Considering two builds. Target: 2000-2400 dollar (without monitor etc) system.

[Gourd]

Before we get into this, let me say that my time is /very valuable to me./ So, yes. I'm paying a premium to attempt to keep from wasting it in future. I'm trying to write out as much as I feel you guys will need to help me with figuring out what to build. I completely understand if you just skip to the builds below.

My purpose here is to build a machine that may not be what a bargain hunter / upgrade enthusiast would be shooting for. I want something that will be solid for a good long while as is, then will only need a simple Vid upgrade before I get rid of it and move on.

The time I spend having to read about this and that component, pros cons of this decision, round ups of this and that video card, etc, could be used doing other things that I enjoy far more, so... I'm willing to spend a premium to not have to do this again for a while.

Basically, I'm looking to spend around 2000 (US) dollars for a killer gaming and general media (Photos, music, writing) machine. One that I will basically only have to drop a new video card (or cards) into in the future before I simply donate the whole thing to charity and build again from the ground up.

I'm not too fond of how LOCKED IN RESOLUTION flat / LCD / Etc screens perform at this point, so I'm going to keep my Sony Multiscan g520 CRT. It has great picture quality, and though I feel guilty about the energy consumption, I don't think the time is right for me to ditch it yet. ... I tend to /notice/ the little quirks of non CRT screens. Ghosting. Drives. Me. Bonkers. Odd colour banding, or colour artifacts bother me. I've been to Fry's, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc, wandering around, looking at the monitors and I just can't find an LCD that doesn't turn me off after a few minutes.

I don't need a new mouse, keyboard, or speaker system.

I tend to run several things at the same time. Word, Foobar2000, Firefox, Office, Imaging software, and if I can squeeze it in, City of Heroes. I... have the attention span of a mayfly, and like to go from one to the other. Multitasking is something I do constantly.

I have lots of photographs and music (Building a FLAC library of my music collection), and can always use more HD space. Planning to migrate over two SATA drives from my old system.

These are two builds that I am looking at. They are based on systems I read about on Arstechnica and PCstats.com

The first is based around Arstechnica's most current Performance Gaming Box, which is a 939 system.

DFI LANParty UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert

AMD Opteron 170

Two 1GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM
(Corsair? Which ones??)
(Willing to add more memory.

One NVIDIA GeForce 7900GTX or One 7900GT
(Not sure which brand. Want to stay away from overclocked ones. (HardOCP reported RMA rates and potential issues with various games)
(SLI? Any point besides bragging rights??)

Creative X-fi

Western Digital Raptor 150GB

DVD rewritable/CD-RW

Antec Performance One P180
(I like the way it looks, frankly. My wife won't constantly comment on the looks.)

Seasonic S12-600 600W




The second build is based around PCstats' June Shopping List Assistance. This system is like their AM2 High End Performance Part List.

AMD Athlon64 X2 4000+ Socket AM2 Processor
(Use a different Processor?)

Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Motherboard

2GB Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C4 DDR2 Memory
(4GB? Does the board handle EPP now?)

One NVIDIA GeForce 7900GTX or One 7900GT

150GB Western Digital Raptor Hard Drive

DVD Writer

Sound Blaster X-Fi

Seasonic S12-600 600W ATX Power Supply

Guys and gals, any suggestions, critiques, etc are welcome here. I just need to hear ideas and thoughts on these builds to give me an idea of what to go for.

 

[MrX8503]

I dont know why Arstechnica thinks a 7900gtx can beat a x1900xt. sli gtx beats crossfire x1900 though because sli has better scaling.

Video card, i guess its up to you if you want 7900gtx or x1900xt.

Anywho, i can give you some advice. If you want it to last a long time, you probably just dont want performance, but reliability as well. So i would invest in a good psu and upc. A seasonic s12 is a pretty good choice.

Harddrive wise, if your looking for space, which i think you are, i wouldnt consider the raptor. I would look at seagates new 750gb HD, or the cheapest way is to buy 4 250gb HD's for 1TB.

RAM, 2gb is good, if you want 4gb your going to take a performance hit because you'll be forced to run 2T. If not overclocking stick to basic value name brand ram.

dvd burner, i wouldnt buy anthing else except the NEC mentioned in the article.

 

[Howard]

What games will you be playing besides City of Heroes (if that's a game)?

 

[acegazda]

i like your choice in power supply in your first build, and you could go for 2x1gb OCZ platinum xtc at newegg for $153 shipped after MIR. High performance RAM, gr8 for overclocking or not from what I hear. Like Mr. X said, go for the 7200.10 series of baracuda drives from seagate they have most of the performance of the rapotors and triple the space can be had for a similar price. If you want to stay away from overclocking graphics cards, go for the x1800xt or the x1900xt. Better performance than NV stock. The 256mb version of the x1800xt is a steal at $225 shipped after MIR and the 512mb x1900xt can be found for $375 shipped after MIR...both at newegg. I would wait for conroe in your second build though (if you do go with your second build which is quite a bit more expensive than your 1st). If it lives up to the hype, you should be set for a long time. A really long time.

 

[Gourd]

Originally posted by: Howard
What games will you be playing besides City of Heroes (if that's a game)?

Basically, I haven't played many PC games in the last /four/ years or so.

I'm interested in playing:

Latest Iteration of Unreal Tournament

Battlefield 2

Call of Duty 2

Oblivion

City of Heroes / City of Villains (Love this game. Wish I could actually run it with more of the effects.)

F.E.A.R.

Half Life 2 and Half Life Episodes

Sin Episodes

Tomb Raider Legend

The Hitman Series

Spellforce 2

F.E.A.R.

