Author Topic: Halifax's Up and Coming Computer (Read 18428 times)

Halifax · « **on:** April 24, 2007, 12:43:00 pm »

I know there is a topic like this but I just wanted to know what people think of this setup and I need help finding a case that fits my motherboard with 4 USB 2.0 ports and stuff. Oh well check below for all the possible information on it.

My New Computer

Processor:

   ($239.99)AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773

   I want to get this because basically this is a kickass processor at a lower price with a lot of cache and abilty to have a 8GB ram!! Also anything of Intel's that I checked that was under or equal to $239.99 were all very bad processors compared to this. Also this is a dual-core with two processors running at 3 GHz. Adds to the gaming capability.

Memory:

1 x ($239.99)pqi 2GB 24-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141141

I would get 1 of these for 4 GB of ram and it has a 5 CAS level. It is also dual channeled which my motherboard supports!

Motherboard:

   ($139.99)ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131013

   Well first off this supports SLI which means if I wanted to I could put 2 GeForce graphic cards in there and play SLI supported games twice as faster. Which is good once those type of games start running out. Its also a low price and supports the AM2. Overall this is just a great motherboard I think. Plus it includes 8 SATA ports which is great for memory and stuff.

Video Card:

   ($569.99)GIGABYTE GV-NX88X768H-RH-GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125049

   This graphics card runs at a very fast 575 MHz with 128 stream processors with 768 MB of onboard memory and 384 bit structure. This video card looks great and seems like it could stand up to any game you through at it on max settings. I believe this would run Halo 3 fine when it comes out. Also I love GIGABYTE and this supports SLI so in case I ever want to upgrade that option is there.

Hard Drive:

   2 x ($179.99)Seagate Barracuda ES ST3500630NS 500GB 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148151

   This is a cheap 500GB Hard Drive made by a reliable manufacter, Seagate, and it has a 16 MB cache. Also it is compatible with the motherboard, SATA 3.0Gb/s, and I intend to put 2 of these in those 8 SATA slots

to get 1 Terabyte of memory.

Storage Devices:

   ($25.99)LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 1.5MB Cache SATA Combo Drive
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106040

   Basically its cheap and it is reliable so I will stick with it. It also does everything. Writes, reads, and plays DVDs and CDs.It also runs on SATA.

Sound Card:

   ($32.99)Creative SOund Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102012

   It's a very good bargain and I think its all I really need. Nothing too flashy or anything like that. It's perfect.

Speakers:

   ($66.99)Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watts 7.1 Speaker
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836116153

   Basically these speakers a 7.1 surround sound at a good price and I love sound so I want to immerse myself in my music or games with these speakers with Direct X 10 or OpenAL 2.0

Case:

   ($149.99)Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Full Tower
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133154

   This tower looks cool with a lot of bays, but I have one problem with it. This case only has 2 open USB 2.0 ports and my motherboard has 4. I couldn't find any case though that had 4 ports for the USB 2.0 so like wtf???

Power Supply:

   ($55.49)Thermaltake W0099RU ATX12V 250 Watts

   It seems like a good deal and its SLI certified. If anyone has a better idea please tell me!!

Monitor:

   ($519.99)Acer Silever 24" 6ms GTG DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with 1000:1
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009089

   A ligthing fast response time with a good recommended resolution of 1920 x 1200 and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. This will go perfect with my graphics card and looks like a great bargain since I love widescreen 24" monitors.

Mouse:

   ($61.99)Logitech Tone 6 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB Wired Laser G5 Mouse
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104037

   It looks great and it has a lot of features that I think are valuable.

Keyboard:

   ($71.99)Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126179

   This keyboard looks amazing and seems(from reviews) as that it proves good for gaming. The LCD looks awesome and this keyboard also looks great for 3D Modelling so its a definet.

Operating System:

   ($199.99)Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit DVD Single-Pack
   http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=604681&ps=sw11

   I have a 64-bit(x64) processor with more than enough ram and more than enough Hard Drive space. So go for the Windows Vista that includes everything that all the other versions have. Why not? I am getting ready for the future.

So what's the total:
         $2735.35

Basically I am only limited by how much I want to work this summer so I think I will be able to buy

this. If not I will have to do something drastic like(start betting on basketball games)!! Oh well either way I am definetly going to try to get this computer.

