Could someone give me advice on my specs please?

rebel28 · 14 Mar 2006 at 18:47

Hey guys,
Ok it has been about a year and half since i built my comp so not too much has changed, now my dad wants me to build him a system and this is the list i have put together, any suggestions for alternative parts are anything else most welcome!

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe, nForce4 SLI X16, Socket-939, Dual-GbLAN, Firew, PCI-Ex16 --£140

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.2GHz Socket 939, 2MB, BOXED w/fan --£326

Gainward GeForce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3, PCI-Express,"U/3500PCX XP" ViVo, 2xDVI --£327

Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 DDR-DIMM 2048MB Kit w/two matched CMX1024-3200C2 DIMMs --£147

NEC DVD±RW burner, ND-3550A, 16x, Dual, Silver OEM --£25

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM --£68

Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU --£62

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card - Retail --£30

Thermaltake VA3000BWA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower --£75

ok so thats everything but i have 1 or 2 alternates, first of all the graphics card, a different option would be the

Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GT "Goes Like Hell" 512MB GDDR3 --£245
from what ive read this would outperform the 7800gtx (not OC but then i dont plan to oc cos i cant

)

also i think ill probably answer my own question here but i wanted to go with the Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard but i couldnt find anything about whether it supports dual core, if it does is there much of a perfeormance difference between the two i have listed,

ok so i think thats everything, as i said any suggestions for alternate parts etc are most welcome.

thanks in advance
rebels28

Zephyrus · 14 Mar 2006 at 18:55

Possibly change the CPU to X2 4400 as you'll get 1MB x2 Cache instead of 512k x2 and it only has a slightly lower clock speed. The x2 4400's seem to be overclocking very well too.

I'd change the craphics card for either ..
XFX GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT71F-YDLR) (GX-072-XF) £381 inc Vat

or

PowerColor ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-060-PC) £311 inc VAT

Personally i'd take the x1900xt.

A few people have had problems with the Hiper PSU's. Min e has worked perfectly since i got it but just to make you aware that others have found them not up to scratch.

iraiguana · 14 Mar 2006 at 19:01

looks good, i would go for the x1900xtx if u can afford it and then just get normal pcie board as what is the likely hood of purchasing the same card which will no longer be maufactured when the new card will perform better than two x1900xtx's in the future anyway. also with new features and supports required for vista does not seem likely to be needed.

rebel28 · 14 Mar 2006 at 19:27

Wow, fast replies! :eek:

I actually had it a 4400 in it then my dad said he wanted a 4600, so goin back to the 4400 and changing the video card it looks like this now.

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe, nForce4 SLI X16, Socket-939, Dual-GbLAN, Firew, PCI-Ex16 --£140

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.2GHz Socket 939, 2MB, BOXED w/fan --£326

XFX GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT71F-YDLR) (GX-072-XF) --£381

Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 DDR-DIMM 2048MB Kit w/two matched CMX1024-3200C2 DIMMs --£147

NEC DVD±RW burner, ND-3550A, 16x, Dual, Silver OEM --£25

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM --£68

Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU --£62

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card - Retail --£30

Thermaltake VA3000BWA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower --£75

Can you suggest a good power supply? All the reviews of the hiper i read seemed good but im not sure if id like to take the risk :confused:

Also ill explain about taking the 7900 over the 1900, The reason i am building a new system is that the graphics card in the current system has packed in, it is an ati 9800 atlantis or something like that, anyway that has only been in it for a year and a half before that there was a ati 6800 pny (i think) which only lasted about 2 years, am i just cursed with gettin bad ati cards or was there any known issues with these two cards??

Has there been any reliability issues with the 1900? also what would the performance difference between the 7900 and 1900 be % wise?

also iraiguana i dont understand what you mean about vista

thanks

-=EDIT=-
what would you think of this power supply, would 560W be enough?

Thermaltake PurePower 560W Silent Power Supply --£70

rebel28 · 15 Mar 2006 at 00:23

hey just thought id give this a bump as it was off the front page

ACESHIGH · 15 Mar 2006 at 12:30

As for graphics card, the XFX GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT71F-YDLR) (GX-072-XF) which you mentioned isnt in stock & who knows when they will be. FYI; that 1-3 days sign has been there for 5 days now. So if you want to order soon, get a card that is actually in stock. Otherwise your whole order is held back.

For less money you can get the MSI ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-059-MS)
£340.69 Including VAT

The 7900GTX & X1900XTX are about the same performance wise, thats why ATI option is better as they are cheaper. And many say ATI have better image quality. The X1900 cards are selling like hot cakes at present & seem to be very reliable, quiet & good value for money cards.

Vista is the next OS from Microsoft, with support for DX10, coming at end of this year or early next. So by that time if you want to support it you would be better getting a newr card than getting a 2nd card for SLI which while being able to run, wont have these newer features. Thats why the one card solution & upgrading to a newer card later is better than going SLI.

The Thermaltake PurePower 560W Silent Power Supply is very good & will handle the system no problems.

BigDom · 15 Mar 2006 at 13:23

Agree with Aces, definatly get a X1900 not a 7900, the extra cost of the NVidia cards is just not worth it for a card that's pretty much the same speed.

rebel28 · 15 Mar 2006 at 13:44

Cool, thanks for the advice. So ill go for the 1900, not sure which one yet, ill read some reviews i guess. Seeing as im going ati route will the motherboard i have listed be ok if at a later stage i wanted to add a second card in crossfire?
If not what motherboard could you reccomend?

The other thing i just thought of is will the ram that i have in it be sufficent or could it slow the system up?

Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 DDR-DIMM 2048MB Kit w/two matched CMX1024-3200C2 DIMMs --£147

or would i be better off going for something better?

Im about ready to order this baby, possibly tonight if im happy with all the parts and feedback, also gonna get myself a saitek eclipse keyboard

, have the saitek gaming one and was dissapointed the way the light doesnt shine through the keys

BigDom · 15 Mar 2006 at 14:06

you need a Crossfire board to go Crossfire route I use the origonal Asus MVP and like it a lot.

Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS)

Is the newer chipset and from what little I know about it should be very good.

rebel28 · 15 Mar 2006 at 15:12

Ok so this is what i have and i just found out i have another £190 to spend on it, what would you add to it? i cant decide! :rolleyes:

Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS) --£104.95

CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM) --£276.95

MY-079-CS Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS) --£124.95

GX-060-MS MSI ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-060-MS) --£264.95

HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) --£57.95

CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) --£24.95

SC-039-CL Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card - Retail (SC-039-CL) --£24.95

CA-010-TT Thermaltake VA3000BWA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower - Black (CA-010-TT) --£63.95

CA-024-TT Thermaltake PurePower 560W Silent Power Supply (W0023R) (CA-024-TT) --£59.95

KB-015-SK Saitek PZ30AU Eclipse Illuminated Keyboard (KB-015-SK) --£24.95

ACESHIGH · 17 Mar 2006 at 00:35

For the extra cash, get the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ instead.
The rest looks great !!

Zephyrus · 17 Mar 2006 at 01:15

An extra £120 for 0.2Ghz? you mad?

[edit - just read your sig.. yes you are

]

rebel28 · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:05

hehe, thanks for the suggestion but ive already ordered

i spent the extra money on a radeon x800x (agp) i think it was that, it was on clearence, gonna put that in the old machine to replace the fried graphics card and probably my brothers will get that machine

ill let you know how the new rig runs once i get it and have it put together. Currently trying to decide whether to put windows xp pro or x64 in it. probably gonna go with xp pro.