Yet another begging pleading attempt to have highly trained pros point out flaws

[BeakerChem]

Ok, here it is: Any advice welcome!

Main function of the system will be for online gaming. Not going to overclock anything.

ASPIRE X-Plorer ATXB8KLW-AL Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 2000MHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4800CDBOX - Retail
BFG Tech BFGR78256GTXOC Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K - Retail
ViewSonic VP191B Black 19" 8ms (gray-to-gray); 20ms (black-white-black, typ) True 8-bit LCD Monitor - Retail
Maxtor MaXLine III 7B300S0 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
ENERMAX All in One Noisetaker Series EG701AX-VE SFMA(24P) ATX12V 600W Power Supply - Retail

Thermaltake Thunderblade A1971 80mm Sleeve Multi-Color LED Light Cooling Fan - Retail
Thermaltake Thunderblade A1973 120mm Sleeve Multi-Color LED Light Cooling Fan - Retail
AeroCool GateWatch-BK Black GateWatch - Retail

SABRENT SBT-ICR42B 42-in-1 USB2.0 Black Internal & External Card Reader/Writer - Retail
NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
Saitek Gamers' Keyboard PZ08A 2-Tone USB Wired Sleek contemporary Keyboard - Retail
Logitech MX1000 931175-0403 Blue/Black 8 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB + PS/2 Fast RF Laser Mouse - Retail
LTB LTB-AC97-M 3 Stereo Plugs & USB Connector True 5.1 surround sound headphones with Mic - Retail
BenQ Black IDE DVD Burner Model DW1620 PRO BLK BONUS - Retail
Riverdeep Zonealarm Pro 5.0 - Retail
Microsoft Windows XP Professional With Service Pack 2 - OEM

Subtotal: $3,507.45 +107.71 s/h

 

[kitkat22]

And you need someone to offer advice? Looks like you just won the lottery or something. I don't see anything wrong with it, if that is how much you want to spend.

 

[Diasper]

That's good but I could do a similiar system that would be about half the cost and would be indescernible froms yours in feel and performance (only a few % difference)

Case - perhaps look at the P180 or else some of the SIlverstone ones.
RAM - Your're right to look at 2x 1GB but you could get Crucial Ballistix which are probably better (or the value ones which are just speed-binned Ballistix eg value ones can often get 3-3-3 speeds at 240-250mhz at 2.8V)
Graphics card - at this moment in time an horrendous waste especially given your monitor will lock you into 1280x1024. A 6800Gt would be far more suitable and still give you excess as it currently stands. Once HDR games etc come out in two years time then it might be worth upgrading again which will be to a better card than the 7800GTX
CPU - why not the 4400+? It's alot less and only 200mhz speed difference - your overclock would far exceed that if you chose to.
Motherboard - why not a DFI? They've better quality than Asus - better quality components and can be picky with RAM but either OCZ or Crucial would be fine.
Mouse - the MX510 I'd say is a better choice - not having wireless ie not having to worry about batteries or any added latency is what I'd prefer
DVD burner - I'd recommend the NEC3540 as one of the best, high quality burners out there
Firewall - just get the free version and add a Cisco 800 router off ebay for less than $50 or so - much better security

Good selection on the monitor - just tell us after whether you find the dot pitch is too big


Use the rest of the money you saved to go on holiday to an exotic location, invest in your pension or invest in your gf ; p

 

[JuanT]

Even without Overclocking I'd hesitate to use an Asus A8N-SLI these days. Three of my friends went with the SLI route and used that, and I planned to use it too until two of the new systems kept crashing. The problem was eventually resolved, but for the price you're looking to spend, going with the DFI Lanparty SLI mobo instead might be a better choice.

Wait, you're going with one 7800 GTX now and upgrade later right? If not, you could go with dual 6800s of your choice to take advantage of SLI right now. That BFG card is Overclocked from the get-go, thankfully it has a lifetime warranty.

