Mid-higher gaming PC build - critique please

J

j_gets

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Apr 26, 2006
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I'm working on a ground-up system build mainly for gaming and general browsing and such, including display, keyboard and mouse. The only things I have that I'm going to be using are a case, CDRW and CD drive, and a floppy drive for the RAID install. I have a pretty firm budget of $2000, including shipping. Slight fudging is OK to about 5%, or 2100 firm max including shipping.

I'm going for a somewhat high-end SLI system, but will only have one card installed for now. I want to be able to get modest overclocks, but they're not the main goal of the system.


If you have any suggestions for substitutions or for alternative solutions, please let me know.

Pricing from Newegg (excet power supply,) as they seem to be fairly low price on most items


Here's what I have in mind right now:

Display - ViewSonic VX 2025 - $399

MB - Asus A8N32 SLi Deluxe - $209

Processor - Athlon 64 X2 4200 - $357

Ram - 2-2x1gb (4 gb total) G.Skill Extreme DDR 500 - $318

Video - Geforce 7900 GT 256mb - $300

H.S. - Arctic Freezer 64 Pro - $35

Storage - 2x WD Caviar 250 16mb - $180

Power - Hiper Power modular type R 580w - $99

Kb - Rosewill RK50 - $13

Mouse - MS laser mouse OEM - $30


Total: $1940 pre-shipping, ~ $2k with.



The main areas I'm looking for input on are the processor (4200 good, or maybe an opty 165 for a bit less?) the video board (2 7600s in SLi or the 7900 GT, or cut out some money elsewhere and go for the 7900 GTX?) the display (anything better out there for comperable price - I definately want wide screen) and finally the hard disks - I chose the two caviars for their 16 mb buffer and decent speed - would run them in RAID 0. Would I be better off going for a single raptor at a similar price in terms of speed? I want the best performance for the least cash, not too concerned about reliability of RAID 0, have Ghost and know how to use it.




Again, any alternatives or critiques will be welcome.





Thanks,


Josh
 
j_gets said:
I'm working on a ground-up system build mainly for gaming and general browsing and such, including display, keyboard and mouse. The only things I have that I'm going to be using are a case, CDRW and CD drive, and a floppy drive for the RAID install. I have a pretty firm budget of $2000, including shipping. Slight fudging is OK to about 5%, or 2100 firm max including shipping.

I'm going for a somewhat high-end SLI system, but will only have one card installed for now. I want to be able to get modest overclocks, but they're not the main goal of the system.


If you have any suggestions for substitutions or for alternative solutions, please let me know.

Pricing from Newegg (excet power supply,) as they seem to be fairly low price on most items


Here's what I have in mind right now:

Display - ViewSonic VX 2025 - $399

MB - Asus A8N32 SLi Deluxe - $209

Processor - Athlon 64 X2 4200 - $357

Ram - 2-2x1gb (4 gb total) G.Skill Extreme DDR 500 - $318

Video - Geforce 7900 GT 256mb - $300

H.S. - Arctic Freezer 64 Pro - $35

Storage - 2x WD Caviar 250 16mb - $180

Power - Hiper Power modular type R 580w - $99

Kb - Rosewill RK50 - $13

Mouse - MS laser mouse OEM - $30


Total: $1940 pre-shipping, ~ $2k with.




Again, any alternatives or critiques will be welcome.





Thanks,


Josh
Click to expand...

I would get the Asus A8N SLI Premium instead of the a8n32 and get the 3800 instead of the 4200

Use the extra money and get yourself a better graphics card like the 1900xtx or 7900gtx
 
I'm looking down the road a bit - I'm not going to have cash flow to be buying lots of new stuff for at least another year. Any new stuff will likely be limited to a newer video chipset in a year or so. I also like to multitask and run large photoshop files, so I want to keep the hd swaps to a minimum. Is 4 gb overkill? Would I be better off going with 2gb and a better video board? I'm seeing the XFX 7900 GTs overclock pretty well - is the extra $150 to $200 for a GTX worth it?
 
i would say it is.

I would only go 2gbs and spend the money on a better gfx if you dont want to upgrade for a while.
 
At that point then, would I be better with a 165 opty and maybe two 7900 GTs in SLI, or the 4200 with the 7900 GTX?
 
4GB of RAM seems like overkill, and you can drop down the the X2 3800+ and do a light overclock.

Save the money and get this
pimpin monitor :p (although $700 does seem a little over the top...haha I want it though!)
O and $30 for a M$ OEM mouse? Why not spend a few dollars more and get the Logitech MX518 if you are gaming. I prefer the mx518 over the G5 because of the two side buttons which are great for web browsing and another applications.
 
looks nice, but the wife would kill me for buying a $700 monitor when we still have a 20" TV (TV's her thing, computing mine. :) )

I picked that MS mouse because it was the cheapest decent laser mouse I could find.


J
 
Drop the Microsoft POS laser mouse also. Believe me, those things are pieces of garbage compared to the Logitech G5 or Razer Copperhead. Also, 4gb of RAM is overkill for most games and will force you to run slower timings. You may also consider an Opteron 165 or 170 rather than the X2 4200+. They are generally better overclockers and better performers.
 
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