My New PC any advice wanted!

chrisrowlands · 22 May 2006 at 14:25

I am in the process of buying new components for a gaming PC, to upgrade my current build. Below are the specs I am looking to buy:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ socket 939 Dual Core
DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR SKT939 - Retail Box
XFX GeForce 7900 GT XXX Edition 256MB
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 300GB 6V300F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache
Zalman CNPS7700-ALCU CPU Cooler
Thermaltake Dream Tower Series - Tsunami Aluminum Chassis
LG GSA-H10ABAL 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter x2
OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit

I was wondering what you guys thought about this combination of components as I am still open to any changes, so if you feel I could spend a bit more and get a lot more performance or spend a bit less and still get the same I would greatly appreciate this advice. Another thing I was also wonder is that I recently saw some cheap RAM on eBay SAMSUNG 2GB PC3200 DDR 400Mhz RAM 2 GB 2X 1GB DIMM for £62 including delivery from America Samsung Memory Ebay Link and was wondering if it was just as good value as the OcUK stuff priced at nearly twice as much. I won't be doing an awful amount of overclocking but am looking for a PC that will last for a while and be capable of playing the most recent games.

Thanks For Your Time Guys

Chris

Stelly · 22 May 2006 at 14:31

I would go for a Seasonic power supply, they are class

Stelly

EDIT: I wouldnt put other competitors prices in your posts or links to them

booyaka · 22 May 2006 at 14:37

Welcome to the forums matey!

What you listed is a beast of a rig, very nice indeed.

Couple of small changes i would make, lose the cpu cooler you have choosen and change if for a ARtic Freezer Pro 64 cooler.

Would steer clear of any ram on ebay - cheap unbranded rubbish (most of it) and also check the postage costs of the american imported sutff and also you could get hit for customs charges aswell.

You could consider dropping the 4200+ to the 3800+ and overclocking. They are generally seen as better value for money and overclock fairly well.

by doing that you save about £40 and this could go towards the Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB instead of the 7900GT XXX.

hp7909 · 22 May 2006 at 14:38

Change the processor to either a X2 3800+ if comfortable/intersted with overclocking or the more expensive X2 4400+. The latter has 1MB L2 cache which is good. Other than that everything else looks good (/little voice at back of head says, "tell him 2 get a tagan psu")

Wouldn't trust that Samsung memory, especially at that price because apparently its very expensive to produce 2GB sticks hence why prices have remained high. Even if its genuine/bargain, if any problems it will be hard to RMA - and a quick search here will show you how many people have issue with RAM even the expensive ones. OcUK Value RAM (i hear) is Kingston RAM rebranded (/someone pls confirm

). Got 1GB Kit myself running at 200MHz (400DDR) 2.5-3-3-8 & 1T

Newbie mistake: NO COMPETITORS, recommend you seek FAQ

StarShock · 22 May 2006 at 14:50

also you may want to have a look at the socket AM2 stuff, not much of a difference from the 939s but it would offer better upgradeability in the future and ddr2 support

chrisrowlands · 22 May 2006 at 14:56

StarShock said:
also you may want to have a look at the socket AM2 stuff, not much of a difference from the 939s but it would offer better upgradeability in the future and ddr2 support

Whats socket AM2? and what are the real benifits? which AM2 would you recommend getting?

split · 22 May 2006 at 15:13

No one really knows about AM2 yet, but Asrock make a board that takes this.
ABIT have some on the way as well.
Way to early to say if it's gonna be any good tho.

This review may be not far off.

If you want to wait for AM2, then you might as well wait for conroe. (new pentium chip)

Explicit · 22 May 2006 at 15:20

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-167-AM)
£234.94
Abit KN9 Ultra nForce 570 Ultra (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-096-AB)
£105.69
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£135.07
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO)
£281.94
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE) **this week only**
£70.44
NEC ND4571 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-033-NE)
£29.32
Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£72.79
Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£57.52

Total inc VAT: £987.71

Same price, only better. And nobody can deny that it has a better upgrade path than the obsolete socket 939, especially in terms of quad core.