need some help bulding gaming pc

[Exarchice]

ok so i havent built a computer in over 3 years so i havent kept up on the latest items. right now i do not have a desktop. only using a crappy asus g1 laptop thats about to die.
my old desktop i ended up frying(trying to overclock it with no clue what i was doing) i do however have a few salvageable parts from my old pc, but i am not sure if i want to use them or not.


here are my current possibly salvageable parts, everything else is fried.
Antec 750w PSU
old case, cant remember the brand, but it is a mid-tower. it had 4 frontside usb ports (2 didnt work) and i never bothered hooking up the lcd screen on the front (for the temp)
120g HDD
2 dvd burners r/w


everything else i had in there (dual 8600gtx, 2g corsair ram, abit kn8 sli mobo, amd 4200+ (i think, or 3800+ maby)) were all fried instantly upon boot as soon as i got done attempting to overclock it.

i currently have all those parts running in a comp i gave to my dad he just took his old mobo,graphics,ram,cpu and stuck it in my case and his case is just bare right now, im not sure if im going to make him move his parts back to his old case and take my stuff back or just buy all new stuff. altho i will probably take back that PSU if nothing else because it ran me like $200-300 at the time.

also taking back my 22" flatscreen monitor for sure, he has 3 of them hooked up to his comp atm for his flight simulator games, guess he will just have to use his old 24" crt monitor if he wants a 3rd one




anywho i know for sure i want my processor to be AMD and my graphics card to be nVidia, so please dont suggest ATI or Intell, i refuse to ever use ATI or Intell as i have had nothing but bad experiences with both of them (altho my dads I7 Extreem is super bad, but no way ide drop that kind of money on one of those, thats just insane, altho the performance is phenomenal)


here is what i was thinking for parts in my new pc


RAIDMAX SMILODON Steel ATX Mid Tower With 500W Power Supply
Newegg.com - RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEBP 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 500W Power Supply - Computer Cases

EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express
Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Processors - Desktops

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - Operating Systems


i havent posted the ram yet, due to the fact that i havent picked a proper mobo yet. but i do want 4g of ram(2x 2g sticks)

i cannot seem to find a decent mobo for my CPU, probably due to the fact that it is an am2+ and not an am3? now should i find an am3 version of this CPU or stick with the am2+ version? the only mobos i can find that support this CPU are all ddr2 and not ddr3 altho im not sure what the big difference in ddr2 and ddr3 ram is. i do want ddr 3 ram right?


this pc i am building is ment for DarkFall which i have been playing on my laptop(very very very laggy, and it is unplayable on my laptop in 20vs20 player battles(btw thats a very tiny battle) i will need something that cam support 400v400pvp battles in this rpg.

as far as graphics go for the game and playing on max settings, i do not care about max settings, i just need to be able to play a smooth game, altho i will probably set my comp to max settings (because the quality of the game is crap anyhow, and i never ever turn on shadows, water effect as i hate them) i just need to do huge pvp battles with little to no lag, currently i get 0fps and my game will freeze during the entire battle, sometimes battles last hours, so my comp will be froze untill theres only like 20-40people left on the screen then i can go back to my 10fps lol.


lol, i feel really dumb now, i forgot to add in what i am looking to spend on a new PC. i am looking to spend around $800ish in total(cheaper = better). currently with the parts listed i am at $615 (as i am not including the instant and mail in rebates for the parts, due to the fact they may not be available when i purchase the parts, so i figure it is better to add in a higher price factor and walk away with something cheaper than you had hoped for)

 

[myowngod]

I know you are set on AMD, but dollar for dollar performance intel has the edge on AMD at the moment... as for ATI, they still have awesome bang for buck... consider one of the intel quad cores... I know I have my q6600 at 3.5ghz daily.. and it runs like a champ (i too was an AMD fan, until they got left in the dust)... I don't have the time at the moment, but I'll try to do a build for you.. if you have a case already... although you might want a new HDD... perhaps you will consider intel? if not... maybe someone can come with a good AMD build.. but recently I just haven't kept up with them...

 

[Hefemeister]

Just out of curiosity what do you mean when you say you fried your other equipment overclocking?

Did you reset cmos?
Did you brick the board with a bios update?
were you overclocking the gpu's as well?
Have you tried the video cards in other machines?
tried the ram in other machines?
Does the board show signs of burnt capacitors?

It seems strange that all of those parts got destroyed overclocking.
Sorry I just see a lot of nice parts that seem a shame to just say the got fried.
You might be just fine with a new mb and cpu if we could do some further testing on your old stuff.

 

[Exarchice]

I know you are set on AMD, but dollar for dollar performance intel has the edge on AMD at the moment... as for ATI, they still have awesome bang for buck... consider one of the intel quad cores... I know I have my q6600 at 3.5ghz daily.. and it runs like a champ (i too was an AMD fan, until they got left in the dust)... I don't have the time at the moment, but I'll try to do a build for you.. if you have a case already... although you might want a new HDD... perhaps you will consider intel? if not... maybe someone can come with a good AMD build.. but recently I just haven't kept up with them...

well, the i7s are nice, but the price of the i7 compared to AMD is the problem, the phenom II x4 for 190bucks is a great deal in my opinion, altho the i7s can also support tri memory which is nice.

as far as a HDD goes, i dont need a big one, i only plan on using this comp with 1 video game + ventrillo + firefox. i dont plan on having any other BS dld on my computer and i could care less about running media on my computer. but my old hdd is sata so i would only have to reformat it (which i really dont want to do) so i might be better off with a new HDD but like i said im just looking for a small HDD, i only need about 80gigs to keep me content for a long time.

