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Spec check before build

S

Stiletto One

2[H]4U
Joined
May 7, 2002
Messages
3,906
Specs sheet

I'm basically building this on the guy's computer stipend from a (Real Nice) scholarship. The switch and memory key were items he wanted to add on.

This will primarily be a gaming computer; the buyer will be in a dorm environment, hence the inclusion of some nice headphones and emphasis on quiet components.

Suggestions?
 
personally if your going fora processor like that and its for gaming i would expect some reasonable overclocking?


look for a better psu with solid rails

1GB of memory for a gaming PC is essential

2 diff hard drives? I doubt he needs a raptor a 7200 is fine for gaming.... you cant even tell the difference unless he has testosterone issues.
 
lol @ madel on HDD comment, its so true, don't get a raptor stiletto. I agree with madel on the PSU, find a better one, i have seen good reviews of the Vantec ION and the Thermaltake 420w (active PFC), and of course there is always Antec :)

For the Zalman HSF, don't get the pure copper model, it is only 1-2 C better than the AlCu, but more expensiive and like twice the weight.

I've forgotten your other components but i remember the price tag, lol. man that is one expensive computer...
 
first, let me say nice job. it's gonna kick ass.

now, let me state my problem:
you're wasting $135.00 by buying M$ Office 2003

why not just get OpenOffice? It fully integrates w/ M$ files, can save as an M$ file (export to that format), can read/edit M$ files (import), and it even has its own stuff that's above and beyond M$ bullshit (unfortunately, these extras are lost if you export to M$ file format :()

other than that, it all looks great; however, i'm no judge on the headphones / speakers / monitor.
 
I don't know, everything looks pretty damn good to me. I've used fortron in the past and I recommend them. They are really quiet, and the 120mm fan does push alot of air for being so quiet.

I dont know if any sound card is worth $170 though... I would definitely see how the onboard audio is. I've heard real good things about the envy chip from the reviews.

I am also not a big fan of the case, but to each his own :cool:

As far as I'm concerned, two hard drives: MINIMUM (for an enthusiast :) )
 
Originally posted by Benny Blanco
I dont know if any sound card is worth $170 though... I would definitely see how the onboard audio is. I've heard real good things about the envy chip from the reviews.

As far as I'm concerned, two hard drives: MINIMUM (for an enthusiast :) )
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Yeah I was thinking the same thing - make sure he needs all the features that soundcard has. And yes, 2 hard drives MINUMUM.
 
Personally, I don't see why the power supply wouldn't work for that system. It's a 400 watt Fortron. I have a Pentium system with more hard drives/cards/etc. running on a 300w Fortron PSU.

Also, I don't really think this is an overclocking rig like someone said. Athlon 64 chipsets don't even have a PCI/AGP lock (if I remember right???). If nothing else, they simply just don't overclock much.

I wouldn't change a thing. :)
 
no offence to the two newbs posting about the HD but you will definetly notice a difference in a raptor compared to a reg. 7200 RPM. :rolleyes:

i agree with the two above those drives are minimum for sure!!!

BTW: what's the use in a DVD burner AND a CD burner? the DVD burner will burn CDs also :confused: and i just bought a Abit KV8-MAX3 board and i would HIGHLY recommend it for this. it is a great board, great features, and VERY stable. might wanna check it out;)
 
Originally posted by lukeh182
no offence to the two newbs posting about the HD but you will definetly notice a difference in a raptor compared to a reg. 7200 RPM. :rolleyes:

i agree with the two above those drives are minimum for sure!!!

BTW: what's the use in a DVD burner AND a CD burner? the DVD burner will burn CDs also :confused: and i just bought a Abit KV8-MAX3 board and i would HIGHLY recommend it for this. it is a great board, great features, and VERY stable. might wanna check it out;)
Click to expand...
newbs=pwned :p

The use in a DVD and a CD burner (actually it's a combo drive) is that you have a lot more flexibility, not just for burning cd's. For one thing, two cd drives is better than one, because you never know when it'll come in handy, so if you can do it, why not? (ok this is obvious)

Second, the dvd burner burns cd-r's at 40x, which is not really SLOWER than 52x in reality, but it'll at least take the load off the more expensive DVD burner for such menial tasks. (less obvious)

Third, the DVD read speed of the burner is 12x. On the CDRW combo, it's 16x. This, in my experience, makes a noticeable difference when ripping VOB's for dvd backups. (not obvious)
 
OK, going down the list...

