Build suggestions for gaming rig.

[Oxy]

I am going to build a new gaming rig and I need help with input what to get. I have a decent monitor and tower/supply. I might overclock it alittle but its not going to be a hardcore oc machine. What do you guys think about this?

CPU: Athlon 64 3200+
Mobo: DFI nforce4 SLI
Mem: Corsair value select 1GB (2x512)
Video: 6800gt
HD: WD Raptor 74 gb
DVD-burner: NEC-3520
Heatsink&fan: ??

 

[Appledrop]

a nice combination me thinks - good choices. As to the "Heatsink&fan: ??", just use the amd one that comes bundled with cpu - its actually very good, and would only need replacing if you are putting over 1.6-1.7 volts into the CPU (bigtime overclocking) or want an extremely quiet pc.

 

[Oxy]

Is it worth the extra money to go with a AMD Athlon 64 (939) 3500+ instead?

 

[Gadzookie]

no its not and why do you wanna go sli ?
you can easily get a 3200 and do a minor overclock with stock heatsink to 2.2 ghz

sli really isnt that great IMO the 6800 gt is a great card !

 

[Oxy]

So what mobo should go with if i shouldnt get SLI?

 

[Gadzookie]

here is what i use

Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail 45.00
ENERMAX EG425P-VE SFMA 2.0 ATX12V 420W Power Supply - Retail 76.00

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail 190.00
CHAINTECH VNF4/Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail 84.00
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) - Retail 82.55
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ ST380017AS 80GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive - OEM 68.00
NEC ND-3520A Black IDE DVD Burner - OEM 48.99
eVGA Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail 359.00

Total 953.54

you can do a light overclock to 2.2 ghz on stock easily and if down the line you wanna overclok just buy a better HSF

you can save money and get a x800xl it preforms just as good as a 6800gt but is cheaper read this review
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2299

or get a 6600gt and use that till the new graphic card generation ocmes out which is this summer

as for the motherboard i use it and love it i dont overclock on it but you can if you want ! here are some reviews
http://www.ninjalane.com/display.aspx?docname=vnf4ultra
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/vnf4ultra/



btw here is a screen shoots of guildwars on a 6800gt

http://img244.echo.cx/img244/5950/gw0618em.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/jondaviskorn/gw0001.jpg drooool !

im only running it at 1024x768

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: Gadzookie
here is what i use

Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail 45.00
ENERMAX EG425P-VE SFMA 2.0 ATX12V 420W Power Supply - Retail 76.00

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail 190.00
CHAINTECH VNF4/Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail 84.00
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) - Retail 82.55
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ ST380017AS 80GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive - OEM 68.00
NEC ND-3520A Black IDE DVD Burner - OEM 48.99
eVGA Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail 359.00

Total 953.54

you can do a light overclock to 2.2 ghz on stock easily and if down the line you wanna overclok just buy a better HSF

you can save money and get a x800xl it preforms just as good as a 6800gt but is cheaper read this review
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2299

or get a 6600gt and use that till the new graphic card generation ocmes out which is this summer

as for the motherboard i use it and love it i dont overclock on it but you can if you want ! here are some reviews
http://www.ninjalane.com/display.aspx?docname=vnf4ultra
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/vnf4ultra/



btw here is a screen shoots of guildwars on a 6800gt

http://img244.echo.cx/img244/5950/gw0618em.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/jondaviskorn/gw0001.jpg drooool !

Everything looks good except the PSU. Get a Seasonic to match that quiet case.

 

[cbehnken]

The DFI board doesn't like the corsair value select.

 

[Gadzookie]

i never used a seasonic but i hear there UBER ! you might wanna do research on that make sure its 24 pins !

 

[Oxy]

So if i stick to DFI what mem should i get instead?

 

[newmenu]

nice choise, but dont buy a motherboard from anyone other than ASUS or ABIT if you want a strong and reliable board.

 

[newmenu]

You should drop the raptor for a WD Sata 160gig HDD and use extra money to upgrad the 3200 to the 3500

 

[Gadzookie]

OCZ EL Platinum Rev.2 is good overclockign ram and works with the dfi board

the dfi board is picky when it comes to ram

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: newmenu
nice choise, but dont buy a motherboard from anyone other than ASUS or ABIT if you want a strong and reliable board.

this is a stupid statement, just because you have had bad luck with other brands doesn't mean you have to limit your scope to just 2 m/bs, or maybe you have just built 2 machines and these were your choices. ridiculous statement. for a serious strong and reliable board use a server board like a supermicro (this is just an example of a "strong and reliable" board and not a suggestion for this particular situation). ignorant noob.

 

[Oxy]

Well I had have problems with both Asus and Abit in the past.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: newmenu
You should drop the raptor for a WD Sata 160gig HDD and use extra money to upgrad the 3200 to the 3500

why? he could o/c to the 3500 speeds if he wanted to and besides he is getting a 6800gt so again, this statement is stupid. as a scsi guy i actually respect the second gen 74GB raptors, good drives for sata.

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: Gadzookie
OCZ EL Platinum Rev.2 is good overclockign ram and works with the dfi board

the dfi board is picky when it comes to ram

not worth the money. you could just get the ocz value vx(same chips) or twinmos. both do well with lots of voltage which the dfi is able to put out.

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: newmenu
You should drop the raptor for a WD Sata 160gig HDD and use extra money to upgrad the 3200 to the 3500

why? he could o/c to the 3500 speeds if he wanted to and besides he is getting a 6800gt so again, this statement is stupid. as a scsi guy i actually respect the second gen 74GB raptors, good drives for sata.

with the same logic he could overclock the 3500 to 3800 speeds....a raptor is not worth the extra money. when it could be put else where for a bigger difference. like...an ultra....or faster cpu...or strippers

 

[Gadzookie]

i forgot about the value vx your right !

i wouldnt get the twinmos is it gurentee you get utt ? i heard some ppl not getting it !

 

[shoRunner]

true its not guarrentteed but i've only heard of like 2 ppl not getting it.

 

[Nebben]

Originally posted by: newmenu
nice choise, but dont buy a motherboard from anyone other than ASUS or ABIT if you want a strong and reliable board.

I disagree. I have used Asus and Abit boards in many of my previous builds and they've given me problems about 50% of the time. The DFI board I'm using is flawless.

And I've had two Abit boards die on me without doing any overclocking or anything.

The Asus board in my brother's system apparently killed a camera that he hooked up to the firewire port, but that's a documented issue with 1394 ports and is so incredibly rare that nobody's been able to offer a fix so far.

Point? Reliability depends a lot on perception. Going by my experience, Abit boards always fail, because 2 out of the 3 Abits I've used have suddenly stopped working for no reason. This was with quality PSUs, quality RAM, no overclocking, surge protected. One day, poof, board dies. And Asus boards kill cameras!!!! Ahhhh!!!~1`11

 

[l Xes l]

Originally posted by: newmenu
nice choise, but dont buy a motherboard from anyone other than ASUS or ABIT if you want a strong and reliable board.

utterly senseless

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: krnxpride83

Originally posted by: newmenu
nice choise, but dont buy a motherboard from anyone other than ASUS or ABIT if you want a strong and reliable board.

utterly senseless

You're speaking in the OLD days. Remember days of KT7 and KT7A-RAID and Asus A7V? Yes that was when Abit had friggn #1 motherboards with no one coming close. That was when 1 mhz FSB increments was just becoming popuplar courtesy of Abit.

Today, we live in a different world.

MSI K8N Neo4 is really good too, but I personally would pick the DFI.

 

[NokiaDude]

You've got a solid setup there. In a few months, you can add in another 6800gt for SLI sweetness!