2K Comp Faceoff

PrometheuSBoxeR · Jul 14, 2005

Ok.. I know we have some computer wiz's here, and I am curious to see everyones creativity, intelligence, skill.

Heres the scenario.

A. You do not need a monitor
B. You need a mouse/keyboard
C. You do not need a O/S
D. You have exactly $2000.00 to spend at http://www.newegg.com on a computer from scratch. Not a penny more - Shipping dosent matter.

Your going to need a:

1. Case
2. Power Supply
3. Motherboard
4. Processor
5. Video Card
6. Harddrive
7. CD/DVD ROM
8. CD/DVD Burner (Optional)
9. Sound
10. Memory
11. and Any other accessories you would like to include

Lets see what you guys can come up with.

Yuriman · Jul 14, 2005

Ok... are you going to judge? Would dual opterons and a Radeon 7000 rate as high as a 3500+ and 7800gtx? Any guidelines at all?

Zulu-1 · Jul 14, 2005

what will this system be used for....?

PrometheuSBoxeR · Jul 14, 2005

Yuriman said:
Ok... are you going to judge? Would dual opterons and a Radeon 7000 rate as high as a 3500+ and 7800gtx? Any guidelines at all?

Im looking for more gaming genre, but I dont want that to limit everyones creativity and skill if you know what I mean... and yah I think everyone should be the judge with some constructive critisicm

PrometheuSBoxeR · Jul 14, 2005

Zulu-1 said:
what will this system be used for....?

Like I said gaming, but just overall powerhouse used for whatever you want it to do. It may not be the best in a particular area over another genre but its just overall your best work.

nealric · Jul 14, 2005

Ok, I will take a crack at it

Case: Thermaltake Tsunami: Easy to work on case that looks great and cools well:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133132 $100

PSU: Antec neopower 480: Basically the best modular out there- yeah, it probably would give a bit better power, but the cable manage ment is soo nice. OCZ powerstrem 530w could be stubsituted.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103924

Mobo: DFI Lanparty Ultra-D (non SLI)- $125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

CPU: Athlon x2 4200+ manchester core $532
For gaming, AMD overall computing experience
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103547

vid card: 7800GTX $600 - Its the fastest
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150100

Hard drive: WD SATA II, 16mb cache, 250gig = $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

DVD BURNER: Samsung 16x $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151066

Sound: onboard

mem: Mushkin Redline UTT: $170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146389

cooler: Thermalright xp90c + fan: $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835109122

Total:
$1897- Under budget

*Alternate cooling setup*
Danger Den TDX $50
Eheim 1250 $60
Dual 120mm heatercore $40
Tubing, barbs, clamps $30
2x 120mm fans $20

Total= 2017 (ok its a *bit* over)

Skeen · Jul 14, 2005

Hmm there it is ^.

I'd personally go cheap on the case ('cause I don't really care about that sort of thing) and then get a PC Power and Cooling PSU. But really theres not much room for improvement, IMO.

Yuriman · Jul 14, 2005

I'd strongly recomend 2gb of ram. Strongly. You could go with 4x512mb of mushkin blueline for about $30 more, I think. You could save that money by going with a freezer64 heatsink, it is *very* quiet and performs on par with a regulay XP-90 and a loud fan.

Also, I have a Fortron Bluestorm 500w, and I couldn't be happier. My board reads that the 12v rail is about 11.7, but the multimeter tells a different story: 12.04 :clap:

PrometheuSBoxeR · Jul 14, 2005

1. I think you gave a nice example. The 7800GTX recommends 500W PSU, is the Fortron Bluestorm 500W gonna be able to power the X2, 7800GTX, and all the other stuff without worry?
2. Why do you say 2GB is strongly recommended? I dont blame yah but whats the reason, just because its only $30 more?
3. Ive seen that case pretty popular, it gets a good write up?
Thanks agian

ropey · Jul 14, 2005

I have never seen a system perform on games as well with 2GB as it does with 1GB. Maybe on 64bit operating systems this will be different but as it is there is not yet drivers fully robust, thus it might be some time before this is seen to be performed on a fully valid desktop/gaming main system.

Thus the choice is a maximal overclock on the 1GB system with tight timings, or a good to average overclock with semi loose timings on the 2GB system.

That has been my experience.

R

Captain Newbie · Jul 14, 2005

4x512 is definitely worth it *pats recently re-assembled computer*.

Very little swappage or paging.

