May I have your opinion on this rig?

[mordeth]

Hey everyone, I am posting this in a few categories, so please let me know if this is off-topic for this specific category:

I am going to buy parts for my computer very soon and just wanted general recommendations from everyone here at the board. These are the specs, feel free to change to recommend ANY changes (but please explain why ):

CPU: AMD 2800+ Thoroughbred
Googlegear $364 + free shipping = $364
Motherboard: nForce 2 Epox 8RDA
Newegg $88 + $5 shipping = $93
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
Newegg $348 + free shipping = $348
Memory: Samsung PC2700 DDR333 512MB
Newegg $78 + $4 shipping = $82
Hard Drive: Western Digital 120GB Caviar w/ 8MB Buffer
Googlegear $135 + free shipping = $135
Case: Antec Performance Plus AMG1080
PageComputer $101.34 + $26.18 shipping = $127.50
Total $1,149.50

A couple of notes:

• I used PriceGrabber.com for most of these prices. Do you guys recommend any other websites that compare prices?

• What is the difference between the AMD 2800+ Thoughbred and the 2800+ Barton? I noticed that the Barton has increased cache but lower clock speed. Is this correct and how does it affect performance? Which do you recommend?

• Which do you like better the Samsung (PC2700 DDR333 512MB) or the Kingston (PC2700 DDR333 512MB)?

I am open to all suggestions, if you think I should spend a little more money or am spending too much money, by all means feel free to reply. My apologies if this was off-topic or if the format was wrong.

Thank you all in advance!

 

[toant103]

pretty nice setup. But i would find a cheaper video card. get anthoer 9700 pro.

Get everything from newegg. Easy if you have to do RMA

 

[mordeth]

thanks for replying, unfortunately newegg doesn't bundle the 2800+ with the Epox 8RDA, so I can't get those 2 from newegg. I was thinking of getting the 9800 Pro since i game a lot, do you recommend another brand (Sapphire) besides ATI?

 

[Regs]

You are the only person I know as of yet willing to blow over 100 dollars over a case! Big case, good PSU, and a few fan vents should not cost 100+ dollars. Water cooling is at best...not worth 100+ dollars. Considering a stock 2800+ AMD will not reach clock speeds for that use without creating an unstable/unbalanced system.

Newegg offers 'free' shipping on most of their products. So you dont have to spend 27 dollars for shipping for each item! If you order the parts in a bundle from newegg you don't have to waste your cash for a shipping frenzy.

And from what I hear, the encreased cache of the AMD's (bartons) don't offer much greater performance like what the p4 northwood saw when it encreased its cache. As always though, the less the cpu has to ask for processes over the FSB the less strain it has to deal with and much faster the regular processes get done. I really do not think its worth the cash, for a 512k P4 yes, but not for a AMD Athlon.

As for ram, I'f you do not intend to overclock your FSB to hell and gone, Kingston will do just fine. If you are a major overclocker, Corsair or Crucial. They are somewhat more of the expensive brands.

From the money you will save on shipping alone on newegg, you can add another 120 GIG HDD to your system.

 

[mechBgon]

mordeth, just FYI, it's generally not a good idea to cross-post the same thread in more than one forum General Hardware is the better forum for this type of question. But don't feel bad about it, you just arrived

Regs, remember that the Antec case and power supply are backed by a 3-year warranty that actually means something. That doesn't come for free. If I were going to rant about something, I wouldn't rant about quality-made products costing too much... I'd rant about cheap bright cheap shiny cheap junk that looks fancy but doesn't walk the talk. LOL, just my own 2c worth...

 

[tjaisv]

You got a nice system there, Mordeth. Like Regs said, the current performance gain of going with Barton over T-Bred isn't that much.

As far as which brand RAM to go with, the ones you named are good. Just make sure you get CAS2 memory, it's better than CAS2.5

Check out pricegrabber.com too.

 

[mordeth]

Thanks for the advice Regs, didn't think about all the shipping, and the case is pretty important to me (size and airflow) but i was looking at the 660 instead, so i'll take what you said into consideration, it makes sense.

mechBgone sorry about the crossposting and thanks for letting me know.

tjaisv, is there a price difference between the CAS2 and CAS2.5, and if so, is the gain from the CAS2 justified in the price?

 

[Regs]

3 year warrenty, in the name of Tim Allen from tool time...ArrrHuuu?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Regs
3 year warrenty, in the name of Tim Allen from tool time...ArrrHuuu?

Never watched Tool Time, so I don't know the significance of that but I've got 21 Antecs in my work fleet (so far) and don't regret it a bit. Quality pays in the long run, and I need to get at least four years (hopefully five) out of these beasties.

 

[tjaisv]

tjaisv, is there a price difference between the CAS2 and CAS2.5, and if so, is the gain from the CAS2 justified in the price?

Like $15-20 more for CAS2...a lot of people think the performance boost from the decreased latency is significant enough

 

[toant103]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: Regs
3 year warrenty, in the name of Tim Allen from tool time...ArrrHuuu?

Never watched Tool Time, so I don't know the significance of that but I've got 21 Antecs in my work fleet (so far) and don't regret it a bit. Quality pays in the long run, and I need to get at least four years (hopefully five) out of these beasties.

i'm pretty happy with my Enermax

 

[Regs]

Well there is one other thing I can add about the Barton. If you bought a 2500+ Barton like I did, you can over clock the sucker well above 2.0 Ghz. I've have it set around 2.35 Ghz with the ABS and CPU temps running around 50-55 c . The barton cores run much cooler then the Thoroughbreds so they are easier to overclock.

 

[xSauronx]

if it were me, id oc a slower barton or t-bred with a large hs/f and save money there (maybe just me though), ive read the latest t-breds oc like crazy
good choice on the hd, those 8mb drives fly, have you checked the hot deals forum? always something in there to save some money on a nice drive there, got the 100g 8mb drive for cheap from an ad in there not long ago, definitely check in there