 

[CreativeTom]

Wow wish I had the money for that...well not that specifically. i would look at some other options, but hey that's just me.

 

[svi]

That's a lot of money to spend on a computer. Each to their own, though.

You don't need anywhere near a 600W power supply. If you REALLY want to spend a lot of money on a PSU, get a 400-450W Zippy/emacs (basically a PCP&C at reasonable price) or (if you care about noise) a high-end Seasonic. There are other choices, but none of them should be 600W.

Unless you really desperately want lighted fans, get high-quality boring fans. Panaflo L1s are reasonably quiet and put out a fair amount of air.

If you're spending that much money, get a really nice monitor. There's nothing wrong with the VP191B for its price tag, but if you don't mind paying more, get a fancy 19" monitor like that NEC LCD1980FXi, or get a 20+" LCD for the higher resolutions.

"5.1" headphones are a waste of money. If you need an integrated mic, get a boring old stereo headset like the Sennheiser PC150 or PC160; if you don't mind a clip-on mic, get that and a pair of midrange-to-high-end stereo headphones.

You might as well get a discrete sound card if it's a gaming rig. An Audigy 2 wouldn't set you back too much, and it's a fine sound card for gaming.

 

[BeakerChem]

Originally posted by: cscpianoman
And you need someone to offer advice? Looks like you just won the lottery or something. I don't see anything wrong with it, if that is how much you want to spend.

Actually did come into some unearned money to pay for this, otherwise I would still be playing Q2 on my PIII laptop.

Originally posted by: Diasper
That's good but I could do a similiar system that would be about half the cost and would be indescernible froms yours in feel and performance (only a few % difference)

Case - perhaps look at the P180 or else some of the SIlverstone ones.
RAM - Your're right to look at 2x 1GB but you could get Crucial Ballistix which are probably better (or the value ones which are just speed-binned Ballistix eg value ones can get 3-3-3 speeds at 250mhz at 2.8V)
Graphics card - at this moment in time an horrendous waste especially given your monitor will lock you into 1280x1024. A 6800Gt would be far more suitable and still give you excess as it currently stands. Once HDR games etc come out in two years time then it might be worth upgrading again which will be to a better card than the 7800GTX
CPU - why not the 4400+? It's alot less and only 200mhz speed difference - your overclock would far exceed that if you chose to.
Motherboard - why not a DFI? They've better quality than Asus - better quality components and can be picky with RAM but either OCZ or Crucial would be fine.
Mouse - the MX510 I'd say is a better choice - not having wireless ie not having to worry about batteries or any added latency is what I'd prefer
DVD burner - I'd recommend the NEC3540 as one of the best, high quality burners out there
Firewall - just get the free version and add a Cisco 800 router off ebay for less than $50 or so - much better security

Good selection on the monitor - just tell us after whether you find the dot pitch is too big


Use the rest of the money you saved to go on holiday to an exotic location, invest in your pension or invest in your gf ; p

I have to admit that I am too scared to overclock. One reason is that I would have no idea what I am doing and no money to replace things if I cooked them.

The p180 is a nice case too, the Aspire one I was thinking of just looks cooler to me honestly and still has the nice options like 5 fan slots, a rear 120 and a removable motherboard tray. But I did heavily consider the P180.

With the RAM, I am finding the no-heatsink (less shiney? ) on newegg for ~$50 less than the OCZ option. Without overclocking, would I still be better off to get the Crucial over the 2-3-2-5-T1 OCZ?

With the graphics card I won't have any money to upgrade for the forseeable future, so I figured I would get a top end and hope it rides well for the future. I thought about a 6800GT SLi setup, but for only ~$150 more the single 7800GTX beats Ultra Slis on some gaming benchmarks. Not sure about this one.

The Asus-Premium I thought would be better than the Lanparty for a couple of reasons. One is that they have replaced that freakishly northbridge fan the other nforce4 boards have on the Premium with a heatsink system, saving me the problems of having to dig in there and replace it myself. The price is also the same as the DFI at the moment, $199 at newegg. From the reviews I read, Asus MB also seemed more newbie friendly for setup - this will be my first from scratch build.

