New Components Advice Requested

[d_mi_2002]

Good morning, everyone:

First, let me apologize - I know there are 100's of threads of "help me build a PC" flavors, and I'm just adding to the problem .

That said, I am (for the first time in years) building a new gaming PC. I have a few components I've decided on, but would like to get some comments on whether any of you had good luck with these, feel they are worth the money, are stable / reliable, etc.

There is no set budget - "it's gonna cost what it's gonna cost".

Here it goes:

CPU: AMD Athlon FX-55 (I hear it beats Pentium Extreme Edition in most tests)
Mobo: ??? What supports the CPU above, and offers onboard RAID 0 capability?
RAM: 1GB PC3200 SDRAM of some sort (Kingston probably). Better to get 1 x 1GB stick or 2 x 512 MB sticks?
GPU: ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum (my first ATI in a decade)
Sound / Speakers: Keeping what I got (Santa Cruz and ACS 55)
HDD: Two 7200 rpm 80-120 GB in RAID 0. Any specific HDD brand you'd recommend? I've had terrible luck with Maxtors and Western Digitals in the past, are they any better now?
Kbd: How good is game support for "programmable" macro buttons (such as M$ Programmable kbd offers?). Is a programmable kbd worth getting for gaming, or is it better to just use a "regular" kbd?
Heatsink / Fan unit: Any advice?
PSU: Would 300W be enough? Or better go straight to 480W?

I am not planning to overclock - just use all components "as specified" (I know, how lame of me ).

I would appreciate any advice, comments, etc. etc.

Regards,

AZeroni

 

[samuelhii_mei]

mobo- MSI K8N Neo2 Platinu NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset
ram- as u are having unlimited budget why dont try to get a ddr2 ram?
psu-around 350 w will be enough if u dont plan to oc
heatsink- Swiftech H20-80 SERIES LIQUID COOLING KIT
HDD- both of the brand you named is good to be your choice

 

[Praetor]

Mobo: ??? What supports the CPU above, and offers onboard RAID 0 capability?

1. RAID0 sux0rs (rather its overrated)
2. Have a look at the new ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe if you want to go that route; if not the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum would be the way to go

RAM: 1GB PC3200 SDRAM of some sort (Kingston probably). Better to get 1 x 1GB stick or 2 x 512 MB sticks?

Kingston HyperX 1GB Dual Channel Kit

GPU: ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum (my first ATI in a decade)

1. Now that you say this youll have to decide between AGP (the MSI board) and PCI-Express (the currently unavailable ASUS board)
2. Good luck getting that card. I know a whole bunch of die hard fans willing to shell out thousands for ATI cards but cant because ATI never got their fab up to speed ... its a case of announcing products before you're able to sell them ... and its been a looooooooong time

HDD: Two 7200 rpm 80-120 GB in RAID 0. Any specific HDD brand you'd recommend? I've had terrible luck with Maxtors and Western Digitals in the past, are they any better now?

1. Everyone has bad experience at one time or another
2. The current favorites are Western Digital whether it be the Raptor37s or the 160GB drives. For smaller sized drives it doesnt really matter

Kbd: How good is game support for "programmable" macro buttons (such as M$ Programmable kbd offers?). Is a programmable kbd worth getting for gaming, or is it better to just use a "regular" kbd?

Just get a keyboard you can use. LOL

Heatsink / Fan unit: Any advice?

Thermaltake Venus 12 as a commonly available setup . If you want a really funky setup get http://www.asus.com/products/pccomponents/cooler/gaming/starice/overview.htm

PSU: Would 300W be enough? Or better go straight to 480W?

300W from what maker? Its prolly not enough regardless though. If you want a 480W then get the Antec TruePower 480... a very solid PSU. My pick would goto the OCZ Powerstream 520 though

I am not planning to overclock - just use all components "as specified"

So now you say so.

ram- as u are having unlimited budget why dont try to get a ddr2 ram?

Well for starters because AMD platforms dont support DDR2 and to get the most out of DDR2 he'd have to OC.

psu-around 350 w will be enough if u dont plan to oc

Not for a FX55 + X800XT PE it isnt.

heatsink- Swiftech H20-80 SERIES LIQUID COOLING KIT

Why liquid cool when hes not gonna OC?

 

[d_mi_2002]

Thank you for your responses, everybody!

I had hoped to post a "thank-you" a bit earlier, but my faithful Creative GeForce2 Ultra has fried after 4 years of great service, and it took a couple of days to get a replacement.

Your advice has clarified matters for me significantly, (especially where RAID is concerned ) and I really appreciate all your help. I have a couple follow-up questions that I'd like to ask:

1. If a mobo is available in both VIA and nForce3 chipsets (such as MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum (nForce3) vs. MSI K8T NEO2-FIR (VIA)), what are the pro's and con's of each? Is either "better" than the other from gaming or stability standpoint? Again, I am not planning to overclock, just use "as suggested".

2. If I have a choice, should I go with a PCIe or AGP 8x model of the Radeon X800 XT PE? Besides the future expandability of PCIe, what are the pro's and con's? X800's availability isn't as much of a problem for me as making the "right" choice.

Thank you again,

AZeroni

 

[Praetor]

I had hoped to post a "thank-you" a bit earlier, but my faithful Creative GeForce2 Ultra has fried after 4 years of great service, and it took a couple of days to get a replacement.

