New gaming Computer - Im going to be poor

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hfusion

Weaksauce
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Feb 23, 2004
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This is the computer im thinking about buying for my new gaming machine. Does anyone see anything wrong with this setup or changes that should be made?

i am buying the raptor to install windows on, and then the rest is going to be for storage.

1. Lian Li Black Mid-Tower Case, Model "PC-78B USB" -RETAIL
2. Lite-On Black DVD-Dual Drive, Model LDW-811S/LDW-851S, OEM
3. NEC 1.44MB Black Internal Floppy Drive, OEM
4. Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD800JD, OEM Drive Only
5. Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD360GD
6. Logitech Elite Keyboard USB/ PS/2 104keys -RETAIL
7. Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail
8. ASUS "SK8N" nForce3 Pro150 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 940 CPU -RETAIL
9. Razer Viper Mouse USB -RETAIL
10. Fortron 550W EPS12V PSU, Supports Dual Xeon CPU, Model "FSP550-60PLN" -OEM
11. AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail
12. ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card, 256MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -RETAIL

One of my friends told me i should upgrade the processor to a 3400+, but i dont see that as even close to possible because its like 400 dollars. I already have a monitor, and i already have speakers, so i dont need to buy them.

Does this rig look like it will stand up to the bad boy games coming out?


Total Price: 1,461.24
 
4. Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD800JD, OEM Drive Only = :(

get a bigger hard drive, like a 120gb or even a 200gb

you will fill up an 80gb fast


http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=760873

check out that thread for some sweet deals on hard drives, get one of those 200gb ones for $100 :)
 
I forgot to mention, my budget is around 1500.

Im going to change the hard drive to this:


Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD1200JD, OEM Drive Only
 
i am buying the raptor to install windows on, and then the rest is going to be for storage.
Click to expand...

Maybe just get two 7200 RPM drives instead of the raptor and run Raid 0?
 
8. ASUS "SK8N" nForce3 Pro150 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 940 CPU -RETAIL

11. AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail
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Yeah, you have picked an Athlon 64 (754 pin ) CPU and an Nforce 3 150 (940 pin MB), they will not work together. Since it sounds like you're going with a 754 pin CPU, I would get one of the newer chipsets like KT800 Pro or NForce 3 250 on the motherboard.
 
CIWS said:
Yeah, you have picked an Athlon 64 (754 pin ) CPU and an Nforce 3 150 (940 pin MB), they will not work together. Since it sounds like you're going with a 754 pin CPU, I would get one of the newer chipsets like KT800 Pro or NForce 3 250 on the motherboard.
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wow, im glad you pointed that out. Processors have been changing so fast in the past few weeks ive been losing track. I wasnt aware the AMD 64's had gone through that change.

I will definitely upgrade the mobo then to match my processor.

Would running raid 0 be faster overall? Or would it be about the same and i would garner more room for storage?
 
Yup, get a Nforce3 250GB Motherboard for socket 754. (By the way AMD just released the Socket 939 CPUs but since your budget is 1500$us , forget about it eheh)

2x7.2k rpm HD raid 0 vs 1 36GB 10k rpm HD is pretty similar but I think the 36Gb would be a little faster. I'm not sure if you could tell the difference in real life
 
Please consider a nicer Power Supply. The one you have there is fairly cheap sounding.

Antec TRUEPower's are my personal favorites. This power supply is a GREAT one and it's not extremely expensive. Trust me you won't overload it with your stuff. If you insist on 550watts though, look at this one here. It's a little bit more than I would pay for a PS but if you demand high quality extremely high wattage, it's the one for you.
 
In all honesty, you're not going to notice a huge difference in gaming using raid 0. The maps might load a second faster, but is it worth it?

That raptor is a nice HD, but damn are those expensive. If you were looking to save money now, you can just use like a 60GB SATA drive which will be close to the same performance and a lot cheaper, and then you might be able to use some of that money for a larger storage HD (250 GB or so).

Good choices on the case (i have lian-li pc-69B), psu (your probably gonna need the extra power) and RAM (I have corsair xms and love what it does for my system), but if you intend on overclocking, you may want to consider getting pc3500 ram for just a little more headroom (and only a small price difference).
 
elation said:
Maybe just get two 7200 RPM drives instead of the raptor and run Raid 0?
Click to expand...

He is correct , in fact the "baby raptor" will not out perform two 7200's in raid 0 in real world performance since it is opptimized for enterprise applications. A single 74 gig raptor will but not the 36. I would run two 80's or 120's in a raid 0.
 
Razer Viper Mouse USB? if you have never used a razer mouse before i would sugest going with something like an MX510, they take alot to get use to and some people really hate them. also i would sugest some higher end headphones if you are into any FPS games.
 
