Gaming PC spec help please.

Szlater · 27 Mar 2006 at 18:13

Basically I've decided I need a whole new system, including monitor, mouse and keyboard; the only thing that will be carried over is my Boston Acoustics 2.1 speaker setup. This is what I was thinking about, I would really appreciate some feedback.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+
DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS4000PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS3
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940)
Antec P180 SPCR Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black)
Seasonic S12 600W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply
2 x Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache
Pioneer DVR-111DBK 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM
Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - Retail
Logitech G15 Gaming-Grade Illuminated Keyboard - Retail
Logitech G5 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse
Dell Ultrasharp 2405FPW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk
Plantronics DSP 100 Headset

The one thing I'm really unsure about is the motherboard; do you think I'm making a mistake with:
a) the choice and
b) using a x1900XTX in a SLI board?

Comments and suggestions gratefully recieved.

Many thanks.

Paul -C- · 27 Mar 2006 at 18:15

Why not use a Crossfire board, so you have the option of adding a second X1900XTX later if you want?

Monstermunch · 27 Mar 2006 at 18:19

Paul -C- said:
Why not use a Crossfire board, so you have the option of adding a second X1900XTX later if you want?

The crossfire boards sound great but unfortunately I wouldn't buy one cos they seem to be nothing but problems with them atm.

Monstermunch · 27 Mar 2006 at 18:23

I would go with the 4400+ over the 4800+ cos it's much better value for money and only 200mhz less. Either that or the Opteron 175.

Also their are conflicts with the DFI boards and the Corsair Ram, try the OCZ stuff instead PC3200 Platinum.

Also the HIS x1900xtx is basically the same but cheaper, so i'd go for that.

Other than the above the spec looks good.

Szlater · 27 Mar 2006 at 18:25

Paul -C- said:
Why not use a Crossfire board, so you have the option of adding a second X1900XTX later if you want?

Thanks for replying.

Basically I gave up looking for one with a similar feature set and reputation. Do you have a recommendation for a comparable Crossfire board?

Szlater · 27 Mar 2006 at 18:26

Monstermunch said:
Also their are conflicts with the DFI boards and the Corsair Ram, try the OCZ stuff instead PC3200 Platinum.

Also the HIS x1900xtx is basically the same but cheaper, so i'd go for that.

Thanks!

I'm glad I posted here before ordering!

ACESHIGH · 28 Mar 2006 at 00:01

Best crossfire mobo ..

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

NeptuneUK · 28 Mar 2006 at 00:35

lol the SLI board will like the x1900 just fine

BigDom · 28 Mar 2006 at 01:12

ACESHIGH said:
Best crossfire mobo ..

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

Agreed, hopefully the teething troubles are over now as it's a very nice specced board..

If you go NF4 save a few pounds and get a non-SLI board tho.

Szlater · 28 Mar 2006 at 12:14

Thanks for the helpful comments and suggestions.

I've altered my specs and placed the orders.

AMD Opteron UP 175 Dual Core 2.2GHz
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR

(unfortunately too late to change mobo, although I'm not too upset about that).

Many thanks!