Need advice for new PC

G

Gillette

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
1,319
I've got a fat tax return comming this year (Yay!) and I've got quite a bit of money saved up...

Anyway, I've got most of my system planned out, but I still need some advice on certain things.

Current plan:

Case - Antec P180
PSU - Seasonic 600W
CPU - Pentium 4 920D
GPU - 7900GTX (perferably BFG... can't find one though)
HDD - 1x74GB Raptor (Boot/Games), 1x WD 320GB (Storage)
DVD - DVD+/-RW w/ Lightscribe
Cooling - Zalman CNPS 7700-Cu

As you can see I've got no idea what to toss in for a motherboard, RAM, or a sound card...

I was originally planning on an ASUS P5WD2-E motherboard as I wanted to do Crossfire, but it's my opinion that crossfire is more a hassle than it's worth. ATI has made it too hard to tell what cards you need for it, which motherboards support it without a master card, etc... I really like the simplicity of SLI. Thus, I'm looking for an Intel board that supports SLI. I've been out of the loop for a bit, so I couldn't think of any offhand, so I'm very open to suggestions.

As for RAM I was planning on going with 2x 1GB sticks of PC-5400 from Corsair, but again I'm open to suggestions.

Last but not least... I have no idea what to put it for a sound card. A couple months ago I dropped a bill on the card I've got now (M-Audio Revolution 7.1) but I've never gotten around to buying a 7.1 sound system. I do most of my gaming with headphones as I live in an apartment building so I don't really have a need for anything more than 5.1 support. My hearing isn't up to the audiophile standards of the guys that troll over in the Computer Audio forum, and I can safely say that I noticed barely any difference in quality going from my Creative SB Live! 5.1 to my current card (with my Plantronics Audio .90 headset, or my shitty $20 Wal-Mart 2.1 system). That said, my SB Live died about 2 months after I got it, this thing has been trucking away for 5+ months with no issues. I'll be sticking with my current headset, but probably picking up a cheap logitech 5.1 system soon.

Thanks, in advance, for all your help :)

Edit: Oh yes, I'll be buying all of this in the US.
 
Hmmm... Of course no SLI boards will be running on an Intel chipset so nothing that's comming out soon will be supporting the Conroe core when it is released.

That makes me a sad panda... Time to rethink my purchase. I might end up going ATI after all.
 
ive read more complaints on the p180 than anything.. i think it looks neat though.
 
I personally dont like the P180. Its looks nice in pictures but looks and feels cheap in person. I'm sure its a nice case but thats just how I feel about it.

I like the Asus SLI Premium, its not the best overclocking board in the market, but its stable and reliable
 
The A8N Sli Premium is an AMD board, I'm sticking with Intel.

Maybe I'll rethink the P180 purchase. I've never had a chance to play around with one IRL.
 
Bump.

Also, thoughts on AM2? I'm now debating whether or not to wait for the Conroe CPUs, so I would need a board that can support Conroe CPUs as well... If I remember correctly the P5WD2-E Premium does, please correct me if not.
 
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