Building new and first comp

[ace22901]

Alright my dell has driven me nuts after having for 4 years and I'm ready for a new system. I play WOW and plan to play hl2 and some other new games. I have researched quite a bit on what components I'd like to use but I keep switching my mind.

Im currently trying to decide on harddrive setup, I was going to get a maxline3 300gb for the 16mb cache and ncq/sata2 but now im not sure if its worth it, is it? Because to do this I would need to invest in a more expensive nforce4 board that supports sata2 i don't need sli so this is pretty much a waste. Would I be better of running a raid with a raptor and another drive purchased later or two cheaper drives right now?

What kind of ram and how much should I be looking at? I have been looking at 2 gig solutions because i have heard wow eats up ram, and my 512 doesn't cut it.

I plan on overclocking some but im not too worried about it. I am plannin on purchasing the ram/cpu/mobo combo off monarch and a few things from zzf and newegg. Heres what i have in mind currently plz feel free to change my mind or make suggestions between the two

3700 san diego or 3200 venice ?

Antec p160 or need some suggestions ?

MSI or DFI board suggestions on which board/brand also depends on hard drive ?

Maxline3 300gb sata2 setup or Raptor or some other combo for raid ?

I have narrowed video to msi x800xl

Need suggestions on memory

I have picked out a nice 21 inch syncmaster

As for sound card and speakers I'd appreciate some opinions


Thanks very much for those of you that read this and share some of your imput I can't wait.

 

[ace22901]

Also wanted to add that i want to make sure that my setup will run games 1600x1200 for 21 inch monitor.

 

[ace22901]

Any help I'm really stumped on Hard drives.

 

[KoolDrew]

Forget about RAID. There is no real world performance gain. Just get yourself a large Seagate. Also all you need is 1GB of RAM. Anything over is overkill for a gaming system. I would go a 3000+ Venice, as it provides the best band for the buck if you are overclocking, but if you ahve money to spare go with the Sandy.

Case is more personal preference, but I like Lian Li cases.

For motherboard get the DFI N4 Ultra-D. You could also upgrade to a 6800GT is you want. Get OCZ Value VX for memory.

 

[ace22901]

Thanks

 

[ArnoldLayne]

An SATA 2 drive should be backwards compatible with SATA 1. I personally think RAID 0 is too much hassle, and risky. I would just get a decent 7200 RPM drive around 200-300GB.
You can always add a Raptor or RAID setup later. You may find Raptors too noisy if you are sensitive to noise. Believe me, I tried real hard to rationalize a 15K SCSI setup,
but couldn't do it.

There are some more affordable nforce4 boards out, like the MSI Neo4-F, Foxconn NF4K8AB-RS, and so on. I personally think PCIe video cards are the way to go now.

 

[ace22901]

thanks

 

[imported_X]

I agree that RAID isn't worth the effort. However, go with 2 gigs of ram. Those that say you only need 1 gig likely haven't even played an mmorpg. With games like WOW and EQ2, you will appreciate having the extra memory.

Klipsch have a great reputation, if you are looking for a nice 5.1 speaker system.

 

[ace22901]

Thanks I have heard 2 gigs is worth it. I have a few more questions would a raptor really make that much difference compared to a seagate 7200 drive? And does latency speed on the ram really make a difference?

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: ace22901
Thanks I have heard 2 gigs is worth it. I have a few more questions would a raptor really make that much difference compared to a seagate 7200 drive? And does latency speed on the ram really make a difference?

I would just get a larger Seagate drive. Also Value RAM is fine if you are not overclocking.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

3200+ Venice vs 3700+ SD is definitely hard. Depends on money I guess.

3800+ Venice vs 3700+ SD is clear cut. 3700+ wins out. Don't waste on a 3800+ when it loses in like all but 1 benchmark. 3500+ vs 3700+ might be a better comparison. You want the 1MB of cache with the same multiplier so you can achieve higher clocks.

Furthermore, I believe you should get the Gigabyte X800XL. It is fanless and uses heatpipe + massive heatsink. Since X800XLs don't overclock much anyways, you don't lose by going with Gigabyte. Getting 2 extra MHz out with a noisy fan is not worth it.

 

[ace22901]

I will look into the gigabyte videocard. I think im just going to go with a larger seagate, i have been hearing actually that some of their newer larger drives are considerably fast should i be going for a Baraccuda? As for the value ram I do plan on overclocking but not to terribly much. I'm thinking i want to go for the 3700 for the 1mb cache then oc it a little past 3800 speeds. Thanks for all the input guys, so far will this system hold up to playing WOW maxed at 1600x1200 and hl2 decently, I also plan on listening to music while playing wow.