comments on new build please

S

schnook121

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Aug 19, 2004
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I'm finally taking the big step and am ordering within the week, so i just wanted to run my system by everyone to make sure i'm not doing something stupid.

Case/power supply-
Antec Sonata w/380w TruePower

Processor-
AMD Athlon64 3200+ 90nm

Mobo-
EPoX EP-9NDA3+ nForce3 Ultra socket 939

RAM-
2x512mb Kingston HyperX if i can find someone else to order the second stick for me
or
2x512mb Corsair CAS 2.5 ValueRAM

Video-
some nVidia 6800gt, not sure which brand yet

Soundcard-
Crative Labs Audigy2 ZS

HDD-
Seagate 200gb 7200.7 ATA100

Optical-
NEC 3500A 16x DVD+-RW
Artec 16x DVD-ROM

Speakers-
Logitech z-5300 5.1 THX

NIC-
Linksys Ultra-G WIFI card

I need suggestions on a heatsink/fan combo for my CPU - i don't wanna spend more than about $30 on it
The machine will be used mostly for gaming, schoolwork, and web-surfing. My budget is at about $1300
Thanks for comments in advace, Sam
 
I would go with a sata drive. Good ones are faster, quieter, and not that much more expensive than the pata counterparts. Also, they're more future-proof.

I would also look at something a little better than Corsair's value select. Getting something that will run CAS 2 is ideal if you can't swing the Kingston stuff.

Have you read several reviews of that Epox board? I usually only entrust my procs. to an Asus or Abit....
 
The Bryophyte said:
I would go with a sata drive. Good ones are faster, quieter, and not that much more expensive than the pata counterparts. Also, they're more future-proof.

I would also look at something a little better than Corsair's value select. Getting something that will run CAS 2 is ideal if you can't swing the Kingston stuff.

Have you read several reviews of that Epox board? I usually only entrust my procs. to an Asus or Abit....
Click to expand...

I second that opinion. The SATA drives are pretty damn good, and at least if you have one you are future proof.
I would get the Kingston RAM too, they are considerably better than Corsair offerings in terms of getting good performance and stability.
Finally, I recommend the ASUS boards too, although I have heard people talking about good reviews of the Epox boards.
As for the brand for the vid card, well check out the reviews at [H]ardocp and the Vid card forums here. You can get some p[retty good ideas from that.
Finally, the Thermaltake Fan/cooling systems are pretty good value and performance for money.
 
I know Asus boards are good, but the only 939 Asusn board is the A8V, based on the Via chipset, while theis EPoX is based on the Nforce 3 Ultra. I'll think about SATA, but the reviews i've seen show no difference between ATA100 and SATA150 unless you are using a WD Raptor or the new Maxtor Maxline III, bith of which are far too expensive for my budget. Thanks for the comments!
 
I'm going to agree with renegade that a bigger power supply might be in order, at least over 400 watts IMHO.
 
You don't need a bigger power supply to run that. People always use power supplies with ridiculous wattages for no reason. I have a friend running almost that exact system (with the exception of an ATI 9800xt vid card) on a 300 watt psu and he has had no problems whatsoever with it. I believe he is also running 3 case fans....
 
The new beefy video cards need good juice to run properly. BFG suggests like 450W or something.
 
If you look http://www.bfgtech.com/6800GTOC.html , you will notice that even BFG's pre-overclocked video card only requires a 300W power supply. Their highest card, which is out of the league of the system being discussed in this thread, says that it requires a 480W psu for some reason.

So in summary, he doesn't need a bigger psu unless he wants to spend ridiculous money on a card that probably sucks so much power due to poor design.
 
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