I am still a little diseased about the case. Does anyone know where I could get a case with 4 open USB 2.0 ports and stuff that match my motherboard. Thanks. And please any comments are welcome on this!

Liazon · « **Reply #1 on:** April 25, 2007, 10:53:00 am »

just get an ATX case (midtower's generally good, some people like full tower but they can be really big)

It needs at least 2 3.5" internal drive bay for your harddrives and at least 1 5" external drive bay for your DVD-burner. plenty of expansion slots in the back are good.

Also, you've got the wrong kind of RAM for your board. Your board takes DDR 800, really expensive stuff.

The case you chose is fine, just really big. duno if you're ever going to need all the slots, and I've heard from some people that too much space makes it hard to connect all the wires nicely. I've heard antec is nice, but I guess it's all preference. As for the 4 USB, are you sure they aren't the ones that go on the back?

That power supply is WEAK!!! I've never seen the specs on an 8800GTX, but I'm pretty sure it has some of the highest power requirements on the market. An average card may draw about 300W (including all the other stuff). I wouldn't be surprised if that card sucked out 450W. Keep in mind that power supplies can only generate about 70% of what it says on the label, but most gfx card companies already take into that into account, as well as the power requirements of processor, RAM, everything else, before they suggest a minimum power supply. You may also want modular cabling on your power supply so you don't have unnecessary wires hanging around.

lastly, although i've never tried it myself, i've heard of people stably overclocking 2.4 Ghz Core Duo to 3.8Ghz w/o extra cooling. Of course, that also depends on the board, since the board has the OC options.

that's about all i have to say for now.

edit: correct me if i've said anything incorrect.

Halifax · « **Reply #2 on:** April 25, 2007, 11:06:00 am »

Yeah that's fine I was waiting for someone to tell me this stuff. This is my first computer. And your right I got DDR2 667 by accident I forgot I needed DDR2 800. Also I just like AMD better than Intel so I will stick with that. And I read a lot of reviews for the graphics card and they said that you need a lot of room because you don't want it touching anything so I wasn't sure about overheating or something like that. And yes your right those 4 USBs are on the back haha. But I also like that case because it is see through with the lights too.

Ok I will get this ram:

($299.99) OCZ Vista Upgrade 4GB(2 x 2GB) 24-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Chennel Kit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227195

graywolf · « **Reply #3 on:** April 25, 2007, 11:13:00 am »

Everything is fine specs wise (now with the correct RAM

) and I recommend sticking with AMD. You've got an awesome graphics card there (trust me, this comes from personal experience). I doubt you will find four USB ports up front, so you'll probably have to use the ones in the back. Yes, upgrade your power supply! Finally, I'm not sure if you really need Vista Ultimate (Premium should be good enough), but it's up to you.

Other than that, it looks like you have a solid system.

Halifax · « **Reply #4 on:** April 25, 2007, 11:20:00 am »

Yeah I don't know but I think I will stick with Vista Ultimate.

And here is my new power supply:

($84.99) HIPER HPU-4K53-MS ATX12V v2.2 530W Power Supply 100 - 120V UL, CE, TUV, FCC, CB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817128006

And thanks graywolf that means a lot coming from you since your like a computer expert.

Well here it goes. I will update you guys with pictures as I buy these parts and assemble the computer. Then when I am done I will buy some games and throw them in there and take some pics of that too. If Halo 3 is out by the time I finish this then you can expect to see some pics of that

Thanks for your help too. I thought my first experience would be pretty horrid with everything mismatched and stuff but it turned out good. It only took me 2 hours to assemble this list of parts with newegg. I love how they have those narrow down features. That definetly helped.

graywolf · « **Reply #5 on:** April 25, 2007, 12:37:00 pm »

You might also want to consider: HIPER HPU-4S58-MS ATX12V v2.2 580W Power Supply 100 - 120V - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817128003) which is almost the same thing as the one you selected (and about the same price). It's 580 W and it has modular and definite SLI support.

spengo · « **Reply #6 on:** April 25, 2007, 01:06:00 pm »

Holy s*** lol. With all that stuff, it makes me wonder why you are using nForce 570 and not a 680i. I guess you are going all the way eh? Hehe, I've found that if you get second best stuff available it's like friggin' half the cost of the best. And it still pwns, like the one I'm making.

