Time to upgrade the Athlon-1000. Finally...

[abhatia]

OK, I tried to do this a year ago and ended up waiting for the next best thing which was a few weeks away. Well, I'm still using my crappy Athlon-1000 PC and I need an upgrade. This is my first system build in 7 years. I'm tired of playing Solitaire and Bus Driver. Can this system handle Half-life 2, COD4, Crysis, Gears of War, or random next-gen shooter?

Newegg Wishlist
The total is roughly $1050; here are the items I'd love a review of:

Motherboard:
I don't plan to Overclock much, if at all. Should I just save the $35 then?
ABIT IP35 Pro - 170 or Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R - 133

Video Card:
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB - $260

Power Supply:
Is this overkill? If so, recommend a better alternative?
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Crossfire Edition) 750W - $150

Memory:
Should I just get 2gb if I plan to continue using Windows XP 32bit?
mushkin 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - $60

Thanks for quick responses, I'd love to order this soon as some of the rebates are ending soon.

 

[jaqie]

The PSU is overkill especially for a single video card. check out the silencer 400 and higher.

the ram is overkill if you do not want to overclock... I personally only buy kingston. not so overclockable but incredibly well made and stable, with a lifetime warranty that the company actually makes incredibly easy and pleasureable if you do have a problem with it.

As for motherboards, I am a little bit out of the loop for anything newer then s939, but as a general rule, gigabyte motherboards are stable, reliable motherboards (with the exception of the debacle recently with the 135w TDP processes and a certain chipset).

I would stick a better HDD into it, say a seagate 7200.11 model 320GB or 500GB.

Yes, that system will run it all quite well.

 

[Title]

What CPU are you considering?

I have the IP35 Pro and I know very few who are dissatisfied with it. Not a whole lot of data has been gathered when using it with Penryn, though. For my cousin's build we are pairing a q9450 with it, so we will see how that goes.

I also have that video card. I can run Crysis with most settings on medium, but with shaders at high (1680x1050). However, on my second monitor of 1360x768 I can run everything at high (not very high).

That PSU is overkill for a single card setup, which you are limited to with a P35 motherboard.
I have this but this is all I needed. These are well reviewed PSUs.

 

[abhatia]

Originally posted by: jaqieI would stick a better HDD into it, say a seagate 7200.11 model 320GB or 500GB.

I'm surprised at your comment about the Hard-drive. I took a look at the Ars-technica and Tech-Reports system build guides and they both chose the WD over Seagate for speed and performance reasons. I've always gone with Seagate but have no attachment to them one way or the other. Hard disk size isn't a big concern with me so I'll do some more research and find out which hard-drive is better.

Thanks for taking a look.

Originally posted by: Title
What CPU are you considering?

I also have that video card. I can run Crysis with most settings on medium, but with shaders at high (1680x1050). However, on my second monitor of 1360x768 I can run everything at high (not very high).

That PSU is overkill for a single card setup, which you are limited to with a P35 motherboard.
I have this but this is all I needed. These are well reviewed PSUs.

I fixed the link to the Newegg wishlist. I've chosen an E8200 for now, hopefully I can find one somewhere.

I have a Dell 2407 (1900x1200), should I be thinking about an SLI setup to drive the big monitor?

Thanks for the links to the power supplies, I'll look into something with lower wattage to save money and less overkill.

 

[jaqie]

I used to be into WD drives over seagate, but liked both. A few years back WD started playing the shuffle-the-warranty length game, and that made me go to seagate, which has a 3 year warranty that never seems to move. the perpendicular recording tech seagates are very nice and fast for the money, which is why I bought the Seagate 7200.10 16MB sata2 320GB drive when it first came out and have been greatly pleased with it. I also still have my older WD drives - a 120GB and 200GB, which I still like but as I said I don't like games with warranties.

The reason I recommend a larger HDD isnt for size, it is for areal density and thus greater data rates (with all other things being equal). That is why I have a 320GB drive in my main box instead of an 80GB (which would actually be plenty for me, as I store things on DVDR and other PCs on my network).

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: abhatia
I have a Dell 2407 (1900x1200), should I be thinking about an SLI setup to drive the big monitor?

Depends on what games you run. I play TF2 and COD4 regularly on my 24" LCD at full resolution on a single 8800GT.

 

[abhatia]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: abhatia
I have a Dell 2407 (1900x1200), should I be thinking about an SLI setup to drive the big monitor?

