Old school pc gamer needs advice on new pc

[Mier]

I'd really appreciate any input I can get from any of you as I have been out of touch with pc building for a few years. I've always been a Pentium person but I have decided to make the jump to AMD and make me a new gaming pc. Now here is the problem. Since I have always been with Pentium I have no idea where to even start with AMD and to be quite honest it is pretty daunting for me.

I am trying to get the best I can with around $2.2k but will spend another couple hundred if I have to. My biggest challenge right now is the motherboard and cpu, the rest I can pretty much get through. I have always been an Asus guy for motherboards but if anyone knows of anything better for gaming let me know. Also with the cpu I am wondering if dual core would be best or if I should go with something else.

Other components I will be picking up for this will be:

Maxtor MaxLine III 300GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA133

Asus EN7800GT DUAL/2DHTV/512M Dual Geforce 7800GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Dual Core Video Card

SONY 16X DVD±R, 5X DVD-RAM Write DVD Burner

Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi Platinum

I already have a Sceptre X20G-Naga III 20.1" Widescreen LCD that I will be hooking up to this thing as well as a RAIDMAX RX-9 GT ATX-911WR case and ASUS Atlas A-55GA 550W Power Supply combo to put it in.

I'll worry about the memory after I have some idea of what motherboard to get and will most likely slam about 2GB into it. I'd also like to know anyone's thoughts on fan versus liquid cooling as I am leaning towards liquid to keep this thing cool. Not sure if I will be overclocking but since it is AMD and I am told they are easy to over then I may step into that arena soon.

 

[MrZucchiniHead]

ok there are tons of other threads on these forums that will tell you what you need search around.

problems. ide hard drive, go with SATA
get a 7900GTX not a 7800GT dual core, the 7900gtx should be better
the XFi platinum is not needed go with the extreme music.

look here also:
http://techist.com/showthread.php?threadid=91908&highlight=$2000+build

 

[Mier]

I was considering the SATA drives but am a little unfamiliar with them. I know enough to get by though so thanks for the input. I'll look into the tip about the vid card also thanks again.

 

[turtile]

Do you want to overclock? I can make a list for either way.

 

[john3]

Mobo i suggest DFI Lanparty SLi-DR, either expert or normal, but i heard bad things bout expert.

Depending on how much you want to spend on CPU you can either go for an Opteron 165 and OC the s*** out of it, or go for a FX series, or even the higher x2s like the 4400 or the 4800.

I'd also say stick to the extreme X Fi, and yes go for SATA. not sure about the SATAII though.

If your going to SLi then definitely the 7900s, 7800 has become obsolete. in my opinion

and for the brand of hard drive i suggest either Western Digital or Seagate, i havent heard nething about Maxtor, but it might be good. I hear the Seagate Barracuda's are super quiet.

 

[Mier]

I have thought about overclocking but like i said I am rather new to that whole scene so will take it slow.

That is a really nice looking MB and seems to have all the features I am looking for. The CPU is really what has me stumped though as like I said I have always gone Pentium and never spent any time reading up on AMD (I am regretting it now for sure)

I could go as high as 800 on the CPU but would like to keep it below 700 if at all possible while still getting good performance.

Also I was looking around and noticed that the ATI Radeon X1900 XT with 512 was a nice card that has some decent reviews so I may go with that instead of the Nvidia card after all.

 

[john3]

hmm lets see here......i guess you can go with the 4600+ x2, or even the 4800+ if you wanna spend the extra dough, then you can OC it to a high lvl. but then again. Since you are a gamer and if you have a good video card and good ram, get the opty 165, and whenever your ready you can oc it to match or go above the fx-60. so it sure is worth it to get the opty 165 cause it OCs like MAD! and i was reading upon OCing cause im a n00b 2 and im getting the opty 165 and am going to definitely OC, its actually not that hard to understand how to OC. If you want a long and detailed guide on ocing go here geekstogo.com and in the hardware section go to upgrading and they should have a stickied OCing guide that explains EVERYTHING.

And yeah about the Opty, again, if you have a good video card, which you will, and good Ram, you can Probably play all ur games on max settings, until you decide to OC, its definitely worth it.

 

[john3]

and whenever your gaming, or anything at all with a computer, dont go with Intels, the AMDs Dual core processors are better than Intel at everything now, even multi tasking and encoding and s***. Intel is old news.

 

[septoid2]

Mobo i suggest DFI Lanparty SLi-DR, either expert or normal, but i heard bad things bout expert.

Depending on how much you want to spend on CPU you can either go for an Opteron 165 and OC the s*** out of it, or go for a FX series, or even the higher x2s like the 4400 or the 4800.

I'd also say stick to the extreme X Fi, and yes go for SATA. not sure about the SATAII though.

If your going to SLi then definitely the 7900s, 7800 has become obsolete. in my opinion

and for the brand of hard drive i suggest either Western Digital or Seagate, i havent heard nething about Maxtor, but it might be good. I hear the Seagate Barracuda's are super quiet.

Oh boy you must think the 6600 series of cards are ANTIQUES then, eh??

 

[john3]

not really, they are still good. but they clearly arent the best.