Help me spend $2000

Computer Forum New Build / Upgrade Advice
1

I have saved for a new computer (seeing as mine has died).

I have £1000+, which is roughly $1700-1800+, to spend on JUST the tower. This could probably include a new set of speakers (mine are… not up to scratch).

Anyway, I was hoping I could get some reccomendations or even whole systems if I like the sound.

Heres what I was thinking:

X2 AMD (3800 maybe)
939 AMD MOBO with SLI, SATA2, DDR2 (Asus a8n?)
200GB Sata2 / lower capacity HIGH speed / BOTH!!! mmmmm… both… drool
POSSIBLY a ATI x1800XT or Geforce 7800GTX (are either of them worth the cash?).
DDR2 OCZ … up to 2 gig… I think 1 will be good for now.
A sound card … POssibly an EMU line lower end. I wont be producing much music. But I want good sampling. Maybe an Audigy2 Platinum PRO will suffice.

All this wrapped up in a Antec P150 or P180 case. Obviously with suitably powerfull, QIUET psu.

This should all come to AROUND $1900, at a guesse. But to me, thats an investment. You should be able to tell what I want the system for from the above. A high end, gaming, 3D rendering, all round GOD-LIKE system.

If I have enough money then I might go for a Logitech z-5500 setup. The kind of speakers that make your whole neighbourhood hate you.

Let me know what you think/what you would spend it on. All ideas appreciated.

2

I would get an X1800XT when they come out, as they are better than the 7800GTX, if you could stretch that far, get a crossfire motherboard, and dual X1800XT’s, oh think of the power!
correct me if i am wrong guys but AMD only support up to DDR (PC3200) memory at the moment do they?

i would go with somthing like an AMD FX processor aswell, FX 59 i think, X2 are more for servers i think.

3

[QUOTE=willhub]
I would get an X1800XT when they come out, as they are better than the 7800GTX, if you could stretch that far, get a crossfire motherboard, and dual X1800XT’s, oh think of the power!
correct me if i am wrong guys but AMD only support up to DDR (PC3200) memory at the moment do they?

i would go with somthing like an AMD FX processor aswell, FX 59 i think, X2 are more for servers i think.
[/QUOTE]

Have to disagree mostly with you there.

The X1800XT is a very good card, but it won’t necesssarily beat the older 7800GTX in all games. So it depends on the price really, is the extra money worth it? Or could you get a 7800GTX SLI but thats up to you. Its always a game of cat and mouse in the tech world, the X1800 is newer, so may be slightly better in some cases, but then nVidia will release a superior card and so forth. The X1800XT is better, but the GTX is better value for the performance. You might want to wait for the 512mb version of the GTX and see what happens.

As far as I know, there is no FX-59, only FX-57. But they are not worth the enormous price, and no the X2 isn’t for servers. If you want a server CPU you’d get an AMD Opteron. The X2 will probably be the better choice if you have money to spend, they’ll handle multithreaded better than the single core FX chips. I suggest a 3800 or a 4200, no lower.

AMD CPUs at the moment only use regular DDR, however if you want to overclock, get faster RAM than PC3200 so you have room to breathe, if not then high performance PC3200 should be good.

4

dual core doesent offer much of an improvment at the moment, i meant FX 57, just made a typing error and forgot to correct it, i am sure i seen a banchmark somewere with the X1800XT beating the GTX in nearly every benchmark, the 7800GTX is not that much better than the X1800XL too, and you can get X1800XL’S for cheaper than 7800GTX’S, in the uk there selling X1800XL’S for under £280 which is very cheap for a new card, (ebuyer.co.uk).
the X1800 series of cards will drop in price in time, just like the 7800 series have

5

Dual core does offer an improvement, like the Pentium Ds, when you have a game running while processes taking up the odd piece of CPU time in the background, it proves beneficial to have dual core. DC is becoming more and more mainstream.

It also depends on what benchmarks you look at, also is the x1800xt even available now? I can’t find it anywhere. And I was referring to the X1800XT for pricewhich you recommended, not X1800XL. I suggest you take a look at this: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1813
For a new generation of cards from ATi, its a little disappointing.

