Extreme gaming computer

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slvrstang

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Well, i have saved up a lot of money and here how my ultimate system breaks down....if anything is under or over powered all comments are welcome

AMD 64 3400+ -- 416$

Asus mobo SK8V deluxe -- 139$ (this won't even support the pc4000 ram will it?)

twin 512 sticks of corsair pc4000 ddr500 -- 335$

Seagate 120gig HD -- 89$

ATI radeon 9800xt (free copy of HL2) :) --449$ (-50$ for HL2)

Artec CD writer -- 35$

Aspire X-Dreamer II -- 49.99$

Audigy 2 Sound Card -- 88$

Sony Black Floppy drive -- 10$

total -- 1610$

+ XP home

total with OS = 1690

+ tax and shipping

1835$$$

:eek:

But it will own

what do you think about the RAM should i go with PC3200(DDR400)??


IS there anyway to get away from the stupid tax or OS???
 
Look for low latency ram, I think the ones you have there are 3.0 search for one that is 2.5. Unless you are planning on overclocking I'd say go for DDR400 (Why waste money :-/ )

As far as budget cd-rw's go .. I suggest liteon, in fact I prefer it over most expensive manufacturers now.

Make sure the hard drive is SATA, and if you have extra money, go for another one and put it in raid. You can use an old IDE on the side for crucial data (b/c RAID 0 is suscpetible to data loss, although I haven't seen it happen to anyone I know yet)

Buy a proper power supply (450 should be nice) from someone like coolmax, antec, ernermax, pc powere and cooling. The 350 that comes with your case ... well I don't trust it.

IMO, It would be better to wait for the BTX mobos PCI express and DDR2. but if you can't wait that long, I suggest dropping to a 3200+ 64 processor rather than the 3400 which is double the cost and not much more performance.

If you are ordering these parts online, (I am assuming you are buying from newegg because I saw the exact same prices there) and you live in NJ or CA, you are screwed on the tax :-/ (as far as I know) ... as for the OS. If you have an old computer around w/ 2k that should be sufficient for now. XP pro is nice if you have the means to aquire it (which you should if you took all my suggestions)... and maybe ... even if you didn't ... :cool:

I like hte ATI card ;-) however I would also wait on that just a bit because prices are gonna fall on that as well.

So my suggestions above are applicable to your system if you are gonna buy now and can't wait. But if you have a little patience, you can get a pretty nice system within the next 3-4 months :)

if you can't wait 3 -4 months, wait at least 1 month because by then I htink the 9800xt will fall down in price.
 
agreed, the ram.. i don't even know if that board will support that ram lol, anyways, hl2 is probably never going to come out, and if it does it shouldn't be more than 40 bucks hippie... same with the chip, 3200 64b is the best option right now unless you want to go all out and get a fx53
 
Demalii said:
agreed, the ram.. i don't even know if that board will support that ram lol, anyways, hl2 is probably never going to come out, and if it does it shouldn't be more than 40 bucks hippie... same with the chip, 3200 64b is the best option right now unless you want to go all out and get a fx53
Click to expand...

The board will support it .. it will just run it at lower speeds unless he overclocks.
 
modemide said:
Look for low latency ram, I think the ones you have there are 3.0 search for one that is 2.5. Unless you are planning on overclocking I'd say go for DDR400 (Why waste money :-/ )
Click to expand...

what number is the latency??? And i have NO idea how to overclock...could i ruin something trying to? (which i will, i am quite power hungry)



modemide said:
Make sure the hard drive is SATA, and if you have extra money, go for another one and put it in raid. You can use an old IDE on the side for crucial data (b/c RAID 0 is suscpetible to data loss, although I haven't seen it happen to anyone I know yet)
Click to expand...

SATA??? RAID???


modemide said:
IMO, It would be better to wait for the BTX mobos PCI express and DDR2. but if you can't wait that long, I suggest dropping to a 3200+ 64 processor rather than the 3400 which is double the cost and not much more performance.
Click to expand...


Is BTX a company...when does DDR2 come out??? I will take that advice and go 3200 (i didn't realize it was nearly half the price for 10% slower if that, maybe 2 fps slower in games)
 
This is an example of something w/ 2.5 latency it's called CAS latency.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-025&depa=0

This is good because you won't be paying enormous amounts of money for DDR500 which isn't even officially licenced yet and if you aren't going to do any overclocking (which I suggest you don't until you built this and get comfortable with it) DDR400 is perfect :)

SATA is a fairly recent hard drive spec. The motherboard you are looking at supports it. Aside from getting rid of those bulky IDE cables (even the rounded ones) It has a higher transfer rate and improves airflow inside your case. IN addition, for 2-3 dollars more why not? :)

RAID 0 is a method used to increase data transfer in drives by writing (and reading) pieces of the same file to two different hard drives. The only draw back of doing this is if one drive fails you will lose the data on both drives (which is why I suggested a 3rd for crucial data). I find that running programs from a raided drive makes a significant increase in performance. However, based on what I've assumed about your level of expertise in computers so far (NOTE: I do not mean to be condescending) You may want to save the RAID part for another time :) .

Another thing I was thinking is, instead of the RAID thing (for now ;-) ) you could buy one 10,000 RPM drive made by western digital for your operating system and applications, and use a 7200 RPM drive for other data.
Here is a 10K RPM drive:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-200&depa=1

It's a little on the pricy side, but this + a massive 7200 RPM drive should be sufficient :)


And... to answer your final question:
DDR 2 is already here, just not available for consumers yet. BTX is a form factor for the new motherboards. It is designed to give the processor a little more fresh air among other things. I think both are expected to arrive in the summer some time. Also, there is a bit of contraversy about this, but I think the nforce 3 chipset outdoes the Via chipsets for motherboards of Athlon 64. I may be wrong .. you may want to do some research on that.
 
So if i buy the ATX style mobo i am SOL for anything that comes out after summer in the BTX styel?

i really need to get a PC soon because my family just bought a cheapo dell...

2.4 P4
integrated graphics
256 DDR ram

so uhh needless to say...any game i try to play on it has to be on LOW settings and it barely runs that (integrated graphics suck)

also there is no AGP slot on the MOBO for a vid card so i have officially decided that i will never buy another premade computer
 
BTX is just a form factor ... imagine the layout of your motherboard changing ... your processor moves somewhere else .. and memory is somewhere else etc...
the only thing you will have to worry about is PCI Express (which comes in BTX mobos & ATX mobos soon) as well as DDR2 (which will be the memory of choice for future processors), SATA 2 is expected later I believe. so it's not the form factor, but the attributes of the form factor (PCI express etc...)

BTW ... you are right, homemade beats premade any day of the week :)
 
modemide said:
Look for low latency ram, I think the ones you have there are 3.0 search for one that is 2.5. Unless you are planning on overclocking I'd say go for DDR400 (Why waste money :-/ )

As far as budget cd-rw's go .. I suggest liteon, in fact I prefer it over most expensive manufacturers now.

Make sure the hard drive is SATA, and if you have extra money, go for another one and put it in raid. You can use an old IDE on the side for crucial data (b/c RAID 0 is suscpetible to data loss, although I haven't seen it happen to anyone I know yet)

Buy a proper power supply (450 should be nice) from someone like coolmax, antec, ernermax, pc powere and cooling. The 350 that comes with your case ... well I don't trust it.

IMO, It would be better to wait for the BTX mobos PCI express and DDR2. but if you can't wait that long, I suggest dropping to a 3200+ 64 processor rather than the 3400 which is double the cost and not much more performance.

If you are ordering these parts online, (I am assuming you are buying from newegg because I saw the exact same prices there) and you live in NJ or CA, you are screwed on the tax :-/ (as far as I know) ... as for the OS. If you have an old computer around w/ 2k that should be sufficient for now. XP pro is nice if you have the means to aquire it (which you should if you took all my suggestions)... and maybe ... even if you didn't ... :cool:

I like hte ATI card ;-) however I would also wait on that just a bit because prices are gonna fall on that as well.

So my suggestions above are applicable to your system if you are gonna buy now and can't wait. But if you have a little patience, you can get a pretty nice system within the next 3-4 months :)

if you can't wait 3 -4 months, wait at least 1 month because by then I htink the 9800xt will fall down in price.
Click to expand...

i also agree with the cd-rw liteon. I have a 52X24X52 and its so fast and so good. I got it off ebay with nero for like 50 dollars brand new prob a year ago.
 
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