Last minute feedback needed...

[Mistabullet]

I plan on building a new computer in a few days and I was wondering if these parts are fine. Letme know if im making a big mistake or if there are better solutions.

(Budget is 1,500 *I could go a wee bit over*,*UPDATE* I do plan on overclocking)

****The Parts****

• Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 $84.99
  
  CD/DVD Drive: NEC 3540 $45.99
  
  PSU: e-Power Tagan TG-480 $80.99
  
  HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB GIG $88.00
  
  RAM: OCZ Gold Series 1GB 2X512's $139.50
  
  Mobo: ECS RS480-M $78.99
  
  Processor: AMD 4000+ San Diego $473.99

TOTAL: $1,018.95

Thats it for now. What I plan on doing in the future is buying an X850 XT PE or just XT when the new ati's come out *lowered price hopefully*. But until then im just gonna stick with the integrated X300 that comes with that mobo ^. Also I don't know when the crossfire mobo's are comming out so that mobo is just temporary until the crossfire mobo's come out.

I'm not an amd or ati fanboy so intel and nvidia are fine with me as long as I get the same/better performance for the same price.

Thank you for your input!

 

[Hacp]

Get the venice 2.4 ghz for 100 dolalrs cheaper. You lose very very little in the performance side. Def not worth the 100 Dollars. Also, at mwave, they have teh same Epower/Tagan power supply for 80 dollars, but they also have a 10 dollar rebate. Finally, If your worried about price, stick with a regular 7200RPM hard drive or go with a 16MB cache one. Saves you a pretty penny over the 165 dollar raptor.

 

[Mistabullet]

Thx for the help. Do you have any particular HDD in mind? As for the venice will I able to overclock it as well as the san diego? Cus I might do so in the future. Kinda like futureproofing I guess,

 

[Hacp]

Ya you will be able to overclock a venice as well as a sandiego. Also the Seagate Barricuda or Maxtor(ya I know, but still has 3 year warrenty for all you doubters out there) are good drives. If you are willing to take a very slight performance hit, IDE HDs are availible very cheap After rebates from places like best buy.

 

[Mistabullet]

OK so the main thing going on in my mind right now is the processor. 4000+ or the 3800+ (i think thats what you recommended) I want to know if the extra $100 or so would be worth it becuase im still under the budget and I definetly do not want to go cheap on my processor. Is the performance gap big or hardly noticable?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Save $150 by getting the SD3700+ instead of the 4000, the 3700 will easily overclock 200mhz to equal 4000 speed

 

[Mistabullet]

Well the thing with that is i've never overclocked so I don't plan on doing it in the near future. Also even if I were going to overclock im sure I could overclock the 4000 by 200mhz so my question is, is the price drop from the 4000 to a 38 or 37 worth the performance drop and is that performance drop a big one? keep in mind that i wont be overclocking unless I absolutely need to. Also like I said im still underbudget so the price drop would be nice but it isn't a necessity.

Thanks for your feedback. By the way are you guys ok with the other parts? *ram, mobo, cd/dvd drive

 

[imported_obsidian]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Save $150 by getting the SD3700+ instead of the 4000, the 3700 will easily overclock 200mhz to equal 4000 speed

And then some most likely. 2.7GHz is in range of many 3700+. So yea, save yourself the $150.

These are the cases I am looking at which I think are better:
Lian-Li PC-7B Plus (120mm back) - $119 (performance-pcs)
Silverstone TJ04 - $115 (newegg)
Cooler Master Praetorian PAC-T01-EK - $115 (ewiz)

The Maxtor Diamondmax 10 series w/16MB cache is pretty damn nice. Check Newegg for prices.

I would also put more money in a better motherboard. The DFI Nf4 Ultra-D or K8N Neo4 Platinum are both nice.

 

[edfcmc]

Well, what are your major plans for this computer? Gaming? (HF-2, BF2?....), Surfing?. Encoding? DVD archiving?
You have some pretty heavy duty premium components there (Raptor and 4000+) that could be substituted depending on your planned usage.

On your case and power supply:
Case- aesthetics aside, this doenst seem to have enough internal hard drive space. And it appears to be premium priced for a steel atx case. The power supply on the other hand, seems also to be priced at a premium without anything stellar justifying why its $80 (Is there an objective review from a respectable website touting its amazing power supply abilities?). I would stick with 4 power supplies: Antec, Enermax, Seasonic, and/or Pc Power and Cooling.

EDIT
Wow. It appears that Tagan/E-power has been the subject of various reviews and has received comendable support for being an excellent power supply and great deal for the money. Good Choice OP.

 

[Mistabullet]

To edfcmc: I plan on doing some gamming and some everyday usage like surfing the net and school work. Thats just about it. As for the PSU all I want is something reliable, quiet and capable of powering a dual GPU's system.