I use a wireless 'fast' radiowave mouse at work already and agonized over the fewer wires/more latency tradeoff. What is leaning toward the wireless is that I haven't ever had problems with battery life on the one I use 8+ hours a day at work and I am a lot older than when I gamed semi-competitively (Quake 2 if that gives a timespan indication!) and probably won't be hurt by the mouse delay as much as my old man reflexes.

The ZoneAlarm software is the full suite. I didn't want to suffer the resource loss for this stuff and was going to go with the less intensive PCillin, but then the X2's came out and I figured I can put it all on the second processor's load. The reviews on ZoneAlarm were pretty good in terms of port security and Trojan successful dial out rates. How does that kind of solution compare with a hardware solution? The nforce board also has a firewall chip, but I don't know how much I should trust that...

Thanks for all of the great advice so far!!! Keep it coming, please!

Oh, and the gf is the wife, and I picked her up a 7.2Mpixel cam from this money already, so she is covered...

 

[svi]

I have to admit that I am too scared to overclock. One reason is that I would have no idea what I am doing and no money to replace things if I cooked them.

Relax, overclocking has gotten a LOT easier since the Bade Olde Dayse. It is now impossible to fry any of your parts just by overclocking them in the BIOS. The absolute worst-case scenario is that your system might fail to boot, and if that happens all you do is clear the CMOS (which takes about ten seconds).

The p180 is a nice case too, the Aspire one I was thinking of just looks cooler to me honestly and still has the nice options like 5 fan slots, a rear 120 and a removable motherboard tray. But I did heavily consider the P180.

If you like how it looks, then go ahead and get it. After all, it doesn't seem like a bad case.

With the graphics card I won't have any money to upgrade for the forseeable future, so I figured I would get a top end and hope it rides well for the future.

Err, yeah, about that... as a rule, top-end computers are midrange-class in 18mo to 2 years and budget-class in three to four years. If I were you, I'd aim my sights a little lower and keep some cash for future upgrades.

 

[BeakerChem]

Originally posted by: JuanT
Even without Overclocking I'd hesitate to use an Asus A8N-SLI these days. Three of my friends went with the SLI route and used that, and I planned to use it too until two of the new systems kept crashing. The problem was eventually resolved, but for the price you're looking to spend, going with the DFI Lanparty SLI mobo instead might be a better choice.

Wait, you're going with one 7800 GTX now and upgrade later right? If not, you could go with dual 6800s of your choice to take advantage of SLI right now. That BFG card is Overclocked from the get-go, thankfully it has a lifetime warranty.

I am debating on getting a 7800 GTX SLi, but the extra 619+S/H seems just a bit too high. I am going so high end with the vid card because I am hoping to keep the system limping along for a while. I figure even after the 32 pipe cards are out in the next year, that games will still take a bit of time to really take advantage of it all and I will be fairly safe on my 24 pipe solution for at least 1.5 years. Then I'll just start dropping AA/AF to keep things happy. In a lot of the benches I have seen as well, the single 7800GTX was better at native 19inch LCD than SLi 6800s and for not a lot more. (and quite a bit less than SLi Ultras)

I really do like the lifetime warrenty on BFG cards and combined with the out of the box no hassel OC made that choice easier for me. The XFX and the PNY cards are also only $20 less right now, so I didn't see a reason not to go with BFG. Lol. Although I don't know what I would do with a BFG bumper sticker (Free giveaway with the card). I am a bit too old to have stuff like that on the back of my family man car.

Thanks for the advice!!!

Originally posted by: svi
That's a lot of money to spend on a computer. Each to their own, though.

You don't need anywhere near a 600W power supply. If you REALLY want to spend a lot of money on a PSU, get a 400-450W Zippy/emacs (basically a PCP&C at reasonable price) or (if you care about noise) a high-end Seasonic. There are other choices, but none of them should be 600W.

