rebuilding gaming pc (plz help)

[zarga]

can anyone help, i am rebuilding this pc i just bought it not knowing much about them and its a pos i would say.. im really into gaming so i was going to get a geforce 8800gtx after looking my pc over i dont think my motherboard has the dual pci 16x slot needed for the 8800 also it dosent seem to have 2 six pin pci power connectors but i found a 4 pin so that works with the 8800 but is there a difference between a 4 pin and a 4 pin molex power connector if not thats ok.. but im willing to spend acouple grand on it any suggestions on what all to get with mid to top of the line hw ill list my pc spec's and can some1 see if its compatible with a 8800, also i know ill be needing a power supply for it i dont want over kill but 1 that will power it fully its stock air/fan cooled i could add an external walmart fan incase of to much heat or maybe even buy a water cooling system if possible, pretty much i just want good grafics good fps..just a good gaming pc here the stock spec's as of now
--- so with about $2000 what would be best for this pc

Motherboard description Motherboard manufacturer's name: ASUS A8M2N-LA
HP/Compaq name: NodusM3-GL8E

CPU/Processor Socket: AM2
Supports AMD Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, and Sempron processors

Front-side bus (FSB) 2000 MegaTransfers/second

Chipset GeForce 6150 LE chipset

BIOS features Award brand system BIOS
Keyboard combination to used to enter BIOS: F1

Form factor Micro-ATX: 9.6 in X 9.6 in

Memory Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
Supports PC 4200 (533 MHz) and PC2 5300 (667 MHz) DDR2 DIMMs
non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
Maximum HP/Compaq approved memory is 4 GB*



NOTE: *Actual available memory may be less

Expansion slots Three PCI
One PCI Express x16 graphics

Video graphics Integrated

Serial ATA 4 SATA connectors
Each connector supports 1 serial ATA-150 disk drive

Onboard audio Built-in High Definition 8 channel audio
ALC888 CODEC
Onboard LAN 10/100 Marvell 88EC031

Back panel I/0 Listed in physical order from left to right:
One PS/2 keyboard port (purple)
One PS/2 mouse port (green)
One SPDIF (coaxial) out
One VGA port
One IEEE 1394
Four USB 2.0
One RJ-45 networking port
Audio ports:
side speaker out (gray)
rear speaker out (black)
center/subwoofer (yellow orange)
line in (light blue)
line out (lime)
microphone (pink)

Internal connectors One 24-pin ATX power connector
One 4-pin ATX power connector
Two PATA connectors
Four SATA connectors
One floppy drive connector
Two 12v fan connectors for CPU fan and PC fan
One 9-pin header for power button, reset button, power LED, and HDD LED
One audio header for headphone-out and microphone-in
One audio header for line input
Two USB 2.0 connectors supporting 4 additional USB 2.0 ports
One IEEE 1394 connector

 

[b1gapl]

The 8800GTX is compatible with your motherboard. You do not need dual PCI-e X16 slots. Thats only, if you're running two 8800GTXs. And you need a new power supply. The 8800GTX needs two 6-pin PCI-e connectors. You can't use 4 pin molexes, unless you have the 4pin to 6pin adapter.

Can you state your system specs though? Like what X2 processor you have....X2 3800+?, X2 5200+?, etc...

Actually if you can, I would try and sell that computer, and build a new one, since you have a big budget. Heres a list of suggested parts for a new system:
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio....asp?WishListNumber=4342325&WishListTitle=$2k

 

[Sydzy]

Keeping in mind this is all my personal opinion:

I bought a new rig recently, i spent just over $3000 australian, so thats like... a bit over $2500 USD, but im not sure how the prices differ in america to here, probably about the same.

When you say your mobo doesnt have the dual pci-e x16 slot needed, well, all I got is an Asus P5B, works fine, and it doesnt have dual. It just means that my gfx card overlaps over a PCI slot that is not unusable, which I dont mind. I still got another 2 to use, all I need is TV card and Sound card in there, luckily the 8800GTX's physics processer pooes all over the Aegia one anyway so I dont need a PCI slot for that. Anyway, 8800GTX = awesome choice. Personally I would go for a XFX one, reasonable price, and they from what I can tell consistently release great products. I am very very happy with mine.

