New system build - please advise

Marakith

Marakith

Marakith

Associate
Joined
22 Nov 2004
Posts
412
Location
London
Hello!

I'm building a new PC to last me the next three years. My requirements are:

1] Gaming
2] Video encoding (not a huge priority tho).
3] General use with multitasking (I have loads of windows open)


I'm upgrading my Barton 2500+ sytem as now is expedient for me to upgrade.

Here are the specs I'm thinking of:

spec_first_cut.jpg


I have a few questions, and I'd be really pleased if you could help me:


1] Does this spec appear to have any obvious bottlenecks?
2] Should I go a bit higher with the Graphics card?
3] Does the Raptor work with the P5W Mobo?
4] Any idea if this will work well with Vista?
5] Any point, in the meantime, getting Windows 64-bit?
6] Not so sure about the cooler. Always had a flower cooler. Will this cope with the heat output more than adequately (it can get hot in my room in the summer)?
7] Do you think this system will be very noisy?
8] Anyone had a bad experience with the case? It seems pretty accessible from what I've seen.
9] Do I have enough power from that PSU for foreseeable expansion.
10] I'm pretty sure the CPU I've chosen is one of the best bang for buck. The 2.4Ghz is psychologically important to me. Please let me know if you think I should go higher or lower for some reason...

Really appreciate your help - many thanks in advance! :D
 
1. Nope no obvious bottlenecks.
2. It might depend on the monitor you have but no I'd probably stick with the X1900XT.
3. Raptors work with pretty much anything as far as I know but I'd change the other drive to a Seagate 7200.10 as it is nearly as fast as the Raptor but more space and cheaper.
4. It will work fine with Vista but obviously since you don't have a DX10 graphics card(due to their not being released yet) you will miss out on some of the shinier parts of Vista.
5. No probably not, it doesn't appear to offer that much extra.
6. Yes this is one of the best coolers out there.
7. The graphics card and the Raptor are probably the noisiest parts.
8. Sorry, I have no idea about the case.
9. The PSU should be fine.
10. The CPU is a good choice, the 6300 or 6400 may be more overclockable % wise but they also don't have the 4mb cache.

I'd change the DVDRW to either an NEC or Pioneer and I wouldn't bother getting a DVD-Rom drive, I'd just get 2 DVDRWs given the price of them now :)
 
Thanks very much for your excellent feedback! :)

I'll go for your advice on the two DVD-RWs. I guess it was just habit.

I've also heard about buying two cards and running them in parallel. Would it make sense to buy two cheaper cards instead of one monster card on this rig?

I'm used to NVidia, so if anyone can suggest a good reason for this rig to go NVidia, I'd be happy to entertain it. I just don't want to cripple my system with a minky card when I'm going to splash out big!

I'm using a 19-inch TFT, runnning at 1280x1024.

I'm a little worried that the Raptor, being SATA1 won't work with the Mobo, which supports SATA-2. Is the Mobo backwards-compatible with the Raptor?

Is the Ninja hard to fit. It looks enormous!

Thanks again for the help - keep it coming! :)
 
Last edited:
Dual card setups don't make much sense normally unless you are running at really high resolutions, 1600x1200+, they add complication that doesn't need to be there and going for two mid-range cards means that you have just effectively cut off an upgrade path plus the cards you could link in the price range (2x7600GTs) aren't any better than the single X1900XT.

A 7900GTX would be the Nvidia option, it is a shade less powerful and can't do AA+HDR unless specifically coded for but it is normally a touch quieter and less power hungry. I'd go for the X1900XT personally but there isn't a huge amount in it.

SATAII is designed to be backwards compatible, the problem, if it exists, normally comes from a SATAII drive being used with a SATA motherboard but that is usually solved by setting a jumper to run the drive in SATA mode.

I don't know how hard the Ninja is to fit but I think heatsinks have tended to become easier to fit recently, I can remember really struggling in the socket A days but my last build was socket 754 and that was easy.
 
Once again - awesome help. Thank you.

I'm going to mull over this one for a while and prolly start buying stuff next week.

I can hardly wait! :D
 
i would change your psu to either seasonic or tagan. very reliable power supplies and you downt anything going bang!
 
Hello again!

Some RL things have gotten in the way of buying all this kit (plus the price tag is scaring me somewhat!).

Most things in my list have stayed the same, although I'm probably going to go for an Antec P180 case.

The main thing is: I've heard that the best system performance will come from a Motherboard using the Intel 965 chipset, as opposed to the 975 that the Abit and ASUS offerings have. For this reason, I'm now looking at taking the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3.

Is this the best one to go for? The other Gigabyte boards further down the page at OCUK seem to imply that they are more suited to running Vista. I can't see how having 965 or 975 makes that much difference.

Your thoughts would be most appreciated.
 
The 965 chipsets are best for 6300 and 6400 chips with the 975 being a bit better with 6600 and above. That isn't to say that you won't necessarily have good results with either but as a general rule that is how it appears to go.

As for certain Gigabyte boards claiming to be better for Vista I'd just put it down to marketing speak more than anything tangible although I am happy to be corrected of course.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom