What is good enough?

[Whachuga]

Hrmmm well it has come time to build a new computer... So I have decided to do something new while I build a computer. To give you an idea of what I mean by "new".. I have only delt with some low end pc's in the past, but EQ did not take much to run nor did DAoC. But now that I have decided to convert to WoW, and EQ2 I need a system that could handle the games.


So the computer I am looking to build has to be strong enough for web site design, some gaming, and preferable a long time for my next upgrade. I was going to try a Pentium D 820 But I guess according to the reviews it will not run 2 cores on the Asus P5ND2-SLI, instead it runs in single core mode.

Items:

Motherboard Asus P5ND2-SLI
Processor Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz
RAM Kingston KHX5400D2K2/1G
Video Card 1 Asus EN6800XT/HTD/256M
Video Card 2 Asus EN6800XT/HTD/256M
Monitor Samsung - 19" Viewable <-- EDIT (Heh just noticed that)
Mouse Microsoft Trackball D68-00007
Keyboard K99-00001
DVD ROM Asus 16x DVDR +/- DRW-1608P2
Speakers Creative SBS560 5.1
CD-R/RW Asus 52x32x52 CRW-5232A3
Hard Drive 1 Maxtor SATA 80G 7200 6Y080M0
Hard Drive 2 Maxtor SATA 160G 7200 6Y160M0
OS WinXP Professional x64 Edition

Any ideas about these items? Pro's or cons? I have tried to find as many product reviews as possible. But almost all of them hardly list any cons to the product. Maybe someone here has had +'s and -'s for exp with listed items?

 

[HAVOC]

First of all, welcome to techist.com.

Personally, I don't like that build at all. I think you could do much better. I'd be more then willing to post a new list for you, if you kindly give me you're budget. How much can you spend?

 

[Brtnboarder495]

Go AMD 3700+, Intel just sucks to be honest.

Motherboard is decent.

Memory is okay, but I'd go with some fast OCZ XTC 2x1Gb.

SLI sucks, stick with one 6800GS or one 7800GT.

Get a nice LG or Samsung 17" LCD.

Mouse and Keyboard all about your prefrence.

Get a 10,000RPM HD, and a 120GB 7200RPM HD for storage.

Proffesional is hardly ever worth it, and I doubt 64 edition is too.

Get a DVD reading drive and CD reading and writing drive at the minimum.

 

[HAVOC]

Go AMD 3700+, Intel just sucks to be honest.
SLI sucks, stick with one 6800GS or one 7800GT.
Proffesional is hardly ever worth it, and I doubt 64 edition is too.

ok. Intel doesn't suck. It's just not as good in gaming. Which he is interested in.

SLI doesn't suck, if you pick the correct cards, "7800GT's" get great price/performance.

Why is XP Pro hardly ever worth it? At this point any Win XP Pro 64bit is going to be more of a pain in the butt than it's worth. There isn't a lot of Driver or Application support to date.

If you're going to make statements, back it up with something?

 

[Unknown Envy]

Also help the guy, dont put him down by saying all the stuff he picked out sucks.....he just needs to read more about this stuff and do his homework on what stuff is good, why its good, and what best suits his needs...

 

[Whachuga]

Well the budget i'm trying to stick with is no more then $1,600. But right now i have 800 to get at least the min to get the PC up and running. and then in about 3 months another 800. I'd love to just dump it all in at once.. but I fear the landlord, utility companies would become vexed with that idea.

So I suppose if i could get the basics running for now, that would be fine, and I could always add extra parts; Which is kind of what I intended. The sound card was going to wait, along with speakers, mouse, and keyboard. I figured I would just use the junky ones I currently have untill the follow up allotment in 3 months'ish.

 

[Unknown Envy]

for 1600 dollars you could build a very nice PC....Havok could help you build a really nice one too hes smart like that

 

[Whachuga]

I'll take any help I can get I've been using some "decent" pc's according to what i thought decent was. something like...

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.80GHz
1024M Ram KHX forget what kind, max for board
2x 160G HD's
Asus P4S800D-E
And just generic cd/dvd


I wouldnt say professional isn't worth it... I've never had a compatibility issue once. but i've always been a driver freak. as soon as the new drivers came out i'd get them. but that was only hardware specific. I never had auto update on, but... I also was a late bloomer in getting XP Pro, I had purchased 2000 Pro a long time ago and didnt want to buy another OS, I only got XP Pro because I got tired of working on friends PC's and not knowing what to click on, instead i went into the settings and changed the view till i was done and then set it back.

Also if anyone knows any good product review sites, or other sites that do a lot of comparisons i'd be glad to take a look at those too.

 

[Unknown Envy]

lol il help you in a hour when im done with my history..

 

[HAVOC]

I'll help you. Do you currently have a monitor, mouse and keyboard you can use and buy new later?