Building a Computer.

Mulholland

Mulholland

Happy New Year!!!!
Joined
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Location
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Hi CFCers, I hope this thread doesn't fall under pesonal threads and is therby closed by the mods.
I've been looking into building a computer latley and have come up with a list of hardware that I want to throw togehter. What I'm looking for is a good fast computer on which I can play games that require alot of graphics and processing power. I would also like to be able to download several Torrents at once and be able to run other applications without slowup.

My list is as follows.(prices are in Canadaian dollars so feel free to ignore them)

ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe ATX S939 NFORCE4 SLI X16 DDR 2PCI-E16 SATA2 RAID Sound 2GBLAN 1394 Motherboard 229.14

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core Processor S939 Manchester 2GHZ 512KBX2 90NM Retail Box 371.89

EVGA E-GEFORCE 7900 GT CO 500MHZ PCI-E 256MB 256BIT 1.5GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out Video Card 336.30

OCZ Gold EL PC4000 2GB 2X1GB DDR500 CL3-4-4-8 184PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit W/ Ramsink 233.42

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive 129.40

So what do you think? Will it work? Bear in mind that I haven't built a computer before so any hints and tips are welcome. I also haven't listed items such as the chassis, the DVD drive, the power supply and the monitor, good priced reccomendations are welcome.
 
Mulholland said:
Hi CFCers, I hope this thread doesn't fall under pesonal threads and is therby closed by the mods.
I've been looking into building a computer latley and have come up with a list of hardware that I want to throw togehter. What I'm looking for is a good fast computer on which I can play games that require alot of graphics and processing power. I would also like to be able to download several Torrents at once and be able to run other applications without slowup.

My list is as follows.(prices are in Canadaian dollars so feel free to ignore them)

ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe ATX S939 NFORCE4 SLI X16 DDR 2PCI-E16 SATA2 RAID Sound 2GBLAN 1394 Motherboard 229.14

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core Processor S939 Manchester 2GHZ 512KBX2 90NM Retail Box 371.89

EVGA E-GEFORCE 7900 GT CO 500MHZ PCI-E 256MB 256BIT 1.5GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out Video Card 336.30

OCZ Gold EL PC4000 2GB 2X1GB DDR500 CL3-4-4-8 184PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit W/ Ramsink 233.42

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive 129.40

So what do you think? Will it work? Bear in mind that I haven't built a computer before so any hints and tips are welcome. I also haven't listed items such as the chassis, the DVD drive, the power supply and the monitor, good priced reccomendations are welcome.
Click to expand...

My only recommendation is that you may want to go with two lower priced video cards and run them in SLI mode since your mobo supports this. Often you can get two lower end cards cheaper than a single high end card and get even more video power in the deal.

But if you put all that together even with the components you have listed, your PC will be a monster gaming rig.
 
make sure you have DDR1 ram, and not DDR2. DDR2 will not work with that motherboard, if you wanted it to work, you would have to got o the AM2 socket, requiring a diffrent processor and motherboard.
 
Another thought on the video card is to buy a single good one, and then drop to a less expensive motherboard. Putting in two video cards with SLI doesn't even come close to doubling output, so you might be better off anyway. Any high-end card won't have any problem playing today's games, and should last for quite a while on future games. ASUS is a good MB brand, and unless you absolutely want top of the line hardware, you could drop to an A8N-SLI or A8N-SLI deluxe and save around $100CN. None of these MB's support DDR500 memory anyway, so go with DDR400. Again, unless you want top of the line stuff, the difference between 1 GB and 2 GB of RAM is very minimal, and generally not worth the money. RAM is very easy to upgrade later too. Otherwise looks good, make sure you buy a power supply that can handle the load, and don't even think of using the one tha comes pre-installed with your case. Expect to spend around $100 for a quality PSU. I think cases are mostly personal preference, don't get the dirt cheap ones, but the really fancy ones are a waste of money, IMHO. Get one you like the looks of, and seems roomy inside with proper airflow.
 
Taper's dead on the money, spending a little more on a single GPU is far more cost effective than SLI. Two video cards usually means only 130% the performance of just one, which makes sense for the budget-ignorant enthusiasts that like spending thousands.

One minor thing you might want to think about is your hard drive. You can get speed boosts in some areas if you run two hard drives in a joint RAID 0 configuration. A lot of people do this with smaller hard drives and then use bigger ones for their data drive...
 
Thanks Superslug. Based on dragkatxov's lead I've decided to go AM2 socket. I've revised some of the specs based on the advice I've got here and come up with a slightly different configuration. I will also hovever look at setting up two HD's.

ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe ATX AM2 Nforce 590 SLI 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E4 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 1394 Moth *IR-

EVGA E-GEFORCE 7900 GT KO 500MHZ PCI-E 256MB 256BIT 1.5GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out Video Card

OCZ Gold XTC PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL5-5-5-12 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit

OCZ OCZ52012U-520W Modstream Power Supply PCI-E Ready W/ Ezmod Cable System & Blue LED Fan

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive

*****AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 Windsor 2.0GHZ 2X512KB 89W 90NM Retail Box

***** I'm not really sure about Processors though. Should I go higher end? Say 4000+. Will Intel fit into my mobo? I'd really like to get Oblivion running at higher end resolutions.
 
Intel won't fit on that board. Note the AM2 in the board name...

Anything over a 3800x2 would yield more performance, but not enough to justify the money.

If you're looking to do well on Oblivion, you *might* want to consider ATI over Nvidia for the video card. I *think* Oblivion does better frame rates on ATI cards, but take that with a grain of salt, as Nvidia cards are rock solid, especially if you go for one of the 512mbs...
 
I have to say this is quite the learning experience. Right now I'm at odds btween an X2 4200 and an x2 3800 processor. I haven't even really looked at the Intel setups. I do though want a dual core processor and DDR2 Ram. BTW the 500$ price range for the processor is a bit pricey. I'll also look at ATI cards. Do they fit into said mobo?
 
The 3800 is probably better for price versus performance, but the 4200 is faster, so it depends what you want it for. Either one is a high end chip. As for video cards, there are two standard slots out right now, AGP and PCI Express x16. AGP is older, and is being phased out, so you'll want a PCIE16 card. Any Nvidia or ATi PCIE16 card will work, you just need a special motherboard if you want to run two cards at once(Nvidia SLI or ATi Crossfire).
 
The importance of the GPU, the video card, can't be underestimated, especially if you're thinking Oblivion. I'd go with the 3800 and save the extra money to go as high as you can on the video card...
 
I'll probably be ordering the parts tonight, if not, on the weekend. Based on your advice I'm probably going to go for the X2 3800+ instead of the x2 4200+. I'll look at a slightly more potent video card too and see If I can get the putter in at under $2000 Cad.
Superslug setting up two HD's in a joint RAID configuration seems a little complicated. I'm not even sure if my mobo will support that as I dont see RAID anywhere in the Specs.
 
If you're still looking at an Asus SLI board, I can pretty much grant you it supports Raid0. On the other hand, the speed boost from that is focused largely on application launches, saves, etc, not an overall consistent speed boost like from CPU, RAM, etc. It's borderline whether or not it's enthusiast versus effective, you'll be perfectly safe skipping it; you can always add it later if you want.
 
Now I'm just being picky, but I've seen a few complaints about your PSU. Specifically, the single 12 volt rail has trouble sustaining 12 volts, and the cables are short and hard to work with. The best PSUs have dual rails, and meets the ATX12V 2.0 standard. Yours'll probably work fine, but it wouldn't hurt to read a few things and see if you still want it.

Also, this seems like a good time to invite you to CFC's Folding@Home team. The current thread in OT has a bunch of info on it, and you can feel good about saving the world.
 
Well, I finally placed my order tonight and hopefully everything falls into place. Just for fun here's a list of the final specs.

ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe ATX AM2 Nforce 590 SLI 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E4 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 1394 Moth *IR-$22*

EVGA E-GEFORCE 7900 GT KO 500MHZ PCI-E 256MB 256BIT 1.5GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out Video Card

OCZ Gold XTC PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL5-5-5-12 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 Windsor 2.2GHZ 2X512KB 89W 90NM Retail Box

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB 9MS NCQ Quiet RoHS Hard Drive 3 Year MFR Warranty

Antec Sonata II Black ATX 16IN Mid Tower Quiet Case 3X5.25 2X3.5 4X3.5IN 450W Air Duct 120MM Fan

OCZ OCZ52012U-520W Modstream Power Supply PCI-E Ready W/ Ezmod Cable System & Blue LED Fan

Samsung SH-W162 16X DVD+-RW 5X Dual Layer DVD Writer Black /W SW OEM

Samsung 940B-HAS 19IN Pivot Silver LCD Monitor 1280X1024 700:1 8MS Adjustable Stand VGA DVI W/ Cable

Hopefully the PSU will hold out. I'll add the second HD later if I need it. Finally I hope this 'God' guy grants me the fortitude to actually build this mofo. But all in all I think it's a pretty mean system.
Thanks all for your advice and I'll be sure to check daily in on this thread just in case you have some more. BTW Taper I will look into lending a bit of procesing power for a good cause.
 
The best advice for a first time builder is to read everything, test fit the pieces, read the manual again, put it together, and hope it works. ASUS usually has pretty good directions, don't forget the thermal paste under your processor, and don't force any connectors together.
 
And don't put metal screws in the screw holes on the motherboard. ;) (if they still have screw holes there).
 
Thanks for the input Chieftess. I'll make sure only to use screws made of playdough. I really can't wait till all those shiny new boxes start to arrive during my days off work and I can finally start to put this guy together.
 
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