Please verify the system components for my system

[Rexian]

Hello Folks, UPDATED: 06/26/2003

As you can see I am learning a lot from this thread and I am updating the post everyday with modifications here. So, before replying, please, repeat please, verify and do the sanity check of this system. Also, mention, if I need to gather some more stuff!

Plese check http://chimputer.tripod.com/ where I have put up the system components that I am planning to buy and eventually assemble. After learning from you folks about memory, I did some research and put up a skeleton for my gaming system. Please provide your thoughts about it. I am open to any suggestions that you can provide me with.

You can flame at me if I sounded like a moron. But, do provide suggestions on the system components that is on my webpage.

If you could not visit the webpage, here's the list. Tell me if I need to rethink about some components or need to get some additional ones to have a decent gaming PC. I have some components which have multiple choices. For example, motherboard, hard drive etc. Please suggest one of them.

IMPORTANT: Please suggest me a good monitor for my gaming PC under $700.00. I am really confused there. I believe, monitor is the most important component in any computer system as we interact with it the MOST!

Processor - Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Processor 2.4cGHz, 800MHz FSB, Socket 478 $175.00
Hoping to eventually overclock it to 3.0+ GHz, if that's possible, with my setup. Will need your help on that!
Motherboard - ASUSTek P4C800 / ABIT IC7-G, Intel 875P chipset for Socket 478 800MHz Canterwood ATX Motherboard $190.99
Memory - 2 x CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, Low Latency 512MB 64MX64 CMX512-3700PT Platinum With Silver Heat Spreader / 2 x CORSAIR CMX512-3200LLPT 512MB DDR400 XMS3200 Low Latency SPD Memory w/Platinum Heat Spreader $300.00
Case - CHIEFTEC Server Chasis (Aluminum Workstation Tower with Plastic Front Cover) BLACK COLOR w/ Side acrylic window and a Case Fan on Side Window with 2 x Front USB2.0 and 1 x Firewire IEEE1394 ports (newegg.com Model AX-01BLD) $68.00
Power Supply - Sparkle Power 550W Power Supply (newegg.com MODEL FSP550-60PLG - OEM) $100.00
Round Cables - COOLER MASTER's UTC-A24 (EMI Shielding) ROUND, 24-Inch, ATA133/100/66 IDE Cable. 3-Connector. ( BLACK ). with Chassis Ground Wire $50.00
Cooling System CPU Fan | HDD Cooling | HeatSink | Specialty Cooling | Case Fans | Lighting -
1x 92mm Panaflo M1A / VANTEC's Tornado (Double Ball-Bearing) Fan
2 x Panasonic Panaflo Axial Fan 80x80x25.5mm, Ball Bearing, DC 12V, 3.24W, 3450 RPM, 46.9 CFM, 38.2 dB-A Model: FBA08A12U - OEM
BLUE COLD CATHODE LIGHT KIT
Vantec NXP-201 (BLACK) Nexus Fan Controller Panel
Zalman CNPS6500B-AlCu Pure Aluminum and Copper combined CPU Cooler for Socket 478
Thermalright SLK-900-U ( Heatsink ONLY ). All Copper heat spread
Thermaltake All COPPER Heatspreader / Heatsink for DDR and SD RAM
Arctic Silver's NEW Premium High-Density Thermal Compound: Ceramique . 2.7-gram( ~0.8 cc. ) tube
$150.00
Storage Media - 2 x Hard Drive Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer $137.50 x 2
DVD Drive - LITE-ON XJ-HD166S 16X DVD ROM Drive - OEM 48X $31.00
Video Card - ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR DVI TV OUT 8X AGP $350.00
Monitor - Sony P1130 FD Trinitron 21" CRT Monitor / SAMSUNG SyncMaster DynaFlat 955DF 19" Monitor $650.00 / $199.95
Sound Card -
Creative Labs Sound Card Audigy 2 Platinum
Creative Labs Black Face Plate Kit for Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum Drive $190.00
Speakers - Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 $300.00
Network Card - Instant Gigabit Network Adapter $20.00 <MAYBE>

My Budget for core components excluding monitor: $1700 - $2000.00


Thanks,

Rexian

 

[Caffinehog]

If you're not overclocking, that's a fine setup. The only thing I'd change is the hard drive: I'd go with a Western Digital SE hard drive, with the 8mb cache.

