Building a new monster rig

[imported_fx]

ABIT AN8 32X- $200
AMD Athlon FX-57 (Single Core, 2.8GHz)-$814
TT Big Typhoon - $49
OCZ Platinum 2x1GB - $221
eVGA 7800GTX 512mb-$750
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty - $265
BenQ DW1655 - $46.50
WD Raptor 150 GB - $286.00
Seasonic 600W - $153.99
Dell 2405FPW - $879.20

Cost- $3665

 

[darXoul]

Some good ideas up there but some things are not worth it IMO, whether you have limited or unlimited funds. They are:

- single core FX processors (still costly, plus not significantly faster and less future proof than good dual core chips),
- the X-Fi Fatal1ty card (the front panel with remote looks pretty useless, and the X-RAM only brings performance in specifically optimized games, which are not too numerous; plus it really makes little sense in the age of 1-2 GB systems) and
- the Dell 2405FPW (ghosting - this monitor gets surprisingly great opinions here but many reliable review sites, mostly European ones, write about massive ghosting in fast games - the 12 ms S-PVA panel is pretty slow),
- Raptor HDDs (small and loud, plus don't count on any fps increases in games thanks to them).

Here's what I would get if I wanted to buy a powerful gaming comp now:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Zalman CNPS 9500 LED or a Thermalright heatsink + 120 mm cooler
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, ASUS A8N-SLI Premium or, most likely, ASUS A8R-MVP
2 x 1 GB fast CL 2 memory (e.g. OCZ, Mushkin, Corsair, G.Skill, PDP, Kingston, etc.)
ATi Radeon X1900XTX
Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Music
good 16x DVD burner (e.g. BenQ or NEC)
FDD
SilverStone Strider ST60F 600W
1-2 x WD Caviar 16 MB 7200 rpm 320 GB SATA II (WD3200KS) or, if you really want it that bad, Raptor 150 GB + 400-500 GB SATA II storage disk
a good case - I recommend mine, the Aerocool AeroEngine Jr. Black - good, 'no bullshit' case with good manufacturing quality, enough space and 3 LED quiet fans
Logitech Z-5500 speakers if you want 5.1 or Klipsch or Logitech Z-2300 if you want 2.1, plus headset, e.g. Medusa 5.1, SteelSound 5H (a good one!) or Sennheiser PC160
Logitech MX518 mouse
any decent keyboard (Logitech UltraX is good, if you like laptop keyboards), or G15 for braggin' but not much else
good pad (whatever you like, I love my cloth pad - Allsop Raindrop)
Samsung 244t 24" 6 ms S-PVA widescreen monitor or Samsung 204B 20" 5 ms TN display (if you don't want to spend as much money, don't care much about crappy vertical viewing angle or are afraid of encountering input lag on the 24" behemoth)

This is what I would get, and what I WILL get soon unless G71 miraculously manages to defeat the X1900 in games like F.E.A.R. or CoD2.

 

[Kryhs]

So I get an SLI mobo but an ATI card? I haven't researched too much about SLI but isn't it nVidia technology? Isn't ATi's something else?

 

[imported_fx]

I totally agree with you, Kryhs. I think SLI motherboard is worth for nvidia cards and of course I think SLI with ati cards is totally waste of money.. so which rig do you like that was listed by members that recommend or prehaps you have some another thoughts?

 

[darXoul]

You can run an ATi card just fine on an nVidia chipset mobo. As for the two ASUS mobos I listed, they are good because of features, performance, passive cooling... Especially the A8N32-SLI Deluxe is a great overclocker with nice single card performance. You wouldn't buy it because of SLI, of course.

Still, the A8R-MVP looks solid... and cheap. Low max vcore though, and the successor, A8R32-MVP Deluxe is coming any time now.

 

[InlineFour]

Originally posted by: Kryhs

Intel or AMD?

where were you for the last 2-3 years?

 

[Kryhs]

Originally posted by: InlineFour

Originally posted by: Kryhs

Intel or AMD?

where were you for the last 2-3 years?

I kinda dropped out of the "scene" after I built my PC.

 

[Kryhs]

Originally posted by: fx
so which rig do you like that was listed by members that recommend or prehaps you have some another thoughts?

So far a little from each sounds good. I don't particularly like the thought of spending more than $500 on a monitor, but that's LCD for you I guess...

n7 had a great basic layout, and darXoul had everything really in depth. I'm putting together a list with prices as I type this.

 

[Kryhs]

Oh, about the radeon card. When I got my 9800xt I went with ATI themselves, is there a better third party?

 

[Kryhs]

Actually, I'll ask that on the video card forum, now something about the PSU instead

Is Antec no longer top dog?

 

[darXoul]

Antec is still OK, I guess, but there have also been many reports floating around about incompatibilities, power issues, blowups...

I did an extensive search for a good, strong, possibly modular and quiet PSU, and my favorite choice now is the SilverStone Strider 600W.

 

[Kryhs]

Sorry for the one line replies I'm going down your list 1 product at a time and if I havea question I'm posting it...

Optical mouse, not laser mouse?

 

[Bobthelost]

Optical is laser For that it would be best if you could go to a brick and mortar store and try them out before you buy them. Mice and keyboards should be tested first. Anything from logitech is good in terms of mice, although i prefer microsoft keyboards.

