PSU question and computer review

[Aarrggimapirate]

I just graduated from high school, and my parents gave me a 1000$ computer for my present.

Im just about to purchase it, and was wondering if I should change around my PSU / Case. Also I have heard that the venice core may be better then the Winchester for the Athlon 64 3000+?

This is my current setup :

MotherBoard : DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Case : CODEGEN C-6209-CA-38C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811182043
(40.5$)

THERMALTAKE Silent PurePower TT-420AD(DUAL FAN) ATX 420W Power Supply - Retail
(sale for 37$) (this has a 24pin adapter and the 400w on the case does not, and the DFI Lanparty mobo is suppose to be a lot more stable with a true 24pin)

HDD : 2 x Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B300S0 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
(going to place them in a software raid)

CPU : AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3000BIBOX - Retail
(153$)

Leadtek PX6600GT TDH Geforce 6600GT 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail
(169$) (going to go the upgrade SLI path)

My main question is should I get that case even though I am not going to use the 400w PSU in it. I have looked at its design and review on anandtech and really like it. The Case only is for 32$ but it is sold out, and I do not want to wait for it to come back into stock.

 

[w00t]

dont buy it wait a little that computer needs to be helped.

 

[Aarrggimapirate]

? can you expand?

 

[w00t]

1st dont get sli board when u have a 6600gt get a xpress 200 board maybe or a nf4 with 1 pci-e save u money.
2nd get 3200+ amd64 s939
that case is ugly the psu is bad ocz modstream is good look for some others.
i would get a x800xl or 6800gt.
software mod? what are u talking about never heard of that but that is 600gigs i highly doubt u are gonna use that.

just stay at forums for a week and you will know exactly what you want.

 

[Aarrggimapirate]

Grrr my ram just sold out.

That is not a SLI board, and is very cheap. It supports SLI but not officially and can OC very well
3200+ is 50$ more, and that is a lot of money just for 200 more mhz(i know it is not mhz)
I like the case

Software RAID 0 . Oh trust me I can use 600gigs. I have 160 and a 120 right now and are both full to the brim. I am overflowed onto my sisters 160, which is now full. My xboxes 120gig is also full.

 

[w00t]

u know raid 0 doesnt give u a performance increase? for what you do?

read: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101

edit: gaming loading times. http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101&p=10

 

[Aarrggimapirate]

Yeah I saw that. I have been in software raid setups before though. And they do give you a speed increase on copy times and other stuff, I am not sure about game loading times. Plus you get the 600gig feature, having 1 partition > 2 partitions. I guess I could place it into a JBOD.

I have seen other benchmarks and such that do show raid increasments, but thoose where all EIDE raids. And I know you will see raid increasments when working with fiber drives. I will definetly research that more.

The computer was not to be the best graphics pulling machine because I would rather have that extra 300gigs then 33% increase from my 6600GT, but 100% increase in price. I looked at everything, and I think I made the best choice. Although if I had 1000$ more im sure the computer would be very very nice.

 

[w00t]

maybe you can add your money with there's so you can have more .

 

[Aarrggimapirate]

And share a computer? I did that once before. Not including the fact that you would get barely any time on it. You can not have a folder on your desktop labeled Porn, and that is a serious draw back.

 

[SrGuapo]

Don't listen to w00t, his comments are usually just random streams of repeated grammatically intolerable chicken shit.

*That case is fine as long as you like how it looks (though it is a bit expensive).

*That is an ultra board (not SLI).

*The gpu is fine if you are on a budget, but keep an eye out for any good deals on x800xls.

*I would wait for a 3000+ venice. Better OCer, SSE3, and should be exactly the same price.

I would have to agree that RAID0 is probably a bad choice though. It may help slightly in sustained transfers, but the chances of losing all your data will be doubled (since if one drive fails, the whole array is hosed). If you have even semi important data, it would be foolish. Also, I have heard some bad stories about the reliability of maxtor drives, but they are some of the fastest and cheapest, so I would go for them.

Looks like a good pc overall. Are you going to be building it yourself?

PS - You didn't merntion what RAM you are planning on getting. There are plenty of smokin' deals on RAM now and I don't want you to buy the value when the premium is $10 more or buy premium when other RAM is $50 less and performs just as well.

 

[Aarrggimapirate]

OCZ Value Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227213
104.91$

I already ordered the computer, I had to because all the deals where running out on newegg.com.

The ram is a value series, but I have heard nothing but it being the best when placing it into a OC environment, and that DFI board is the perfect one for it. Yeah, I am building it myself. It will not be the first one, I have built several computers before and have no problem messing with electronics.

Damn, should have got that venice, oh well. I thought they looked the same, and there was way more reviews and content for the winchester I thought that would be the best decision. Hope that didnt mean too much :\.

 

[birdpup]

Read through the forum and you will realize exactly what you want and need. Take a look at the rigs in people's sigs while you are at it. General Hardware, Cases & Cooling, and CPU/Processors and Overclocking are very good categories for the information you need. It becomes difficult to answer such threads when there are minimum of five a day. Read the threads of others before you with similar requests.

 

[SrGuapo]

Originally posted by: Aarrggimapirate
OCZ Value Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227213
104.91$

I already ordered the computer, I had to because all the deals where running out on newegg.com.

The ram is a value series, but I have heard nothing but it being the best when placing it into a OC environment, and that DFI board is the perfect one for it. Yeah, I am building it myself. It will not be the first one, I have built several computers before and have no problem messing with electronics.

Excellent choice. Probably would have been my suggestion. I have heard nothing but great things about that RAM at higher voltages (240-250 MHz at 2-2-2!)

 

[Aarrggimapirate]

Thanks for all your help man. I just canceled my order and went with the venice. I was going to just leave it alone, but after a while I start freaking out, and just decided to do it.

 

[knothead34]

dfi recommends 480 watts for there nforce4 boards i see what you chose is native 24 thats good.i think you should invest in a better psu to meet the dfi requirment. look into enermax or fortron....ocz.