Building Gaming PC

[arnold023]

here's what i plan on buying in the near future...

CASE : Xplorer Mid-Tower Case 420W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display (Black Case w/Silver Face)
CPU : (939-pin) AMD™ ATHLON™64 3500+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology ~ CAH604
MOTHERBOARD : (Sckt939)GigaByte GA-K8NXP-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio
MEMORY : 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value RAM)
HARD DRIVE : Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB 10,000RPM Serial ATA 150 8MB Cache WD360GD
HARD DRIVE2 : MAXTOR 200GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA 150 8MB CACHE HARD DRIVE
VIDEO CARD : NVIDIA Geforce 6800 GT 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS
SOUND : Creative Labs SB LIVE 24.bit 7.1
PRICE: $1466 (no assembly)

Ok, so what should I change?

 

[Nirvana89]

Ok, I got everything I want but I don't know if it is all compatible. I know that the motherboard is the key to it all. I have to make sure it supports the pin #(ex.184), the pci-e slots, the dual video cards, the pci-e 16x, the pc3200, and the cpu. If I am forgetting anything could someone please check me on that?
Also, when I go to Newegg to make sure that I am getting a motherboard that can do all of that I usually get confused when having to determine the north bridge(whatever that is), the PCI-E x1 (whatever that means), the PCI x16, the RAID, the integrated video chipset, the audio chipset and the channels, the LAN speed , second LAN speed , and the max LAN speed, and the form factor. Those things I am not sure what to choose ( all of this on newegg.com) when picking a motherboard. Could someone help me get the right mother board that can handle the NVIDIA Geforce 6800 GT 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD, 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value RAM), (939-pin) AMD™ ATHLON™64 3500+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology ~ CAH604(venice or san diego), and HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO?

 

[Powerslave]

dual video cards??? then that will be more because you have to get the SLI board AND another graphics card

 

[arnold023]

what do you think about this case?
MGE Viper Computer Case Red/Black w/ 500W PSU - CA-VIPER-RK 500W

Specifications
Case Type: ATX Mid Tower
Material: 0.7mm SECC
Drive Bays: 5.25” x 4, 3.5” x 4 (2 exposed)
Expansion Slots: 7
Front Ports: 2 x USB 2.0, 2 x Audio, 1 x IEEE1394
Power Supply: 500W
Cooling System: 1 front LED fan, 1 side LED fan
Optional Fan Mount: 1 80/90/120mm Rear Mount
Motherboard Compatibility: ATX
Dimensions: 17.2” x 7.75”(8.75 Front Base) x 18.9” (H x W x D)

Power Supply
Combined Power Output: 500W
+3.3V: 15.0A
+5V: 40.0A
-5V: 0.6A
+12V: 19.0A
-12V: 0.6A
+5V SB: 2.0A

PRICE= $90 (from xoxide.com)

 

[Nirvana89]

well, yeah I'm going with the SLI because I want to be able to put in another 6800gt when needed. It wont be for a while but I will all ready be able to do it. So it's not that much more money right now. But I am having a hard time finding a motherboard that I can use on newegg.com. I haven't found one that can do all I need it to do. Can you guys help me out in that area?

 

[MrBebop26]

I got the DFI LanParty UT NF4-SLI and it works like a dream. Supports everything you could want and is fast as hell. I had a little problem with RAM but that is being cleared up as I type this. Thats just my 2 cents though.

-Ryan

 

[Trotter]

The DFI should fit the bill. I'm not sure what it's channels are (5.1 or 7.1).

Check www.zipzoomfly.com and www.mwave.com before you buy. Both have great prices, and ZZF's free shipping can really make a good deal great. Their price may be a little over NewEgg's, but, if they have what you want, no shipping makes the total less.

Plus, NewEgg has a distribution center in my state, so I have to pay sales tax on whatever I order from them.

 

[Apokalipse]

everything you have is compatible

the DFI NF4 Ultra-D Lanparty has 8 channel (7.1) audio.
it is very popular among overclockers. it is a good quality, really high overclocking motherboard.

the Northbridge is mainly made for the memory controller chip. Athlon 64's have one onboard, so the northbridge does barely anything for them.

