Rig for college

[Skiing Squirrel]

So I am preparing to make my rig for college. I have been putting this off for about 8 months because I knew I would be upgrading right before I go to college anyway. Well... That time is here.

My current rig is something like an AMD 1700+ OC'd to 2.2ish ghz's. 256 megs of ram (sold a gig of it), raptor drive, 430 watt antec psu, dvd burner, 9600xt vid card, and Epox 8rda+ mobo.

I plan on doing 939pin mobo. By the way. I'm no noob with computers, but I have been out of the game for a while. So bear with me.

Those DFI Lan party Mobos seem to be the new hotness lately, but they seem to NOT support AGP anymore. Which one would you get? I also want some ram that I can overclock a lot. OCZ has always been my favorite. Any EL ram from them still good as far as overclocking abilities go? What else would you get?

Thanks.

 

[crb806]

I noticed your living in North Carolina too... I'm at ECU in Greenville, about to finish my first year, and biulding a computer for my next year in college too. I'm going with a 3.2 Ghz AMD 64(939 socket) Winchester Core OR FX-55 if money permits, 1 Gig TCCD RAM, Nvidia 6800u, 74Gb WD Raptor. I have not picked a mobo yet although, i do plan on getting a SLi mobo!

P.S.
Just curious where are you going in the fall? UNC?

 

[jnev_89]

msi or dfi are arguably the best nforce4 boards out right now. depending on your needs and budget you can get any cpu, they're all good and very ocable (make sure you get winchester core or the new venice). if you game, get a 6800gt or x800xl, if you're on a budget a 6600gt is the way to go (everything is in pci-e, no more agp). definetly get 1gb of ram. spend a bit more on it if you want to oc a lot. also, if you're gonna be ocing a lot, get a nice psu. ocz and antec make very nice psu's. both the antec true550 or the ocz powerstream 520w are very nice psu's for about $100.

but since you're going to college, why don't you consider a laptop? i'd think it's much more practical...

 

[CeeDeeJay]

Question

Why are you wanting to go with the AGP vid slot.(jnev_89 is correct the msi and dfi boards are very tough and if you go with any of the AGP boards there seems to be a big drop in MB preformance).Would you consider going with the pci-e??.If your vid card is the 9600xt you really will enjoy a move up in vid card at the same time as the A64 move.

 

[m3x1c4nj3w]

Get the DFI SLI board and buy one 6800 Gt and then couple of years down the road buy another one.

 

[Midnight Dream]

hehe, build a rig that does not support games, to ensure you stay up on your work

 

[Skiing Squirrel]

I was under the impression that those mobo's supported agp. As I said... I have been out of the game.

I already have a nice centrino powered dell laptop already, so I got the portable computer taken care of. What about the ram?

 

[1cem4n]

I'd buy a Shuttle nForce4, 1gig PC-3200 OCZ(whatever you want), harddrive(however much space you need), and a 6800gt like m3x said

-1cem4n

 

[Skiing Squirrel]

I've already got a shuttle in another room in the house. It is overrated in my opinion. Why just pc3200 with OCZ? Sure, my stick of EL OCZ is good and all, but why not go with something faster like 3700?

 

[ryanmartini]

Maybe I can offer some insight.

To catch you up some, SLI with 6800 U's are king right now, same thing voodoo did way back when. AGP is becoming obsolete with PCI-X 16 for videocards. It offers more power to be pulled from the mobo and alot more bandwidth. AMD has taken the performance crown from Intel in gaming hands down. Intel is good at gaming and with hyperthreading provides good multi tasking. Yet Intel costs to buy unless you land a good one to oc.

Also the 939 socket dffers from 754 by memory bandwidth [dual channel] And 939 is going to use AMD's future CPUs, so to me its worth the extra $.

Heres some ideas, I presume you arent ocing it so I will lay down a rock stable stock setup. I have personally worked with these parts for a customer not long ago and I have only good things to say about all of them. I picked the MSI mobo for its new chipset. I dont know how much longer SLI will be effective since the R520 is coming. So I stuck with a single X16 slot mobo. Also I put in a Creative sound card since onboard sound creates noise via the mobo. For a hard drive i chose a larger capacity model instead ofwd's pure speed raptor. With the video I went with the X800XL which for 270$ cant be beat, with a simple cooling upgrade can be oced to X800XT speeds. Its optional but I chose some Klipsch 2.1 speakers, Ive heard them and wow... just wow. Didnt know your preference on keyboards/mice or monitors, hope i provided some things you might want to look into. I aimed this at not being the best oc because in college, the last thing you need is to turn V up to much and go kaboom with your hw -_- [Read in my book "Bad Experiences"].