Unless you really desperately want lighted fans, get high-quality boring fans. Panaflo L1s are reasonably quiet and put out a fair amount of air.

If you're spending that much money, get a really nice monitor. There's nothing wrong with the VP191B for its price tag, but if you don't mind paying more, get a fancy 19" monitor like that NEC LCD1980FXi, or get a 20+" LCD for the higher resolutions.

"5.1" headphones are a waste of money. If you need an integrated mic, get a boring old stereo headset like the Sennheiser PC150 or PC160; if you don't mind a clip-on mic, get that and a pair of midrange-to-high-end stereo headphones.

You might as well get a discrete sound card if it's a gaming rig. An Audigy 2 wouldn't set you back too much, and it's a fine sound card for gaming.

Yep, into the goofy light colors, I'll admit it. The ones I am picking though have a 28CFM/21dB rating, so they should be pretty quiet. Add in that I'll have 5 total in the case and won't be overclocking and I think I'll have a sufficient cooling solution for the system. Not sure. Opinions?

Have you tried the 5.1 headphones? I have read a lot of reviews trying to decide on a sound system. I forgot to add that I already have a Audigy ZS gamers edition (I have no modern games, so the extra $50 for the 6 pack will help the gaming library a great deal). I can't put up a blasting 5.1(+) speaker system because of sleeping babies (and wife), so I thought I would give the surround sound headphone thing a shot. I have heard people sat that it does and doesn't work. Not sure who to believe on it. Might be like ghosting on LCDs, some people see it and some don't on identicle screens. Hmm...

What kind of crashing issues did your friends have with the MBs? Did you ever get them resolved? The Premium has an extra power connector I believe, perhaps fixing some of the Deluxe versions problems?

How are the other two LCD's you mentioned on ghosting? I won't be watching any DVD's on them, but the VP191bs 8-bit color was still a selling point for an 8ms gaming screen. I thought about higher res monitors (and the 21"ers too), but I am worried that with higher res that I will be moving out of my graphics cards ability to display sooner than with a 12x10 native.

Thanks for the advice!!

 

[Bushman5]

that system is a waste of money, i could build a system of half the cost that is almost exactly same performance wise

 

[darksum]

dont get the mx1000, and get 64-bit windows

 

[svi]

Yep, into the goofy light colors, I'll admit it. The ones I am picking though have a 28CFM/21dB rating, so they should be pretty quiet. Add in that I'll have 5 total in the case and won't be overclocking and I think I'll have a sufficient cooling solution for the system. Not sure. Opinions?

ThermalTake hideously over-rate all of their fans. That aside, you'll have a sufficient cooling solution, but low-quality sleeve fans make more noise (despite whatever the specifications may say) and die sooner than good ones. It's up to you, though.

Have you tried the 5.1 headphones? I have read a lot of reviews trying to decide on a sound system. I forgot to add that I already have a Audigy ZS gamers edition (I have no modern games, so the extra $50 for the 6 pack will help the gaming library a great deal). I can't put up a blasting 5.1(+) speaker system because of sleeping babies (and wife), so I thought I would give the surround sound headphone thing a shot. I have heard people sat that it does and doesn't work. Not sure who to believe on it. Might be like ghosting on LCDs, some people see it and some don't on identicle screens. Hmm...

Yeah, I have. I haven't tried every single "5.1 headphone" out there, I'll admit that, but I've tried several, and none of them can come close to any of the good headphones I've tried-- not even my ($30) Koss KSC-35.

Most people who like 5.1 headphones don't have a decent frame of reference. The best headphones most of us (including most mod site reviewers) have heard are the little cheapies that come with CD players and whatnot. FWIW, people who DO have a decent frame of reference (and actually use them for music; everything will work fine for games) invariably prefer stereo headphones.

