Building a Comp, advice please...

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rayman2k2

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Okay with the Intel Retail bundle being released Monday, I figured I might as well make this thread. I will be using it for Video Editing, 3D work, Gaming, etc. For gaming, I will be playing 2 instances of Star Wars: Galaxies, so I think the Dual Core should help out there. So far here are the specs:

Pentium-D 820
Gigabyte 8-INSLI Royal
BFG 7800GT OC
2GB of Ram
80GB HDD (for boot)
200GB HDD (for storage)
X-Fi (Not sure which one)

Now, here are my questions:
1. What type of Ram should I get?

2. Changes to the motherboard? I don't think SLI is a necessity, as I will be getting a new computer this coming summer for college and I doubt I will be getting another 7800 in the mean time. I am thinking of getting a 955x board, i.e. the 955 board from Gigabyte, Abit or Asus.

3. Any other suggestions? I might even make the Retail bundle an HTPC and get an AMD X2, but will AMD be releasing any cheap (or lowering prices) X2's anytime soon?

4. Will a Raptor do much in my case?

5. Also, budget is kinda vague, I don't wanna spend too much, but would like to ideally spend in the 1300-1500 dollar range.
 
okay I priced out three rigs, said rig above is about 1570, an A64 rig is about the same and an A64 X2 rig is about 1750...

G.Skill ram any good? I just saw Newegg has their DDR2 now...
 
RAM? Go for a solid brand that's cheap, unless you're OCing.

I'd hit the ASUS Intel boards, which I am a big fan of.

What all does the bundle of joy come with again?

Eh, I've always said don't go Raptor. They're fast, but not worth the premium in my mind.
 
GForce64 said:
RAM? Go for a solid brand that's cheap, unless you're OCing.

I'd hit the ASUS Intel boards, which I am a big fan of.

What all does the bundle of joy come with again?

Eh, I've always said don't go Raptor. They're fast, but not worth the premium in my mind.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I will be OCing...

the bundle of joy comes with a p-d 820, microsoft XP - Pro, Premiere Elements (i got the full thing, meh) and an intel mobo (since i'm oc'ing, not to keen on this one)
 
rayman2k2 said:
Okay with the Intel Retail bundle being released Monday, I figured I might as well make this thread. I will be using it for Video Editing, 3D work, Gaming, etc. For gaming, I will be playing 2 instances of Star Wars: Galaxies, so I think the Dual Core should help out there. So far here are the specs:

Pentium-D 820
Gigabyte 8-INSLI Royal
BFG 7800GT OC
2GB of Ram
80GB HDD (for boot)
200GB HDD (for storage)
X-Fi (Not sure which one)
Click to expand...

how much are you getting the retail bundle for? do you need a monitor keyboard mouse and speakers?

i suggest getting a different hard drive for your boot drive, preferably something faster (doesnt necessarily have to be a raptor but it does come to mind, if not there are cheaper alternatives..) if youre going to video edit and do some 3d work you would definately benefit from a raptor. even if you dont, the fast load times in itself makes it worth it IMO.
 
heero884 said:
how much are you getting the retail bundle for? do you need a monitor keyboard mouse and speakers?

i suggest getting a different hard drive for your boot drive, preferably something faster (doesnt necessarily have to be a raptor but it does come to mind, if not there are cheaper alternatives..) if youre going to video edit and do some 3d work you would definately benefit from a raptor. even if you dont, the fast load times in itself makes it worth it IMO.
Click to expand...


the bundle is $215

and no, I do not need a monitor, keyboard, mouse or speakers...
 
since i wont be able to provide much help with your intel setup (your retail bundle is too good to pass up) perhaps i can help you make a decision on the hard drives.

i suggest using 74gb raptor as your boot drive and a 320gb caviar as your storage drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144394

as i said, the raptor is pretty fast and if youre doing hard drive intensive tasks it would definately speed things up and would be worth it. as for the storage drive i would upgrade it to the 320gb caviar unless you were able to pick up the 200gb drive for cheap after rebates.

if the price of the raptor is too steep for you the 160gb 7200.9 would be a great boot drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148105

if you need pretty graphs to convince you on what to get perhaps this review can help..
http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20050927/index.html



if you need a dvd burner the nec 3540 cant be beat
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152047

i think thats about as much help as im "qualified" to give as i havent kept up with the intel side of the fence. good luck with your intel system :cool:
 
one more thing, in my case, will have a Dual-Core see any benefit as compared to a A64 3000+? I'm so used to a single core taht I am not sure what a dualcore would do for me.
 
rayman2k2 said:
one more thing, in my case, will have a Dual-Core see any benefit as compared to a A64 3000+? I'm so used to a single core taht I am not sure what a dualcore would do for me.
Click to expand...

the a64 3000+ will be faster then the intel 820 when it comes to single threaded apps and the benefits of the intel 820 wont become apparant until you run multi-threaded apps or run 2 cpu intensive tasks at the same time (ie running 2 instances of a game at the same time or encoding a video while gaming :eek: ). if you will be doing a lot of 3d rendering and video editting i suggest getting dual core. i havent been recommending people to go intel lately but that retail edge combo is too good to pass up imo.. unless of course you can get a similar combo from amd :D
 
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