Thanks for reading!

Choose your own case. I recommend an Antec with a 400W PSU. I dont know what you like.

AMD A64 3500+ Hammer
Corsair Value Ram
MSI mobo
WD 250 gig 8 mb cache
Rosewill X800XL
Creative Sound Card 7.1
Klipsch 2.1 speakers

 

[1cem4n]

Whatever Floats your Boat . I want a shuttle but i'm stuck with mine for a while.

-1cem4n

 

[Skiing Squirrel]

Maybe I can offer some insight.

To catch you up some, SLI with 6800 U's are king right now, same thing voodoo did way back when. AGP is becoming obsolete with PCI-X 16 for videocards. It offers more power to be pulled from the mobo and alot more bandwidth. AMD has taken the performance crown from Intel in gaming hands down. Intel is good at gaming and with hyperthreading provides good multi tasking. Yet Intel costs to buy unless you land a good one to oc.

Also the 939 socket dffers from 754 by memory bandwidth [dual channel] And 939 is going to use AMD's future CPUs, so to me its worth the extra $.

Heres some ideas, I presume you arent ocing it so I will lay down a rock stable stock setup. I have personally worked with these parts for a customer not long ago and I have only good things to say about all of them. I picked the MSI mobo for its new chipset. I dont know how much longer SLI will be effective since the R520 is coming. So I stuck with a single X16 slot mobo. Also I put in a Creative sound card since onboard sound creates noise via the mobo. For a hard drive i chose a larger capacity model instead ofwd's pure speed raptor. With the video I went with the X800XL which for 270$ cant be beat, with a simple cooling upgrade can be oced to X800XT speeds. Its optional but I chose some Klipsch 2.1 speakers, Ive heard them and wow... just wow. Didnt know your preference on keyboards/mice or monitors, hope i provided some things you might want to look into. I aimed this at not being the best oc because in college, the last thing you need is to turn V up to much and go kaboom with your hw -_- [Read in my book "Bad Experiences"].

Thanks for reading!

Choose your own case. I recommend an Antec with a 400W PSU. I dont know what you like.

AMD A64 3500+ Hammer
Corsair Value Ram
MSI mobo
WD 250 gig 8 mb cache
Rosewill X800XL
Creative Sound Card 7.1
Klipsch 2.1 speakers

haha, thanks man. I'm no noob when it comes to computers. I guess I was asking what is the new hotness as far as video cards, cpu's, mobo's, and ram goes as of now a days. Anyhow, thanks, and Yes, I will be Oc'ing.

 

[CeeDeeJay]

My Two Cents

ryanmartini's comments are to the point
If your going to overclock the you will need to upgrade the quality of RAM over the value select(CorsairXMS and OCZ both have excellent overclockable ram a little research in the memory forum will help you here).

Also you will need a strong power supply I recommend you check out the Forum on power supplies to find one that will meet the needs of the system and be overclockable.

 

[ryanmartini]

If you are going to overclock it, the winnies will get you there! =)

I recommend
to change the cpu with :
3200+ Winnie

ram with:

Gskill PC4400 TCCD [lucky *******]

I went with an SLI board so you can upgrade later if you feel like it. MSI K8N Neo Platinum since everywhere i look 4 and 3/4 out of five all five stars and more. Built a computer with it personaly and damn.. I want one.. Also i dont see Nvidia about to drop SLI so its a great upgrade path for this mobo =)

MSI K8N Neo SLI

Video:
I went with XFX's 6800 GT There is apparently cooling issues with the EVGA, and thats all you need is cooling problems on a oc system.
XFX 6800GT

Power Supply:
To best your upgrade path you will need a good psu, SLI with oc? More power. I swear by PC Power & Cooling. find them here

That should be one hell of a oc. Also for a oc system You need cooling. You can spend close to a 100$ on the best hs & fan or just get watercooling. I recommend a koolance system if possible, or you can make your own.

This system will give you years of upgradability to new cpu's and videocards for a long time.


-Ryan

 

[madcow235]

Have you seen the dorm you are getting for college? I've seen the dorms i'm going into freshman year and a full size comp is going to leave very little deskspace. I'm going with a shuttle and an LCD for college and unless you have a HUGE dorm i would suggest the same.

 

[orionlion82]

Have you seen the dorm you are getting for college? I've seen the dorms i'm going into freshman year and a full size comp is going to leave very little deskspace. I'm going with a shuttle and an LCD for college and unless you have a HUGE dorm i would suggest the same.

Second for that... i live in a small brick cell... 9X11

and it is no place for anything but a lappy or a SFF pc...

misery = xaser III and a 17 inch CRT...
even in a larger room its still too much...