Stock advice for audio gear is to try it out, but that's kind of a pain if you're just looking for computer hardware. The best advice I can give you is to seek out people who have tried both decent headphones and "surround sound" headphones with music listening. People who have only ever owned one pair of headphones that didn't come with their CD players are not going to give very good recommendations.

How are the other two LCD's you mentioned on ghosting? I won't be watching any DVD's on them, but the VP191bs 8-bit color was still a selling point for an 8ms gaming screen. I thought about higher res monitors (and the 21"ers too), but I am worried that with higher res that I will be moving out of my graphics cards ability to display sooner than with a 12x10 native.

The VP191 is not actually 8ms, it is 8ms gray-to-gray. It's 20ms black-to-white, looks like. The NEC LCD1980FXi I mentioned is 18ms, but that 18ms is an accurate black-to-white specification instead of the usual gray-to-gray, and it's supposed to display a really nice picture. If you can, try monitors out in a store beforehand.. you probably can't find everything you're looking for in brick-and-mortar stores, but it's good to be able to see them in person before you buy them.

 

[BeakerChem]

Originally posted by: Bushman5
that system is a waste of money, i could build a system of half the cost that is almost exactly same performance wise

Well you're just cool then. Without overclocking, btw?

Originally posted by: darksum
dont get the mx1000, and get 64-bit windows

I was scared off 64-bit windows because of seeming driver issues, and some games not working or running slower. I might upgrade to 64bit if things seem to stabilize for the OS. I had one of the first copies of Windows95 and had to slog through the issues with that release too, not eager to do another new OS... It does have the nice ability to utilize bigger memory blocks though, so if I upgraded to 4GB at some point I it might go along with 64bit OS windows.

For the mouse, is it just the RF mouse thing, or is there something else about the MX1000 you would recommend against?

Thanks!

 

[Bushman5]

Overclocking is the easiest thing in the world. stop being a little pussy
the windows 64 would be a bad idea
if you want i cna provide u with links and prices im sure 90% of people here cna as well

 

[BeakerChem]

Originally posted by: svi

Yep, into the goofy light colors, I'll admit it. The ones I am picking though have a 28CFM/21dB rating, so they should be pretty quiet. Add in that I'll have 5 total in the case and won't be overclocking and I think I'll have a sufficient cooling solution for the system. Not sure. Opinions?

ThermalTake hideously over-rate all of their fans. That aside, you'll have a sufficient cooling solution, but low-quality sleeve fans make more noise (despite whatever the specifications may say) and die sooner than good ones. It's up to you, though.

Have you tried the 5.1 headphones? I have read a lot of reviews trying to decide on a sound system. I forgot to add that I already have a Audigy ZS gamers edition (I have no modern games, so the extra $50 for the 6 pack will help the gaming library a great deal). I can't put up a blasting 5.1(+) speaker system because of sleeping babies (and wife), so I thought I would give the surround sound headphone thing a shot. I have heard people sat that it does and doesn't work. Not sure who to believe on it. Might be like ghosting on LCDs, some people see it and some don't on identicle screens. Hmm...

Yeah, I have. I haven't tried every single "5.1 headphone" out there, I'll admit that, but I've tried several, and none of them can come close to any of the good headphones I've tried-- not even my ($30) Koss KSC-35.

Most people who like 5.1 headphones don't have a decent frame of reference. The best headphones most of us (including most mod site reviewers) have heard are the little cheapies that come with CD players and whatnot. FWIW, people who DO have a decent frame of reference (and actually use them for music; everything will work fine for games) invariably prefer stereo headphones.

Stock advice for audio gear is to try it out, but that's kind of a pain if you're just looking for computer hardware. The best advice I can give you is to seek out people who have tried both decent headphones and "surround sound" headphones with music listening. People who have only ever owned one pair of headphones that didn't come with their CD players are not going to give very good recommendations.