If you want a better long term investment save some money and get an x800xt or 6800 ultra instead of the 9800pro. The 9800 pro can handle games right now, but you may see better performance on newer games with a higher end card.
 
there is always going to be somthing to wait for or something to upgrade to. its really not worth it. if you feel its time to upgrade and get what ever is in your price range.
 
Ok, i am definitely keeping the razer mouse because i love them. I used the ball mouse version for a long time and I thought it was magnificent. From what ive read, Ill love this one just as much as the old one.

I am not going to be overclocking at all, frankly, im a poor college student and cant afford the risks. ive been working my ass off to buy this computer =P I am going to stick with the 3200 ram, 1gig of that is more than enough for me. If Half-Life 2 or Doom 3 need faster RAM than that, im screwed then :eek:

As for the x800, I dont foresee a price drop in the near future, and I dont wanna wait for a year until it gets to a semi-affordable price. Right now, just that videocard is a third of the cost of this computer. Unless you know a secret and the priec is going to drop, i dont see me being able to purchase it, as much as i would like too.

I have decided i will use raid0 instead of buying the raptor, this way i get more storage and good speed.

Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD1200JD, OEM Drive Only
I am going to get two of those instead.


ASUS "K8V SE Deluxe" K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL

I did a little research, and this motherboard seems to be very good and has gotten some good reviews. Anyone correct me if im wrong?

And finally, ive got kick ass speakers,headphones, and a soundcard, so im not worried about that stuff.
 
hfusion said:
I have decided i will use raid0 instead of buying the raptor, this way i get more storage and good speed.

Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD1200JD, OEM Drive Only
I am going to get two of those instead.
Click to expand...

Are you willing to lose all your data when one of those 120gb hard drives fail? The advantages of Raid0 when it comes to gaming is so small that it is rarely worth the increased risk. I actually liked your original plan with a 36gb Raptor and another IDE HD for more storage. I really don't see why you would need 240gb anyway. I know that games are getting larger in size but 240gb is still tons of space.
 
aug1516 said:
Are you willing to lose all your data when one of those 120gb hard drives fail? The advantages of Raid0 when it comes to gaming is so small that it is rarely worth the increased risk. I actually liked your original plan with a 36gb Raptor and another IDE HD for more storage. I really don't see why you would need 240gb anyway. I know that games are getting larger in size but 240gb is still tons of space.
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Yeah, ive been thinking the same thing, i do value data integrity and security. I am still undecided. I think installing my OS on the raptor, and anything else that will be running all the time, on the raptor as well. Then ill just get 1 120gb drive for my storage. I only have 40 gigs of storage now and its working just fine for me.
 
hfusion said:
Yeah, ive been thinking the same thing, i do value data integrity and security. I am still undecided. I think installing my OS on the raptor, and anything else that will be running all the time, on the raptor as well. Then ill just get 1 120gb drive for my storage. I only have 40 gigs of storage now and its working just fine for me.
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That is a very common setup around here. You get a nice fast smaller drive (Raptor, 15k SCSI, etc) and store the OS and frequently used apps/games on it. Other apps/games/mp3's etc get stored on the larger IDE drive.
 
aug1516 said:
Are you willing to lose all your data when one of those 120gb hard drives fail? The advantages of Raid0 when it comes to gaming is so small that it is rarely worth the increased risk. I actually liked your original plan with a 36gb Raptor and another IDE HD for more storage. I really don't see why you would need 240gb anyway. I know that games are getting larger in size but 240gb is still tons of space.
Click to expand...


You have a point howerver if he is like most of us and does a disc image or other backups then he will benefit from the raid 0. I have done raid and non raid and once you go raid and go non raid you realy see a significant slow down. Raid 0 gives your rig a very crisp feel , load times are cut dramitcaly and you get spoiled once you have it While the 120 x2 is alot of storage there is another benifit. High data density and the resulting performance delta. I run 80 x 2 7k250's and will never use all of my space but i dont care.

It is important to note that he said gaming rig. The inference would be alot of gaming ,, some internet and what personal files he may create. I trust that an occasion cd burn could handle his back up needs.
 
jacuzz1 said:
You have a point howerver if he is like most of us and does a disc image or other backups then he will benefit from the raid 0. I have done raid and non raid and once you go raid and go non raid you realy see a significant slow down. Raid 0 gives your rig a very crisp feel , load times are cut dramitcaly and you get spoiled once you have it While the 120 x2 is alot of storage there is another benifit. High data density and the resulting performance delta. I run 80 x 2 7k250's and will never use all of my space but i dont care.

It is important to note that he said gaming rig. The inference would be alot of gaming ,, some internet and what personal files he may create. I trust that an occasion cd burn could handle his back up needs.
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By gaming rig, i dont mean the onyl thing i use it for is games. I just want it to be powerful for the next generation of games.