As for the monitor, go with the 21" CRT. Flat screens are expensive, and will be changing connection standards in the next couple of years. They'll also get cheaper. It could very well cost you less to buy a CRT now and an LCD later than it costs just to buy the LCD now.

 

[BaldHeadedDork]

First, welcome to the forums. Glad we could help you get this far.

Are you going to overclock? If you are, I'd recommend the P4 2.6 instead of the 2.8. Its about fifty dollars less and overclocks just as well or better than the 2.8.

Overclocking could affect your board choice, too. The vcore on the Albatron tops out at 1.6 volts, and the overclocking limits of the DFI are below the Abit IC7/IS7 and Asus P4P800/P4C800.

I'd stay away from the Corsair Value Select memory for this system. Spending the extra money for XMS3200 or XMS3500 TwinX would be money well spent. If you are going to overclock you have to do this. I also like Mushkin Level 2 Black memory, too.

I use PC Power and Cooling power supplies, so dropping $150 on a PSU doesn't raise my eyebrows. But I'd never spend $180 for that Antec. The front panel is a pure gimmick. (Has anyone ever needed an external Molex port? Anyone? And a good PSU only needs to have its rails adjusted once, preferrably at the factory where it is built.) I'd either get a PCP&C Turbo Cool 425 or Silencer 400 (under $140 for each) or a Sparkle/FSP 400 ($70) if you want to save some serious jack. Both the Sparkle and PCP&C have outstanding performance.

Unless a 200GB drive is too small, I'd pick up a WD2000JB instead of the 250. You can find the 200 for under $180 after rebates. That might be the computer hardware deal of 2003.

I wouldn't buy a 256MB video card. In every test you're paying a lot more money for only a slight increase in benchmark performance. By the time games make 256MB of video memory a necessity the chip powering the R9800 will be a year or more out of date.

Picking the right monitor is very subjective. What looks good to your eyes is all that matters. But I'd recommend you take a look at the Viewsonic P225F (22") and the P95F+ (19"). I had a 225F until a couple of weeks ago and loved it. (Got a Mitsu 2060u now, another great monitor but it runs close to $800 compared to $630 for the Viewsonic.)

One last thing-a lot of Intel 865/875 motherboards have onboard giganet.



Hope this helped-

BHD

 

[CrashOveride]

ok, I would get the 250Gb WD you have there with a smaller, faster, 8mb cache drive for you OS (the other for back ups) if you have the money.
I dont think caffinehog knows that there isn't an SE version of that HDD (unless I don't know that there is, and I looked a little out of curiousity and didn't find one).
I'm not a P4 person so can't help on the mobo or processor, Memory sounds good but if its one of those twin stick kit thingys don'y pay more for the packaging (where they stick them in the same one), if its cheaper get two seperate sticks (only if its cheaper), Buffalo ram is cheaper and as long as you get Winbond modules it pretty much preformes the same since Corsair uses them as well.
PSU isn't too bad but I would recoment a higher watttage Fortron, from everything everyone has said it's a good PSU despite its thriftyness. Mant poeple highly suggest it. maybe the 550w version I think its about 70-100 bucks or something.
The audigy is good but if its cheaper the M-Audio Revolution is known to have better sound quality (a friend of mine has it a few other poeple have compared them as well as MaximumPC /) and the Audiotrck Prodigy (oh, M-Audio and Prodigy are 7.1 like Audigy) is supposedly good as well. However the Audigy has onboad processing so, unlike the other two I mentioned, it won't take away a few FPS (but its negligable with a system like yours, you won't notice).
Oh, and 2 more things:

It's just not fair!

and


WELCOME TO THE FORUMS


EDIT: I didn't notice the value select Corsair, I agree with BaldHeadedDork there and the video card isn't the best value (I would just get 9700) as he said but you seem to have the money for the best ATi has to offer... the FX finally beat out ATi (at least in the tests I have seen) though so if you pay that much you might even get the highest FX :/

 

[nerdlogic]

I agree. Fortron/Sparkle makes great PSUs. Where are you getting these prices from, BTW? I suggest taking a look through newegg and comparing prices(if you guy from there, tell them that you were sent from oc-forums.com...you won't get a discount, but we're trying to get newegg to advertise here to help skip get some extra money to pay for keeping the forums up...we have a petition going as well). I'd direct you to pricewatch.com, but some of the resellers they show don't have very high ratings.

