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Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: Mr. Kennedy on October 14, 2005, 07:21:36 PM

Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Mr. Kennedy on October 14, 2005, 07:21:36 PM
I know you all profess self-built PC\'s, and it turns out my friend is really good at building them, and he offered to take on the task of building my computer for me, so basically, I\'m just giving a run through on parts.  I also got a good deal on that Dell monitor, so that\'s one part done.  When I mentioned I wanted to do SLI, he mentioned that I try ATI\'s CrossFire Technology instead.  We won\'t start building until all the parts are available (some not til November), but here\'s what I got.

Case: Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133153)
Motherboard: Asus Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540)
CPU:  AMD Athlon X2 4800+ Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103544)
GPU1: 2x BFG  GeForce 7800GTX OC (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143036)
Hard Drive: Hard Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822147007)  
RAM:  2GB (2x1GB) Corsair RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145590)
Power Supply: Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817702001)
Cooling: Heatsink/Fan (http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835106061)
Optical Drive:  CD/DVD-ROM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827135040)
Fan Controller: Fan Controller (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999137)
Soundcard: Soundcard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102190)
OS: XP Proffessional w/ SP2 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16837102153)

Ok, I know its a lot of dough, that was apparent when I set out on this mission.  I need to know if I\'m missing anything, or if you have other reccomendations.

I have speakers, keyboard, monitor, etc.  I do have one very important question.

Should I get the 64 bit version of windows?  I know they\'re having issues with drivers, but it is the future, eh, I\'ll see what you guys say.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: JBean on October 14, 2005, 07:54:39 PM
real nice setup.  I personally couldn\'t wait until early next year to get my video cards, but if you can then good for you.  SLI has the resolution advantage over Crossfire, but you are gonna run a 20" LCD so that won\'t matter to you I guess.  Only people with 24" or 30" screens are totally stupid going with Crossfire over SLI (crossfire can\'t go higher than 1600x1200)

whatever you do... DON\'T get 64 bit windows, huge waste of time and money at this point.  It\'s never going to be the main version of windows, vista is the next "xp" and it will be 32-bit as well.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Mr. Kennedy on October 14, 2005, 08:17:06 PM
You think I got all the parts I need though?

And what version of Windows do you reccomend, XP Pro or Windows 2000?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: JBean on October 14, 2005, 08:30:32 PM
Your list seems pretty good, nothing glaring that is missing.  You might want to get some Arctic Silver thermal compound for your heatsinks.

I\'d recommend XP Pro
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Paul2 on October 14, 2005, 09:43:08 PM
I will secondhand the motion of getting Windows XP Professional SP2 over Windows 2000.

Also, I don\'t understand why you need extra firewire ports?  Doesn\'t your motherboard comes with it?  Also, I believe your computer case have a front ports for USB and firewire connection for easy hookup.  So, it\'s not really about the money since you spent a big upgrade.  It\'s mostly about using up a PCI slot when you can use it for something else beside firewire ports since your motherboard have one already.

Also, do you every once a while burn copy of CD or DVD?  Like music CD or home video DVD?  If so, getting a DVD burner make sense.  Just my opinion on this one since it\'s not that important if you never care about burning music CD or computer data to disc.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: THX on October 14, 2005, 10:39:24 PM
Quote
Originally posted by JBean
whatever you do... DON\'T get 64 bit windows, huge waste of time and money at this point.  It\'s never going to be the main version of windows, vista is the next "xp" and it will be 32-bit as well.

Excuse my french but,

Why in the blue hell were AMD fanboys bragging how their processors were 64-bit!?  What\'s it good for?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: §ôµÏG®ïñD on October 15, 2005, 01:07:05 AM
search button ^  ... i\'ve explained why 64 bit cpus have advantages over 32bit countless times.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: THX on October 15, 2005, 01:24:30 AM
>> "Because you\'ll need them for Longhorn, which is definitely 64-bit."

;)
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: §ôµÏG®ïñD on October 15, 2005, 02:41:53 AM
??
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: mm on October 15, 2005, 04:02:55 AM
lol, crossfire
buying into the hype, eh?


skip the fan controller
pointless
skip the raptor also, get a sata II drive

win64 = waste
like 2% of any software takes advantage of it, and can even run slower than it\'s 32bit version

and if your spending 180$ on a sound card, why the hell are you not getting an x-fi?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102190
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Paul2 on October 15, 2005, 06:31:27 AM
Quote
Originally posted by THX
>> "Because you\'ll need them for Longhorn, which is definitely 64-bit."

;)

THX, by now I would have thought you would have know Windows next version will be called Windows Vista.  Microsoft have change the name Longhorns to Vista like a month ago...

Unless you are being sarcastic here?...because i remember you made a thread about it, "Windows Vista, Guess How Many Versions." (http://www.psx2central.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=37260)...

