Assembling gaming machine...

[mitarbl]

I`m assembling a gaming computer (no overclocking i just want it to work great without it), and I need your oppinion and advice. Here`s what im considering

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D (i this good option for non sli board?)
2x OCZ Platinum 1GB DDR 400 (can i go with faster memory on this mainboard?)
ASUS 7800GTX 256MB 256-bit GDDR3
HDD - any suggestions? i thought about WDC 160 GB SATA
Sound card - do i need one? is onboard 8 channel sound enough for good gaming and 7.1 preformance? or should i get SB Live, Audigy or something like that (if difference is really noticable)
Plextor DVD-RW (any suggestions?), and maybe another ASUS DVD-ROM.
I need a recomendation for a good PSU, maybe around 400W would be good.

Secondly, i want 21" LCD monitor, and i couldnt find any thats 8ms beside NEC LCD2170NX-BK? Is it any good? Is it realy 2" diagonal difference between 21" and 19" LCD?

Lots of questions, but i hope some of you will have time to answer, thans alot

 

[MobiusPizza]

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego

Drop 4000+ and get 3700+ and overclock it to and save money, since DFI Lanparty is the best overclocking board out there. Also DO NOT BUY San Diego if you aren't overclocking. San Diego's only advantage over Venice is their unlocked multiplier which is great for overclocking. The 1MB cache over 512kb cache doesn't worth the extra at all.

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D (i this good option for non sli board?)

This board although is great it is not newbie friendly. It's for enthusiasts. The BIOS options are not explained well and need some online research. For that matter you might want a more friendly board. However this board rocks in trinity reliability, overclockerbility and performance.

2x OCZ Platinum 1GB DDR 400 (can i go with faster memory on this mainboard?)

If you plan to go with DFI LAnParty motherboard. You CAN'T miss OCZ Gold VX PC4000 RAM. It is the fastest RAM if you can give it 3.2-3.3 Volt power which exclusively DFI motherboard can give. It is garanteed by OCZ to run 2-2-2-6 timing at 250Mhz FSB at 3.2V. Only if you are going for DFI that is.

ASUS 7800GTX 256MB 256-bit GDDR3

Have you look into BFG and eVGA? I think they have lifetime warranty

HDD - any suggestions? i thought about WDC 160 GB SATA

250GB HDD have to best price/GB ratio. You might want to look into it. Segate and WD both make good drives.

Sound card - do i need one? is onboard 8 channel sound enough for good gaming and 7.1 preformance? or should i get SB Live, Audigy or something like that (if difference is really noticable)

If you are spending this much money on a PC you might as well get X-Fi sound card. It's not bad except the price
Also, for gaming soundcards DO increase significantly the sound quality (Due to EAX) and improve performance on games (Due to saving processor power).

Plextor DVD-RW is great. It's a bit overpriced though.

Enermax is the PSU brand I recommend. It's better than Antec but well I don't know where you are from. You might get Fortron or so

Secondly, i want 21" LCD monitor, and i couldnt find any thats 8ms beside NEC LCD2170NX-BK? Is it any good? Is it realy 2" diagonal difference between 21" and 19" LCD?

Yes. It's a big difference. Currently for 21" Dell's FP2001 is a good deal. If you can afford go for the widescreen 2405FPW. The fact it is widescreen is much elegent for movies and games. It is 24" but have the about same height as 21" because it is widescreen

 

[ribbon13]

Try this for 21" 8ms

As for PSUs, I'd reccomend not skimping when you have a lot of expensive hardware on the line, especially top of the line video cards. My first reccomendation would be a Seasonic S12-500 or 600.

 

[eXx08]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
Drop 4000+ and get 3700+ and overclock it to and save money, since DFI Lanparty is the best overclocking board out there
This board although is great it is not newbie friendly. It's for enthusiasts. The BIOS options are not explained well and need some online research. For that matter you might want a more friendly board. However this board rocks in trinity reliability, overclockerbility and performance.

250GB HDD have to best price/GB ratio. You might want to look into it. Segate and WD both make good drives.
If you are spending this much money on a PC you might as well get X-Fi sound card. It's not bad except the price

Plextor DVD-RW is great. It's a bit overpriced though.

Enermax is the PSU brand I recommend. It's better than Antec but well I don't know where you are from. You might get Fortron or so

Secondly, i want 21" LCD monitor, and i couldnt find any thats 8ms beside NEC LCD2170NX-BK? Is it any good? Is it realy 2" diagonal difference between 21" and 19" LCD?

Yes. It's a big difference. Currently for 21" Dell's FP2001 is a good deal. If you can afford go for the widescreen 2405FPW. The fact it is widescreen is much elegent for movies and games. It is 24" but have the about same height as 21" because it is widescreen

Dude why would you recomend overclocking when the OP said he wasn't going to.

