Computer Build - Opinion Needed

[ltwentoncha]

Hi all,

A little bit more research produced this:

GA-K8NXP-SLI
PDC1G3200+XBLK
3500+ Winchester
200GB Maxtor DiamondMax10 SATA
BFG 6800GT OC PCIe (Just one)
Antec Truepower 550W

Just changed the mobo and PSU because I originally wanted the A8N and an Enermax 535W sli PSU, but there were stability problems publicized on a few boards. I haven't picked a Sound card yet (I think it won't fit the Gigabyte if there's two GTs present) but I'm probably going with this setup. Anyone have any comments? Does this board have the same problem of dropping NCQ drives that the A8N-SLI has?

Thanks again for reading.

 

[SrGuapo]

Personally, I would wait for some more nf4 boards to come out (mainly the DFI). Unless you are doing extremely complicated sound editing with tons of weird connectors, the onoard sound will suit you. It is very competitive (even with the Audigy2). Try that out before buying a discrete card.

I would also recommend either the 3000+ or the 3200+. They are quite a bit cheaper and will OC just as much as a 3500+. A 200 MHz (20 HTT, 10%) OC on a 3200 (extremely easy, no need to touch vcore, RAM timings, etc. - just lower HTT to 4) will put you at 3500+ speeds.

I have no personal experience with this, but I have heard bad things about the maxtor drives. You may want to look into a comprable Seagate/hitachi/samsung drive. They seem to be much quieter, reliable, and faster.


Good luck with that system!

 

[ltwentoncha]

Originally posted by: SrGuapo
Personally, I would wait for some more nf4 boards to come out (mainly the DFI). Unless you are doing extremely complicated sound editing with tons of weird connectors, the onoard sound will suit you. It is very competitive (even with the Audigy2). Try that out before buying a discrete card.

I would also recommend either the 3000+ or the 3200+. They are quite a bit cheaper and will OC just as much as a 3500+. A 200 MHz (20 HTT, 10%) OC on a 3200 (extremely easy, no need to touch vcore, RAM timings, etc. - just lower HTT to 4) will put you at 3500+ speeds.

I have no personal experience with this, but I have heard bad things about the maxtor drives. You may want to look into a comprable Seagate/hitachi/samsung drive. They seem to be much quieter, reliable, and faster.


Good luck with that system!

Much obliged for the advice SrGuapo.

I wanted to wait, but KOTOR II is coming out and I'm planning on getting the system ready before then. In addition, I've been reading that valueram is just as good as high performance ram. If that's the case, should I just get a 3200+ and some cheapo value ram? I figure it'll save me about $150 if I go with cheap valueram and a 3200+, which ultimately doesn't really affect my purchase decision over the parts I had decided on (I should probably go with a nforce4 ultra and save another $50 since I won't be using SLI right off the bat as I only have one card ATM). I have one Maxtor 120GB HDD chugging along two years later so I think their drives are alright.

The one thing that has me leary is the overclocking. I've never done this before; I have no idea of the cooling requirements and what types or kinds of damages can be inflicted on the board or other parts because of bad OCing. Gigabyte's BIOS has some oc'ing settings built in, right? I figure I'll go with those settings for the CPU and RAM.

Have any valueram recommendations?

Thanks again for reading and posting.

 

[ts3433]

Go with the value RAM (Corsair/Crucial/Mushkin stuff, at about $140 for 2x512MB PC3200) and 3200+, probably with an MSI Neo4 Platinum if you're dead set on PCIe right now. The stock cooler's actually pretty good for overclocking, but you can get a Zalman or Thermalright+fan if you need something quieter or more effective. Don't worry about frying stuff while OCing, as A64s have thermal protection and you should be reading up on here first anyway.

You probably don't need the True550 if you're not going to do SLI (which IMO isn't worth it in most applications--waiting for next-gen parts would probably be better); just get a True380 (I think someone on here recently posted a link to this at EndPCNoise for about $35, a VERY good price) or a Seasonic/Fortron/Enermax in that range.

 

[ltwentoncha]

Originally posted by: ts3433
Go with the value RAM (Corsair/Crucial/Mushkin stuff, at about $140 for 2x512MB PC3200) and 3200+, probably with an MSI Neo4 Platinum if you're dead set on PCIe right now. The stock cooler's actually pretty good for overclocking, but you can get a Zalman or Thermalright+fan if you need something quieter or more effective. Don't worry about frying stuff while OCing, as A64s have thermal protection and you should be reading up on here first anyway.

You probably don't need the True550 if you're not going to do SLI (which IMO isn't worth it in most applications--waiting for next-gen parts would probably be better); just get a True380 (I think someone on here recently posted a link to this at EndPCNoise for about $35, a VERY good price) or a Seasonic/Fortron/Enermax in that range.

Hmmm, the case I got has a True350; do I still have room to oc should I choose to do so? Doesn't the Gigabyte board also have an addon card that has something to do with improving power distribution?

Thanks for posting.