PCI-E is a new expansion slot. 1x has 1 communication line to and from the card you put in (as in, one to it, and one from it), 16x (used for video cards) has 16
PCI-E is much faster than any prevous expansion slot, so it's what future systems will use

form factor: the layout of the motherboard and case. unless you have a really old system, you are 99.9999% guaranteed to have ATX

LAN: connection from your computer to one or more others. standard is 100mb/s, but moving to 1000mb/s

onboard video: try to avoid it. it is a very basic video card integrated into the motherboard used for cheap low-powered systems

 

[Nirvana89]

I just found out about scuzzy (however you spell it). I would like to get one or two scuzzy hard drives ( great for video games and around 15,000 rpm) that are about 20 gigs in size. THey aren't that big but if I could put one 20 gig scuzzy and room for another then I would definitely use those for videogaming.

Originally, me and my friend (arnold023) wanted to get a 160gb seagate 7200 rpm to use for main storage and things like that. Then we wanted to get one 10,000 rpm 36, or so, gigabyte hard drive. We want to use the 10,000 rpm ATA 150 to put videogames on.

We found out that scuzzy is mainly used for servers. A friend got one on ebay for about 20 bucks and told us that there are many more. He told us that they use PCI slots. He saw quite a bit of 15,000 rpm for cheap. The only thing is they have little storage space. But it is enough for videogaming. So what do you guys think about that idea. Will it be compatible with the motherboard I want and what else do I need with it...if anything.

As far as overclocking goes I have two more simple questions. When you overclock do you overclock any specific part of you r pc or the whole thing? That is probably a dumb question but I feel safer if I went ahead and asked. Also, HOW exactly do you overclock?

I actually just thought of another thing I didn't consider. I haven't considered fans or whatever I need to overclock. I haven't thought of how many or where to put them. You all know, from what I have been talking about in the last three pages, what I want to get. How many fans do you think I'll need and do you have any suggestions as to where I should put them? I'm getting the NZXT Nemesis Elite case just incase you need to know that.

 

[Apokalipse]

with a SCSI card, you also need a SCSI controller. I also considered buying a SCSI drive once, but I saw the prices of the controllers. they ain't cheap.

as for cooling: your Venice core Athlon 64 will overclock really well with just about any cooling. if you want even better overclocks, there are good HSF's (Heatsink + Fans) like the Thermalright XP-120, the Gigabyte Rocket's a lot of Thermaltake's do well, water cooling works very well.

you can also overclock your video card. the 6600's and 6800's overclock pretty well; the Arctic Silencer's are descent coolers. otherwise I would suggest water cooling

when you overclock your CPU, if you increase your FSB/HTT, you also increase RAM speed. adjusting the multiplier changes your CPU core speed but nothing else
also, sometimes your expansion slots run at a ratio.
just say I had a Pentium 3 system with PC133 SDRAM. it has a FSB of 133MHZ, AGP running at 66MHZ, and PCI at 33MHZ.
ideally you'll want to overclock yor FSB but not your expansion slots (because problems are likely to happen if you do) but some systems run them at a ratio. just consider the P3 system, it would have a ration of 1:2:4 (33:66:133)
what you have to do is unlock the ratio so that AGP and PCI are independant. so no matter what the FSB/HTT, your AGP and PCI slots are the same

you can overclock video cards, but you don't do it by increasing the AGP/PCI-E bandwith. video cards have a core and memory.
the core processes the graphics, putting colours and shadows onto stuff. the memory stores textures and other stuff which the GPU uses.
you can overclock both of these. there are overclocking programs like Rivatuner and Nvidia's Coolbits (Rivatuner works for ATI and Nvidia cards)
basically, increase your core speed until you start getting 'artifacts' (little distirtions that happen when it overheats, or the GPU can't handle the clock speed) then decrease it just a little, then do the same with the memory