new build - all opinions wanted and welcome

[MrDudeMan]

my girlfriend wants a computer so here is what weve put together so far...

monitor - 2405FPW
PSU - antec neo HE 550 - $123
motherboard - epox 9NPA+ultra - $105
ram - corsair VS DDR400 2x 1gb - $190
video - connect3d GTO which will hopefully unlock to X850XTPE - $195
hdd - maxtor DM10 200gb - $90
cpu - venice 3200+...hoping for 2.4ghz and that will be good enough - $152
$51 for kb and mouse, not changing either of these.

total is $906.


very open for criticism...let me know what you think. the price needs to stay below 900, excluding the monitor of course.

 

[akugami]

What is she doing with it to warrant that monitor? I really would have to rethink the 2405FPW, maybe the 2005FPW. Most people I've talked to say that one has to get used to the size of the 2405FPW, tendency to swivel their heads a bit to view the whole monitor.

The parts seem really good, except that I prefer Seagate HD's to Maxtor or Western Digitals. There's nothing I'd really change.

 

[alimoalem]

looks like a decent system. if i would change anything, this is what i would do:

PSU: seems a little expensive for the amount of OCing you'll be doing
video: looks good but you could consider the 6800gs
cpu: you could consider opteron cpus. maybe the 144. if not, u could go with the 3000 if you want to save more

 

[ROJAS]

2405FPW is around $ 929 to $1000. So actual price is $906 plus the monitor price. $1800 plus

If you drop that large monitor to a 2005FPW, they are $579 to $650.

 

[Some1ne]

Looks good, although is she a computer geek, or is it just you? If she's not a gamer and not a power user, you could go with a lower-end graphics card and only 1 GB of RAM, and maybe add in a bigger HDD and a DVD burner.

If she's not tech-savvy, then I'd question the wisdom of giving her overclocked and/or "unlocked" parts, as if something funky happens, you're going to be the one who has to figure it out for her (though maybe you want that, as an excuse to go over and spend time with her), and it also just reflects poorly on you if the system that you build for her is unstable/buggy. And of course, if she's not tech-savvy, the system will soon be full of adware and spyware anyways, sapping its speed no matter how overclocked it is (okay, maybe I'm just a bit jaded from seeing too many PC's in use by people who don't really know anything about PC's and who complain about them being "broken" when really the only problem with them is that they've gotten every spyware application known to man installed on them).

 

[ribbon13]

You could easily power that with a S12-430

good motherboard.

Ram's alright, could do better though. Recommendation

The Connect3D is a R423 core and will NEVER become a X850 XT PE.

Maxtor? Do you love your girlfriend at all? Seagate 200GB $10 cheaper

Better to go with an Opteron 146

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
You could easily power that with a S12-430

good motherboard.

Ram's alright, could do better though. Recommendation

The Connect3D is a R423 core and will NEVER become a X850 XT PE.

Maxtor? Do you love your girlfriend at all? Seagate 200GB $10 cheaper

Better to go with an Opteron 146

What? That Maxtor is fine and there is no need for a Seagate. It will be faster, almost as cool and quiet. I have had good luck Maxtors and Seagates.

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: raildogg
What? That Maxtor is fine and there is no need for a Seagate. It will be faster, almost as cool and quiet. I have had good luck Maxtors and Seagates.

Hmm.

The Maxline Plus II drive is faster than the DM10.

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: ribbon13

Originally posted by: raildogg
What? That Maxtor is fine and there is no need for a Seagate. It will be faster, almost as cool and quiet. I have had good luck Maxtors and Seagates.

Hmm.

The Maxline Plus II drive is faster than the DM10.

That is the DM9 in those benchmarks. The newer version DM10 with SATA and 16MB cache performs very well.

 

[Viper27]

found a drive on Newegg that's 250GB for $10 more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144154
25% storage increase for 10% price increase
+50GB +8.50

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: Viper27
found a drive on Newegg that's 250GB for $10 more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144154
25% storage increase for 10% price increase
+50GB +8.50

Nice find. The the JS series performs better and the sata 3gb will not hurt. In Anandtech's benchmarks, the Western Digital 1600JS performed well, so I am sure the 2500JS will be the same.

This is the link link

 

[ribbon13]

Thie difference between the two will be insignificant at best given the usage, and this is a 'girlfriend' computer. Reliability > Performance hands down. And there is no question that Maxtor's consumer level drives are less reliable than Seagates. This has been a trend for over 10 years!

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Thie difference between the two will be insignificant at best given the usage, and this is a 'girlfriend' computer. Reliability > Performance hands down. And there is no question that Maxtor's consumer level drives are less reliable than Seagates. This has been a trend for over 10 years!

I don't know about that. Can you point me to a study which claims this? I have had good luck with Maxtor and so have my friends. One guy runs many Maxtors and loves them. Hasn't had any troubles. Same with me. I do agree that Seagate is great and I have one drive from them of 2 and half years ago which is still running great, although its not as fast.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
You could easily power that with a S12-430

good motherboard.

Ram's alright, could do better though. Recommendation

The Connect3D is a R423 core and will NEVER become a X850 XT PE.

Maxtor? Do you love your girlfriend at all? Seagate 200GB $10 cheaper

Better to go with an Opteron 146

what is the difference between the venice and the opty? oh and the i like seagate drives but i want to give maxtor a try. they are all within the same price range and i usually get seagate drives, but not this time.

about the video card...tons of people have been getting the connect3d GTO modded. someone gave me a link to it in video when i asked for a video card recommendation.

 

[MrDudeMan]

oh and about the monitor...i dont think she needs a reason to 'warrant' it if she simply wants it. she is a computer geek as much as she can be and she wants to have a nice setup, so i showed it to her and she loved it. if she decides to go less it will be the 2005, but i dont really care since that is purely a preference for her to think about.

 

[ribbon13]

The Connect3D can be modded, but it's still only an R423 core. The only card moddable to X850 XT PE card is a Sapphire and it's pretty much dissappeared into the wind (ie limited edition and already all bought up)

The Opteron 146 is a marvelous overclocker, and has 1MB L2 cache. Take a look at the CPU forum and you'll see what I mean. I got an Opteron 146 for my neice, and tested in my friends A8N32-SLI it could reach 2.7GHz on air, and 3.1GHz on vapor, but the motherboard she required (Asrock 939dual) limited her overclock to 2.33GHz stable.

 

[MrDudeMan]

we dont need overclocking like that. the computer just needs to be fast and there wont be any difference in normal use between 2ghz and 2.7ghz. i like overclocking as much as the next guy but it really has almost no effect on day to day use other than some gaming.

 

[TheArabian]

cpu... get 3000+ venice.. better oc

 

[eXx08]

Originally posted by: TheArabian
cpu... get 3000+ venice.. better oc

HAHA, laugh.

Opteron WILL overclock better that a 3000+ Venice. Ahhh...

Sigh.

 

[MrDudeMan]

if the 3200+ can get 2.4ghz then ill be happy with that. getting a 3000+ to 2.4 is more of a stretch.