Time to buy a new PC!

K

Kaizer

Gawd
Joined
Jul 9, 2001
Messages
737
Getting a nice fat check from the company in the next 2 days.. and well its time to buy a new pc.

Ill be spending about 2000 on the box and about 500 on a monitor.. Theres plenty of wiggle room here.. so if im over 200-300.. no biggy.

Basically my main concern is noise. I dont want anything in this that will scream. That leaves out 10k rpm drives. Im looking for a decent case with 120mm fans.. or possibly even water cooling, those tai-chi cases are interesting from Thermaltake. A window would be nice.. but not required.

Im going AMD, Im eyeing the x2 4200+ chip, If theres anything better price/performance say so.

As for motherboards.. im on the fence here. Im not going to be overclocking at all. I just want a stable machine. I do want the SLI chipset,as I will be going NVIDIA for my graphics card(s). I was looking at the one that comes free with the eVGA cards, as a good value.. but thats not really a concern.. I just want something good.

Ram - 2gb+, Ive been using corsair for a while.. but I dont discriminate on ram.. just need something thats solid.

Video card - Nvidia 7800 series.. not sure which one to go for.. or if I should get SLI now or wait.

Power supply - Modular please. I like being able to connect or disconnect the wires I need, keeps things neater in the case.

HD - 200+gb 16mb cache.. sata im thinking. The less noise it makes the better.

I really only play WoW right now.. but I do go on FPS binges from time to time.

Any suggestions here? Especially on the case / motherboard?
 
What are you going to be doing with the computer? gaming? or just running basic every day applications
 
Gaming.. and no.. I dont want ATI.. and I dont want Intel. Ive stated that already.

I sometimes run my ftp and what not from my pc as well.. however.. Ill be keeping my old system intact so I think all that stuff will be running on that instead.
 
ati has been known to have better picture, and right now their top of the line card, around the same price of the nvidia one, and is faster
 
And if you insist on amd, only get it if gaming is just about the only thing you'lle be doing, otherwise go with intel, better with applications and running more than one at once
 
Again.. ive said im not buying ATI. Im not buying the top of the line card (500+ dollars). Im gaming on this. Im not getting Intel. You arent helping at all here.
 
Kaizer said:
I thought opinions were like assholes.. everyone has one? :)
Click to expand...

Not everyone :
http://www.pedisurg.com/PtEduc/Imperforate_Anus.htm
http://iafrica.com/news/sa/256986.htm


OP - You'll feel better if you spread the wealth a little. You could build a couple nice $1000ish pc's and give one to me!

I'd save money now and go w/ an evga 7800gt, and then do their step up program thing when the new cards come out (has to be within 60 days, right? will 7900's be out by then?).

If you don't do the evga combo thing, I've read Asus is probably your best bet (is it the A8N32 SLI Deluxe?). DFI too maybe? Sorry, I haven't really paid that much attention to what models are best lately, but I wanted to give you SOME input better than the ati/intel stuff so far.

If you wanna keep noise down - how 'bout water cooling? I'm sure there are some nice cases that come w/ the kit installed so it'd be pretty easy.

Do you need a monitor or speakers or anything?

Jason
 
I dont "need" a monitor.. but ill be getting one anyway. I currently have a PF815 Viewsonic (22" CRT) while its really nice.. its just too damn big. Takes up way too much space on my desk.. not to mention I have 2 of those bad boys.

Ill prolly be going to Costco to get the dell 2005fpw or trying my luck on the sceptre and hope I get one with the newer firmware. If not.. ill return it. It also looks like they are selling the Viewsonics there now as well. Being that the local costco is 10 min from my house.. ill be going there in case of any bad pixel issues.

I picked up a case here locally as well. Chose the Tsunami case.. dual 120mm fans, all aluminum.. even the front "door" is aluminum..unlike a lot of them out there that are flimsy plastic. I figured I could save myself the shipping on that.

Of course when I bought the case today.. my local guy started asking me what I was going to do with it.. and of course said he would make me a deal. Ill tell him what ive selected.. and see what he can do, but I doubt he will come close to the Egg or zipzoomfly. Cant hurt to give him a shot though.

