Hi to the forum (and a question or two : )

[smiley73]

Hi to the forum.. discovered it earlier and looks cool/friendly

im near to building up my first desktop and im just getting the last few bits together..

happy with everything so far, but im really stuck for a graphics card. the choices seem limitless and all have pluses and minuses (minuses being i want the silly/expensive ones!)

here is the spec of the system to give anyone a rough picture of what might work.. or that i need.

thermaltake tsunami dream

coolermaster aero3 fan controler

acousti-fan's all round

2 x corsair value 512's *edited*

Asus A8N-VM CSM Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI Express Mobo

amd +3500 venice

arctic cooling 64 pro *edited*

maxtor diamondmax sata

saitek eclipse gaming k/board

razer copperhead special edition s.k gaming

icemat

del 20" widescreen 2005.

the bit i cant make my mind up over is the gaming card

my budget is around the £100/150 mark to get some decent res out of the games im playing at the mo.. far cry, halo, m.o.h ect, and i would ideally like something thats not too noisy as i use the p.c as a media centre mostly.. watching films on low volume as i dont get home till late most nights.

i do like the look of the asus fanless range and a couple the likes of Gainward BLISS GeForce 6800 GS "Goes Like Hhell" 512MB and the Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB.. but if anyone knows of a cheaper and similar(ish) spec card, id be grateful for all opinions/pointers!!

im just getting into home computing/gaming/media just for the fun of it.. mostly using laptops for work over the last few years but i would like to build an x-box 360 munching all singing/dancing media centre.. one day

t.i.a for any pointers/advice and i hope i can do the same soon.. al

 

[infiltrator7]

looks pretty good to me.

 

[TheOtis]

I'm not possitive but I think the GS series may be for AGP not for PCI-E, I could be wrong, and i'm pretty sure that mobo is PCI-E.

I'd just say the 6800. Good card. Can't say ive used a X1800 XT though, but i've heard it's also a good card.

 

[AnthraX]

GeForce 7600GT. Good price. Can be overclocked fairly well, too. Don't know about the loudness, sorry.

 

[smiley73]

cheers for the reply's!

just been doing a bit of searching on the advice... the GS series will take PCI-E on a comapatable ATX v2.0 compliant PSU. something ive just found out myself if it helps anyone.

gonna see if i can find any reviews on above.. cheers for now, al

 

[HAVOC]

Personally I would stay away from uATX or MicroATX motherboards for what looks like you are building a PC for Gaming/Media. Especially with a mid-tower like the thermaltake tsunami. I'd go with the DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D, solid MOBO and has good OCin' ability if you should decide to dabble in that downt he road, which we all do.

Second, if you're going AMD, consider upgrading to the 3700+ instead of the 3500+ as you'll get twice the cache for $30 more.

Third, you didn't mention anything about RAM. I'd suggest start off with something like Corsair or PNY value select. If you're budget can handle it, get a 2x1GIG kit. 2 GIG of RAM these days is almost required for good performance in games.

Fourth. Put most of your budget into the MAIN components of your PC now if you budget is tight. Stay away from expensive keyboards, mice and uber case fans. You can always buy those later. Buy a piece of crap mouse & keyboard set. Forget fancy mouse pads... focus that money into the beast...

oh, and you'll want a solid PSU, Antec, OCZ, Fortron or Seasonic, roughly 400w - 550w would be more then enough for you.

and, stay away from Maxtor HDD's. They are the bottom of the totem pole of HDD's. Go with either "Seagate or Western Digital"

Videocards, meh... I always go for the best of the best in videocards, but if you have a budget, look into NVIDIA's midrange cards. They normally out perform most of ATI's mid range cards.
The 7600GT looks ok. Personally the lowest I would ever go is 7900GT. But hey... it's your PC & $$$.

Good Luck

 

[smiley73]

LoL HAVOC2k5.. you are reading my mind!

all the above components are purchased and built.. the one up-grade i will be making once ive had some fun with above is a quality mobo and most probably a 64 +4000. i know what yoy mean about the cashe on the +3700, it make's a very noticable difference straight away (friend bought one).

then adding some quality ram and lots of it

this is just a leaning p.c.. ive already been checking out components for the real "beast"

cheers for all the detailed info/advice.. big help thanks.. regards, al

 

[Ridlyn]

The 7600GT is a very good choice for a video card.

Pretty much what havoc says, upgrade to a 3700+, stay away from maxtor.

 

[AnthraX]

What is wrong with Maxtor? I haven't had a problem with my DiamondMax 10 200Gig.

 

[HAVOC]

What is wrong with Maxtor? I haven't had a problem with my DiamondMax 10 200Gig.

There is a serious compatibility issue between some of the Maxtor DiamondMax 9/10/11 SATA series with an early firmware revision and some nForce4 based motherboards. Some of the effected motherboards are the ASUS A8N series, the DFI LAN Party NF4, and some MSI nForce4 based boards.

The problem lies between onboard SATA controller and the hard drive. The workaround is a firmware upgrade for the hard drive. However it's pretty hard to find. And why would any gamer what to go through that?

The compatibility issue can cause data corruption, random lock ups, disappearance of the Hard disk, and read/write issues which may lead to a serious data loss. If you are experience it, try to look for a certain BIOS update, if you canÂ’t find it, you will have to replace the hard disk or use a 3rd party SATA Controller.

So that's why most Gamers (NForce 4) users stay away from Maxtor.. which is a huge amount of gamers.