I’m basically saying don’t jump the gun, and buy the best value card. If you buy best money can buy now, it will no longer be the fastest in a few months time.

6

i know you was refering to X1800XT, and no its not available yet.
what X800XT come into this for :s

7

It’s possible to stretch the buget enough to afford two 7800GT’s and every other component but I’d peronally stick with one card.
The 3800+ X2 is a very good choice. But if games are you’re main priority just get a simple 3800+ or 4000+ single core chip as they actually perform a little better in games and are becomming cheaper and cheaper.
For memory 2 gigs is nice but see where you budget takes you. If you can afford it by all means go for it but if you’d reather get that extra video card or nicer speakers do that instead as 2gigs isn’t really necessary yet and only about 2 games really utilize it in any way (BattleField 2 and FEAR).
If I were you I’d get a 74gig Western Digital Raptor and a 120 to 160 gig 7200rpm drive that way you can load up all your games on the raptor and enjoy blazingly fast load times and just put you music, pics, movies, etc. on the big drive. Or you could get two 120gig drives and put them in a RAID 0 configuration and get very good load times there as well. Though it’s a bit risky as data is shared between the drives so if one fails it’s all gone:(
For the mobo I’d say a ASUS SLI Deluxe or Premium. They seem to be the board of choice for highend builds.
Unless you know something I don’t AMD platforms can’t use DDR2 yet so you’ll have to stick with DDR1. Which is still perfectly fine as the latency is twice as good so you don’t really get a performance hit. I’d say Patriot XBL, Giel One series, Kingston HyperX (kind of pricey), or OCz Gold Series. Get the fastest speed you can find, so PC3500 (DDR433) would be nice while PC4000 (DDR500) would be better. And the lowest latency you can find without paying 150 quid for just on gig.
Okay well I hope that helps.

8

EDIT:

I have decided that a possible update to a AMD X2 in the furture would be an idea. Therefor SKT939 is the way to go… and a nice shiny FX 57 (failing that, a FX 55) with 2x160gb SATAII in RAID0 with a Nvidia 7800gtx.

Now I will decide on MOBO, and RAM. I think the A8N Deluxe SLI is a sound choice, but a MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum performs better in benchmarks… hmmm!

As for RAM. I found a little gem in a MUSHKIN PC4000, check Mushkin Redline Memory Raises The RPM's - Legit Reviews

Tell me what you think.

Ill leave the below in, just incase anyone wants to read it .. :stuck_out_tongue:

This has helped loads, nice one guys.

As far as I can see, the ATI card will not give my system enough of an adge to make it worth the extra over the Geforce. That doesnt matter, Im sure I will change it after a year for a Crossfire and I know who I will sell the 7800GTX to already! :smiley:

As for processor… I have been out of the loop for a while but… AMD with ONLY up to 3200 without overclocking… that sounds bad. I built my friends computer recently with this, it does perform, but would it not be worth getting an equivalent Pentium with DDR2 500? And I realise the cost difference between Dual cores, but I intend to hold onto this system for quite-some-time (old one is nearly 3+1/2 yrs old). So, I am expecting software technology to catch up with hardware to produce massive performance increases (esp when background processes are concerned) with X2. Is this not likely to happen VERy soon??? Also, this will leave me open to rendering/video streaming BEHIND my a game (MASSIVE bonus for me), or am I very wrong?

I think the 160s with RAID0 will suffice, as I would like the storage space and will succumb to the slightly slower loads. It will still be an improvement over my old IDEs with my 1.3 AMD sob. But what about SATA2? I could not locate a decent SATA2 HDD for my friend while building his system. Admitedly he wanted it all bought in one, mainstream shop :x:.

Anyway, I pretty much know where to head with this. I am, however, really worried about my processor choice. I can see the Pentium being outdated as soon as 64bit operating platforms take off. This makes the AMD 64 X2 a good choice, but without supporting DDR2 or higher FSB, will they not get a bit left behind in memory and speed performance? Esp when latency timings can be improved for DDR2. I will need guidance on this.
That will obviously dictate what type of MOBO I will have.
So for AMD: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe with DDR400 OCZs = a good choice, no?
(I dont want to but…) Suggestions for a Pentium rig?

