Building First Rig, REQ Opinions & Critiques

Building First Rig (Final Order Placed)

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Edit Edit 07/10/05:

Sunday Afternoon, Final Order Has Been Placed:

Lian Li PC 65B Case- $125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811112040

DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - $198
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136151

OCZ ATX 520W Power Supply - $135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104152

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego Integrated into Chip FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - $324.95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Platinum System Memory - $269.95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227210

GeForce 7800 GTX 256 MB GDDR3 PCIe Graphics Card - $535.08
http://ecomm.dell.com/dellstore/basket.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&itemtype=SNA

Total (After Taxes and Shipping): $1,618.30

Already have the following components (carrying over from another computer):
Keyboard and Mouse:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823126159
Hard Drive (wasn't OEM when I bought it):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144187

Will Post Specifications of Old Computer and New Computer and 3dmark scores, etc. once computer is assembled.
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I am building my first computer. I already have a hard drive, dvd burner, mouse and keyboard.

DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136151

Antec TRUE CONTROL 550W ATX 550W Power Supply -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103922

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Edit:

Upgrading Power Supply to 520W OCZ. This one gets 12V @ 33A instead of the Antec which only gets 12V @ 28A:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104152
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OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Platinum System Memory -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227210

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103533

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Edit:
Upgrading to the 3700+ Sandiego Chip:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539
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BFG Tech BFGR78256GTXOC Geforce 7800GTX 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143036

Thermaltake Kandalf VA9000BWS Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133152

At first I will use stock fan and heat sink with the processor, but later I mght upgrade and get a better cooling system for over clocking. Being that I already have dvd burner drive, hard drive, mouse, and keyboard, aside from a graphics card, ram, processor, case, motherboard and power supply I can't think of anything else I could need. I speculate 550W should be enough to sufficiently power the system.

All opinions and critiques would greatly be apprcieated!!

Final Order Will be Placed Sunday Afternoon!

Get this PSU.
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-SP550PG#

As for the RAM why spend so much? There is some crucial RAM that seems to overclock well from what I have heard and is much cheaper. If you are overclocking the 3500+ is a waste too. Get a 3200+/3000+. Both should overclock to about the same so i would probably get the 3000+ to save more cash.

If you aren't going to get the 2nd video card, it seems sorta pointless to get the sli mobo. Especially since there is an identical non-sli mobo for cheaper. The 12v rail seems a little lacking in the current department with only 24A. Think about getting a fortron 500w (unless you are going to run sli then look at a pcp&c 510 or a ocz ps 520).

I will definately get the 2nd Video card for SLI but not till later.

BrutalDrew, thinking about switching out the ram for one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16820141308,N82E16820220010&SubCategory=147

I'll ask some people in the memory forum...

I'm weary about the 3200 and 3000's, I really want that 1GHz FSB!

I'll look into those power supplies ckj.

Thanks everyone for the speedy responses!

That OCZ RAM looks good, but you may want to post a seperate topic in the Memory section. I do not recommend going with really expensive RAM though as some cheap RAM actually overclocks very well and the expensive RAM is not worth it.

Also as I already said there is really no reason to get the 3500+ if you are overclocking. Save your money. Also the PSU's ckj suggested are very good, but the one I suggested is a much better value.

Changing some things out:

Going to switch it out for a slightly more expensive PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104152
I can get 33Amps out of this baby at 12V!

Furthermore, I think i'm going to splurge a little more cash on the processor. I went through the trouble of getting a socket 939 board and am deciding to treat myself from the 2.26 GHz Pentium 4 IBM build i got for my bday about 2 to 3 years ago now. I'm going to get a 1mb cache processor instead of a 512mb cache. Upgrading to the 3700+ Sandiego Chip:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

I'll post any more changes that come between now and sunday afternoon.

The Sparkle I mentioned is a step ahead of the OCZ Powerstream IMO and it is cheaper. Both are great PSU's, but the Sparkle is a better value.

The original case posted was $186 w/ no power supply. I have found this case:
http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/FeedBack/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16811144090

That has a 500W power supply and can deliver 12V @ 34A. Instead of buying case & power supply for a total of $322, i can get this case that comes with a power supply for $155.

Still continuing to tweak and play with customizing options. I plan on ordering everything Sunday afternoon. Thanks again to everyone for all of their feed back.

Quality is much more important then quanity. That Aspire PSU is crap.

BrutalDrew said:

Quality is much more important then quanity. That Aspire PSU is crap.

Click to expand...

Thank you!! I couldn't tell from the new-egg reviews. Everyone there seemed to hype the package. The integrated PSU with the case made me weary. I shall continue to look. I would hate to run into headaches in the future all because i skimmed $100 off of a case/psu combo.

I would just get rid of that expensive TT case you chose and get a quality PSU.

Get a lian-li and then get the OCZ. As for RAM, why do you need 2gb? It is nice to have it but 1gb of good ram is still very good. Some Mushkin Value would fit the bill nicely.

-1cem4n

I couldn't agree more. The case is on the pricey side and doesn't seem to offer enough to justify its cost. Searching for a nicer case now. I think i'm done tweaking the rest of the components though. I'm really happy I decided to upgrade the processor to a 1MB cache. I think that will show significant results over the original choice I made.

I'm also stoked about the BFG 7800GTX. I'm going to cash in on the Dell Deal posted in the Video graphics forum though. I won't be ordering from newegg unless Dell is still back ordered and can't have it shipped before this Friday. I was hoping to order everything on sunday so that it would be here prior to this friday....I'll take pictures and post 3DMarks scores, etc.

You could get a cheap Lian-Li, Antec P180 or a Cooler Master Centurion 5. The last one is $50, but very nice.

Even the cheap lian-li cases are really good.

-1cem4n

1cem4n said:

Even the cheap lian-li cases are really good.

-1cem4n

Click to expand...

That is why I recommended them

Lol, I'm stuck with my crappy thermaltake tsunami case(violent sister put 3 dents in side panel, broke off the window, scratched it up, broke a case fan, and tore out Front Panel, the usb ports and line-in&line-out). I want to get a P160 to replace it and I could but I want to see if I'm overlooking anything right now.

-1cem4n

1cem4n said:

Lol, I'm stuck with my crappy thermaltake tsunami case(violent sister put 3 dents in side panel, broke off the window, scratched it up, broke a case fan, and tore out Front Panel, the usb ports and line-in&line-out). I want to get a P160 to replace it and I could but I want to see if I'm overlooking anything right now.

-1cem4n

Click to expand...

I would get the P180.

BrutalDrew said:

I would get the P180.

Click to expand...

I was looking at the P180. It looks very, very nice. New egg seems to be sold out atm, thinking about picking one up from ecost:
http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/det...ecost&source=ECOSTPG&adcampaign=email,ECOSTPG
I wish I could go newegg on it though; I've never ordered from ecost before.

Suggest Antec P160, or Lian-Li PC65, Lian-Li PC70(?), or if your up for it Lian-Li V1000(I love it, worth every penny), you'll need the V1200 if you are going to use a modular PSU.

Can you edit your 1st post to make it easier of what you decided to get instead of digging through posts to see what you changed.

From original, I suggest...

New PSU.. That OCZ is fine. As long as it has the 24-Pin ATX and the special 6 pin video card power connector.(Think it does, need confirmation)

Memory.. Can you say overkill? Are you going to overclock? I suggest OCZ Gold(They are on sale and they are BH-die so you can overclock easy with the volts from the DFI board)

Processor.. Upgrade to the AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego.. the extra cache is "neato."

Gotta love the 7800GTX, its better then 6800U in SLi.

Case? Well I already post my opinion.

Have fun!