How are the other two LCD's you mentioned on ghosting? I won't be watching any DVD's on them, but the VP191bs 8-bit color was still a selling point for an 8ms gaming screen. I thought about higher res monitors (and the 21"ers too), but I am worried that with higher res that I will be moving out of my graphics cards ability to display sooner than with a 12x10 native.

The VP191 is not actually 8ms, it is 8ms gray-to-gray. It's 20ms black-to-white, looks like. The NEC LCD1980FXi I mentioned is 18ms, but that 18ms is an accurate black-to-white specification instead of the usual gray-to-gray, and it's supposed to display a really nice picture. If you can, try monitors out in a store beforehand.. you probably can't find everything you're looking for in brick-and-mortar stores, but it's good to be able to see them in person before you buy them.

I don't live in the middle of nowhere, but we have nothing, and I mean nothing, in terms or computer stores here. I went in with my list and I couldn't find anything at any of the the three stores beyond the Audigy sound card, and that was much cheaper at newegg. I didn't think about trying out the headphones/headsets. I wonder if a good audio store would have them to try out. Thanks!

The monitor I really, really wanted to find in a brick and mortor environment to avoid the hassel of dead/stuck pixels, but no-body seems to have the VP191b (or the L90D+ I was looking at also considering) around here.

 

[BeakerChem]

Originally posted by: Bushman5
Overclocking is the easiest thing in the world. stop being a little pussy
the windows 64 would be a bad idea
if you want i cna provide u with links and prices im sure 90% of people here cna as well

Ha! No comment on the small cat ref.

I have been using pricegrabber and newegg and so far newegg seems to be good for prices. ZZF has had better prices here and there (~$10-20 at most though), but I have been reading some bad stuff about their backorder policies in the X2 preorder thread so I rethought that one. Do you have suggestions for other price search engines? Tiger direct has had some decent prices here and there as well, but I am instate for them and would have to tack on tax.

 

[svi]

Overclocking is the easiest thing in the world. stop being a little pussy
the windows 64 would be a bad idea
if you want i cna provide u with links and prices im sure 90% of people here cna as well

Caution never killed anyone except for that guy who was murdered with a sign. Anyway, cna [sic] you be a little more polite?

I don't live in the middle of nowhere, but we have nothing, and I mean nothing, in terms or computer stores here. I went in with my list and I couldn't find anything at any of the the three stores beyond the Audigy sound card, and that was much cheaper at newegg. I didn't think about trying out the headphones/headsets. I wonder if a good audio store would have them to try out. Thanks!

They probably wouldn't have '5.1' headphones, but any good audio store should have good stereo headphones. Selection might be a tad limited, but I have a hard time imagining any real audio store without at least a few decent headphones.

There a lot of different possible models worth looking at, and I don't really think I could list them all. I could try to make a dent in the list, though... any Grado headphone is worth a listen, as are many Sennheisers (HD485, HD497, HD515, HD555, HD580, HD595, HD600, HD650, PX100, et al), Beyerdynamics (DT231, DT440, DT660, maybe DT770 if you like bass a lot, DT860, DT880, and others), AKGs (K240S, K271S, K501, and maybe others), and Sonys (MDR-7506, MDR-SA series, MDR-XD200 and XD400, and that's probably about it). Some of these headphones can be found pretty much anywhere that sells electronics, but Radio Shack people don't like it when you ask if you can take the headphones out of the blister pack to listen to them for a little while.

The monitor I really, really wanted to find in a brick and mortor environment to avoid the hassel of dead/stuck pixels, but no-body seems to have the VP191b (or the L90D+ I was looking at also considering) around here.

It happens. Selection is pitifully limited in some stores. You could always order it from somewhere with a very liberal return policy.

 

[Acanthus]

What a horrible, horrible waste of money...

Like many others have said, you can build a system at HALF that cost and be within 10% performance. Moreover, a 7800GTX is way way way too high end for that display.

