... oops... a lil much... i hope u can manage
Click to expand...


A lot of stuff there to look at, that's for sure, i like the processor, motherboard and RAM combination, only question is, why is that 74GB hard drive $360+ lol, for that price i'd be expecting the fastest working hard drive on the planet, would I use this for my C drive and the other WD HDD for my backup files?

Enjoying the feeback, giving me an idea of what i'd like :)
 
tjjonny said:
A lot of stuff there to look at, that's for sure, i like the processor, motherboard and RAM combination, only question is, why is that 74GB hard drive $360+ lol, for that price i'd be expecting the fastest working hard drive on the planet, would I use this for my C drive and the other WD HDD for my backup files?

Enjoying the feeback, giving me an idea of what i'd like :)
Click to expand...
yea, the 74gb is basically the fastest harddrive ur gona be able to find... im guessing ur PC will boot up in just a couple seconds from pressing power to login screen...

yea, u put the 74gig at primary, and the other one for storage... just install ur programs and games and windows on the 74gig one, so that it will all be really faster loading
 
Encore4More said:
yea, the 74gb is basically the fastest harddrive ur gona be able to find... im guessing ur PC will boot up in just a couple seconds from pressing power to login screen...

yea, u put the 74gig at primary, and the other one for storage... just install ur programs and games and windows on the 74gig one, so that it will all be really faster loading
Click to expand...

Is that highly recommended? Maybe using like a 73GB SCSI hard drive for the primary, and a cheaper 80GB SATA HD as a backup? Is it possible to take complete backups of your SCSI HD to your SATA HD on like a weekly or monthly basis (no RAID, too expensive) just incase your primary drive fails? Would that work?
 
quote:
"What about using the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102188 ) which is almost twice as much as I was planning on spending on the sound card... but if it makes a big difference, it could be worth it ."

That's the latest out which is up there in price. The reason for the Audigy 4 Pro over the Audigy 2 ZS is the better results seen with the 4 Pro. Plus the Audigy 2 ZS Gamer that I ran previously didn't last past the first year. For cost savings for the moment you could with that model until you decided if you needed the 5 1/4" setup which has one available for the Audigy line.
 
cuse said:
Is that highly recommended? Maybe using like a 73GB SCSI hard drive for the primary, and a cheaper 80GB SATA HD as a backup? Is it possible to take complete backups of your SCSI HD to your SATA HD on like a weekly or monthly basis (no RAID, too expensive) just incase your primary drive fails? Would that work?
Click to expand...
i really don't know much about SCSI... and none of the stickies are informative about SCSI besides that it is a superduper fast interface... nothing about what types of SCSI is good, what works with wut... no help buying cards... so ireally don't know
 
SCSI is the old style interface for external drives that were considered well let's say the Cadiilac or Rolls Royce in computing for drive speeds. It depends on whether or not you want external or internal drives only along with the faster speeds seen with either SCSI or a 10,000rpm SATA drive.
 
dang if you really could wait until amd supports ddr2 memory that would be good but ya... i see now you can't go ddr2
 
i say drop a 7900 and spend the extra 319 on going to an fx 60 prossesor it is the best amd u can buy and u can uprgrade to a second 7900 later if u think it is nessasarie
 
Simply wait awhile and let the prices come down a little. By then some new patches will probably out from AMD.
 
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