Building a super gaming rig for $2000

[Fwiffo]

Hello i am new to tese forums and i am going to be purchasing a new computer to play all the latest games. Would you please tell me what you think about the system i am thinking of getting. It is in AUSTRALIAN dollars and i am ordereing from www.nintek.com.au

Gaming RIg

Asus ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB PCI-Express Graphics Card [625MHz Core/1.45GHz Memory]
$845.00

AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ Dual Core Processor Socket 939-Retail 2.2Ghz Manchester Core
$549.00

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB 7200rpm PATA Hard Drive - 11ms, 16MB Cache ST3250624A
$159.00

Pioneer DVR-111D Internal Dual Layer DVD Writer - Black
$69.00

Antec NSK6500 Black Steel Super Mid Tower Case - Silver Bezel - 430W PSU
$169.00

DFI LanParty UT CFX3200-DR CROSSFIRE Motherboard Socket 939, ATI CFX3200 Chipset, DDR400, 2xPCI-Express,
8ch Audio, SATA RAID, 2xGbLAN
$359.00

MUSHKIN TCCD PC3200 Black Level II V2 1GB Kit (2 x 512Mb) 1024Mb DR400 CL2-2-2-5 991357
$229.00

TOTAL : $2379

 

[Tordenskjold]

hmm its okay. nintec is good...

 

[aliasaid]

thats a great setup..

some points..

motherboard: thats awfully expensive.. unless you're POSITIVE your'e gonna be going crossfire, i would look elsewhere.

HD: i'm sure it doesn't cost much more to get SATA instead of PATA.

PSU: the powersupply that comes with your case is good, but its not powerful enough for your rig. you should get aprox. 500 watts to be safe.

CPU: can you bump that up to 4400+?

ram: very nice, very tight timings... but these days i think it'll be better if you get 2GBs of ram.. you won't get timings that are as tight.. but still good.

 

[Trotter]

motherboard: thats awfully expensive.. unless you're POSITIVE your'e gonna be going crossfire, i would look elsewhere.

Agreed. A DFI Lanparty Utra-D would be a good choice.

HD: i'm sure it doesn't cost much more to get SATA instead of PATA.

At that price and with a 16MB cache, it should be a SATA2 drive. Probably a typo.

PSU: the powersupply that comes with your case is good, but its not powerful enough for your rig. you should get aprox. 500 watts to be safe.

Yep. If you want a case/PSU combo, look for the Antec TX1050B. It comes with a 500W modular PSU. Here's a link:
http://www.nintek.com.au/x/scripts/prodView.asp?idProduct=1821

CPU: can you bump that up to 4400+?

Look into the Opteron 165. Dual-core, 2 x 1MB cache, and overclocks like mad. Plus, it's a litt cheaper.
http://www.nintek.com.au/x/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=3696

ram: very nice, very tight timings... but these days i think it'll be better if you get 2GBs of ram.. you won't get timings that are as tight.. but still good.

Again, yep. If you plan on gaming, go with 2 gig. DFI Lamparty boards like OCZ and Gskill RAM.

 

[Orayn]

For processor, you might want to trade up to a 4400+, and a 7900 GTX would do that 1900XT's job just about as well, plus you'd save some money.

 

[Mentali$T]

i would stick with the X1900XT as you are getting a crossfire mobo. It doesnt make much sense to buy an nvidia card with an ATI mobo. But yeah i would go for the 4400+ its great!

 

[Orayn]

Yeah, sorry about that mixup. The X1900XT is a great card, don't get me wrong, you could just get similar performance for a bit less money with a 7900 GTX and an NF4 motherboard. Unless of course you really love AA and AF. In which case the X1900XT definitely has the upper hand.

 

[Mentali$T]

I prefer crossfire to SLi thats why i got the ASUS A8R MVP Deluxe. The main reason is just because its much more flexible in that you dont have to buy 2 of the same cards at the same time. Its easy to add another card for crossfire.