A System Is Born

Ok, I'm not quite sure where to post this, so Mods, feel free to move/delete this post and yell at me and tell me I'm a goddamned idiot for posting in the wrong sub-forum, if you feel so inclined. Anyway I am asking for you advice on a system I will be building later on this summer. Feel free to tell me what I should change. The System:

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Intel P4 2.8C @ 2.8 Ghz (I plan to OC to at lease 3.4)
Sapphire ATi Radeon 9800 PRO
OCZ PC-4000 512MB 1 Stick (Will get more when I can)
Aopen 52x32x52 CD-RW Drive
MSI Black 16X DVD-ROM
Zalman CNSP7000-Cu
Samsung 120Gig SATA HDD x2 in RAID 0 or 0+1 (just 1 for now)
ASPIRE 609 Fan Master Thermal Monitor
Antec "TrueBlue" 480W PSU
Xoxide XTurbine *Skull Edition* (black)
Primary Monitor: NEC/FE991SB-BK 19" CRT
Secondary Monitor: SAMSUNG 753DF-T/T 17" DynaFlat CRT
Logitech Elete Keyboard
Logitech MX300 Optical Mouse
Creative Blaster 56K V.92 PCI Modem (Yes, I still use dial-up)
Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
Logitech Z-5300 5.1 THX Certified Speakers
Micro$haft Window$ XP Home
Micro$haft Work$ $uite 2003

Thanks in advance for your help.

deepblue

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

We try very hard to make sure everyone around here is treated nicely and helped sufficiently. If someone doesn't notice the rules, we just politely remind them and almost everyone responds well to that because we treat everyone like intelligent people. Like for example, your signature is a few lines over the limit (we have a limit so that everyone's sigs don't distract from actual post content). If you set your signature to size=1 it will be within the rules though. You can click the quote button underneath my post to see how I made my text smaller if you don't already know how. We also have a policy on warez or illegal use of software discussion, so you will want to be careful about mentioning free software - but I bet you are just using the software from an old computer which you are not using any longer, and I believe that is not warez or illegal in any way. This is a rule you don't want to violate or push though, it's for the good of the forums.

So anyways, you don't have to worry about getting yelled at around here, but reading the rules can save you from reading some cumbersome reminders from boring people like me.

Overall, I like the system details.

I would probably try to get Plextor optical drives used for cheap, but if I couldn't I would get Lite-ons.

Seeing that you are getting a 9800 pro, you will likely want some of the newest and best games - like farcry will really give you a taste of what that system can do and what games can look like. This also means that 512MB of system RAM is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. A full gig of RAM can really make a difference in your system performance while gaming in the newest releases - this has been noticed by a lot of people especially recently.

I would nix the fan controller/thermal monitor - the temps they report are virtually useless, just get a cheap fan controller if you positively need one. System stability and MBM5 are plenty to keep you aware of how well your system is doing inside the box.

Running RAID0 you should have a backup solution - keep critical data on CDR's, or an old HDD outside the array. You shouldn't have anything on a RAID0 array that isn't backed up IMO. I have everything on my 160 GB RAID0 array backed up to CDR, or everything else on it is a backup of something else already.

I like your monitor choices and you should be real happy with the Audigy2 also. I love mine. Nice keyboard/mouse combo also.

Finally, the only crucial upgrade is the RAM. Starting with only 512MB is a bad choice IMO.

Hope this helps man.

Thanks for your reply. I was planning on getting the RAM upgrade when I could afford it, but it sounds like I sould get it right away. And I'll leave the fan controller out. Plextor drives are a bit expensive, but I'll look around more for a good deal. I'll edit out the implication of warez in my previous post, and cut the sig down a bit. Thanks for your help.

deepblue

d33pb1u3 said:

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Intel P4 2.8C @ 2.8 Ghz (I plan to OC to at lease 3.4)
Sapphire ATi Radeon 9800 PRO
OCZ PC-4000 512MB 1 Stick (Will get more when I can)
Aopen 52x32x52 CD-RW Drive
MSI Black 16X DVD-ROM
Zalman CNSP7000-Cu
Samsung 120Gig SATA HDD x2 in RAID 0 or 0+1 (just 1 for now)
ASPIRE 609 Fan Master Thermal Monitor
Antec "TrueBlue" 480W PSU
Xoxide XTurbine *Skull Edition* (black)
Primary Monitor: NEC/FE991SB-BK 19" CRT
Secondary Monitor: SAMSUNG 753DF-T/T 17" DynaFlat CRT
Logitech Elete Keyboard
Logitech MX300 Optical Mouse
Creative Blaster 56K V.92 PCI Modem (Yes, I still use dial-up)
Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
Logitech Z-5300 5.1 THX Certified Speakers
Micro$haft Window$ XP Home {free for me}
Micro$haft Work$ $uite 2003 {free for me}

Click to expand...

