Hello all. My first post here
I'm going to get a new computer in the next week or two. I was thinking of building, but my last attempt back in '02 left me with an $800 paperweight. I had to return multiple parts and the thing was never stable. The price difference between buying and building this time is about $200. In my opinion, worth having it built. I am using Cyberpowerpc.com for this build...
X-Cruiser Mid-tower case
Coolermaster 600W eXtreme power psu
Intel core 2 duo E8400 cpu
Intel certified CPU fan
Asus P5N-E nForce 650i SLI chipset
2 GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 RAM (Mushkin or major brand)
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT 512 MB video card
320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200rpm HDD
20x DVD/CD R/RW optical drive
PMPO Speakers
Logitech keyboard and mouse
12 in 1 flash media reader/writer
Professional Wiring
Opti-UPS SS1200 voltage stabilizer
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit OS
Price: $1068 + tax
This will be a gaming computer. The main games I am playing for now are City of Heroes/Villians, Call of Duty 4, Civ 4, Medieval 2 Total War, and I have preordered Age of Conan. The monitor will be a 22" widescreen at 1680x1050.
I expect this computer to run games that come out in the next year or two at medium or better settings without AA. I typically buy a new computer every 2-3 years, depending on game releases and their requirements.
Questions:
1. The Nvidia 9800GTX costs about $100 more than the 8800GT. Do you think that it will have a significantly longer usefulness to justify the higher price, or are people just paying to have their games look a little better? Does anyone know when the 9800GT is coming out?
2. The cost of another 2 GB of ram through Cyberpower is $100. I am planning on buying 4 GB (2x2GB) from Newegg and adding it myself. I will get 240 pin PC 6400 DDR2/800 ram, but I noticed latencies listed on the ram at newegg. I don't know the latencies of the Cyberpower ram. Will those affect the computers ability to use it? Can I have different voltages running to the 2 different pairs of ram? Will the motherboard recognize the ram and adjust itself? How do you even access BIOS to check? I'm such a noob
3. Should I spent the extra $30 or so to move up to the Asus P5N-D motherboard? I have no plans to SLI. Are there other features that make this board significantly better?
4. I am not getting an after-market cpu cooler, but I might start dabbling in OCing. Will I be able to get the factory cooler off the cpu in a year or so in order to add an after-market cpu cooler? Of the cpu coolers they have, I am considering the Thermaltake V1. It that decent for modest OCing? Will OCing a dual core cpu even matter in a couple of years? I figure in 2-3 years most new games will be made to utilize quad-cores, and I will be buying again.
5. I apologize for the lengthy post, but I have tried to be as thorough as possible. It's not the physical building of the machine that scares me, it's the troubleshooting, drivers, and knowing if a part is bad part that are the problems. So, other than "Build it yourself", any suggestions?
I'm going to get a new computer in the next week or two. I was thinking of building, but my last attempt back in '02 left me with an $800 paperweight. I had to return multiple parts and the thing was never stable. The price difference between buying and building this time is about $200. In my opinion, worth having it built. I am using Cyberpowerpc.com for this build...
X-Cruiser Mid-tower case
Coolermaster 600W eXtreme power psu
Intel core 2 duo E8400 cpu
Intel certified CPU fan
Asus P5N-E nForce 650i SLI chipset
2 GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 RAM (Mushkin or major brand)
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT 512 MB video card
320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200rpm HDD
20x DVD/CD R/RW optical drive
PMPO Speakers
Logitech keyboard and mouse
12 in 1 flash media reader/writer
Professional Wiring
Opti-UPS SS1200 voltage stabilizer
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit OS
Price: $1068 + tax
This will be a gaming computer. The main games I am playing for now are City of Heroes/Villians, Call of Duty 4, Civ 4, Medieval 2 Total War, and I have preordered Age of Conan. The monitor will be a 22" widescreen at 1680x1050.
I expect this computer to run games that come out in the next year or two at medium or better settings without AA. I typically buy a new computer every 2-3 years, depending on game releases and their requirements.
Questions:
1. The Nvidia 9800GTX costs about $100 more than the 8800GT. Do you think that it will have a significantly longer usefulness to justify the higher price, or are people just paying to have their games look a little better? Does anyone know when the 9800GT is coming out?
2. The cost of another 2 GB of ram through Cyberpower is $100. I am planning on buying 4 GB (2x2GB) from Newegg and adding it myself. I will get 240 pin PC 6400 DDR2/800 ram, but I noticed latencies listed on the ram at newegg. I don't know the latencies of the Cyberpower ram. Will those affect the computers ability to use it? Can I have different voltages running to the 2 different pairs of ram? Will the motherboard recognize the ram and adjust itself? How do you even access BIOS to check? I'm such a noob
3. Should I spent the extra $30 or so to move up to the Asus P5N-D motherboard? I have no plans to SLI. Are there other features that make this board significantly better?
4. I am not getting an after-market cpu cooler, but I might start dabbling in OCing. Will I be able to get the factory cooler off the cpu in a year or so in order to add an after-market cpu cooler? Of the cpu coolers they have, I am considering the Thermaltake V1. It that decent for modest OCing? Will OCing a dual core cpu even matter in a couple of years? I figure in 2-3 years most new games will be made to utilize quad-cores, and I will be buying again.
5. I apologize for the lengthy post, but I have tried to be as thorough as possible. It's not the physical building of the machine that scares me, it's the troubleshooting, drivers, and knowing if a part is bad part that are the problems. So, other than "Build it yourself", any suggestions?