Im basically looking at the ASUS SLI Premium board, the 4400 x2 processor, 2gb twinx pro corsair ram (the led lights on my current ones put me in a trance.. I need more blinking lights!!)
 
Id get a 3800+ X2, pretty much the same as the 4200+, 200Mhz isnt anything.

7800GT if you do light gaming, X1900XT if you are a heavy gamer.

I have 2GB G.skill DDR500 ram, works well, is cheap, and overclocks well.

As for a PSU, a enermax liberty would do you great, they are supposed to be one of the best PSU's out there, and are modular.

You need a case, no? Lian Li pc-v1200 would work perfect for you, VERY nice case. Easy to work in. You could get a cheaper case, but I wouldnt. Just buy a scythe ninja heatsink, add a couple low speed fans. Quiet Cooling for the GPU would be a little tricky to find, a zalman flower heatsink would be your best bet. If you are going watercooling, Id pick a case that can hold a 120.2 Rad without mods. A CM stacker would fit that bill nicely. For more info on a water cooling setup, check out the water cooling forums. Make sure you get 3/8 id tubing or smaller. 1/2 ID was awful to setup.

Id get a Asus sli board, as those are very popular around these forums.

As for a HD, Seagate 7200.9 are supposed to be pretty quiet.
 
Thanks for the input there :) I have a case now.. its pretty nice and I got it cheap.

I think I decided to make the jump to the 4400 because its got 1mb cache per core instead of 512k. Ive been hearing a lot about the opteron chips as well.. but I dont know much about them.
 
Definitely go with an Opteron chip instead of the 4400+ you will save some money be able to overclock and still have the cache.
 
I dont overclock my pcs anymore :) just keep them stock and stable.. if I need faster.. I buy faster :) If I dont plan to OC is the opteron still better?
 
laxman144 said:
And if you insist on amd, only get it if gaming is just about the only thing you'lle be doing, otherwise go with intel, better with applications and running more than one at once
Click to expand...
that is the biggest load of shit i have ever heard - you MIGHT have had some ground to stand on with the HT vs single core a64 days, but not much. that argument is just plain retarded now, going with a netburst based dual core intel chip (beside a 9xx chip, ONLY if youre going to overclock) over a K8 based AMD chip is not smart.

op: get the 4200 or 4400. even with 512kb, these chips are plenty fast, and the opterons have had a price hike and limited avaliablity. an X2 will be a great chip now and for years to come.

the 7800GT is very fast. maybe not as fast as the fastest thing on the market, but who cares? i can play everything i want too (high end FPS's included..) at 1280x1024 with all settings and AA/AF cranked with my single 7800GT (470/1200, evga card came clocked like that :)) with 3800@ 2.4ghz.

IMO, lian li cases are under-engineered, overpriced peices of crap. this is my OPINION of course, and id go for something by coolermaster or silverstone anyday over li-li.

the 2gb pc4000 gskill stuff is some good stuff, but overkill if you arent overclocking, which you arent. any 2gb set of ram that does pc3200 will be fine.
 
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Premium http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131540 - 166.99

CPU: AMD64 X2 4400+ http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103546 - 459.00

Memory: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR400 2-3-2-5 http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231034 - 245.00

Video Card: eVGA 7800GTX 256mb 490core 1300mem http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130237 - 489.00

Power Supply: Enermax Liberty 500watt http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817194003 - 109.99

Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16829102188 - 121.99

Hard Drive: WD Caviar 320gb 7200rpm 16mb cache http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822136003 - 140.00


All comes out to $1,731.97 at the moment. Leaves some room for you to add dvd drives and accessories and what you want.
 
I pulled the trigger and got pretty much what you listed there.. only changed the ram to some corsair (there was a combo price reduction with the 4400 chip (saved 30), and went with the GT instead of the GTX. I figure I can get another GT in a few months when they have dropped some more. I also passed on the sound card for now, the onboard sound is good enough for me. I may rethink that down the road.. but as it is, I keep the sound turned down pretty low because of being in an aparment. Also got the NEC 3550a DVD burner. With overnight shipping.. it came to about 1577.
 
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