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Building a Gaming PC

P

Pman7890

n00b
Joined
Apr 14, 2004
Messages
4
Hey all, I'mg a n00b and I'm building a new gaming PC. I would love to hear your input.


Specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Processor Retail

Shuttle AN50R nForce3 150 Athlon 64 Skt754 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail

Corsair VS1GBKIT400C3 1GB Kit DDR400 PC3200 CAS3 Value Select Memory Retail

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card Retail

ATI Radeon 9800 PRO AGP 8X 128MB DDR Video Card Retail

Western Digital Caviar WD1200BB 120GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive

Sony DDU1612/DDU1621 16X IDE DVD w/Power DVD 4.0 Software (Black)

Sony CRX320EBK DVD 16x + CD-RW 52x24x52 Combo Drive w/Software (Black)
<or> (cost difference is a matter of dollars)
Liteon SOHC-5232K DVD-ROM 16x + CD-RW 52x32x52 Combo Drive Retail

Sony FD MPF9201121-1/MPF920-Z (Z/121) 6082 1.44MB 3.5in Floppy Disk Drive (Black)

Logitech Cordless MX Duo Elite Keyboard w/MX700 Optical Mouse Combo Retail

Chenming 601AE-AL Aluminum Entry Level Server Case (Black) Retail

(I already have a monitor)


This is a made for gaming PC. I don't have enough money to buy one of these new fang-dangled 256mb video cards, and I think I'll wait until they're necesary to utilize the gaming experience. With the DVD + CD/RW drive, I've heard that Liteon is the best brand for burning (32x). It's only $3 more expensive than the Sony burner (24x). Which one would be better? My budget is about $1400-$1600.

So please tell me if all of the stuff I have above is appropriate for gaming. If it isn't, I would love your input.

Thanks!
 
my lighton runs fine.

id go with the 3200+ and get better ram+ an asus k8v(kt800 which is better performing. i dont think you need a zs, an venela aduigy 2 should work. apart from that it works grate
 
ditch the floppy
and ditch one cd drive... you dont need both.

other than that, looks good.


i mean honestly, who uses a floppy these days?

borrow a usb floppy if you need to use one... and give it back to the person you borrowed it from....


<-- bought a usb floppy for use with all the computer i have... none of my systems have one installed (waste of space)
 
I'd take a hard drive with an 8MB buffer from a different manufacturer myself (Samsung or Seagate). If you insist on Western Digital, the 1200JB is a faster drive in comparison with the 1200BB you spec'ed and the warranty is three years.
So for the additional $7.50 you triple the warranty period and add 6MB additional cache - it's more than worth it.

The A2 ZS is unecessary unless you have a good set of 7.1 speakers (no good set is made outside of the $450 GigaWorks set) and the normal A2 is less expensive.
There is almost no advantage to 7.1 over 6.1 anyway, and any differences in SNR you will not be hearing.

So I suggest buying a normal Audigy 2 like the village treky said, and using the money to upgrade your hard drive to an 8MB cache model with a three year warranty.
Lower latency RAM would be a good idea as well if you can afford it.

edit:
i mean honestly, who uses a floppy these days?
Click to expand...
Someone with a mass storage controller and doesn't know how to slipstream the drivers onto an install CD. The Windows XP integrated stock SCSI and IDE/SATA RAID drivers are old and crappy.

Besides, floppies are still handy if not invaluable for BIOS flashes, memtest86 and operating systems where USB and CD-ROM support is poor or optional.
 
alright thank you very much. I updated the motherboard to an Asus for the same price and specs, and I also updated the hard drive. Why would you prefer seagate or samsung though? Also, what specifies it has being lower latency ram? Thanks.
 
or for the memory thing, what would be the best corsair (i hear it's the best for gaming so I guess that's the brand I want) 1GB deal for $300 or less? Thanks
 
Originally posted by Pman7890
or for the memory thing, what would be the best corsair (i hear it's the best for gaming so I guess that's the brand I want) 1GB deal for $300 or less? Thanks
Click to expand...