 

[Hefemeister]

yes but with prices a 640gb 32mb cache is the sweet spot right now. Hardly much more than a 80gb drive.

 

[baron5]

You have two choices, triple core or quad core. The new triples support am3 while the quads don't so i guess it comes down to whether or not you want to upgrade to am3. Right now there is no reason to get am3 because ddr3 doesn't offer hardly any increase in performance for amd (loose timings i think). So this is what i recommend.

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Processors - Desktops
Newegg.com - XFX GX260XADJF GeForce GTX 260 Core Edition Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

The only advantage the triples have on the x4 is that they overclock substantially better, on this motherboard you should be able to reach about 3.6-8ghz on the x4 anyway. And in some cases even with ddr2 it outperforms the i7 920 at stock, it really is a great cpu for the price.

The core 216 was a great choice for your budget it will handle any games you want to throw at it. Hopefully that build leaves you enough money for the rest of the stuff you need. I don't even think you could make a similar performance intel build for that price anyway. Should be a great build!

 

[Exarchice]

Just out of curiosity what do you mean when you say you fried your other equipment overclocking?

Did you reset cmos?
Did you brick the board with a bios update?
were you overclocking the gpu's as well?
Have you tried the video cards in other machines?
tried the ram in other machines?
Does the board show signs of burnt capacitors?

It seems strange that all of those parts got destroyed overclocking.
Sorry I just see a lot of nice parts that seem a shame to just say the got fried.
You might be just fine with a new mb and cpu if we could do some further testing on your old stuff.

i tested the other parts in another pc i had at the time and i couldnt get any of those parts i mentioned to work. i didnt bother to look for burn marks around the parts, i just had my dad test out the parts on his pc and he said they wouldnt work because they were fried, but we tried it anyhow and he was right.

and as far as what i was trying to overclock... uhh i have no clue lol, that was the first time i actually messed with the bios ever, and ive learned my lesson never to touch them again, because bad things can happen.

im not worried about those parts anyhow, its been about 2 years since that happened, altho i wouldnt of minded using the old parts to build a cheapo backup pc (but hey thats what this laptop is for)

yes but with prices a 640gb 32mb cache is the sweet spot right now. Hardly much more than a 80gb drive.

i just looked at a 500g hd for like 40bucks... i remember when it was $1 per gig, i am quite impressed with the huge price drops in HDDs as i hadent realized they had gone down that much i might just go with a big hardrive for the **** of it.

You have two choices, triple core or quad core. The new triples support am3 while the quads don't so i guess it comes down to whether or not you want to upgrade to am3. Right now there is no reason to get am3 because ddr3 doesn't offer hardly any increase in performance for amd (loose timings i think). So this is what i recommend.

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Processors - Desktops
Newegg.com - XFX GX260XADJF GeForce GTX 260 Core Edition Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

The only advantage the triples have on the x4 is that they overclock substantially better, on this motherboard you should be able to reach about 3.6-8ghz on the x4 anyway. And in some cases even with ddr2 it outperforms the i7 920 at stock, it really is a great cpu for the price.

The core 216 was a great choice for your budget it will handle any games you want to throw at it. Hopefully that build leaves you enough money for the rest of the stuff you need. I don't even think you could make a similar performance intel build for that price anyway. Should be a great build!

nice find with the mobo/memory combo, i really like the timings on the ram. so i guess im stuck using ddr2, but like you said it wont make a significant difference which is cool with me. and ya i plan on using that cpu, and the same graphics card(well almost the same, i prefer the evga just because i trust evga and thats normally the brand i go for)

now as far as my case/psu goes, i really like the case and it looks really roomy and it comes with plenty of fans. im not sure if the 500w power supply will be enough? ill probably end up taking my antec 750w back unless the 500w will be sufficient for this build?

so i think im set? the final price is like $710 i believe and i think shipping should be free from newegg? since it is over $600? or did they change that, i know last time i orderd from new egg i spent just over $1,200 and my shipping was free

make that $760 with a 500g hd for my grand total so far, so im right around my $800 limit (wife is willing to let me spend more, but i can always upgrade down the road, and use older parts for a new pc)

 

[Hefemeister]

Please if you have new info you can use the edit button to add it to your previous post.

Use the edit button until someone has responded to add further information.

 

[Exarchice]

Please if you have new info you can use the edit button to add it to your previous post.

Use the edit button until someone has responded to add further information.

sorry, couldn't get the edit button to work for some reason, new to the forums, so ill just retry next time if i have trouble with it again

 

[baron5]

in my cart it came to 665 before shipping isn't yours that same?(not i had hdd and vista combo, is great deal) try get a hold of the 750 watter to same sum cash, or if you can post or tell us what the amperage ratings on the 500w are we can tell you whether or not it will run your system(most likely).