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Old 03-15-2006, 04:35 PM   #1
sasquatch95
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Default First time building my own PC - please take a look

OK, building my first PC mostly for photoshop, flash and light gaming. Probably going to get it all from newegg (except the monitor). Here's what I'm looking to build:

MB - ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Processor - AMD Athlon 64 3700+ / 1MB Cache / 2000MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Processor with Fan (SAN DIEGO)

Memory - CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail

Video Card - eVGA Geforce 6800GS 256-P2-N386-AX Video Card - Retail

HD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3250824AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Keyboard/Mouse - Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 Black Keyboard - OEM

DVD - NEC Beige 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner - Retail

Case & Power Supply - Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Computer Case - Retail

Monitor - Dell 24" LCD

Any advise and or constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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Old 03-15-2006, 04:38 PM   #2
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Sounds great. It sounds like a pretty buff machine, actually.
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Old 03-15-2006, 04:40 PM   #3
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nice monitor choice. i got the dell 24 and it rocks
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Old 03-15-2006, 04:40 PM   #4
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They have 2000MHz FSB now??
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Old 03-15-2006, 04:54 PM   #5
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Yeah. AMD is totally the way to go IMO. Looks like you got yourself some nice choice parts there.
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Old 03-15-2006, 04:56 PM   #6
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Only thing I could really say is get a better video card, otherwise it look good like the rest of the threads asking the same question.
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Old 03-15-2006, 04:58 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StuBeck
Only thing I could really say is get a better video card, otherwise it look good like the rest of the threads asking the same question.
Yeah, that card is pretty antiquated.
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Old 03-15-2006, 05:00 PM   #8
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They're all gonna laugh at you!
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Old 03-15-2006, 05:02 PM   #9
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a 6800 GS will slay anything on the market today unless you want 1600 x 1200 with full features. It's way overboard for anything but 3D gaming. If your concerned about game performance, buy a sound card, the one built into the motherboard uses the CPU to process sound which can cause some serious stuttering and slowdowns in games. Other than that, should be a rocking system. Also, MS Intelli-mouse explorer FTW!
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Old 03-15-2006, 05:04 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by super-ru
a 6800 GS will slay anything on the market today unless you want 1600 x 1200 with full features. It's way overboard for anything but 3D gaming. If your concerned about game performance, buy a sound card, the one built into the motherboard uses the CPU to process sound which can cause some serious stuttering and slowdowns in games. Other than that, should be a rocking system. Also, MS Intelli-mouse explorer FTW!
I've heard otherwise about the on board sound, with regard to 3dmark05 scores. People claim to get the same score either way, with PCI sound card or MoBo sound.
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Old 03-15-2006, 05:06 PM   #11
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thanks all. I was reading the reviews on anantech and newegg and the 6800GS seemed to be a good fit for now.

@ StuBeck - I know, but I wanted my own thread.
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Old 03-15-2006, 05:07 PM   #12
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You can turn off the sound in 3dMark, and maybe they finally started putting actual audio chips on the mobo's. Mine definatly chokes the CPU when playing with the mobo sound, so I bought an audigy 2 (which sounds a bit better anyways) and it cleared up alot of the problems I was having in games.
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Old 03-15-2006, 05:09 PM   #13
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Onboard sound eats about 5 to 10% of system performance.
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Old 03-15-2006, 11:27 PM   #14
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If that is the A8N-SLI board I'm thinking of (ASUS has a few of them) then it's the good one. ASUS has one out currently that is flat out horrible; unstable and a seriously high percentage of DOAs.

Actually, is this the board? This is the one I've had tons of problems with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131517

This one from ASUS is good if you have to have an ASUS brand board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131568

I haven't had any issues with this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130527

and this one is based on the nicer chipset that the expensive ASUS I listed above has, but doesn't cost as much: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130037

I'd seriously stay away from the board you listed as I've had a lot of trouble with those boards; out of the 6-10 of them I had to deal with, at least 4 were DOAs. An unacceptable amount for any product honestly. Not to mention the ones that were working seem to have some stability issues.

I could also recommend an nForce4 Ultra board as well.

-Biggly
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Old 03-16-2006, 12:20 AM   #15
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Change to a black DVD drive.

The door on the Sonata case will fall of given time or accident bumps from your chair. Then you will need to run door open.

Change the Power Supply to a Neo Power 480. It is as quiet and much better than the standard 450 Powersupply enclosed. The Cosair Ram is good but the OCZ Ram is better and cheaper. To improve speed double your ram and use a Ramdrive. It will increase access times for programmes. Load the programmes into the Ramdrive and run from there, it will increase the speed of any game or programme that you run.

You can also setup a minimal amount of virtual memory and run it off a Ramdrive. It will be much faster, but it is not as stable if you crash. However a good UPS will fix most of those problems.

Make sure you have a fast monitor for your fast computer. 4ms LCD refresh is best 6ms is also ok. 8 or 16 is too slow.

If you go SLI you might want a faster Video card first, then add SLI, the 7900 GT or GTX is faster than a 6800 SLI.

Oh and don't bother with multiple monitors.

Otherwise good work.