Depends on what games you run. I play TF2 and COD4 regularly on my 24" LCD at full resolution on a single 8800GT.

Yes, I think I'm set with this particular setup. Thanks.

 

[angry hampster]

You may want to consider an E8400 instead of the 8200. THe prices difference is negligible for different clock speeds.

 

[abhatia]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
You may want to consider an E8400 instead of the 8200. THe prices difference is negligible for different clock speeds.

Yes, I went to mwave and they had the retail E8400 in stock for $210. Ordered.

 

[bigsnyder]

The wd6400aaks is an excellent drive performance wise. I believe there is a big round up over at Tech-Report. It is currently on my short list above the 7200.11 (though it is no slouch either).

 

[Jax Omen]

If you haven't ordered it yet, that earthwatts PSU that comes with the case would be more than adequate for your setup.

 

[abhatia]

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
If you haven't ordered it yet, that earthwatts PSU that comes with the case would be more than adequate for your setup.

Excellent, because I went with:
http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-...loc/101/204559259.html

which came to $96 with Google Checkout. I think it was a good purchase.

 

[angry hampster]

Originally posted by: abhatia

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
If you haven't ordered it yet, that earthwatts PSU that comes with the case would be more than adequate for your setup.

Excellent, because I went with:
http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-...loc/101/204559259.html

which came to $96 with Google Checkout. I think it was a good purchase.

That's a really nice buy actually. Antec makes great looking cases.

 

[PolymerTim]

Originally posted by: abhatia

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
If you haven't ordered it yet, that earthwatts PSU that comes with the case would be more than adequate for your setup.

Excellent, because I went with:
http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-...loc/101/204559259.html

which came to $96 with Google Checkout. I think it was a good purchase.

Great deal. Antec Earthwatts are just about the only brand of PSU you ever see bundled with a case that actually have decent quality.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Your wish list looks perfect:thumbsup:

Definately stay with the WD6400 hdd, thats the new ultra high density 320x2 drive. It's the newest fastest thing on the market and pretty much ties the mighty 10k raptor across the board except in seek times.

Heck, for $708 I almost hit the add to cart button myself that would be a good settup for anything from a E2160 to a Q9450

 

[jaqie]

jeez. *NICE* choice on hard drive. makes me wish I could afford one again, despite not liking the warranty games WD plays.
gigabyte won't steer you wrong, either.
I don't like EVGA so much, but I have had rotten luck with vidcards the last few years, at least I found one that works well for me, a BFG. I hear EVGA has good warranty but with my luck with vidcards (and them specifically) I shy away from 'em.

 

[abhatia]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Your wish list looks perfect:thumbsup:

Definately stay with the WD6400 hdd, thats the new ultra high density 320x2 drive. It's the newest fastest thing on the market and pretty much ties the mighty 10k raptor across the board except in seek times.

Heck, for $708 I almost hit the add to cart button myself that would be a good settup for anything from a E2160 to a Q9450

Newegg total came to just a hair under $500 ($50 in rebates for mem/vid card):
MEM 2Gx2|MUSHKIN DII800 996558 R 1 76.99
VGA EVGA 512-P3-N845-AR 8800GTS RT 1 249.99
HD 640G|WD 7K 16M WD6400AAKS % 1 129.99
DVD BURN PIONEER|DVR-215DBK SATA % 1 30.99

Mwave total came to just over $300 for the CPU and Motherboard. And Buy.com for just under $100 for the Case.

As mentioned, this is my first build in 7 years so I expect to keep this one for a long time too. I plan to swap in a 45nm Quad-core when they become dirt-cheap (years down the line).

Originally posted by: jaqie
jeez. *NICE* choice on hard drive. makes me wish I could afford one again, despite not liking the warranty games WD plays.
gigabyte won't steer you wrong, either.
I don't like EVGA so much, but I have had rotten luck with vidcards the last few years, at least I found one that works well for me, a BFG. I hear EVGA has good warranty but with my luck with vidcards (and them specifically) I shy away from 'em.

I appreciate your info on the Seagate. My three choices were the Seagate you recommended, the Samsung Spinpoint F1, and the WD SE16. Currently, I'm using a 40gb 5400rpm drive, so any of the three will be a huge speed increase, but in the end, I decided to go with the fastest of the bunch as warranty was my second consideration.

Finally, I went with the EVGA because of their neat step-up program where you can upgrade to the latest video card by sending in your old one. This sounded like gold to someone who will be sticking with this computer for many years.

http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.aspx?rigid=19955 (in anticipation )