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Input on an AMD build

D

dianne

n00b
Joined
Mar 15, 2008
Messages
19
Alright, so the time is coming to build a new computer. I am aiming to spend about 1,500 on parts, although I plan on saving up to about 2,500 "just in case" :p I'll probably actually buy the parts in about two or three months, depending on when I have that much saved. Knowing me it could be five months, but now I'm just rambling.

The reason I'm going for an AMD build is because a.) I'm kinda sick of intel, and b.) I always root for the underdog (gotta support them!).

I want input on this because I've been going over this for a while now, and it's just frustrating me.

So here is the setup, links to the parts on Newegg (not necessarily where I will buy them, I apparently have a hookup at work and might be able to get some cheaper through them), and the reason I chose that part if it's significant.


Lets start with the case:
Antec 900. The reason I chose this case is mostly because of the freaking fans. I could care less if they light up or whatever, but my current computer OVERHEATS all the time because of lack of cooling (it's an old emachine case, the parts inside are mine though). I was going to get a really cheap case (it would have been great for a positive pressure setup), but apparently it became discontinued last month. :/ (blah blah I tend to go on a bit sorry!)

ASUS M2N32-SLI (deluxe). I wanted something that was SLI compatible. I would have gone with a Phenom setup if I could find some of their SLI motherboards around (apparently MSI has one or something?) and if the timing issue wasn't so craptasticly worrying.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+. I have been bouncing back and forth between this and the BE. I probably won't bother overclocking though, so this one looks like a cheaper choice (as I don't have to buy a heatsink/fan).

(TWO) BFG Tech GeForce 8800 GT. This is the biggest thing I am unsure about. I would love (love) to get two PaLIT 8800 GTS cards, but this is one area I'd use some of that extra money to throw at. Like maybe another 500 bucks if I feel like it (though my boyfriend would kill me. He already thinks 1,500 is expensive for a computer. Hah!)

2 x 2GB (total 4GB) GeIL Evo One DDR2 800. This is the one with the lower latency, and I intend to run it dual channel. Oh and I think it's cute so I probably won't change this. I'm a girl and am allowed to decide things like that.

RAIDMAX Volcano 630W PSU Right, I just want a decent brand with modular cabling. This was just the one I stuck on my wishlist at the time.

Seagate Barracuda I don't know a whole lot about hard drives, and don't care much. I just wanted something with decent space (as I only have a freaking 80GB right now and have to delete games to install games). I don't want something too expensive here, and I don't care much either.

Hanns-G Monitor oh this has decent reviews and is cheap. Another thing I would possibly throw money at though.


Sound system I don't really care that much, it's something I'd upgrade at another point in time (like when we move out of my mom's house. Someday.)

As far as keyboard and mouse go, I'll probably use something generic or spend a bit of extra money on a G15 and G9 (<3 logitech)


If I'm missing parts, it's because Newegg likes to discontinue stuff without notice. Damn them!



So all I'm looking for is a bit of input from someone with a bit more build knowledge than I have. I've been talking to the IT girl at work, and she'll probably have input too.

Oh right, and I hope this is in the right place. It was about as close as I could find to it. If not, oh well. Move it!

The end.
 
If you're sticking with an AMD build the 6400+ will do you fine. No point in getting a 6400+ BE. The retail will be fine.
 
You don't need SLI for a 22 inch monitor... one 8800GT card would be enough. (If you plan on playing games like Crysis, you may want to swap that one 8800GT card out for one G92 8800GTS.) You may also want to switch the motherboard out for one that doesn't support SLI... or one that supports the quad-core Phenoms.

As an alternative to the Antec 900, I offer the Cooler Master RC-590. It has eight 120mm fan slots and costs around $40 less than the 900 case. If you need extra case fans, you can pick up some Yate Loon low-speed or medium speed fans.

Outside of synthetic benchmarks, you won't notice the difference between CL4 and CL5 RAM, so don't spend the extra money on lower latency memory. The A-DATA 4GB DDR2 800 kit will perform just as well as the Geil kit you chose.

Since you're getting 4GB of RAM, make sure that you have a 64-bit OS handy. Vista Home Premium is really all you need, and it's better supported drivers-wise than XP Pro x64.

I'd recommend getting a better power supply, such as the Corsair HX520 or HD620. (Both PSUs are modular.)

(Intel is the better choice right now, but I'll let someone else argue with you over why....)
 
Thanks for the responses :)

About the PSU, I just chose something random that I knew would be enough power. And modular. :D

I was just gonna stick with XP for now, even though it will only utilize what like 3.2 GB or something? It's just that people I know have too many issues getting Vista to run VPN correctly for me to bother with it for now. I was borderline on getting the 64-bit version, and am still on the edge a bit about it. Is it much different as far as running programs and whatev, or will it perform normally besides the extra use of ram?