I prefer Core 2 Duos over Athlon x2s, but whatever.

EDIT: I just realized, there is no nForce 6-series for AMD cpus!

Odd

Halifax · « **Reply #7 on:** April 25, 2007, 02:36:00 pm »

haha spengo and yeah I will get that then graywolf. And yeah I know I love that spengo its like a really freakin cheap computer with the second best that used to be best like 2 months ago. I looked at all the best processors and its like $900 I'm like what the f***

This is why I don't want to get an Intel that's in the AMD price range:

Intel Pentium D 950 Presler 3.4GHz 2 x 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116240

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115003

The AMD processor I am currently getting is the best AMD processor there is(by my research). Now let's see how much the best Intel processor costs.

($970.00)Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115011

This has no hyperthreading and less L1 cache shared over four seperate processors

. Then look at the price tag. The L1 cache doesn't even match how much the AMD has. Plus I just think Intel is better suited for the mobile business and AMD is better suited for the desktops. Also if AMD came out with a quad core I am sure it would pwn that quad core and cost much less.

spengo · « **Reply #8 on:** April 25, 2007, 03:13:00 pm »

Actually I disagree, the core 2 duos pretty much rape athlon x2's in terms of both price and performance (power consumption too). Look up benchmarks if you don't believe me.

AMD says they are going to pwn again with quad-cores, but they phailed as far as dual-cores go. Maybe they got overconfident after the athlon 64's beat down the p4's so bad.

EDIT: http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/14/core2_duo_knocks_out_athlon_64/index.html the tom's hardware review if you're interested. All other benchmarking places seem to get the same results. You shouldn't judge processors to be "equivalent" based on their clock speed. Core 2 Duo architecture is vastly superior to the athlon x2s. (well, it did come out a lot later after all)

EDIT2: also, you might want to check out DVD+/-RW drives 'cause being able to write to dvds always comes in handy. Also, just a preferential thing, I like cases with 120mm and 180mm fans, they are quieter than cases with 80 and 90mm fans.

Jon · « **Reply #9 on:** April 25, 2007, 03:57:00 pm »

My laptop runs a core 2 duo, and it sux a**, it slows down just from playing roller coaster tycoon's isometric goodness. Get AMD, you'll be much happier

spengo · « **Reply #10 on:** April 25, 2007, 04:19:00 pm »

I doubt that's the fault of the CPU, what are your other specs or are you doing something funky? I know that old skool p4s can run that game w/out a hitch. I really don't think that has anything to do with your processor.

EDIT: are you running Vista? If so, I believe that would be your problem Darwinia, though much more advanced than roller coaster, is still not a very demanding game, and it is made of major lag hacks in Vista. I think they recently made a Vista version that works better though.

Jon · « **Reply #11 on:** April 25, 2007, 05:05:00 pm »

XP Media, 1GB RAM (plenty for RCT btw), no idea on the HD.
EDIT: Well, I'm comparing it to an earlier computer I had, which ran on an AMD, was cheaper, but still ran much faster. I wish I still had that lappy

the cat sat on it and broke the fan. Then, unwittingly, I used it without the fan, and it was fried within a week.

spengo · « **Reply #12 on:** April 25, 2007, 06:13:00 pm »

ooo... that sucks. Laptops are not known for having good airflow even with fans. I don't know what your problem with rct would be then w/out actually looking at your computer.

Google around for people that are having the same problem. Someone's got to have posted it in some obscure message board somewhere I expect. :lol:

Jon · « **Reply #13 on:** April 25, 2007, 06:59:00 pm »

It's not just rct, everything is slow. Start-up really bites, and then there's a whole host of other random things that slow it down. I was just using RCT as an example since it's a frikin' isometric game, making it one of the easiest games to process ever.

spengo · « **Reply #14 on:** April 26, 2007, 05:53:00 am »

Dunno then.

It ain't the cpu though 'cause everyone else I know with core 2's go lightnin' fast. Much faster than my weaksauce 2GHz pentium M (which isn't half bad either).

Author Topic: Halifax's Up and Coming Computer (Read 18428 times)

Liazon

graywolf

graywolf

spengo

spengo

spengo

spengo

spengo