LOL no worries, glad to see you're back up and runnin'

If a mobo is available in both VIA and nForce3 chipsets (such as MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum (nForce3) vs. MSI K8T NEO2-FIR (VIA)), what are the pro's and con's of each? Is either "better" than the other from gaming or stability standpoint? Again, I am not planning to overclock, just use "as suggested".

Even "as suggested", the nForce3-250 boards (like the Neo2 Platinum there), generally outperform the K8T800Pro boards (im assuming you're comparing Socket939 boards here but it applies to Socket754 boards too). Whether its worth the price jump, it depends on the jump.

If I have a choice, should I go with a PCIe or AGP 8x model of the Radeon X800 XT PE? Besides the future expandability of PCIe, what are the pro's and con's?

You dont have that choice. The only AMD platforms supporting PCI-Express are the K8T890 and NF4 series boards. Regardless you're prolly better off with an AGP solution for now. If you do get a NF4SLI setup, grabbing two 6600GTs will be a cheaper and more effective solution (i think) than the X800XT

 

[d_mi_2002]

Once again, thank you everyone for your comments!

Invariably, I have come up with several more questions, which I hope you would be so kind as to answer for me.

1. Someone has recenty recommended that I get both a CDRW with a DVD-ROM and a DVD-Writer for the system I am building. At the risk of sounding naive, what is the advantage of such configuation? Why not simply get a CDRW/DVD-Writer (like Plextor's PX-712A) and not bother with the two drives? I am not planning to do much "on the fly" copying, so if I am going to be using a hard drive image anyway, why get both drives?

2. For a gaming PC with no plans for overclocking, how much actual difference is there between CAS latency CL2 and CL3 RAM? Is the performance improvement appreciable / noticeable? Or more of a "bragging rights" kind of difference? Again, I am not planning to OC.

3. I know that having high-quality brand RAM is very important. However, within a quality brand, how much difference in performance / quality is there between the "value" line and the "performance" line? I am specifically comparing Kingston ValueRAM (dual channel) with Kingston HyperX (dual channel), and Corsair ValueSelect (dual channel) with Corsair XMS (dual channel).

Thank you very much!

AZeroni

------------------------------
PIII-933 / ASUS CUV4x
512 MB Kingston
Creative GeForce2 Ultra (deceased)
ATI Radeon 7000 (cheap replacement @ $15-)
30 GB Quantum Fireball 7200 rpm
TurtleBeach Santa Cruz / AltechLansing ACS something-or-other

 

[Cromewell]

Once again, thank you everyone for your comments!
1. Someone has recenty recommended that I get both a CDRW with a DVD-ROM and a DVD-Writer for the system I am building. At the risk of sounding naive, what is the advantage of such configuation? Why not simply get a CDRW/DVD-Writer (like Plextor's PX-712A) and not bother with the two drives? I am not planning to do much "on the fly" copying, so if I am going to be using a hard drive image anyway, why get both drives?

not have looked at dvd writers I can't say for sure but can't all dvd writers write to cd as well, just like every dvdrom can read cds?

2. For a gaming PC with no plans for overclocking, how much actual difference is there between CAS latency CL2 and CL3 RAM? Is the performance improvement appreciable / noticeable? Or more of a "bragging rights" kind of difference? Again, I am not planning to OC.

I think CL2 and CL3 is about 8% difference in speed, maybe its 4% but I think thats from CL2.5 to CL2. The difference will have more effect on an AMD system vs Intel. AMD is all about low latencies, while Intel uses large on die cache.

3. I know that having high-quality brand RAM is very important. However, within a quality brand, how much difference in performance / quality is there between the "value" line and the "performance" line? I am specifically comparing Kingston ValueRAM (dual channel) with Kingston HyperX (dual channel), and Corsair ValueSelect (dual channel) with Corsair XMS (dual channel).

the main difference is the value line generally don't have the heat spreaders, and they have higher timings CL2.5-CL3

 

[Praetor]

Someone has recenty recommended that I get both a CDRW with a DVD-ROM and a DVD-Writer for the system I am building. At the risk of sounding naive, what is the advantage of such configuation? Why not simply get a CDRW/DVD-Writer (like Plextor's PX-712A) and not bother with the two drives? I am not planning to do much "on the fly" copying, so if I am going to be using a hard drive image anyway, why get both drives?

In the exclusive case of the Plextors. You are absolutey correct (since Plexy's are 2-sheep CD burners). A couple points however:
- DVD extraction on a burner driver occur at 1-2.4x (unless you firmware hack(
- For mundane stuff do you want to use the fancy burner drive or the cheaper ROM drive?

For a gaming PC with no plans for overclocking, how much actual difference is there between CAS latency CL2 and CL3 RAM? Is the performance improvement appreciable / noticeable? Or more of a "bragging rights" kind of difference? Again, I am not planning to OC

.
There's a difference but not as earthshattering as say the video subsystem

Or more of a "bragging rights" kind of difference?

A lot is to do with braggin rights

is there between the "value" line and the "performance" line?

The difference lies in the amount you can OC to and the timings that clock will incurr

I think CL2 and CL3 is about 8% difference in speed, maybe its 4% but I think thats from CL2.5 to CL2

Really depends, dunno if you can nail the numbers that cleanly. Depends on whether you're doing a burst mode register transfer or not or multibank access etc.

The difference will have more effect on an AMD system vs Intel. AMD is all about low latencies, while Intel uses large on die cache

.
And much more so on older AMD chips. The newer procs have their memory controller on-die so a lot of that isnt as important as it once was.

the main difference is the value line generally don't have the heat spreaders, and they have higher timings CL2.5-CL3

Heehee $60 heatspreaders at that