Here is my problem ...

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Building New Comp

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 26, 2005
Messages
72
I am building a new computer because broadband is becoming available and I want to get it and play online gaming. I also want to try high-end games like HL2 and Doom 3.

I am Australian and have about $1300 AUS (let's say $1000 US) to spend. So far I have pretty much decided on my CPU, HDD, Graphics Card and Mobo (maybe the heatsink too).

Although this will be my first PC build, I also want to do some O/Cing as well.

Here are the parts so far -

Athlon 64 3500+ (clawhammer core)
250GB Deckstar Hardrive
ATI x800xL PCI-E x16 (256mb cache)
DFI Lan Party UltraD (non-SLI but if I want to go SLI later I will just mod)
- Also possibly the Zalman Copper Heatsink

1) Is the comp looking ok so far?
2)any suggestions for case, PSU and ram (keeping in mind I want to O/C so I want good ram.

Thanks ^_^
 
Look sdecent thus far.

I'm unsure of that hdd, I had bad experiences with deskstr hdds (of course I had the infamous "deathstar" run, when IBM made them).

As far as the case, thats really up to you, you must decide how you want it to look and flow. PSU, make sure its a high quality PSU (Antec, PC P&C, etc) of 400watts or more. As far as ram, Kingston HyperX and Corsair are good choices, but try to get atleaset 1 gig (if not more).
 
That's a great computer and will run all the games fine. Just curious though... how the heck did you get it to come out to $1000 USD ??
 
if you want it to be fast loading games etc. get a 74gb 10k rpm raptor for your main hard drive.
 
I'd get 1GB of some variety of TCCD RAM. Some of the good stuff runs both 2-2-2 at 200mhz and 3-4-4 at 300mhz :).
 
Thanks for all your help so far - But what did you mean by that comment about how it will cost $1000? Is it too expensive? Am I getting ripped off?
 
Building New Comp said:
Thanks for all your help so far - But what did you mean by that comment about how it will cost $1000? Is it too expensive? Am I getting ripped off?
Click to expand...

No my man! Quite the opposite! Can you list prices for each part?
 
If you intend to overclock, the 3000+ or 3200+ is a far better value-- save ~$100 and overclock above and beyond a 3500+. You can snag a Thermaltake Silent Boost or Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu to help out and keep the machine quiet.

You do NOT need fancy RAM to overclock an Athlon 64, contrary to popular belief-- you just need RAM that is DDR400/PC3200 and to lock down your divisor, so that when your CPU clock rises, your RAM clock doesn't go past 400 MHz. Latencies make nearly 0 difference for the money you pay, and low-latency is RAM is rarely worth what it costs you (usually 250% as much $$, 2-3% performance boost.) And it does basically no good in games to have lower latencies.

For a hard disk, I'd opt for a Seagate 7200 RPM Disk as they are quieter, emit less heat and have a better reliability record than Deskstars. Raptors are not fast enough to really justify their price tag, and emit a lot of heat and an irritating whining noise. They make very little difference loading games, they're better suited to rapid-seeking operations like those in video editing tasks.

Also, if you want to use SLI, get an SLI board. DFI is fixing their boards now to no longer let you hack your way to SLI support without the nF4-SLI chipset. Be warned!

For a power supply, grab an Antec True430 or Enermax Noisetaker 420 supply.
 
Hey man, fellow Aussie here.

Check my system out, it cost me just over $1000AUD so you should be able to get that system for about your budget, maybe a bit more. I would probably get a slower processor, like a 3200+ or 3400+, leaving more to spend on your video card and RAM. For RAM, I would go for the Corsair XMS RAM, if you can afford it go for 1024MB. If your budget is streched a bit, just use generic RAM as it does a pretty good job normally.
I would get a different hard drive, somthing like a Western Digital 200GB drive, they have great performance especially with the 8MB cache.
Now, the video card. Be prepared to spend a lot of money on it, video card prices are not user-friendly in Australia. You would be looking at upwards of $800AUD for something like the card you want, possibly more depending on who you get it through.

As for case, get somthing like an Antec case with at least 400W of power. They make good PSUs and you will probably need it for that rig. Their cases are good looking and sturdy too, and worth a look.

Thats a great system you've laid out there, and you should be able to afford most of it. If your budget can stretch out a bit further, you could definatly get it. :)
 
4keatimj said:
For RAM, I would go for the Corsair XMS RAM, if you can afford it go for 1024MB. If your budget is streched a bit, just use generic RAM as it does a pretty good job normally.
Click to expand...

Fancy gimmick RAM like Corsair XMS does almost nothing for performance, yet more than doubles the cost of the RAM. He should buy Corsair Value Select or Kingston ValueRAM DDR400/PC3200 (2 512 MB sticks for Dual Channel memory mode to function). He'll pay about $100 for the RAM instead of $250 or more, and can pour that money into getting more RAM ( a far better investment ), another 300GB of storage, or a better video card .. while seeing the same RAM performance he would have had with the Gimmick RAM, unless 2% slower in a RAM-Only benchmark means something to him.
 
Epicenter said:
Fancy gimmick RAM like Corsair XMS does almost nothing for performance, yet more than doubles the cost of the RAM. He should buy Corsair Value Select or Kingston ValueRAM DDR400/PC3200 (2 512 MB sticks for Dual Channel memory mode to function). He'll pay about $100 for the RAM instead of $250 or more, and can pour that money into getting more RAM ( a far better investment ), another 300GB of storage, or a better video card .. while seeing the same RAM performance he would have had with the Gimmick RAM, unless 2% slower in a RAM-Only benchmark means something to him.
Click to expand...
True, and he could always spend the money he saved on the vid card, but I still reckon the XMS is great stuff. Why? Well from my experience low latency RAM does make a difference, I know on my old computer tight timings made quite a difference to the performance of the machine (2-2-2 I think it was). I don't know if this is still the case now, but I still reckon tight timings are important. Unless of course, if the RAM is too expensive I would agree with it being gimmick RAM, but I can get the XMS for only about $70AUD extra over generic RAM (512MB in both cases). Which is, in my books a decent investment. The only reason I don't have it is beacause I can't really afford that at the moment... but given time, I am considering upgrading my RAM.

*runs for cover*
 
Tight timings only make a small difference, benchmarks prove it, and the fact that it TAKES benchmarks to show the tiny improvement FURTHER proves it. Save the money and take up your video card that will increase gaming performance by up to 30% going from say, a 6600GT to a 6800GT that translates to higher framerates or running your favorite games at 2x higher resolutions, instead of 3% RAM-only performance you won't notice on gimmicky RAM.
 
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