Make sure you get the Enhanced Latency Ram, its faster.
If you are serious about overclocking, look into a thermalright sp-94.
Go for the Logitech Cordless Eliet Duo MX... that has the wicked mouse.
I have heard bad things about those speakers.... look into some other ones mabey. Klipshe or Logitech.
Works Suite sucks... Get Office.

The cordless mouse is more expensive and a cordless keyboard I feel is totally pointless. Sure the wireless mouse is nice but unnecessary for me. The Zalman CNSP7000-Cu will provide sufficient cooling, in normal mode, for a 2.8C OC'd to 3.6Ghz (with the Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound of course). Plus I'v heard that the installation of the SP-94 is crazy because it so huge! Although I'm seriosly looking at WCing right now. And that's funny about the speakers, because everyone down at Xoxide thought they were really good. I dunno, I'v looked at the Klipsch and they are too expensive, and the Logitech Z 5300 are just a step down from the Z680 system. And why should I pay $75 to $100 for Office if I can get Works Suite for free??? Thanks for your opinions and suggestions.

deepblue

d33pb1u3 said:

Ok, I'm not quite sure where to post this, so Mods, feel free to move/delete this post and yell at me and tell me I'm a goddamned idiot for posting in the wrong sub-forum, if you feel so inclined. Anyway I am asking for you advice on a system I will be building later on this summer. Feel free to tell me what I should change. The System:

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Intel P4 2.8C @ 2.8 Ghz (I plan to OC to at lease 3.4)
Sapphire ATi Radeon 9800 PRO
OCZ PC-4000 512MB 1 Stick (Will get more when I can)
Aopen 52x32x52 CD-RW Drive
MSI Black 16X DVD-ROM
Zalman CNSP7000-Cu
Samsung 120Gig SATA HDD x2 in RAID 0 or 0+1 (just 1 for now)
ASPIRE 609 Fan Master Thermal Monitor
Antec "TrueBlue" 480W PSU
Xoxide XTurbine *Skull Edition* (black)
Primary Monitor: NEC/FE991SB-BK 19" CRT
Secondary Monitor: SAMSUNG 753DF-T/T 17" DynaFlat CRT
Logitech Elete Keyboard
Logitech MX300 Optical Mouse
Creative Blaster 56K V.92 PCI Modem (Yes, I still use dial-up)
Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
Logitech Z-5300 5.1 THX Certified Speakers
Micro$haft Window$ XP Home
Micro$haft Work$ $uite 2003

Thanks in advance for your help.

deepblue

Click to expand...

Don't use Samsung HD, get WD Raptor instead.

Otherwise everything looks good.

Yeah I was looking at either Raptor or a Barracuda. They are once again though too expensive, although well worth the money, as I have heard that thier speed can make your head spin. So for now I will stick with the Samsung 120 Gig, but there's always room for uprgades...

And as for the DVD-ROM drive I think that I'll stick with the MSI. Please compair:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-100-033&catalog=55&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-240&depa=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-131-603&depa=1

And for the CD-R/W I am going to change to this Lite-On drive:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-197&depa=1
As compaired to this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...7-106-535&catalog=5&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1

Thanks for your help.

deepblue

I didn't read all of the replies, some were... "lengthy." But penny for penny a 160gb hard drive is the best value right now, so I'd check that out.

tom10167 said:

I didn't read all of the replies, some were... "lengthy." But penny for penny a 160gb hard drive is the best value right now, so I'd check that out.

Click to expand...

Not too sure how Samsung's SATA HD's are like but I tested a Samsung's ATA HD once and it was louder than my Maxtor that was getting RMAed.

160 GB is too much for me, I'll never use that much space. Espically if I setup 2 120 GB drives in RAID 0, plus a back up drive. I've heard that the Samsung drive is really quiet.....we'll see. Thanks.

deepblue