whatcha think?

[JoLim24601]

Hi.

I'm thinking of building a setup by April 1st or so and I plan on keeping my harddrive, cd cases, and getting these:

OCZ Powerstream 520W
OCZ VX PC4000 Gold
AMD 3200+ Socket 939 Winnie
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra Socket 939
Leadtek Nvidia 6600gt
Coolermaster Praetorian
Thermalright xp-120(Should I go with a zalman or xp-90 maybe?)

For cooling I might get some vantec tornados or something with some arctic silver 5.

Comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I plan on overclocking a bit if that's a major factor. If you have any suggestions on cases with better cooling or cheaper, more practical choices (ie maybe the powerstream is a lil too much or w/e) I will take them all in to consideration. Thanks!

 

[nick1985]

1) get regular 3200 RAM for around $100, not much difference
2) get a 3000 instead of the 3200
3) with saved money from the above changes, get a 6800GT/x800XL

 

[ts3433]

Along with nick1985's recommendations, you can probably get a slightly lesser PSU and still be plenty fine. I know OCZ PowerStreams are made by Topower, so you could probably get the exact same unit cheaper under their brand. I'm eager to try a Seasonic, though--they're supposed to be among the quietest units on the market.

 

[JoLim24601]

Originally posted by: nick1985
1) get regular 3200 RAM for around $100, not much difference
2) get a 3000 instead of the 3200
3) with saved money from the above changes, get a 6800GT/x800XL

ill take the advice but which value ram do you think i should go for? heres the list:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-299&depa=0
mushkin

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-218-062&depa=1
twinmos

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-440&depa=0
corsair

 

[futangclan]

i have corsair value ram, and i was able to overclock it to 218mhz, so for me it's highly recommended.

 

[JoLim24601]

i have 1 more question. do harddrives matter much? will it slow down performance whatsoever? truthfully i dont know anything about harddrives and iim just thinking of keeping my old 40gb one (bought it in 2001) thanks.

 

[billyjak]

If it's a 5400rpm you should upgrade to a 7200rpm drive.
Drives come with 2,8, or 16 meg cache. The higher the better.
Western digital also makes 10,000rpm drives 36gig or 72gig

Going from a 5400rpm to 7200rpm with 8meg cache, you will see a big difference.
Hard drives are pretty cheap now , you could pick up a 80 gig drive for around $60.00 or less with rebates.
Hope that helps.

 

[JoLim24601]

alright so ive got this so far:
amd athlon 3200 (sry id rather go w/ this)
dfi lanparty nf4
ocz powerstream 520
twinmos 512 2x (hopefully ill get winbond)
praetorian
seagate barracuda 120gb (should i get 2?)
ati x800xl
audigy gamer 2 zs (so many 2zs i dont know which to go w/ but ill just go w/ this one)
xp-90 with as5
some fans here and there lol

im shooting for at least a 2.6ghz overclock. suggestions?comments? thanks.

ps. please present a reason of some sort if you suggest something else.

 

[nick1985]

Text

now, im not a big proponent of low latencies, but if you can get lower latencies for the same price as regular RAM, i say go for it.

that RAM is cas2, instead of cas2.5 for about the same price. its a couple % performance gain for about no extra cost.


there are also some reviews of that cheap Gskill cas2 3200 overclocking very high, but im having trouble digging them up now

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: JoLim24601
alright so ive got this so far:
amd athlon 3200 (sry id rather go w/ this)
dfi lanparty nf4
ocz powerstream 520
twinmos 512 2x (hopefully ill get winbond)
praetorian
seagate barracuda 120gb (should i get 2?)
ati x800xl
audigy gamer 2 zs (so many 2zs i dont know which to go w/ but ill just go w/ this one)
xp-90 with as5
some fans here and there lol

im shooting for at least a 2.6ghz overclock. suggestions?comments? thanks.

ps. please present a reason of some sort if you suggest something else.

go plain audigy 2 zs. no point in gamer unless you like the bundle.

corsair is great ram

use normal retail chip and cooler. you will easily hit 2.6 with the retail cooler.

with money saved, move up to a 6800gt and oc it o 6800u speeds.

edit: whoops i type slow. i see the g ram recommended. it is quality ram. you'll be happy with it. go with the cas2 g ram.

 

[JoLim24601]

ive read many ppl getting 2-2-2-5@233-250mhz on the twinmos. are you sure the g skill will be better?

 

[JoLim24601]

how do you think i should go about w/ audio? audigy 2 zs w/ p150s... p155s...just 150s no audigy....just 155s no audigy...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What are p150s, p155s?

 

[mwmorph]

why would you pay so much in rma when it affects your amd64 performance almost neglibly? there might be a 5-7% increase in performance ofr a 100% increase in price. most people have no need for anything above onboard ram unless oyu have a real good speaker system or are a audiophile. with that said, you free up a few cpu cycles with a audigy because the audigy decodes in the hardware while onboard shifts decoding to the cpu(software).

 

[gobucks]

why not wait another 2-3 weeks, and grab a venice (rev E0) chip? They have strained silicon, improved memory controller (you can run 4 sticks of DDR400), and SSE3 instructions. They are due in april. As for the rest, it sounds okay, although you can get a cheaper PSU than the OCZ - don't get me wrong, the OCZ is fine, and you definitely need a 24-pin PSU, but there are better values. My vantec 520 is only $90.

 

[JoLim24601]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
why would you pay so much in rma when it affects your amd64 performance almost neglibly? there might be a 5-7% increase in performance ofr a 100% increase in price. most people have no need for anything above onboard ram unless oyu have a real good speaker system or are a audiophile. with that said, you free up a few cpu cycles with a audigy because the audigy decodes in the hardware while onboard shifts decoding to the cpu(software).

1) pc150s and pc155s are products of sennheiser electronics. they are headphones

2) does dfi lanparty have onboard ram? and will it overclock well? ive never heard anyone sayin this before

3) gobucks exactly how much wil these venice chips cost? im not lookin newhere above 200

 

[JoLim24601]

i also have a couple of other questions...
is the xp-90 that much of a performance diff. from its big bro? ive been looking for reviews on google and i cant seem to find anything that pairs the two up.

since the only reason why i would get a 6800gt is for the sm3 does any1 know when games will start using sm3? I'm considering it as an investment and i plan on keeping the vid card for a long time (ie 3-4 years)

edit: would it be better to go for 1 raptor hdd or go for 2x barracudas?

rest of qs i have are on the reply above me.

ps sorry for keeping this thread going on with so many questions but considering this is my first build i want to pick my parts with the utmost care. ty for your help.

 

[mwmorph]

venice chips cost just as much as winchesters(maybe a little more during launch due to supply/demand)

onboard ram? no such thing. you have to buy ram to add to the ram slots.

onboard should work fine unless you have bad sheilding with your cables(i have ongaord and with headsets, every time my hdd is in use, i will get a weird screeching sound form interference(crappy hp cables probably)

i will say this one last time. dont buy xp90. use stock unless you need to have it quieted down. the stock retail hs/f that comes with the retail package of a amd64 is enough for you to push the cpu to at least 2.8ghz when you overclock.

games already use sm3. farcry is one of the notable examples.

2x barracudas raid0-more storage(much more) minimum speed loss



summary: use value ram and stock heat sink and fan found in retail package. then upgrade yourself to either
a) 2gb of value ram
or
b) a 6800ultra