Antec is not top dog by a mile, top dog is probably PCP&C but you don't need that. Any of the computers listed above can run on a 500W PSU without any problems at all. My recomendations (in no real order)

Seasonic s12 500W (quiet, stable, no frills)
Enermax Liberty (fairly quiet, modular design, good reviews)
Antec NeoHE (good psu but has had some compatability issues with asus boards)
Anything from PCP&C (expensive, but high build quality not good value for money imo)

 

[Kryhs]

Oh, I thought laser was newer than optical.

 

[Praxis1452]

Nope antec isn't the best. Go with Fortron. Personally it's not cost effective but if you want to build the uber rig go with
FX-60($1000)
X1900XTX($600)
Asus32 SLI premium($200)
($300)Ram I know I just estimated higher and your ram at pc4000 should do fine if its 2x1gb
PC Power&Cooling($250) 510W SLI ready power supply
OCZ phase Change unit when it comes out ($300) stock heatsink will suffice for the time being
Lian Li case( $250)
GPU cooler($50) just extra
Did I miss a part?
Sata Raid Controller ($100) not sure how RAID works hehe I think you need a raid card right?
Raptor 150gb x2(600)
1 terabyte drive ($800) or since it's a little to costly 2 x 250gb drives
DvD burner ($150)
regular dvd-rom drive($50)
That is top of the line hehe. I like spending people's money :-D

 

[darXoul]

Isn't this PCP&C PSU loud? Also, there is no A8N32-SLI Premium, just Deluxe

As for laser and optical, they are NOT the same.

I prefer the MX518 (optical) rather than the G5 (laser) because it's less picky in terms of pads, has a softer scroll wheel and more buttons. Precision is the same, you won't notice the difference between 1600 and 2000 dpi.

Edit: OK, you could consider laser a refinement of the optical tech.

 

[Bobthelost]

Some of the advice here has been bloody terrible.

If you're not going to be using SLI then you should NOT buy a SLI board.

The 4800 has 92% of the performance of the FX-60 , and it's a lot lot less money, there's no reason at all to waste money on the FX when you're not going to be going SLI.

RAM 2gb of top of the line stuff, more is a waste, your old stuff is not really usable for various reasons, but in short A64s don't like using more than 2 sticks at a time.

 

[Kryhs]

Heh, I just looked at that Zalman heatsink. It sits on it's side, is that efficient?

 

[darXoul]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Some of the advice here has been bloody terrible.

If you're not going to be using SLI then you should NOT buy a SLI board.

The 4800 has 92% of the performance of the FX-60 , and it's a lot lot less money, there's no reason at all to waste money on the FX when you're not going to be going SLI.

RAM 2gb of top of the line stuff, more is a waste, your old stuff is not really usable for various reasons, but in short A64s don't like using more than 2 sticks at a time.

1. Wrong. The A8N32-SLI happens to offer fantastic overclockability, passive cooling and a single card performance to match. It is one of the top choices around, whether you go SLI or not.

2. Agreed. Even if going SLI, I still wouldn't buy the FX-60... or the X2 4800+, to be honest. The X2 4400+ offers plenty of performance and 2 x 1 MB cache at a much lower price point.

3. Agreed - 2 GB is absolutely enough, I recommend 2 x 1 GB modules FTW

 

[Bobthelost]

The 9500? It's a good heatsink, not the best (imo) but so close there's not much in it.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: darXoul
1. Wrong. The A8N32-SLI happens to offer fantastic overclockability, passive cooling and a single card performance to match. It is one of the top choices around, whether you go SLI or not.

We're not overclocking here are we? Even if we were with parts this high end there isn't all that much need for an ultra overclocking board.

The A8N32 is a wonderful board, i have it, and i'm not running SLI nor will i, but if i were doing my build again i'd have gotten an A8R MVP

 

[darXoul]

Originally posted by: Kryhs
Heh, I just looked at that Zalman heatsink. It sits on it's side, is that efficient?

The 9500? It's very efficient, it combines the well-known copper fins with heatpipes and it's one of the best coolers around. At high rpm, it's pretty noisy but close to water cooling in terms of efficienct, at low rpm, it's silent PC-ready. You can find a good compromise though - powerful cooling at a moderate/low noise level.

 

[darXoul]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: darXoul
1. Wrong. The A8N32-SLI happens to offer fantastic overclockability, passive cooling and a single card performance to match. It is one of the top choices around, whether you go SLI or not.

We're not overclocking here are we? Even if we were with parts this high end there isn't all that much need for it.

The A8N32 is a wonderful board, i have it, and i'm not running SLI nor will i, but if i were doing my build again i'd have gotten an A8R MVP

Anand's review made my eyes open real wide when I saw the single card performance e.g. in F.E.A.R., with uo to 17% higher fps. Even if Kryhs doesn't want to O/C, I think this is one of the top boards around. As for A8R-MVP, it's my current choice, though I already see the A8R32-MVP Deluxe listed at a few retailers here, though not in stock yet. The price premium will be considerable but if performance is adequate, I might grab it. Right now, the "standard" A8R-MVP is a good option. It just happens than the best boards around seem to be the ones made for SLI/Crossfire. As you surely know, both A8R's are X-Fire ready mobos.

 

[Bobthelost]

I think the 17% increase was driver based, infact i'm sure it was.

 

[Kryhs]

I threw together a doc file of my list of stuff, is there any way to attach files? If not I could rapidshare it