EDIT:
I just checked some prices and they're higher than the ones you have here, but first I'd make sure those resellers have good ratings. Granted I had one experience with a low-rated reseller and it was not bad at all, but that's just one out of many others from other people. BTW, how are you planning to cool your CPU? By air, water cooling, or phase-change/peltier?

 

[Rexian]

THANKS THANKS and THANKS.

Great Inputs so far. I will updating my webpage with your inputs. I am new to this PC making thing. Just got some few extra bucks at work and have a few games to play which I bought but could never play owing to my video card limitation. So, I thought I would go for the latest and the greatest. I will change HDD and Video Card according to your advice. I will have to decide on memory then. Most probably, I will heed to your suggestions there and save some bucks.

So, keep pouring inputs and lets make a good system that rocks! By the way, as I am new to this, I don't know how to overclock and so, I am kinda staying away from that for now.

Thanks,

Rex

 

[nerdlogic]

Are you dead-set on an Intel system? An AMD system would save you some money and still perform very well.

 

[Caffinehog]

Also, for the hard drive, you could go with a RAID 0 setup. This takes stored data and splits it between two drives so it can be read/written faster than a single drive. In a raid setup, the cache doesn't matter as much, so going with 2mb drives won't hurt performance. How about a pair of 120gb drives for less than $100 each?
Of course to do this, you'll have to do one of two things:
1. Buy a PCI raid card.
or
2. Chose a different motherboard that has ATA100 or ATA133 RAID support built-in.

Option 2 will be hard to do on an 800fsb board, BUT, it won't be hard to find these boards supporting SATA raid.

So, here's option 3

3. Get a board like the Asus P4P800, P4C800, or the Abit IS7 or IC7, and get a pair of 120gb SATA drives at about $135 each.

Note that this is not much different in price from the 250gb drive you originally thought of. And a RAID setup will beat the pants off it performance-wise.

 

[Caffinehog]

I dont think caffinehog knows that there isn't an SE version of that HDD

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=wd+Special+250gb

WHOOP! There it is!


Kinda pricey, though.

 

[CrashOveride]

Are you dead-set on an Intel system? An AMD system would save you some money and still perform very well.

ya, I agree.

 

[BaldHeadedDork]

Hey guys, when someone asks for advice about an AMD rig, I don't see Intel fans questioning their choice. Why don't you try it sometime. Or become Jehova's Witnesses so when you want to sell people on your religion they have the option of closing the door on you.




BHD

 

[Caffinehog]

Woah, folks... relax. Let's not turn this into an Intel/AMD war. This guy has already said he has a budget of $1500-2000. It also appears that he wants top performance, and money is not a big issue. That's Intel territory, folks.
Sure, AMD will come close, and it's worth noting. Don't bash someone for mentioning it. But unless AMD can seriously outperform this, or the intel can't be kept under budget, there's no reason for anyone to push AMD.

 

[Cjwinnit]

First off, Welcome to the forum. I hope you enjoy it here

Just to raise a point. When you said this:

You can flame at me if I sounded like a moron.

Even if I wanted to ( which I don't ) I couldn't flame you. Just in case any of you forgot:

Forum Code of Conduct:

We are especially concerned that EVERYONE who comes here finds a warm welcome and is well received. To this end, we have established over time a few simple rules which allow for a broad diversity of opinions and points of view to express themselves, without creating disharmony and ill-will. They are as follows:

1. Absolutely NO personal attacks will be tolerated, no exceptions!
2. No hard language is permitted. If you feel you absolutely must swear the use of Stars (*) can convey your feeling with out endangering your place in our forums. Saying "S***!" is allowed. Saying "YOU S*** is never allowed, ever!!

