Building a new gaming comp

[wellswarrior73]

hey i was looking at building a new gaming rig here are the parts ive found
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester 1GHz FSB 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor – Retail - $473.00
or
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor – Retail - $352.96

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail - $115.00

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory – Retail - $88.85

Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM - $110.00

ATI 100-435513 Radeon X800XL 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card – Retail - $279.00
or
BFG Tech BFGR68256GTOCX Geforce 6800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card – Retail - $312.00

Creative X-Fi 70SB046000007 8 (7.1) Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card - Retail - $126.00

Antec PERFORMANCE TX TX1050B Black Steel Server Computer Case 500W ATX12V v2.0 Power Supply - Retail - $139.00
or
Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail - $109.00

NEC Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner – OEM - $38.00

so my main questions are, will this rig be good for gaming and things like photoshop etc., and which processor and videocard should i get. if i get the x2 3800+, can i overclock it enough to get the same or better performance of the 4200+, or would i be better to go with the 4200+ and overclock that? also will this psu be powerfull enough? this is my first build so any help and pointers would be appreciated. thanks for any responses.

 

[Kilew]

Go with the Antec performance, you'll benefit from having a 500W PSU with a more powerful card. Also, could you provide a link to it, so we could see if the ampage on the 12+ volt rail is good enough?

For the graphics card, I'd go with either this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130240
or, if you can afford it, this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130238

Don't go with a Radeon X800, they suck compared to the Nvidia equivalent in price.

Also, you may want to upgrade the amount of ram to 2 gigs, as games such as FEAR and Battlefield 2 will benefit from the extra amount. And you say you'll be overclocking the processor? If so, you might want to buy more expensive performance ram.

Anyway, good luck with your first build

 

[wellswarrior73]

heres the lni kto the psu in the 500w case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103937

 

[Kilew]

That should be fine =)

 

[Elbatrop1]

so my main questions are, will this rig be good for gaming and things like photoshop etc.

Yes, this will perform really well for games, and anything else you throw at it.

and which processor and videocard should i get

Either the 3800 or the 4200 would be great. Do some homework and find some benchmarks to see how they stack up against each other.

ATI 100-435513 Radeon X800XL 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card – Retail - $279.00
or
BFG Tech BFGR68256GTOCX Geforce 6800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card – Retail - $312.00

I say its kind of a toss up between the 2. A lot of people trash the X800 series. The X800XL is pretty good for the price though.

 

[j4ckaL]

For the graphics card, I'd go with either this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130240
or, if you can afford it, this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130238

umm....those 512 cards are a rip-off. Get the 7800GT as it is only slightly more expensive and is much much better.

 

[bigstanklo]

Yes 7800GT over the 6800GT. Money well spent in the graphics area

 

[Kilew]

umm....those 512 cards are a rip-off. Get the 7800GT as it is only slightly more expensive and is much much better.

I put the 512mb version there because it was only a couple of $ more expensive than the 256mb BFG card he picked. But yea, the 7800GT is the best..