Halflife 2 (Through Steam)

Fable

Dungeon Seige 2

Dreamfall The Longest Journey

Daemonica

Space Rangers 2: Rise of the Dominators

Sacred and Sacred Underworld Expansion Pack.

Divine Divinity

Beyond Divinity

The Temple of Elemental Evil ((With FAN PATCHES))

Psychonauts

Armed and Dangerous

 

[Smartazz]

Thanks for the list of games, and welcome to the forums.
It seems like a lot of new members just joined, anyone else think so?

 

[m1ldslide1]

I don't think you have to worry much about conroe or AM2 personally. Gaming is dependent on your graphics solution, not the processor for the most part. If you build a solid 939 system then you will be set for a long time and have the PCI-E slot to upgrade your video for a long time to come. You could even go SLI or Crossfire if you want, but unless you end up wanting to game at very high resolutions SLI/cross tends to be a somewhat poor solution (at least for the cost involved).

So here's my $.02:

Unless you really are an expert or plan on becoming one in the very near future, I would really really recommend staying away from the DFI Expert mobo. You should read the anand review of it -- the BIOS settings are extremely numerous and granular, and although the "auto" functions might work fine, this board is aimed strictly at the experienced overclocking enthusiast. In other words, someone who wants to spend a LOT of their time finding every possible last custom setting for the hardware they own. You will get the same or better performance out of a different motherboard, like the asus a8n32-sli deluxe (if you want high end) or something else from abit, asus, or even DFI.

I also believe the raptor is overpriced for what you get. Yeah, it's fast, but not that fast. It won't affect gaming really at all. If you want a system you won't have to upgrade then I would suggest going for size over speed for hard drives.

For a sound card I would recommend creative x-fi XtremeMusic. It's the best bang for the buck right now, and I understand that for gaming you will notice virtually no difference in a more expensive card (like the fatal1ty for instance).

For memory, I am really happy with the sticks that I own:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220040
They're only $127 after rebate, have tigher timings than any other product in the price range, and they are excellent overclockers if that is your thing. If you don't like patriot or the color red or something, then any 2x1GB set in the price range will be just fine for you.

For graphics card, I think it depends on how much you want to spend. If you want a single card solution and have some cash, then I would definately go with the x1900xt. No knocks on the 7900GTX really, but I keep reading the 1900 has better mininum frame rates in most titles.

Nice choice on the case and PSU.

 

[Howard]

OCZ Gold 2x1GB DDR2-800 - $202 + $5 shipping, $30 MIR
Sapphire X1900XT 512MB $400 + $7 shipping, $30 MIR
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic - $114, free shipping
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB - $263, free shipping
Samsung SP2504C 250GB SATA - $80, free shipping
Pioneer DVR-111D - $40, free shipping
Antec P180 - $136, free shipping
Seasonic S12-500 - $118 + ~$8 shipping

CPU/mobo depends on how long you can wait. Newegg has a one-day sale on the P180 for $125 and free shipping, so if your heart's set on it, buy it now. Same goes for the XtremeMusic card.

 

[gramboh]

A few suggestions

1) for HDD, get a Raptor 150gig and use it for OS and game installs, then get a Seagate 7200.10 (comes in sizes up to 750gig) for storing files.

2) Get a 7900GTX, it is silent and uses less power than the X1900 series. Should be good for at least a year of running games at max detail.

3) Agree that LCDs suck, Sony Trinitrons are great. If you wanted to go bigger, you can find 24 inch GDM-FW900 widescreen CRTs on eBay for $200 (used though), shipping is another $150-200 since they weigh 100 pounds.

 

[Gourd]

I just want to thank all of you. This really helped me walk through the decision making process.

This is what I think I am going to go with.




Newegg.com - Computers, Computer Parts and Electronics
My Saved Items

ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939

AMD Opteron 170

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 433 (PC 3500)
((2-3-2-6 timings. NO Flashing lights or Bling on it. A plus in my book.))

Antec Performance I P180 Computer Case

SeaSonic S12-600 ATX12V 600W Power Supply - Retail

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

SAPPHIRE 100149SR Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner

SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive

Arctic Silver Ceramique Thermal Compound

NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM

(2) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives

Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2

 

[Howard]

The 939 platform isn't very upgradeable. With the next generation of graphics cards, the CPUs might be the limiting factor, not the graphics cards. Already we're seeing Oblivion being CPU-bound with Crossfire X1900XT cards, and the scaling is pretty linear even beyond a 2.6GHz single core (admittedly, dual core gets a 10-20% increase in performance).

Well, it's not certain that the CPU will be the bottleneck.

 

[Gourd]

Thanks Howard.

I gave it a good long think, but I really have to build right now. The Wife wants my current computer as /her/ gaming computer.

The 939 platform and prices, as well as the (from all accounts) /ease/ of overclocking that Opteron was just too tempting. If I need to build another gaming system in the next two or three years, I'll just give this computer to the wife, and do the charity thing again.

By the time CPUs become a huge factor, from what I have read, I may be back in another phase of my life where I won't be playing Computer games. That happens to me every three years or so.

I don't want to take up anyone's time, or make this thread longer! There are lots of others out there who need help.

I sincerely appreciate all the advice everyone gave.

 

[MrX8503]

no problem. enjoy your new rig. One last thing, why do you need two dvd drives?

I just looked up your ram, and its quite expensive. Theres two things to consider when choosing ram. Overclock? buy oc ram, if not buy value ram. Timings dont really affect A64 because of the onboard memory controller so for oc ram i wouldnt buy anything more than $200. Check out gskill and ocz, their pricing is pretty competitive.