Anyway the computer is going to be partially (by which I really mean mostly) for playing games, and a bit for work (which is still basically the same thing as gaming).
 
Gaming is the same thing as work? so you play games for a living?

I agree with tirades; definitely get a better PSU than that raidmax.
 
Im curious as to what your occupation is if you dont mind me asking?

Definatly agree with the PSU though, the one i used to used sucked, the one i have now sucks(look in sig), but i was broke when i had to get one.
 
I work for a small game company called Simutronics that is nearby (and use HeroEngine to train new GameMasters from home).

My home computer is really outdated, especially compared to my computer at the office. I'd like to have something better for myself here.

HE is probably going to use more resources than the games I play though.
 
first of all nevermind the people telling you to get a board that doesnt support sli..........fact is the m2n32sli has the best chipset of the bunch. that board (which i have ) has alot of options. id rahter have them and not use them than curse a board i bought that doesnt have enough. the 6400 is a nice chip (i have one as well) the 900 case i really like. if youre willing to get 2 8800gt cards you may as well buy one of the new 9800gx2 cards. seagate would be my drive of choice. the newer 7200.11 32mb drives are really nice. personally id go for a corsair or ocz psu. corsair makes some really nice high quality modular psus that are priced right. my advice about a screen.....go 24 if you can. and dont go cheapo on it. you stare at it alot, so you should get something you wanna stare at that performs well.
 
Video card: I would go with a 9800 GX2 if I knew a bit more about them. Sadly I'm lazy and haven't really looked into them too much (and am not sure if they're worth the monies).


I don't know I'll have to think about this for a while and play around with setups in my head until there's something I like.

I'd also like a recommendation on whether a sound card is a good purchase or not, and maybe a sound system? (I don't really know crap about them).

Also, do the 8800s physx (enabled with drivers) work as well as an actual physx card does?

(my first setup I had configured was with an AM2+ motherboard, the ASUS M3N32 MVP Deluxe, if those numbers are correct :p for some reason I like to change stuff).

I don't want to spend an extreme amount on a monitor, so that's another thing that I could use recommendations on (definitely not my strong point, monitor shopping).
 
The 8 and 9 series do not have PhysX support yet in any drivers, so its hard to say. Though there are precious few titles that even use PhysX, and fewer still that use it for any meaningful physics (rather than making sparkly effects sparkle more realistically ;) ).

It does hurt me a little bit on the insides to see someone willing to drop $550 on a GPU but be stuck with a CPU that is essentially the same as mine from 3 years ago! (Overclocked Opteron 170.) But for gaming at high resolutions the CPU matters very little in most games, so it should be okay.
 
Rogue71 said:
first of all nevermind the people telling you to get a board that doesnt support sli..........fact is the m2n32sli has the best chipset of the bunch. that board (which i have ) has alot of options. id rahter have them and not use them than curse a board i bought that doesnt have enough. the 6400 is a nice chip (i have one as well) the 900 case i really like. if youre willing to get 2 8800gt cards you may as well buy one of the new 9800gx2 cards. seagate would be my drive of choice. the newer 7200.11 32mb drives are really nice. personally id go for a corsair or ocz psu. corsair makes some really nice high quality modular psus that are priced right. my advice about a screen.....go 24 if you can. and dont go cheapo on it. you stare at it alot, so you should get something you wanna stare at that performs well.
Click to expand...

It's one thing to buy a motherboard based on the chipset features, but for a 22 inch monitor, SLI is not needed. At all. With a 24 inch monitor, SLI's a good consideration (while it's virtually a necessity for 27" or larger monitors), but at that resolution, a good, single high-end card (like the 9800-series cards) could also do the trick.

dianne said:
I don't want to spend an extreme amount on a monitor, so that's another thing that I could use recommendations on (definitely not my strong point, monitor shopping).
Click to expand...

I can't make a monitor suggestion. All 22 inch monitors made and sold today use TN panels, which provide low repsonse times at the expense of image quality and accurate color reproduction (in other words, they're good for gaming, but not for Photoshop or graphic design). A LOT of people here consider TN monitors to be garbage, even though many people still buy them. The problem is that the better montiors are either smaller (20"-21") while still around the same prices as the 22" LCDs, or they're larger (24"+) and more expensive (at least $500 for a decent monitor). I've yet to hear of a do-everything, best-bang-for-your-buck non-TN monitor, so I'm not even going to go there.

dianne said:
I'd also like a recommendation on whether a sound card is a good purchase or not, and maybe a sound system? (I don't really know crap about them).
Click to expand...

Onboard sound nowadays has progressed to the point that it's a viable option for most users. Plus, it doesn't provide as much of a resource drain as it had during the past. Try the onboard sound first, and if you don't like it, then consider a sound card.
 