Thank you very much for your time & help.

-Tag

9

Okay I understand you concern and it’s very common for people to think this. Firstly the fsb is integrated into the chip itself on AMD processors so it will basically run at the same speed as the chip itself, loads better than a 800MHz, no integrated intel version. And you don’t have to get DDR400, if you want you can buy DDR600, it’s pricy but if you want it that bad you can get it. Techniquely it’s not officially supported but it turns out the on Newegg most of the people who buy high speed DDR are AMD users. DDR2 isn’t nearly enough reason to go to Intel, ram is important but it’s not good to have hugely fast ram when the latency is horrid and (it doesn’t look like it will improve anytime soon either) and the processor architechture on the supported processores is less efficient.
My two cents.

10

Thanks.. read my post above this. See what you think. I should be able to manage that.

11

If you’re not really convinced by dual-core that’s fine, the FX line offers some pretty serios performance for sure. However I don’t know if that will fit within the budget! Well it’s your money but I would still advise against getting an FX 55 or 57, they are very very expensive for how much extra performane you get. A 3700+ Sandiego vs. a FX55 is really a pretty close match when you concider the price. I’d say the best highend bang for the buck is the 3800+, very affordable yet plenty of power for all the most demanding apps. It stacks up very well with the big boys and costs less than a third as much as the FX 57, good deal!
Anyway the ram looks awesome and Mushkin is a very nice brand. You may want to confirm that it will play nicely with either board though I would reccommend the ASUS SLi over the MSI as their Platinum series, although very good isn’t quite as stable in many tests. Something to concider.
Also keep in mind that SATAII is a nice technology but offers virtually no performance gain in terms of speed. If you’re getting it for that reason it’s no necessary and you can stick with ATA150 if it’s cheaper or more available.

12

Help me spend $2000

Send it to me -

I will PM my paypal account… :stuck_out_tongue:

LOLOLOLOLOL

Good luck!

13

I think the 160s with RAID0 will suffice

Wow hang on there. Are you sure you want to use RAID 0? you do realise that although striping with a hardware controller will give a performance boost, if one drive fails you’ve lost all the data on both disks. Its a lot to lose so I would suggest against it.

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I explained that. Get Seagate and it hopefully won’t ever be an issue. I do see your concern though. Just backup anything crucial on DVD RW’s once or twice a month and you’ll be all set.

15

Im not going to send you all my money! Heh.

The raid… is going to happen. Its a bit on the risky side but I have 2 Barracudas and I might have an external after a few months, so I dont have too much to worry about… I think.

Heres what I have started buying already

Antec P180 with Enermax active PCF 400w PSU
Mushkin XP4000 Redline (with active cooling.. dont worry)
Asus A8N SLI Premium
Athlon FX 57
2x 160gb Barracuda SATA300
XFX Geforce 7800GTX
Creative X-Fi Xtreme music
Creative Megaworks 2.1

Im … a bit over budget… but it needed doing. All in all = £1800 ON THE DOT inc. shipping and tax .. heh heh.

Opinions will be appreciated.

16

Bigger, better PSU for a system like that. Although its a good brand, I don’t know if 400W will cut if for that. Might as well get 500W for that.

17

Wow, sweet rig dude, but yeah an Antec TruePower 500wt or so would be a better choice for a rig that powerful.

18

That’ll be one killer system!
A bit over budget?! you’ve spent nearly double what your original budget was!
If you have the money why not?! That system should handle all games nicely…:smiley:

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[QUOTE=Matt555]
That’ll be one killer system!
A bit over budget?! you’ve spent nearly double what your original budget was!
If you have the money why not?! That system should handle all games nicely…:smiley:
[/QUOTE]

My thoughts exactly. Once I have spent some on my car I will have no money! But everything I want. So its all good.

System parts are starting to dribble in from various vendors (inc an Antec TPII 550 PSU:D ). Will take update with poss some photos once its running.

Thanks for all your help guys,

-Tag-

20

Awesome dude, hope it works out for you:good: