Mister_Meow
Solid State Member
- Messages
- 18
First off I really like ya'lls forums. I've been snooping around and found lot nicer conversation going on between the noobs and the knowledgable with not a lot of crap inbetween! Please don't change that on this post! lol
As the subject says, I'm putting together my first system. I'm not a hardcore gamer but would like to get into more games than I my current setup can support. Main use is going to be multi-tasking, ie: photoshop and video editing, music, and internet.
Here's a link to what I've put together on newegg.. http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=5194967
some highlights:
· ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
· XFX PVT71JYHD9 GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
· AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA5200CSBOX - Retail
· CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-8500C5 - Retail
· Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (2 of 'em ran in RAID 0)
My budget is ideally $1400 but you can see I've over shot a little. I have severl questions so I'm gonna break them up into sections, feel free to make comments, answer 1 or answer all!
1) Harddrives: My current configuration calls for 2 160GB RE Caviars ran in Raid 0. I can purchase a 300GB RE Caviar (same 16mb cache) for $90 ($36 less)... This would be my first time setting up a RAID config so I don't know if I'm going to notice any perfomance gains ($36 dollars worth?) by running a RAID 0?
2) RAM: I've choosen the higher speed ram because its SLI-certified. The way I understand it is when I POST the first time, the mobo should recognize the SLI-cert ram and run it close to the 1066mhz speed. I understand this is goign to underclock my CPU but I plan on juicing it back up to speed. This is a $100 option, is it worth it?
3) PSU: I read the sticky about power supplies and how many are overkill and if you stick with a namebrand you should be ok. Well, I don't know any namebrands and was curious if what I picked out was going to be adequate. I planning on adding a second XFX GeForce 1950GT running in SLI in the future but current budget won't allow it. I purposely picked a single rail because I've read that they handle overclocking better than split rails. I don't have big plans to overclock this thing insanely but I do plan on trying to do a slight to modest overclock.
Like I've said before this is my first build but I'm not completly wet behind the ears. I would put myself as an advanced casual user. I can install ram, swap drives (slave/master), and install HDD's but I don't consider myself a "Techie" at all! So any and all comments are appreciated! TIA!!!
As the subject says, I'm putting together my first system. I'm not a hardcore gamer but would like to get into more games than I my current setup can support. Main use is going to be multi-tasking, ie: photoshop and video editing, music, and internet.
Here's a link to what I've put together on newegg.. http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=5194967
some highlights:
· ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
· XFX PVT71JYHD9 GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
· AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA5200CSBOX - Retail
· CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-8500C5 - Retail
· Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (2 of 'em ran in RAID 0)
My budget is ideally $1400 but you can see I've over shot a little. I have severl questions so I'm gonna break them up into sections, feel free to make comments, answer 1 or answer all!
1) Harddrives: My current configuration calls for 2 160GB RE Caviars ran in Raid 0. I can purchase a 300GB RE Caviar (same 16mb cache) for $90 ($36 less)... This would be my first time setting up a RAID config so I don't know if I'm going to notice any perfomance gains ($36 dollars worth?) by running a RAID 0?
2) RAM: I've choosen the higher speed ram because its SLI-certified. The way I understand it is when I POST the first time, the mobo should recognize the SLI-cert ram and run it close to the 1066mhz speed. I understand this is goign to underclock my CPU but I plan on juicing it back up to speed. This is a $100 option, is it worth it?
3) PSU: I read the sticky about power supplies and how many are overkill and if you stick with a namebrand you should be ok. Well, I don't know any namebrands and was curious if what I picked out was going to be adequate. I planning on adding a second XFX GeForce 1950GT running in SLI in the future but current budget won't allow it. I purposely picked a single rail because I've read that they handle overclocking better than split rails. I don't have big plans to overclock this thing insanely but I do plan on trying to do a slight to modest overclock.
Like I've said before this is my first build but I'm not completly wet behind the ears. I would put myself as an advanced casual user. I can install ram, swap drives (slave/master), and install HDD's but I don't consider myself a "Techie" at all! So any and all comments are appreciated! TIA!!!