Of course it's expensive, over $1000 of the price is peripherals! (Monitor, keyboard/mouse, speakers, headphones, networking stuff, memory key)

On the Audigy Platinum, it's as much for the remote control and front panel as anything else; he said that he might get into audio "stuff", so I figured why not. It fits in the budget.

Overclocking on A64 is pretty sketchy, and the guy's not a Designated Geek anyway; everything will be running tweaked, but probably not overclocked. Lukeh: Yeah, the KV8-MAX3 is a great board, but it's overkill.

Raptor = Boot, 7200.7 = Mass Storage. It's a real nice setup, which I use in as many of my new builds as possible.

Power supply's fine. I see no point in changing it, otherwise I would've picked something else. ;) Certain members of this forum (you know who you are) will probably be laughing at me for using a 400W power supply. Also, Vantec IONs are noisy, and I refuse to buy anything ThermalTake.

So everything looks good?

Oh yeah, Carnival: on OpenOffice, it works, but still not quite seamlessly. It's slow at run-time (enough to bother me, anyway), and some things are still rough around the edges as far as formatting compatibility goes. More importantly, the guy's parents still need to get me the money, and they want normal/standard stuff. Meaning, Microsoft. For fun, here's the Frank vs. Dell comparison. Feel free to use it for "This is why I DO NOT buy OEM!" purposes. :p
 
The only questionable thing actually, is the memory. The timings on that mushkin are not very good. I don't know how much A64 likes low latency, but you might consider kreton. check the user reviews, pretty good stuff it seems.

Also, why don't you get a 160gb S-ATA drive? :confused:
 
It's only $20, but the performance difference between a SATA 7200.7 and PATA 7200.7 doesn't seem worth it to me. So far, the only SATA drives I go out of my way to use are Raptors, because they're the only ones with any noteworth advantage. Also, Seagate's drives require a power adapter, which is that much more hassle. The fewer small parts, the better; it's less to go wrong.

Also, I'd like to leave at least one of each hard drive connection type open, so that he (the user) won't have to worry about which TYPE of hard drive he has to get if he wants to upgrade.

On the RAM, I'll look into it. Historically, Mushkin RAM handles somewhat stricter timings than rated pretty well. Besides, the performance hit from CL2 to CL3 is pretty tiny.
 
Spending all that cash, why not get the radeon xt, doesn't seem like it will break the bank. Or just wait for the 420's to come out. Everything else sounds reeeeaaaaal nice. Sennheiser headphones are da b0mb.......
 
Originally posted by [H]ymae
Spending all that cash, why not get the radeon xt, doesn't seem like it will break the bank.
Click to expand...

but why spend the extra money when you can flash the bios on the pro to an xt;)
 
for all of you guys saying "no" on the fortron source power supply....do u say so b/c you have never heard of the name brand? or is it because you think he will need 550 watts? Fortron source's FSP series is one of the most reliable and quietest PSU's out on the market now. do some research before you write your post.
 
Originally posted by [H]ymae
Spending all that cash, why not get the radeon xt, doesn't seem like it will break the bank. Or just wait for the 420's to come out. Everything else sounds reeeeaaaaal nice. Sennheiser headphones are da b0mb.......
Click to expand...
Same as the SATA drives, really; I could've gone to an XT/256MB card, but the performance difference wasn't worth the money. Also, he wanted some network gear and a memory key. *shrug*

Thanks ST|FFY. :)
 
damn nice setup, the dvd burner, and cd burner doesnt make sense, but it thats what you whant, its fine

but all in all, it looks awsome
 
Originally posted by Stiletto One
I'd like to leave at least one of each hard drive connection type open, so that he (the user) won't have to worry about which TYPE of hard drive he has to get if he wants to upgrade.
Click to expand...
I hear ya, but I doubt he'll ever need to upgrade this sweet machine :cool:

The board has 2 s-ata ports. I'd make use of both of them with the hard drives, and run the 2 optical drives each on their own IDE channel with a single device ATA cable. But that's just me ;)
 
Originally posted by ST|FFY
for all of you guys saying "no" on the fortron source power supply....do u say so b/c you have never heard of the name brand? or is it because you think he will need 550 watts? Fortron source's FSP series is one of the most reliable and quietest PSU's out on the market now. do some research before you write your post.
Click to expand...

What he said. :)
 
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