Not 4000+, get a X2 3800+
The dell is good monitor
Sound card is highly recomended but if you dont want to waste your money, then dont do it
HDD you picked out is nice
If your not OC'ing drop the DFI and get like a MSI K8N-Neo 4 Platinum/(SLI your choice)

Get the Xclio 450BL for a very good inexpensive PSU 450 watts.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Also you can ask me anything if you don't understand about BIOS setting for DFI and Overclocking.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: thekillerjks
Dude why would you recomend overclocking when the OP said he wasn't going to.

lol sorry I missed the bracket
well AMD is so overclockble that it is a waste not to

Well most of my selection still applies
Platinum RAM will do for non overclocking purpose.

 

[mitarbl]

Thanx, I`m form Bosnia, but parts like CPU, Memory, Mainboard, and Graphic i would order from newegg or something like that.
About the board, I wont meddle with bios, and advance options, i just want it to run smoothly, fast, and reliable.
250 GB you say? what about preformance? speed is more important to me than capacity.
X-Fi card is a "little" to expencive, i think im gonna go with something like Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value SB0400 its around 70$ - but i heard that it downgrades game performances when EAX options enabled. Any 7.1 speakers to reccomend?
I think enermax or fotron can be obtained in my country, so i will look in to it. Thanx

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: mitarbl
Thanx, I`m form Bosnia, but parts like CPU, Memory, Mainboard, and Graphic i would order from newegg or something like that.
About the board, I wont meddle with bios, and advance options, i just want it to run smoothly, fast, and reliable.
250 GB you say? what about preformance? speed is more important to me than capacity.
X-Fi card is a "little" to expencive, i think im gonna go with something like Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value SB0400 its around 70$ - but i heard that it downgrades game performances when EAX options enabled. Any 7.1 speakers to reccomend?
I think enermax or fotron can be obtained in my country, so i will look in to it. Thanx

The problem with DFI though is you would need to meddle with it to get optimal performance :/ If you don't meddle it, (at least change the RAM timing) it is a waste of resources on buying good components.
So even if it is a great board, I am afraid I have to recommend what the guy said earlier, go with something else like MSI. Though if you built your computer come back here send me PM and I can help you with the settigns.

well 250GB drives are faster than 160GB ones because of 2 reasons
i) Higher aerial platter density (The disc contains more data at higher density, at same 7200 rotations per minute more data can be accessed)
ii) The 250GB HDD are newer and hence more optimised

Well Xi-Fi music the cheapest variant is affordable. The new EAX 5.0 should be great for games.
Enabling EAX does not eat much performance since calaulations are dedicated to sound cards. And the sound quality increases a lot.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego

Drop 4000+ and get 3700+ and overclock it to and save money, since DFI Lanparty is the best overclocking board out there. Also DO NOT BUY San Diego if you aren't overclocking. San Diego's only advantage over Venice is their unlocked multiplier which is great for overclocking. The 1MB cache over 512kb cache doesn't worth the extra at all.

WTF are you talking about? only the FX series have unlocked multipliers. The only difference between Venice and San Diego is the cache.

Personally I'm going for a X2 3800+ and o/c it like a bat out of hell.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego

Drop 4000+ and get 3700+ and overclock it to and save money, since DFI Lanparty is the best overclocking board out there. Also DO NOT BUY San Diego if you aren't overclocking. San Diego's only advantage over Venice is their unlocked multiplier which is great for overclocking. The 1MB cache over 512kb cache doesn't worth the extra at all.

WTF are you talking about? only the FX series have unlocked multipliers. The only difference between Venice and San Diego is the cache.

Personally I'm going for a X2 3800+ and o/c it like a bat out of hell.

San Diego = core code name for FX isn't it? Or they made FX with San Diego core but have normal San Diego as well?

 

[PKing1977]

Drop the single core and look at a dual core X2 chip. The new drivers are right around the corner from Nvidia..

PKing

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego

Drop 4000+ and get 3700+ and overclock it to and save money, since DFI Lanparty is the best overclocking board out there. Also DO NOT BUY San Diego if you aren't overclocking. San Diego's only advantage over Venice is their unlocked multiplier which is great for overclocking. The 1MB cache over 512kb cache doesn't worth the extra at all.

WTF are you talking about? only the FX series have unlocked multipliers. The only difference between Venice and San Diego is the cache.

Personally I'm going for a X2 3800+ and o/c it like a bat out of hell.

San Diego = core code name for FX isn't it? Or they made FX with San Diego core but have normal San Diego as well?

San Diego is just the codename for the cores with 1mb, FX-57 is a San Diego, but so are all the other 1 mb CPU's.

