NYR_32 Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 If I was buying a new case and PSU combo, I'd probably go for this. Antec 1088AMG with 480 watt True Power II Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Ledanek Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 My first build was with this case,different PSU. My rig:mobo is same as WK build using his instructions, and countless Maximpc instructions/tips. My second build (link here in GR.NET) with the SLI rig, took months reading in magazines, on line forums, BB, maximumpc forum (though some ppl there are too immature), hardware anaylysis,pcstat (UK), DFI Forum (google it), nVidia forums and recommended parts. read some of my post so you can see my mistakes and learn from it. newegg zipzoomfly pricegrabber are my sites to see and monitor for prices. cables and floppy drives or any $20 below I mainly support your local retailers. watch out for rebates. I pickup Sunday Sale papers to see what products have rebates---not on what is on sale. If your tighwad like me,I even do pricematch with local resellers--sometimes they take off $5 bucks here and there. On my first build, I went with Antec 1088AMG with 350 PSU so I got plenty of room to work with. Then with AMD due to price mid CPU to whatever my board recommends (see sig)...this way it wont hurt so much if I screwed up. on my SLI build, I copied Falcon-NW specs, took that as my shopping list. I watched pricegrabber like a hawk. I went with my PSU due to price/performance ratio. then I picked my HD/DVD+/-RW/ (on rebates) bought those first. It sat for months coz I could not decide what board to get. DFI had great SLI board,but I could not gather enough support in their forum to help me. Asus SLI had a great group of folks in "sli forum" as you can see its a pretty active BB. i joined in along pages 140 or something.Now its pages 180. Great and mature folks in there. Post your technical questions here coz you got great folks here like WK,=UE=Phantom, Dan, Dannik, CR6, etc who will guide you. Good luck sorry if its long and possibly a double post, I'm one them old farst that sits in VA hospital taking about the good old days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 12, 2005 Author Share Posted July 12, 2005 great post actually CPL, really appreciate hte link too. So how much did you know when you built your first rig and how did you find it? lol sorry if your some huge computer whiz i'm just not sure of you PC background i've found some great guides on putting together a PC the hardest part is always wanting more lmao...I'm so picky as well and i'm all about looks. Another thing today i noticed is really bugging me is like i said before with the ghz numbers, the intels compared to the AMD's. I feel with AMD i'm getting some old sluggish CPU b/c everyones like 'ya i overclocked it to 2.7 ghz" when if i were to buy a intel it would stock be 3.4. I believe it was firefly who said ghz aren't everything which i believe but it just bugs me..(yes i know i'm like that in a way :S) Money wise i'm about halfway to getting to buy my $1100 acoustic, so should get that by the end of the summer. Than the money i make from my 2 jobs will go towards the new PC after the acoustic. I'm hoping to have enough money by March which is when my birthday is too so i should have some money rolling way. In that time i will also have had a Computer Engineering course at school to help out at school, and hours over hours of research. Now to keep working the parents DS22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 (edited) Simply put, AMD gets more done in one clock cycle than Intel, so it doesnt need to have an insane amount of speed to be faster than Intel. Edit - And my case $119 USD... so what ever that is in CDN? Edited July 12, 2005 by Crimson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 12, 2005 Author Share Posted July 12, 2005 119 US is probably just short of $200 canadian. Also i'm about $200 short of what i wanted to spend, i was thinking for that price i could upgrade my CPU to the AMD ATHLON 64 3700+ PROCESSOR S939 SAN DIEGO 2.2GHZ 1MB L2 CACHE 90NM? What do you guys think? (yes i still need to pick a case and depending on a case a PSU and maybe a extra fan or two but if i'm gonna build my own PC its gotta kick ars.e ) DS22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 For a gaming computer, your graphics card should be the center piece, followed by CPU, then memory and mobo. Put the money towards an X800XT if you like ATi, or a 6800GT/Ultra if you prefer nVidia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 if you worried about the PSU, id go with the Ati, they run cooler and suck less juice that the high end nvidias. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 12, 2005 Author Share Posted July 12, 2005 (edited) For a gaming computer, your graphics card should be the center piece, followed by CPU, then memory and mobo. Put the money towards an X800XT if you like ATi, or a 6800GT/Ultra if you prefer nVidia. ← how about the x800 pro? still got great reviews and is an upgrade over what i have listed but saves me about $200 between the XT and the PRO? DS22 EDIT: Crimson, would it be easier and cheaper to get the good cpu now and upgrade my video card later? or get the good video card now and upgrade my cpu later? Edited July 12, 2005 by deadly_sniper22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteKnight77 Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 A good video card and a mid priced CPU are a better buy and preformance than a high dollar CPU and mid range vid card will have. Going with a Socket 939 motherboard will allow for upgrades in the future to something better whn you can afford it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Ledanek Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 A good video card and a mid priced CPU are a better buy and preformance than a high dollar CPU and mid range vid card will have. Going