Last edited by Diabolical1 CC; 03-16-2006 at 12:27 AM.
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Old 03-16-2006, 12:24 AM   #16
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Oh an with your monitor you might want a lower resolution montior, big is fine but for games anything over XGA or SXGA will tax your 6800 video card too much for good game results. Upgrade to a 7900GT or GTX and you will be fine. Otherwise get a 21 to 24" CRT Monitor. CRT can use any resolution without artifacts or distortion. If you do go CRT get a fellowes anti radiation screen guard too. They work great and protect your eyes.
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Old 03-16-2006, 12:41 AM   #17
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I dunno if anyone mentioned this, but you don't want to waste money on the Deluxe board but instead want the Premium.
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Old 03-16-2006, 12:43 AM   #18
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Deluxe boards are only useful if you really need or are going to use them. Also I have to admit I have had more problems with Asus and their losy support than with much cheaper Gigabyte boards.

As long as you have a 2000MT CPU support it is fine. Also getting SLI is again just wasting money unless you buying two 7900 GT or GTX cards. Just get a non SLI board and put the extra money into a 7900GT video card.

Myself I would do this:

Processor : AMD Athlon 64 3700+ w/ 1MB Cache (Retail Box)
CPU Heatsink / Fan : AMD Retail Heatsink and Fan
Thermal Compound : Arctic Silver Ceramique Premium High-Density Thermal Compund, 2.5g
Motherboards : Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 w/ DualDDR400, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, SATA, PCI-E x16
Memory : OCZ 2GB PC3200 Performance Series Dual Channel DDR Kit (2 x 1024MB)
Case : Antec Sonata II w/ 450W SmartPower 2.0 1 $119.95 $119.95
Power Supplies : Antec 450W SmartPower 2.0 Power Supply Included with Case
Floppy / Card Reader : Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive, Black 1 $14.95 $14.95
Hard Drives 1 : Western Digital 250GB Caviar SE 7200rpm SATA II w/ 8MB Cache 1 $114.95 $114.95
Optical Drive 1 : LG Super Multi DVD Writer 16x16 DVD +/-RW Dual-Layer, Black (OEM)
Video Cards : BFG Geforce 7800 GT OC 256MB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, VIVO
Monitors : Samsung SyncMaster 940BF 19in Digital LCD w/ DVI, 2ms, Black
Sound Cards : Onboard 8-Channel 7.1 Audio
Ethernet Cards : Onboard 100/1000 Gigabit Lan
Keyboards : Belkin ErgoBoard (Black)
Mouse : Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse, Black (Retail)
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (OEM)
Battery Backup : APC Back-UPS LS 700 (BP700UC)

Last edited by Diabolical1 CC; 03-16-2006 at 12:56 AM.
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Old 03-16-2006, 12:49 AM   #19
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I wouldn't go with an NEC burner, I’ve owned 2 in the past and both crapped out on me in 8-9 months of ownership; I had great results with Samsung and Toshiba burners (both in 2 different machines).
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Old 03-16-2006, 12:49 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Diabolical1 CC
Deluxe boards are only useful if you really need or are going to use them.


The Deluxe doesn't support dual core, and the Premium and higher do. There is no price difference between the Deluxe and Premium...
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Old 03-16-2006, 01:04 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sasquatch95
OK, building my first PC mostly for photoshop, flash and light gaming. Probably going to get it all from newegg (except the monitor). Here's what I'm looking to build:

MB - ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Processor - AMD Athlon 64 3700+ / 1MB Cache / 2000MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Processor with Fan (SAN DIEGO)

Memory - CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail

Video Card - eVGA Geforce 6800GS 256-P2-N386-AX Video Card - Retail

HD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3250824AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Keyboard/Mouse - Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 Black Keyboard - OEM

DVD - NEC Beige 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner - Retail

Case & Power Supply - Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Computer Case - Retail

Monitor - Dell 24" LCD

Any advise and or constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Definitely need to beef up the graphics card. Get rid of the Corsair XMS 2 gig ram. Instead, just get 2 gigs of Corsair Value Select. XMS does jackish as far as performance goes and 2 gigs of Value Select will yield you pretty much the same performance. Only get the XMS if you're serious about overclocking like a madman. Otherwise, get the Value Select instead.

And use that extra left over money to put it towards a better video card.
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Old 03-16-2006, 01:42 AM   #22
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Nothing wrong with the graphics card; it's quite reasonable for the price. As far as the RAM goes; it doesn't hurt to have the better stuff and can sometimes help if one would rather tweak a bit. I know that the VS memory doesn't offer any performance benefit over generic memory as we have both in the store.

-Biggly
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Old 03-16-2006, 01:47 AM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DrBiggly
Nothing wrong with the graphics card; it's quite reasonable for the price. As far as the RAM goes; it doesn't hurt to have the better stuff and can sometimes help if one would rather tweak a bit. I know that the VS memory doesn't offer any performance benefit over generic memory as we have both in the store.

-Biggly

The graphics card is ok for a XGA (1024x768) res for gaming, but for that monitor he has UXGA (1600x1200) resolution his gaming is going to suffer.
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Old 03-16-2006, 01:55 AM   #24
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"2000MHz FSB" they have that now???

lucky.
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Old 03-16-2006, 02:35 AM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Diabolical1 CC
The graphics card is ok for a XGA (1024x768) res for gaming, but for that monitor he has UXGA (1600x1200) resolution his gaming is going to suffer.
Only if the monitor he has is stuck at a native res (which on LCDs is usually the case.) While it will run other resolutions, this could be reason enough alone to actually justify the better card.

-Biggly
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