I am a programmer, internet hobbyist, and computer nerd extraordinaire. I know that if i build a powerful gaming machine, it can definitely do whatever i want it to do, hence "gaming machine." I do have alot of important stuff on my drives. I got it configured exactly how i like it and all my personal stuff.
 
If that is the case then go raid 1 with the two drives. Performance will be a little less but you wil have data redundancy
 
jacuzz1 said:
If that is the case then go raid 1 with the two drives. Performance will be a little less but you wil have data redundancy
Click to expand...

Doesnt Raid 1 take two drives and make it one?

Like, if i had two 120 gig drives, i would have a total of 120 gigs because its mirrored to the other drive? If so....thats not even in the picture. Its not even in the ballpark. Its not even....i forgot about it already, what was i discussing?
 
RAID 0 is not really RAID anyway (cause of lack of redundancy). RAID 0 uses two drives and stripes the data across both drives. This will result in faster data transfer speeds (good for stuff like loading huge files), but if one drive in the array goes, all your data is toast.

RAID 1 is mirroring, making one drive mirror another drive. So if you have 2 80 gig drives in RAID 1, you only have about 80 gigs to use (the other 80 will just mirror the other one). If one drive in the array goes, your data is still safe because the other drive will have the data on it and take over.

While I agree that the Radeon 9800 will hold up today, future games it might not perform so well in if you like to game with AA, AF, and high resolutions. For those, you'll really need the Geforce 6800 or Radeon X800 series because they both blow the 9800s out of the water in terms of performance. However, if you turn down settings and resolution, I don't see why the Radeon 9800 won't give you decent performance.

Also, just a thought, if you're not OCing, why spend extra on performance RAM? Sure, you get some better memory timings, but it's only a few percentage points worth of performance (if that).

@kido1986, Fortron is a great PSU maker. They rank up there in the consumer PSU market with Enermax, Antec, and such; they're also contracted by PC Power and Cooling to make their power supplies. I use Antec TruePower myself, but the Forton choice is not bad. Just stay away from the crap like Allied and Deer.
 
Ok, you just scared me now bro. Do game devs really expect us gamers to drop 400+ dollars on a new video card? If so, im fucked. I aint gonna be playin any games on full graphics for a long time then. If the only cards that can play next gen games on high graphics are the x800, im quitting games. Stat. Too freaking expenisve.
 
hfusion said:
Ok, you just scared me now bro. Do game devs really expect us gamers to drop 400+ dollars on a new video card? If so, im fucked. I aint gonna be playin any games on full graphics for a long time then. If the only cards that can play next gen games on high graphics are the x800, im quitting games. Stat. Too freaking expenisve.
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It's all relative..I still use my GF4 4200, that I've had for nearly 2 years, and it seems to play all the new games with at least medium settings. While my 4200 may not be a speed demon, it kicks ass for what it does, and even though it will most likely be replaced with a 6800 variant in the upcoming months, it will serve as an awesome hand-me-down in my back-up rig.
 
Flipside said:
It's all relative..I still use my GF4 4200, that I've had for nearly 2 years, and it seems to play all the new games with at least medium settings. While my 4200 may not be a speed demon, it kicks ass for what it does, and even though it will most likely be replaced with a 6800 variant in the upcoming months, it will serve as an awesome hand-me-down in my back-up rig.
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My Integrated can play quite a few of the newer games @ a low setting, nothing pretty, but it gets the job done...

And that system looks wonderful, better than mine. You should be happy with it.
 
I still have my 9500 pro and it does pretty well. Some peoples perceptions of "good performance" is higher than others :)


If you wanna skimp on a video card for now, check the forums or ::gasp:: ebay.

You can get a ti4600 or a 9700 pro fairly cheap.


danny
 
Heh, if it's a Ti4600 you're looking for, I got one for ya ;)

I agree with most of the suggestions posted. If you're not oc'ing, forget the RAM idea.

I really don't quite see why you need any RAID setup. I find I have great data integrity by using a single smaller drive (60 GB) for my OS and programs that can be reformmated w/o losing any of the data I have stored on my other 3 HD's (80 +120 +120). If you do feel like you need RAID, why not go with two smaller drives like 40 GB x 2 and still have another for storage, rather than put all your money into 200 GB x 2 and still have the possibility of total data loss?

On the vid card, it's so hard to see what's going to be cheaper or even available in the next few weeks that you might just want to wait.

Good luck on the system.
 
I suggested the raid as a Raptor alternative. But honestly the new 7200 SATA drives are nothing to sneeze at. Some of these guys are suggesting getting a single drive and saving some cash. Might be something to think about.
 
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