with a Socket 939 motherboard will allow for upgrades in the future to something better whn you can afford it. ← I went with socket 939 SLI MOBO coz of the upgrades, hopefully I went with 2nd to highest Athlon64 CPU the mobo can take(mine: 3800 Venice---under advice from ppl here), bcoz I learned from others experiences, it was harder to replace CPU than a vidcard---price was not in the equation...just wanted to take easy route. If money is not an issue and like cleaning off the Artic Silver off your CPU fan, enjoy. LOL Went with 2 6600 GT versus 1 6800 (or two 6800--but really that would break my bank ) because, every benchmark I read off the internet and ppl's 3DMark had the same result, and sometimes better depending on the game. This are from USA and UK websites...the German and Swed benchmarks are good reference if you can find a good translator, I cheated with the bargraphs Again, I AM NOT the resident tech guru here. Just sharing my journey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 12, 2005 Author Share Posted July 12, 2005 lol um what do you guys think of the mobo i have? Other than that i am pretty confident in the other parts. Once i figure out what the total is for the system i'll see how much i have left for a case and than any extra fans/heatsinks etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Ledanek Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 dfi street forum read, read, read. Register and ask question. Majority of ppl in there are great ppl. Watch out for this one guy, see his avatar, he is in a Kung-Fu pose. Kinding aside he is full of knowlegde and links! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 12, 2005 Author Share Posted July 12, 2005 lmao thx for the link, will join up right away DS22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Not to sure about that particular mobo, but DFI puts out great tweaker boards. However, I ordered the DFI LanParty UT nF4-D. I spent three days trying to get my PC to install WinXP. Different bios's, 1T/2T settings, overclocking, underclocking, adjusting RAM timings, and I could not get the sucker to work. I'm on an EPoX nF4 Ultra board and not looking back. Stick with your 3200+ Venice and buy an X800XT or 6800GT/Ultra. (On NCIX I saw an Ultra cheaper than a GT... sweet!) As I've said, the Venice/San Diego cores can overclock like a dream. That's why I went with a 3700+ San Diego, and I'm running it at FX-55 speeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 13, 2005 Author Share Posted July 13, 2005 ok guys heres what i have for sure, for now atleast (revised version) CPU: AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ PROCESSOR S939 VENICE 2.0GHZ 512K L2 CACHE Memory: OCZ DUAL CHANNEL OPTIMIZED 2X512MB DDR PC3200 CAS2 W/ COPPER HEAT SPREADER HD: SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200.8 200GB SATA W/NCQ 8MB CACHE 7200RPM HARD DRIVE vid card: RADEON X800 XT 256MB DDR3 PCI-E DVI-I VIVO VIDEO CARD sound cardCREATIVE SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY 2 ZS 7.1 1394 24BIT OEM Speakers LOGITECH X-530 5.1 SPEAKER SYSTEM BLACK 70W RMS 140W W/FDD2 Floppy:SONY BLACK 1.44MB 3.5IN FLOPPY DRIVE Monitor: BENQ FP71G+ 17IN LCD MONITOR 8MS 1280X1024500:1 0.264MM ANALOG SILVER-BLACK All of those items i'm pretty sure of, the following i'm still not sure: mobo: DFI NF4-DAGF ATX NFORCE4 S939 DDR PCI-E16 2PCI-E SATA RAID GBLAN SOUND 1394 MOTHERBOARD DVD driveASUS 16X DVD-ROM INT E-IDE RETAIL W/ SW DVD PLAYER CD driveSONY CRX230E 52X/32X/52X E-IDE INT CD-RW W/ SW OEM case? psu? the CD writer i have now is busted so i don't want that to happen again, and i don't use my DVD drive alot but i'm sure i will once more games come out in DVD format, so i want it to last as well. What do you guys recomend for the dvd/cdrw drive The mobo i can't find any reviews on and with Crimsons story about DFI it doesn't help. Anyone have any recomendations yet? I'll take a look around. The case i'm still lookin into as well, i'm thinking about go for a pretty plain one now to save a bit of cash, but i can't get away from all those lights again, thanks for all your guys help DS22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 (edited) My only advise is for THX certified speakers. My 2.1's blow my old Logitech 5.1s out of the water. But they do come with a price tag... I say go for the DAGF. It looks to be like a friendlier version of the high-end parts. If you get nervous, I suggest an EPoX EP-9NPA Ultra or MSI K8N Neo4. Edited July 13, 2005 by Crimson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Ledanek Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 my vote on Crim's recommendation for that MSI board. I was going to match the two MSI 6600 GT GF to the MSI SLI mobo, but couldn't find a decent MSI SLI Forum for morale support. Ppl I asked around were...a ######? Very hostile to noobs. Vote for THX speakers also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 To DS22: Nice rig you're putting together. Since you go for that ATI card, you could consider a mobo that has Crossfire support. There not that many yet and it'll need some homework to find out if it's worth consideration. "Crossfire" is kind of ATI's solution to Nvidia's SLI. You can read more about it on http://www.ati.com. To Cpl Ledanek: (sorry for the o.t.): maybe this link is something for you: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view....1358&cid=3&pg=3 it's about the msi 6600gt sli and the msi mobo. To all of you who consider the Sand Diego versus the Venice core, check this out and you can jump to page 5, "conclusion": http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=219&num=1 Finally: http://www.nforcershq.com -> "Forum" is a good place toi get info about nforce based motherboards, neatly split up by brand etc. Hope some of you can use some of this lol. Take care edit: Crossfire link: http://www.ati.com/products/crossfire/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 DS22 