New System for entire family.

[DemoEngr]

Case: Cooler Master RC-810-SSN1 Stacker
Power Supply: PS 600W - OCZ PowerStream ATX 2.01/EPS SL
Motherboard: MSI K8N Diamond Plus Audio/GB-LAN/PCI-E/U
Processor: AMD Opteron 170 w/Thermal Grease
Memory: DDR (400) 3200 - 2 GB (2 pcs 1GB) OCZ Dual Channel Platinum
Video Card: eVGA GeForce 7800 GT CO 256MB DDR3/PCI-E
Hard Drive: SATA - Western Digital Caviar SE16 400 GB
CD-RW/DVD-RW: 160145 - DVD±RW - Plextor PX-740A/SW-BL Dual Layer
Floppy: 170108 - Mitsumi Floppy 7-in-1

The above new hardware is built with multiple users in mind. ACAD, Music, HDTV output, Games, Video Editing, and high end CAD for wife fashion consulting. The box will need to survive several upgrades and years of service. First in line will be faster harddrive and second video card.

I know the MSI board is not everyones favorite but i like the on board sound solution to currently cover that component. Can always upgrade later.

I believe I have avoided any considerable bottlenecks, and look forward to your review.

 

[Cinna696]

no arguments here, looks good

will handle your planned upgrades

 

[alimoalem]

are you overclocking? if so, get the opteron 165 and save the money.

you don't need a 600w psu. get the 500w and save some more money

the rest looks alright. do you have a specific budget?

 

[Unkno]

yea, definitely get a 165 and even 450w is enough

 

[TecHNooB]

Good setup. The WD 400GB is pretty good according to maximum PC.

 

[kmrivers]

if you are serious about CAD, a workstation card would give you a significant boost in performance over a consumer card. Not much loss in performance on the gaming end either. A Quadro FX1300 would be a good choice, although the price jump from the 7800GT is about $100. You can pick these up on eBay as well, usually pulls from HP workstations.

On eBay you can get the higher end cards as well, there are also a few of them that support SLI. Just a thought.

 

[DemoEngr]

Looks like I will standby and wait till 7900GT is available. It should only take a week or so. Otherwise has anyone had any issues with their MSI board or does the ATI MVP board deserve consideration?

 

[Bobthelost]

7900GT is availble now.

You're really wasting money on the PSU.

Not sure on the motherboards but i like asus more than MSI.

 

[DemoEngr]

I am taking the PSU down to a 520w for later sli requirements.

I have always used ASUS as well but the PCI card conflicts with sli and onboard audio are an issue.

I see that evga already has two 7900 options a turbo model and a base model iwonder if the add 10% speed is worth the 10% price difference. 500-550 for $35.00

 

[Bobthelost]

520W is more than enough for SLI, but OCZ is overpriced imo. A budget PCP&C with all the cons and very little of the advantages. Look at the enermax liberty or seasonic s12 ranges.

The 10% speed increase probably isn't worth it, as you'll be able to OC the cheaper card that much, of course if it comes with a better cooler then the equation changes.

Another point is that the RAM is overpriced for the performance, you want to buy budget RAM as the increased cost isn't worth the small improvements you get from it. There was some good low latency stuff on rebate a while back, but either way you don't want to spend more than $150-$160 on the RAM. If you save enough money there to go for the faster GPU then it'll be much more singificant.

 

[DemoEngr]

Have switched to abit32x board and will add sound card. MSI recent history is too risky.

Will also purchase standard 7900 GT CO.

Set to order tonight unless there is any other last minute addvice.

 

[alimoalem]

yea get the standard 7900GT. as bob said you can overclock the stock one just as much as the overclocked one. plus, it's not a 10% in price btw . $300-->$360 is a 20% jump in price for 10% performance