CPU: Go Intel Core 2 Duo, currently they pwn the AMD ones, well, I think they do and from what I have read at many review sites that is the case. Check out cnet.com, they probs have a review on it. They are just faster. Get an E6600 or up, cause 1 step down and you have half the cache size. My CPU currently is my bottleneck but I plan to overclock it like nothin else, that is another awesome thing about C2D is that you can overclock it with air cooling by like 60% and not be insane. That is a realistic figure easily attainable with good cooling, check out the Thermaltake Big Typhoon or the Asus Silent Knight. I'm going the asus one cause it looks like a pod racer engine from starwars. =P

That and if you are getting liquid cooling, DO NOT GET THERMALTAKE! It is the worst liquid cooling ever from reports, their big typhoon is about the best air cooling you can get out there, but their liquid cooling is a big no no. I am not getting it for my computer, I am too afraid of it leaking out or something, i move my computer lots too. With some hardcore air cooling you can easily keep it nice and cool. I think I am going to buy a zalman GPU cooler soon anywho, and also make sure that for your CPU if you going C2D that you buy a third party heat sink as mentioned earlier. Just install it from the start instead of having to change it over later.

There is my 2 cents, and then some. Please feel free to disagree and point out flaws in my argument. Thats just my opinion =P

Sydz

P.S. Also just cause I am a little girl and scared of things breaking, I didn't go an overclocked 8800GTX, cause ****, they are friken ridiculous stock, let alone overclocked. If they do screw up, sure they are under warrantee, but you are really going to enjoy that minimum 1 month waiting time getting it repaired / replaced without a graphics card. Not worth it imo

 

[zarga]

thx its just a 64 x2 4600 2.4 i really dont want to sell this 1 i just bought it and its hard to sell them so i was just going to try an fix this 1 up, but ill probably get a 750w supply 8800gtx and just some extra fans or go with water cooling, yea i know the 8800 only needs one pci 16x slot but on the nvidia site it says it needs a vacant slot under it because it physicaly takes up 2 i guess that means it dosent use 2 but under my pci 16x slot there are resistors and it dosent look like it work or would it just cover them

Oh.. yea about the power connectors alos on the nvidia site it says 2 6 pin or a 4 pin connector i cant use the 4 pin? or could i get like a 4 into 6 pin connector at my local pc shop is it something they would have or could order maybe? i would probably need a 4 into 2x 6 pin or either just get 2 4 into 6 pin's would that work ok?

and yea i wouldnt bother with clocking a 8800 there insane as it is plus it being a $550-600 card and clocking voiding the warrenty its just not worth it

 

[Sydzy]

heh, kk, fair enough, just make sure that you overclock it like a ***** then, haha, cause right now my CPU is definately a bottleneck for me, but i will only need to overclock it to like 3.6 or something for it to be working well with my card, dont know about yorus but sorry cause i have no idea about anything AMD.

 

[zarga]

well after looking over different hw i came up with this build, i think the p5n32-e mobo is better than the msi p6n for gaming what ya think?
but my build is alot like the 1 in this build https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion...itle=$2k

the only things different are im thinking about getting the p5n32-e instead of the msi because of 680i on the p5n, and instead of the g skill ram im going to get a dominator and a different hdd 400gb 7200rpm and im going to throw in a ZALMAN CNPS9500 and put that all in a Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

then ill oc just alittle not too much heat tho since i dont feel like messing with liquid cooling, with that case it should have cool temp anyway, so... will that work will the parts come with instructions ya think cause this will be my first build, sound like a pretty good gaming rig? it totaled to $1740 usd

also since iv never done abuild before will i need to dl drives from the product web site or would it come with drivers installed like plug an play

 

[Sora]

No in terms of actual performance the 650i shows to be the exact same thing as the 680i if not in some cases very slightly better. Keep the P6N as it's a nice board for the money.

 

[Sydzy]

Yeah, ive heard many reports on the 650i being better than 680i anywho, lol, kind of weird.

@zarga

Sounds like you got yourself a nice rig upcoming, enjoy it for the whole 3 weeks until all the hardware is word $20. haha, **** technology, about 2 weeks after I got my CPU it dropped like $100 *grumble*