if you wanna save some money, especially if you dont have a set of wiz bang speakers, id scrap the audigy and stick with the DFi board's onboard sound. It uses an awesome realtek chip, 7.1 channel sound, with digial and bits and pieces i think. Its what i have been using since i bought it. If you go get it ill point you at the realtek drivers, cos the Nvidia ones thats it comes with are crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 13, 2005 Author Share Posted July 13, 2005 (edited) grey: ok where to start,,,the crossfire idea sounds good for future updating, but like you said, theres not many yet. Infact this is the only one i could find, and it was listed on tigerdirect.ca link Its actually cheaper than the one i have listed. I don't want to spend more than the DFI i've listed a page or two back. Venice vs. San Diego: I'm gonna stick with the venice since the link Grey gave me said they found very minimal increase in performance. As for mobo's unless Grey you can give me a link to a good crossfire one? i'll keep looking and once i find one i like i'll post and see what you guys think Crimson: Ya at the time money's tight and although i'd llloooove thx speakers, not gonna happen, a future upgrade perhaps though Dan: if i go with that board i may just do that to save some cash. and Dan, are you happy witht he mobo purchase? how does it hold up to gaming? Right now i'm on pcstats looking at mobo comparisons, the MSI K8N Neo4 did fairly good until it came to the 3d test. Heres the link so i'm gonna look at other mobo's in the test. link Ds22 EDIT: what do you think of the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR mobo? got GREAT reviews! Edited July 13, 2005 by deadly_sniper22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 I had written a looong reply but dropped that again. Instead: Crossfire:don't buy that board - it's micro ATX. Crossfire is brand new and most mobos for the ATI Xpress200 chipset on the market today are for Intel processors. So if you go for AMD (and why not), either wait a few months or go for something else. There are some other AMD boards around and I'll see if i can find links/tests. I wanted to point out that Crossfire is a soon to come alternative to SLI. Dan recommends the DFI board and DFI boards are very popular amongst gamers. Also they are overclock friendly and some of the best boards around in that field. All known boards have been tested, got their BIOS updates/compatibility fixes, so it's really mostly a question of taste. I don't have or know the DFI boards but it looks like they gain popularity. Don't underestimate the importance of good cooling of gfx and cpu: it'll give better performance and your hardware keeps longer. Plus of course a good quality PSU. With that in mind, a DFI board and your choice of cpu and gfx, you have a rig that can play all games on the market today and some years to come. Oh sure soon we'll see the ATI 900 series, dual core processors to get the best out of SLI cards and bla bla bla. but do I care if the table in the cottage is of oak or the tiles on the roof are black or red? No, I concentrate on possible enemies inside and take them out before they see me and I don't need a dual core cpu plus 7800GTX SLI to do that GH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 13, 2005 Author Share Posted July 13, 2005 (edited) first off i have next to now money right now so it will be atleast 6 months before i buy this anyways. Dan, do you know anything about the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR mobo? its more expensive than i wanted to spend but damn its supposed to be great for games and with GH reassurance of how they've been tested and will have no if very few bugs, which is great for a first time builder I'm about at my budget and i still have to get some fans, a case, and PSU so it will be tight but i'm hoping i can get my parents to chip in for that, saying 'please help me protect my investment!' But i'm gonna make sure not to skimp on that, i've heard a good fan or two and a heatsink can really improve your system The SLI and Crossfire systems seem there gonna be the norm in the future? For now i think i'll go with a normal mobo, and see what the technology is like further ahead when i go to buy parts etc. Being a noob, if i'm building it, as long as its easy and its not overlly expensive i might invest in the crossfire thingamajig. just curious GH, where did you learn about computers? do you deal with them for a living? Seem awfully smart if you ask me Thanks for all your help, now to stay on my search for a case DS22 EDIT: I dropped about $40 off my total price by switching from a 200GB to a 120 GB which i'm sure will still be more than enough. Edited July 13, 2005 by deadly_sniper22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 13, 2005 Author Share Posted July 13, 2005 (edited) i finally found a case i like, its fairly cheap(?) and it has a window but isn't overly flashy. It doesn't have a psu so i found one of those too! Case PSU i went with an Antec PSU like you suggested WK. What do you guys think? Edit: For my O/S...home or professional XP? DS22 Edited July 13, 2005 by deadly_sniper22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Ledanek Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Nice case, adequate PSU, all we now is your credit card or some financing seriously, its good to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadly_sniper22 Posted July 13, 2005 Author Share Posted July 13, 2005 thx for all your help Ledanek. I'm sure i'll need it again in the coming months. Would it be safe to assume in 6 or 7 months prices would have dropped? I hear technology changes every 6 months or something? So by than i may even upgrade a few things? Anywho i'm still checking out some more fans and PSU still and will post a final list sometime later tonight DS22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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