 

[Deathcharge]

Originally posted by: mitarbl
Thanx, I`m form Bosnia, but parts like CPU, Memory, Mainboard, and Graphic i would order from newegg or something like that.
About the board, I wont meddle with bios, and advance options, i just want it to run smoothly, fast, and reliable.
250 GB you say? what about preformance? speed is more important to me than capacity.
X-Fi card is a "little" to expencive, i think im gonna go with something like Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value SB0400 its around 70$ - but i heard that it downgrades game performances when EAX options enabled. Any 7.1 speakers to reccomend?
I think enermax or fotron can be obtained in my country, so i will look in to it. Thanx

How can you buy things from newegg they dont ship internationally? i am from Australia and parts from the US are much cheaper (even with the added international postage) would be very interested to know.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: Deathcharge

Originally posted by: mitarbl
Thanx, I`m form Bosnia, but parts like CPU, Memory, Mainboard, and Graphic i would order from newegg or something like that.
About the board, I wont meddle with bios, and advance options, i just want it to run smoothly, fast, and reliable.
250 GB you say? what about preformance? speed is more important to me than capacity.
X-Fi card is a "little" to expencive, i think im gonna go with something like Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value SB0400 its around 70$ - but i heard that it downgrades game performances when EAX options enabled. Any 7.1 speakers to reccomend?
I think enermax or fotron can be obtained in my country, so i will look in to it. Thanx

How can you buy things from newegg they dont ship internationally? i am from Australia and parts from the US are much cheaper (even with the added international postage) would be very interested to know.

Newegg stated clearly that it does not ship internationally :/

 

[Gadzookie]

Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 49.00
FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN ATX12V 450W Power Supply 49.99

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Socket 939 Processor 190.00
EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard 95.00
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) Memory 90.50
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 65.00
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A 39.90
NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive 8.49
XFX Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E Video Card 280.00

Total 867.88


thats all you need for gaming if your not overclocking why go DFI ?

 

[kleinwl]

If not overclocking drop the DFI and go with MSI/Chaintec/Epox/ASUS
The DFI requires alot of knowledge to get working correctly

AMD 4200 X2
2x1GB OCZ Value Ram
Hitachi H7K250 (250GB SATAII)
BENQ DW1640 (DVD Burmer)
BFG 7800GT
A2 Value soundcard
Seasonic 500 OR Antec SonantaII w/ 450W PSU

 

[GamerExpress]

Originally posted by: kleinwl
If not overclocking drop the DFI and go with MSI/Chaintec/Epox/ASUS
The DFI requires alot of knowledge to get working correctly

AMD 4200 X2
2x1GB OCZ Value Ram
Hitachi H7K250 (250GB SATAII)
BENQ DW1640 (DVD Burmer)
BFG 7800GT
A2 Value soundcard
Seasonic 500 OR Antec SonantaII w/ 450W PSU

Yep I second this build.

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

Originally posted by: mitarbl
Thanx, I`m form Bosnia, but parts like CPU, Memory, Mainboard, and Graphic i would order from newegg or something like that.
About the board, I wont meddle with bios, and advance options, i just want it to run smoothly, fast, and reliable.
250 GB you say? what about preformance? speed is more important to me than capacity.
X-Fi card is a "little" to expencive, i think im gonna go with something like Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value SB0400 its around 70$ - but i heard that it downgrades game performances when EAX options enabled. Any 7.1 speakers to reccomend?
I think enermax or fotron can be obtained in my country, so i will look in to it. Thanx

I'm not really up on motherboards, but the A8N SLI Premium, people really tend to like it if you're not planning on overclocking. Definitely works much smoother out of the box than the DFI - if you want simple, and not have to tweak BIOS just to get it stable with your RAM - get the ASUS.

I vote stay with onboard sound. (Especially with the DFI; it does have a good sound chip.)

San Diego's are NOT unlocked. San Diego = Venice with twice the cache. That said, the 4000+ is actually a good choice for gaming. IF the main focus is gaming, and you're not going to overclock, you will get MUCH better performance from your investment if you stay with a high-end single-core.

HDD: For speed, go with a Western Digital Raptor SATA drive. It's 10.000 RPM, comes in 36GB and 72GB, as I recall. Someone let me know if there's a faster ATA HDD.

I agree with the PSU requirement. Get a very good one right from the start.

 

[imported_Nirvana]

EVGA 7800 GT. Lifetime warranty + overclocking covered in the warranty + Good support + 90 day step up option to upgrade to a newer card if it comes out = The Winner.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I like my ASUS EAX850XT PE a lot just for the OP to know.

Also, if you aren't overclocking just get a basic PCI-E mobo like the one in my sig.

Good luck & enjoy that rig, it's going to be a beast.

 

[designit]

Also check this Link guide for motherboards by members here. Can help you narrow it down

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I think your decision to get a soundcard should be based on how much you plan on spending on your speakers/headphones.

As for a 7.1 recommendation, I'd say that more is not always better as far as number of speakers. Many of the upper end computer speaker sets are 5.1 and some 7.1 sets seem to be geared towards someone that just wants more speakers.

I have up lower quality 7.1 to higher quality 5.1 and I'm glad I did.

If you're looking at maybe $150 for a 5.1 set then Logitech z-5300s would be a good bet.

Beyond that there's the Logitech z-5500s, Klipsch Promedias, Creative Gigaworks, and then entry level HT solutions.