Yuriman · Jul 14, 2005

@ropey, Battlefield 2 is virtualy unplayable at max settings with 1gb of ram. Loading times are reduced by 60%, and the average framerate goes up quite a bit because with 1gb, it swaps like crazy.

This is probably worth a read: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1618155&enterthread=y

Also, in real world performance, I have found the difference of 3-3-3-11 2T and 2-2-2-5 1T to be about 3% in Supepi, but having 2gb of ram improved my Superpi scores by almost 5%. Also, future games will be unplayable from the swapping that will happen, so you will either have to turn down the settings, thus making your nice video card useless, or buy more ram, which you could have done in the first place.

nealric · Jul 15, 2005

@ropey, Battlefield 2 is virtualy unplayable at max settings with 1gb of ram.

I beg to differ. My system runs bf2 at 1280x960, all highest settings, 4x aa just fine.

Yuriman · Jul 15, 2005

Let me rephrase this: For many people, Battlefield 2 is unplayable with 1024mb of ram.

Acanthus from Anandtech said:
Peak memory usage by map:

Mashtuur City : 1088MB
Kubra Dam: 1145MB
Strike at Kakand: 1129MB
Shogua Stalemate: 1100MB
Zatar Wetlands: 1049MB

Those numbers were taken in a 64 player server.

Do you run "high" details, or manual max settings? At high, texture detail is not maxed. Also, do you play in 64 player servers?

PrometheuSBoxeR · Jul 15, 2005

silentdebuggers · Jul 15, 2005

It's probably worth doing 2x1024mb on the ram then. Then later you can expand to 4x1024mb with that DFI board.

As far as getting use out of it, cs:source sits at ~900MB usage with 4xAA and a 256mb heap. That's close enough for me to warrant some more ram.

PrometheuSBoxeR · Jul 15, 2005

Well anyone have any comments on mine? besides the ability to upgrade to 4GB later on

Shelnutt2 · Jul 16, 2005

1. Case: Linkworld 431-06 C.2222 Black Computer Case(also avaible in white) $46
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811164061
2. Power Supply: see case
3. Motherboard:Mobo: ASUS NCCH-DL $229
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131064
4. Processor(s):2x intel Xeon EM64T 3.0 Irwindale 800MHz FSB $691.98(both)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819117034
5. Video Card: Geforce 7800GTX 256MB/Bf2 included $599.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150104
6. Harddrive: SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP1614N $78.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152014
7. CD/DVD ROM:
8. CD/DVD Burner (Optional): Rosewill Gray 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner $35.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827190012
9. Sound: CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102179
Speakers: CREATIVE Inspire P7800 90 Watts 7.1 Speaker $75.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836116153
10. Memory:OCZ Value Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) $186.01
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146841
11. Thermaltake PSU Adapter Cables 20 to 24 pin, 4 to 8 pin $7.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=12-183-045&depa=0

Total cost...(with out shipping/tax)
$1998.96

MIght I recommend 3 Reese PeanutButter cups (2 pack) from your local gas station to....that should put you at just about the 2k limit

Superjed · Jul 19, 2005

Had to do something while running prime

darksparkz · Jul 22, 2005

Antec Performance I P160 reviewed at AndAndTech $95.00

DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 $199.00

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego $323.00

Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM
$166.00

BFG Tech BFGR78256GTXOC Geforce 7800GTX $569.00

PLEXTOR Beige 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 6X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 4X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 8M Cache SATA $132.99

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Platinum System Memory - Retail $250.95

OCZ OCZ520ADJ ATX 520W Power Supply $120.00

Thermaltake SONIC TOWER $48.99

Panasonic Panaflo FBA12G 12U1C 120mm Hydro Wave $17.99

Logitech MX518 931352-0403 2-Tone $39.99

Logitech Media Keyboard $19.95

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM $7.99

Total: $1990.85

If you want good speakers, you'll need a good sound card. If you don't mind about the sound, remove the sound card and send the extra $70 on an OCZ Powerstream 600 if you want.

I choose the raptor because since you asked for the best gaming computer, this is the best HDD for it. You can burn anything on DVDs to save room to if you like.

I really doubt you'd need the DFI SLI, but it looks like you really like that motherboard. Since your only getting one 7800GTX, the SLI wouldn't do much, unless you really plan on upgrading in the near future. By dropping SLI and the sound card, you save a total of over $100. That extra 100 can go towards an extra HDD or whatnot.

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