HeroEngine uses PhysX which is the reason I was asking about that. I wasn't even entirely sure that the Nvidia cards had it enabled, but I had read something recently that implied it was, so.. :)

I am not stuck on a monitor size. Honestly I would love to have a larger monitor and don't mind putting more money into it (my boyfriend would kill me if he knew I said that).

The most I want to spend total is probably around $2000. I shouldn't say that because I will, and I'm really going to save up to 3,000 but I have to set myself a limit somewhere (I figure I'll have it in about three months if I'm really strict with myself).

I wasn't sure about a sound card, not like I care, just don't want something that sounds completely craptastic. :D

I suppose I'll have to look into monitors a bit more and figure something out. Another thing is I might potentially want two monitors (as it's way way way easier for work. Here at the office I have two decent sized ones and I go home to my little like 17 inch CRT that we have right now and I just want to pull out my hair!!).
 
Sound quality is subjective, so try out the onboard HD audio first, then decide if you need a soundcard or not, as tiraides suggested.

Are you planning to go with dual 22" monitors?
 
It depends on whether or not I'm going to buy a 22 or a 24 inch monitor.

I've also done a lot of reworking on this since I started the thread, trading out parts for others.

I switched the motherboard for this: GIGABYTE AM2+/AM2

Struggled with video cards for a while and chose this: EVGA 8800GTS (will I need 2 if I have a 24" monitor?)

Swapped out the PSU: CORSAIR 520W


Is it better to have two hard drives? RAID is something I haven't felt like learning about so I don't know a whole lot about it (I know a bit, just nothing that's gonna help me out).

Also, note that because I'm linking Newegg stuff, doesn't mean that I'll necessarily buy through them.
 
SLI doesn't work with multiple montiors. CrossFire supposedly does, but I don't know the details to confirm that. Additionally, SLI only works with NVIDIA cards, while CrossFire works with only AMD/ATI cards.

If you're going to keep the motherboard, consider getting either the HD3870 or the HD3870X2. The HD3870X2 has two HD3870 GPUs on one board and can power a 24" motherboard by itself.

That said, the 8800GTS would work fine (by itself) with a 24" monitor, but it would struggle at high settings with Crysis and Supreme Commander.
 
Right, I know the difference between SLI and CrossFire, but I don't really like ATI. :)

I probably won't be playing Crysis, but I will be using it for games.

I just need to figure out a good monitor I suppose. I should probably go to a store and see what I actually like, and price them online.

These are the ones some people at work use

Both Dell
2208WFP for 250 (22")
2408FPW for 549 (24")
 
If you don't like ATI, don't get a CrossFire-based board. ;)

Crysis is a good gauge for a system... if a system can play Crysis at medium settings, it'll play just about everything else fine.
 
There are only a couple of AM2+ boards with SLI. It wasn't exactly something I was looking for in the GIGABYTE board.

I would use Crysis to gauge my system if I owned a copy, but I'm not going to buy one just for that. God knows it would probably kill the current computer (I have a 6800 GS and a 3.2GHz P4) :p
 
tiraides said:
It's one thing to buy a motherboard based on the chipset features, but for a 22 inch monitor, SLI is not needed. At all. With a 24 inch monitor, SLI's a good consideration (while it's virtually a necessity for 27" or larger monitors), but at that resolution, a good, single high-end card (like the 9800-series cards) could also do the trick.


LOL you dont buy a motherboard based on what size monitor you have.....thats how you gauge your video card purchase.....but if you have a low end board you wont have as many options.
Click to expand...
 
Rogue71 said:
LOL you dont buy a motherboard based on what size monitor you have.....thats how you gauge your video card purchase.....but if you have a low end board you wont have as many options.
Click to expand...

In this case, they kind of go hand in hand.

If the OP isn't considering a 24 inch or larger monitor anytime soon, then SLI is not needed. There are also several single cards that could power a 24 inch monitor by themselves, and most of them would also cost less individually than getting two video cards.

Now if the only "good" boards available are the ones with SLI, that's one thing. But I'm sure there are several non-SLI/CrossFire motherboards available now with the features that the OP wants or needs.
 
Rogue71 said:
LOL you dont buy a motherboard based on what size monitor you have
Click to expand...

No, you base it on your needs. And since your monitor size determines your vidcard needs, your vidcard needs could eliminate some possible motherboard choices, therefore its an indirect basis.

Rogue71 said:
but if you have a low end board you wont have as many options.
Click to expand...

you won't have as many vidcard options? with a low end board you just lose out on SLI/Crossfire in full dual 16x. but as tiraides said, if you don't have a ton of pixels to push, theres no need for an SLI/Crossfire board, but that doesn't mean you need to get a low end board. There are good midrange boards that still offer plenty of features that don't cost an arm and a leg, as do high end SLI/Crossfire boards.
 
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