 

[BeakerChem]

svi - Thanks for th advice. I'll see if the audio stores have anything good. Dell is one of the few places with a liberal enough return policy to take back LCDs with no questions asked, but you have to still pay to ship it, so $12 per attempt and a $75 price premium as well. I will probably end up taking my chances and crossing my fingers.

Originally posted by: Acanthus
What a horrible, horrible waste of money...

Like many others have said, you can build a system at HALF that cost and be within 10% performance. Moreover, a 7800GTX is way way way too high end for that display.

Someone else already mentioned this, but I was wondering if you mean that it would be ~10% at base speeds or overclocked? I really am not going to overclock anything.

 

[GreatDaleness]

Since you are building for games, why go dual core? Get a 3500+ or something similar and spend the savings on a bigger monitor. Dual core seems to have no effect on games.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: GreatDaleness
Since you are building for games, why go dual core? Get a 3500+ or something similar and spend the savings on a bigger monitor. Dual core seems to have no effect on games.

The difference between dual core and non dual core in games is very little, but the difference in multi tasking is dramatic.

If you have the money nowadays, there is absolutely NO reason to get a non dual core system. He has the money, he is getting it, it is a good choice.

 

[BeakerChem]

Originally posted by: GreatDaleness
Since you are building for games, why go dual core? Get a 3500+ or something similar and spend the savings on a bigger monitor. Dual core seems to have no effect on games.

My (Possibly flawed) logic was that the 200 MHz boost I could get on getting a 90mm FX-55 instead would be better spent getting a duel proccessor that I could foist off the background process onto the second CPU leaving the other for the gaming ap. That, and I am betting on gaming going multi-threaded with the widespead availability of a socket 939 duel proc.

<shrug> I would get the 4400+, but the thought of dropping 400MHz from top AMD speed was too much for me. Lol. Of course the FX-57 is out this week in theory, so in reality I would be dropping 400MHz from top with the 4800+. But the FX-57 prices I have been seeing have been even worse than the 4800+.

Originally posted by: dguy6789

Originally posted by: GreatDaleness
Since you are building for games, why go dual core? Get a 3500+ or something similar and spend the savings on a bigger monitor. Dual core seems to have no effect on games.

The difference between dual core and non dual core in games is very little, but the difference in multi tasking is dramatic.

If you have the money nowadays, there is absolutely NO reason to get a non dual core system. He has the money, he is getting it, it is a good choice.

Yeah, and that too!

Thanks both for advice!!!

 

[svi]

svi - Thanks for th advice. I'll see if the audio stores have anything good.

Good luck, hopefully you'll find something you like a lot.

The difference between dual core and non dual core in games is very little, but the difference in multi tasking is dramatic.

If you have the money nowadays, there is absolutely NO reason to get a non dual core system. He has the money, he is getting it, it is a good choice.

Seconded.

<shrug> I would get the 4400+, but the thought of dropping 400MHz from top AMD speed was too much for me. Lol. Of course the FX-57 is out this week in theory, so in reality I would be dropping 400MHz from top with the 4800+. But the FX-57 prices I have been seeing have been even worse than the 4800+.

Actually, I think the 4400+ is only 200MHz slower than the 4800+. You could easily make that difference up with a little light overclocking, and your wallet would thank you. Your decision.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
If you have the money nowadays, there is absolutely NO reason to get a non dual core system. He has the money, he is getting it, it is a good choice.

Absolutely, but let me play Devil's Advocate here

Why blow $1000 (or so) for a 4800+? You could get the 4400+ and easily clock it to (and probably past) 4800+ for 400 less. That extra $ could be put in to more system RAM, another 7800, et al.

Or for $350 you could get a 3700+ San Diego core, overclock it, and have a SMOKING gaming machine. The $700 savings on the CPU alone could get you a lot!

But I'm just playing devil's advocate

 

[GuitarDaddy]

With only a 19" monitor the 7800 is total overkill, save money elsewhere and get a nice 24-30" widescreen Cinema monitor.