Help Decide New Computer Parts

[MoeBackus]

Hey everyone,

I'm helping my friend build a new computer and I think we've come up with a final list of the parts we want. I am wondering if everything is compatable? I've checked and I'm pretty sure everything is, I just want to make sure. Also, if anyone has any recommendations on other parts or what not feel free to suggest them. I can tell you this is going to be used to mainly games.

Thanks for the help.

Antec Performance I P180B
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811129017
ASUS A8N5X
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131569
XFX PV-T73G-UDD3
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814150140
Thermaltake TR2 W0070
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817153023
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103539
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145440
BenQ FP91G+
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16824014090
NEC 16X DVD±R
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827152058
Logitech X-230
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16836121123

 

[xanis]

Ok, let me put in my two cents on this: You would be better off getting a cheaper case and spending the money to get 2GB of RAM. It would also be wise to make this an AM2 platform to be as up-to-date as you can.

 

[bamacre]

Get a 3500+...
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80717-5

And a 7900 GT. Video card performance is a hell of a lot more important than cpu performance when it comes to gaming.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: bamacre
Get a 3500+...
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80717-5

And a 7900 GT. Video card performance is a hell of a lot more important than cpu performance when it comes to gaming.

Not entirely true. If you get a ******-ass CPU and a rockin' video card, you'r games won't be that great. But I see where you were going with it.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Xanis

Originally posted by: bamacre
Get a 3500+...
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80717-5

And a 7900 GT. Video card performance is a hell of a lot more important than cpu performance when it comes to gaming.

Not entirely true. If you get a ******-ass CPU and a rockin' video card, you'r games won't be that great. But I see where you were going with it.

I just said video card performance is more important than cpu performance, didn't say cpu performance was unimportant.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

to start the changes heres a few i'd make:
-new psu, TT= crap. i'd look into Fortron, Enermax, or Seasonic in the 400-600 range depending on your budget.
-benq doesn't make the best quality monitors, NEC, Samsung, sony, viewsonic make much better monitors
-go for a dual core
-2gb of ram is usually the recommended, but if you get 1 x 1gb now you should upgrade to 2 x 1gb very soon
-logitech speakers are crap. no mids and boomy bass and the x-230 will show you exactly what i'm saying.
-good choice on case (as many people seem to like it, but i'd get a lian li for the price instead)
-good choice on motherboard.
-can't go wrong with NEC dvd burner

 

[MoeBackus]

Ok, so I guess I should look for a new monitor, any recommendations? The budget is around $1000.
The speakers were pretty much a place holder and my friend is looking into them.
I forgot to add a hard drive, but I know it should be SATA 2 and should have a capacity of 100 GB or more.
The motherboard I just noticed, doesn't support SATA 2, so does anyone have any recommendations?
The video card is also something that I need recommendations for.
And about the PSU, won't it do just fine?

Thanks.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

sataI and sataII dont really make much of a difference... if any at all. even my 150gb raptor is SATA I
i think a 160gb hdd can be had for about 60? stick withthe motherboard, its a good one. video card depends on what you like in games.. ati card will provide you with better eye candy(image quality) when playing games at high frame rates). for nvidia cards, they will play fine at 0 image quality or low settings but turning up the image quality settings will lower your FPS incredibly as compared to ati's.
and NO that psu won't do fine. TT psu's are overrated and specs aren't accurate. fan noise is also high. go for a Seasonic, or FSP with 120mm fan or an Enermax.

 

[SparkyJJO]

NEC monitors are really nice but kinda pricey, so I'd go with a viewsonic. Samsungs aren't bad but they don't seem to have as vivid of color as NEC or Viewsonic.

As far as hard drives go, I cannot recommend WD - I've had so many go bad on me it isn't funny. Samsung and Seagate I recommend, never had trouble with those two. The seagate 7200.8 series you don't want but the others are fine.

video card - Get a 7900 series if you want nvidia. I personally prefer ATI but that's just me, I would get a X1800 or better if you had the money. I'm using a X1900XT. I disagree with LOUISSSSS tho, nvidia doesn't slow down that much when turning on eye candy. They are definitely capable of more than just low settings But ATI does have better image quality overall and less of a slowdown when in HDR rendering and some anti-aliasing methods from what I've read, I've never compared the two personally.

I've heard that Thermaltake PSUs aren't all that great in the long run. A PSU is something that you don't want to skimp on because it can do a whole lot of damage if it isn't right - my brother saw a hard drive literally burst into flames because of a bad PSU so don't skimp Fortron, Seasonic, and Enermax are all good PSUs. Antec used to be really good too but I guess recently they have been going down the tubes... I didn't know that so I bought a new antec PSU recently and I'm stuck right now. Hopefully it'll be fine *fingers crossed*

 

[ForumMaster]

Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 - $49

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 3800 2000Mhz Socket 939 - $297

Heat sink: Zalman CNPS7000B-CU LED - $40

Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - $105

RAM: CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit - $81

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA NCQ 3Gb/s ST3160812AS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $70

Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-NX76G256D-RH GeForce 7600GS 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Silent - $112

CD/DVD Drive: ASUS 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With 5X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model DRW-1608P3S BK - $32

Floppy Drive: NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - $7

Power Supply: FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX400-PN, RoHS, 12cm FAN, version 2.0, 2 SATA, 20+ 4 pin, PCI Express, 400W Power Supply - $42

Monitor: ViewSonic Optiquest Q7B3 Black 17" 8ms LCD Monitor - $150

Keyboard/Mouse: Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 B2L-00047 Black USB Ergonomics Keyboard Mouse Included - $25

Speakers: Logitech X-530 70 Watts 5.1 Speaker - $54

here is a computer for $1058 on newegg. too lazy to link everything but search and you'll find everything. i skimped a bit on the monitor and graphic card, but you get a nice dual core CPU and a good cooler that you can overclock. plus the video card is silent and you also get 5.1 speakers.

 

[polypterus]

Why do people always recommend X2's for gaming systems? An X2 3800+ is considerably slower in single apps (IE all games) than its single core counterpart which costs half as much.

Anyway, I just built a computer around the motherboard you're looking at. I went with a 3800+ ($60 less than the 3700+ you've got there). I too think that case is overkill, I got the Centurion 5 when it was $40 shipped and it's really nice. I was recommended an XClio 450w psu for a good budget psu and it's perfect and I've got quite a lot of crap hooked up to it (4hdds, tv card, sound card etc). The 7600gt is good (I'd go with EVGA over XFX) but I agree get a 7900 if you can afford it.

So how about this. That's $700 shipped which leaves you $300 for a monitor and speakers. Or if you get the 7900gt it's $800, still enough for a good 19" LCD but you'll be living in silence.