The Mushkin PC3200 lvl 1 is better then the Corsair XMS CAS2. The Mushkin will run very low latency and hold it even overclocked. I'm running it in my P4 rig.
 
Originally posted by leukotriene
Someone with a mass storage controller and doesn't know how to slipstream the drivers onto an install CD. The Windows XP integrated stock SCSI and IDE/SATA RAID drivers are old and crappy.
Click to expand...

I've never found a way to Slipstream my RAID drivers into XP. Care to give a link that actually works? No where can I find anyone saying it actually works.
 
Originally posted by GSRwBOOST
i mean honestly, who uses a floppy these days?
Click to expand...

Um me and probably half the people on HardOCP do, thats who. A floppy drive is one of the most inexpensive pieces of hardware you will ever buy. And floppys can be used over and over again and rarely ever wear out. Their easy to erase and great for storing small files on such as drivers or saved documents.

Sure you can use a CD Burner and have to burn on a whole 700MB CD every time you need to burn a 50KB file but who really wants to do that. Plus CDRW media is shit IMO. I've had nothing but bad luck with it and it rarely works correctly which causes me to routinely lose valuable data because my burner seems to no longer read the media.
 
re: floppy

$10 for a floppy won't break the bank considering the top dollar
spent already building a high end system. --> hehe <--

And when you do need it and don't have one, then .. anger ..

:)
 
Originally posted by burningrave101
Um me and probably half the people on HardOCP do, thats who. A floppy drive is one of the most inexpensive pieces of hardware you will ever buy. And floppys can be used over and over again and rarely ever wear out. Their easy to erase and great for storing small files on such as drivers or saved documents.
Click to expand...
they fail at a truly appalling rate though.

I usually yank a floppy drive from one of the old computers we're throwing out at work...it's worth having a floppy drive on your system, but it's not worth paying for it:p
 
Why would you prefer seagate or samsung though?
Click to expand...
I'd probably look at the new 200GB Seagate 7200.7 model myself, but that might be a bit too expensive for you. The 1200JB is a good drive.

I've never found a way to Slipstream my RAID drivers into XP. Care to give a link that actually works? No where can I find anyone saying it actually works.
Click to expand...
Check out this post, specifically regarding the Silicon Image 3114 driver placement.
I haven't tried it yet, since I have a floppy ;)
 
Originally posted by burningrave101
The Mushkin PC3200 lvl 1 is better then the Corsair XMS CAS2. The Mushkin will run very low latency and hold it even overclocked. I'm running it in my P4 rig.
Click to expand...

Well I'm glad that I've started a heated floppy drive argument :D , but I still need to know which RAM is best for gaming. Just tell me this: what is the best ram for gaming that I can get for $300 or less?

Here's the motherboard incase that's a factor:

Asus K8V SE Deluxe Via K8T800 AMD Athlon 64 Skt754 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240326

Thanks.
 
Setup looks pretty good except for a couple of things:

One: Instead of the WD1200BB, get the WD1200JB. JB model has the 8mb cache, which makes it a faster drive.

Two: If you can afford it, get a 9800XT instead of a 9800 Pro, or wait for the nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra to come out in mid May (or wait a little longer for ATi's R420 cards to come out.

Also, I'd recommend the Liteon, just because they have a pretty good track record.

P.S. You forgot speakers, an essential item! ;)
 
Well there's not really such thing as "best RAM for gaming". The lower the timings are the better the gaming performance will be though. Mushkin is the best so if your wanting the best for gaming purposes then you should get the Mushkin lvl 1 which will run 2-3-2-5 very easily.

Also for a video card i would recommend a nVidia 5900XT. It will save you some money so you can put that toward grabbing one of the new cards later on when they come out and a 5900XT will overclock like mad. It should have no problem outperforming a 9800 pro if you get a good overclock as alot of people have been getting the core speeds faster then the 5950. The card costs well under $200 for several of them and nVidia cards actually have something worth calling a "software bundle" instead of a driver disk and manual from ATi :p.

I got Raven Shield, Arx Fatalis, and Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness with mine. Along with PowerDVD and some other stuff.

I believe the MSI version comes with like Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and a couple other games.
 
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