In three words you can sum this up: "No flaming, ever." Don't forget this guys.

Now, your system:

It looks ok, but i'd follow BHD's advice about the chip. You don't need it that powerful. And don't worry, we can guide you through overclocking it if you decide to, that's what we are here for .

Going RAID might be a decent idea if you want speed but you could just get a raptor and a WD SE drive (get a smaller one) for backup. Save $50 on the chip and spend it on better storage ( I'm a storage freak )

Caffienehog was onto something when he siad get a board with PATA RAID. you could go that way too. But if you get a RAID setup, be sure to backup.

Enjoy your new system when you get it. By the way, do you like science?

 

[Caffinehog]

Yeah, the P4P800 or the P4C800 might be the way to go... they have onboard gigabit ethernet, so you won't have to buy a PCI card, and they have SATA RAID. The P4P800-DELUXE has PATA raid, so you could use cheaper drives.

The WD raptor is an OK idea, but... it's only 37gb, and it costs as much as other drives. While it outperforms all other ATA drives by a good margin, it will be outperformed by a PATA raid array.
If money is no issue, you could set a pair of these up in RAID 0, and then use another drive for storage. This would provide awesome performance. But the total setup would go for about $450, as compared to about $250 for PATA raid or $300 for SATA raid.
The choice here is really up to the person spending the money.

 

[Cjwinnit]

If money is no issue, you could set a pair of these up in RAID 0, and then use another drive for storage. This would provide awesome performance. But the total setup would go for about $450, as compared to about $250 for PATA raid or $300 for SATA raid.

I would go for this too, but you might end up running out of mobo headers:

Assume you have 2 controllers, with 2 hearers each. One is RAID, the other ATA. on that ATA controller you have to fit a backup hard disk and two optcal drives. Problem here is ideally you want all the devices to have their own dedicated channel (header). It just means somewhere something will have to take a minor hit in performance. With SATA this won't happen, but it's more expensive.

Tough call.

 

[Caffinehog]

Truly, though, the difference here is small, and the $200 difference is over 10% of the budget. Since PATA drives in RAID 0 will cost less than the single drive initially mentioned, and will offer a huge performance gain, PATA RAID is probably the wise choice.

 

[Cjwinnit]

Since PATA drives in RAID 0 will cost less than the single drive initially mentioned, and will offer a huge performance gain, PATA RAID is probably the wise choice.

With that in mind i'll agree. Try to get a mobo with PATA RAID.

Anyone know a good one with the 875 chipset?

 

[Caffinehog]

Let's talk cooling: Dont' bother with water for Intel. If you can't get a certain overclock with an SLK-900-U for $47, you won't get much more with watercooling. It's a different story with AMD's little silicon blast furnaces, but we're talking intel here. This and a good 92mm fan will keep it quiet and cool.
A Panaflo M1A would be a good balance between noise and aiflow.

 

[Caffinehog]

Anyone know a good one with the 875 chipset?

That's gonna be hard to find.
P4C800-E Deluxe has it, for $225

But the P4P800 Deluxe has it for $150. Of course, it's only springdale, the 865PE chipset, but it outperforms most canterwood boards.

 

[stompah]

Since its your first PC you should research your motherbaord choice. No need to look for reviews of people clocking it to the max but rather look for reliabilty at stock speeds and try for a motherboard that has a low DOA rate. Last thing you need to do is chase down a bad component.

Whether you go AMD or Intel you will be fine.

as stated above 120g western Digital drives can be found cheap. So cheap in fact that it would be more economic to buy 2 and buy an extra RAID card even if you dont use teh RAID you can use it for extra IDE connections.

Lots of good advice was mentioned above. You seem like you dont want to skinp on monitor. I hope you have that same feeling towards keyboard, mouse, desk and chair. I have a syncmaster 950p which is the less glitzy brother to the 955 you should be happy with the 955 if you go taht route but remember that model has been around for a while and it may behoove you to look at more recent release.