To obsidian: I'll check those cases out in a bit. What is so good about Raptors? becuase i've been hearing a lot of good reviews about them but you guys seem to have a better solution. Also the only reason why i chose that motherboard is becuase of its wonderfull x300. I'll have to rely on integrated graphics until I get me a crossfire mobo with an x850 xt pe.

Thank you everyone for your feedback.

 

[Hacp]

The best way to go is still the 3800+. The 4000+ Will give an extra 3% in performance on average compared to the 3800. 3% is not worth 100 dollars.

 

[Mistabullet]

Alright 3800 it is! Anyone disagree?

 

[Hacp]

edfcmc, DFI street has a list of reccomeneded power supplies. Epower/Tagan is one of them. It also has a 3 year warrenty. I think a 70 dollar(at mwave) power supply with a 3 year warrenty is pretty fair is it not?

Also, I take back what I said. The 3700 is the better buy here. It looks like your not going to be doing anything drastic, and IF you do overclock, a 2.6 MHZ at 1MB cache processor is better than a 2.6 MHZ 512KB cache processor.

 

[Mistabullet]

Would that 3700 do good in BF 2? And how long till I'd have to replace it with something more powerfull. I would like this new system to last me for 3-4 years. (longer the better )

Obsidian: Those cases are too simple. How bout this? COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 Doesn't seem to much. Don't know about the psu it comes with. I've heard in many reviews it has great airflow and low dba.

 

[Hacp]

Yes. BF2 relies on the GPU more than the CPU. I remember reading it somewhere in theinquier.

 

[l Xes l]

the greatest nf4 mobos are made by DFI, Epox, and MSI.. im iffy about that ECS board...
anihow.. raptor is so not worth the money.. real life performance gain is minimal... u wont even be able to tell the difference..
people running two raptors in raid 0 wont even see much "real life" performance gain...
if u going to spend that much on cpu.. make sure to get one w/ 1mb L2 cache..
check out coolermaster centurion 5 and 530 for cases... pretty slick..
not overclocking the a64 chip is kinda waste... couple days of effort to learn and oc'ing made my $120 venice run faster than $800 fx-55... u should definitly look around..

 

[Hacp]

His ECS board is going to be replaced. Hes just surviving on integrated sh*t right now.

 

[suicidalpigeon]

yus! i wont be the only atot guy with a tagan!!1 get a lian li pc60, its noice (out of stock atm). cavalier 3 is nice, too. 3700 should do fine with bf2. never use the psu the case comes with unless its some known brand like antec.

 

[Hacp]

Coolermaster makes half decent psus btw.

 

[Mistabullet]

I guess for HDD its between the Seagate Baracuda and WD caviar...

Yea but are they quiet?

 

[Hacp]

Seagate is quiet I know that. I have a cavaliar and its quiet for me, but I'm the kind of guy who likes to hear it when his machine is working. I hate it when I don't hear a sound when i'm transfering large files, or loading a program. It makes me think that windows is going to freeze. Not sure if it will make a difference, but my cavalier is a bottom of the line IDE Ultra ATA 100 one.

 

[krazzypanda]

Originally posted by: Mistabullet
Would that 3700 do good in BF 2? And how long till I'd have to replace it with something more powerfull. I would like this new system to last me for 3-4 years. (longer the better )

Obsidian: Those cases are too simple. How bout this? COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 Doesn't seem to much. Don't know about the psu it comes with. I've heard in many reviews it has great airflow and low dba.

You can play BF2 for 4 years or more =D.

 

[suicidalpigeon]

seagate 250gb 7800.8.

warranty:

segate vs wd
(O'.')==D Q(x_XQ)

 

[imported_obsidian]

Originally posted by: Mistabullet
Would that 3700 do good in BF 2? And how long till I'd have to replace it with something more powerfull. I would like this new system to last me for 3-4 years. (longer the better )

Obsidian: Those cases are too simple. How bout this? COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 Doesn't seem to much. Don't know about the psu it comes with. I've heard in many reviews it has great airflow and low dba.

You can always get the version without the PSU for $50. It is also the same case that I used to build my friends computer last week. It is pretty nice and clean looking.

 

[Mistabullet]

Originally posted by: obsidian

Originally posted by: Mistabullet
Would that 3700 do good in BF 2? And how long till I'd have to replace it with something more powerfull. I would like this new system to last me for 3-4 years. (longer the better )

Obsidian: Those cases are too simple. How bout this? COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 Doesn't seem to much. Don't know about the psu it comes with. I've heard in many reviews it has great airflow and low dba.

You can always get the version without the PSU for $50. It is also the same case that I used to build my friends computer last week. It is pretty nice and clean looking.

Where at??