In my opinion, I guess for right now, 32 bits is more popular...but we are very slowly moving into 64 bits era.  I wouldn\'t recommend getting XP 64 over XP Pro right now.  But when Vista do comes out, getting Vista 64 bits version might be a good choice because as with time, pretty soon almost every software and application will be moving into 64 bits version...
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Mr. Kennedy on October 15, 2005, 06:32:00 AM
Well I\'ve edited the parts based on your reccomendations.

Whats wrong with crossfire?  It seems like excellent technology.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Samwise on October 15, 2005, 06:49:48 AM
I\'m not up to date regarding CPU prices, but I\'d suspect the 4800+ carries a heavy premium. You might consider getting an 4400+ or 4600+ and OC if you want.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Knotter8 on October 15, 2005, 07:59:21 AM
Well, Cinema4D R9 is available in 64 bit version which seems to have quite some faster render times, so that would be a good reason for me to get Win64...
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: mm on October 15, 2005, 08:56:31 AM
Quote
It seems like excellent technology.


you might want to read the least amount of info on it before buying it?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: FatalXception on October 15, 2005, 10:58:30 AM
LINK TO START YOU OFF (http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q3/ati-crossfire/index.x?pg=1)

Have fun reading.  If you have a small monitor, it\'s probably not going to make a big difference in any event.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Evi on October 15, 2005, 11:24:01 AM
It\'s about damn time ATI started doing something like this.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: mjps21983 on October 15, 2005, 11:54:38 AM
My first question is why the hell did you make a new thread, when you could have just posted it in the old one?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Living-In-Clip on October 15, 2005, 01:03:41 PM
1: I wanted to know also why you felt the need to clutter the forum with yet another thread on this.

2: Crossfire. SLI. Gimmicks. Hype.
Yawn.

3: Why would you invest all this money into a graphics card and have a shit ass monitor?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Evi on October 15, 2005, 02:01:36 PM
Buy a damn monitor. No use getting all this fancy crap and using it with a shitty monitor.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Mr. Kennedy on October 16, 2005, 02:13:09 AM
i did.... i\'m getting the Dell 20" widescreen... I posted that a while back...
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Evi on October 16, 2005, 02:48:33 AM
Ohhhhhh. Well then. :)
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: mm on October 16, 2005, 04:43:48 AM
i guess you never  checked the max resolution on the dell 2005FPW  LCD

1680x1050

welcome to overkill, and redundant video cards
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: §ôµÏG®ïñD on October 16, 2005, 12:33:22 PM
:rolleyes:
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: mm on October 16, 2005, 01:00:39 PM
even soully agrees
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Mr. Kennedy on October 16, 2005, 05:13:04 PM
then the solution is a bigger monitor
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: THX on October 16, 2005, 08:47:42 PM
Can\'t you get 15 7800GTXs and daisy chain them together?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Knotter8 on December 03, 2005, 10:06:38 AM
Oh lol. I ordered my new pc hardware today.

- AMD X2 4800
- Zalman cnps7700-cu
- Asus A8N-sli deluxe S939
- 2Gb Corsair twinx 3200C2 ram
- Western Digital Raptor 74Gb
- Antec Performance One P180 case
- Akasa psu 650W
- Saitek PZ08 gamer keyboard
- Xerox XA7 172i lcd screen
- XFX 7800GTX 512mb XXX version 580/1730 clocks
- Creative SB X-Fi XtremeMusic
- 2x NEC DVD+RW ND-3550A

W00T! :thepimp:

This\'ll be great for both 3D renders and gaming.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: mm on December 03, 2005, 01:23:14 PM
why 2x dvd burners?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Living-In-Clip on December 03, 2005, 01:56:00 PM
EH?
A 2X DVD+RW?
What\'d I miss?
What kind of idea is that?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Paul2 on December 03, 2005, 02:03:19 PM
probably one to fry pancakes and the other to burn dvds...j/k.:D
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Blade on December 03, 2005, 02:36:19 PM
74GB only..? Probably gonna need another drive soon.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Knotter8 on December 03, 2005, 03:41:50 PM
Quote
Originally posted by mm
why 2x dvd burners?


yeah i know it\'s a bit redundant, but blame it on my laziness, me being used to have 2 optical drives etc. (for example ; burning a dvd while playing an audio cd)

i\'ll manage with the 74Gb. Extra storage devices can be added if really needed later.

The one thing i do have a question about ;

should have opted for the 19" instead since that one might have true 16.7m colours.

The Xerox EU website lists different specs in their pdf and in the online specsheet... :confused:
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: THX on December 04, 2005, 11:31:10 AM
Looks like a monster.  Only thing I\'d consider changing is the ram.  If you want to OC, Corsair pales in comparison to OCZ or Kingston.  If you plan to stay stock then no worries.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Paul2 on December 04, 2005, 02:40:50 PM
Hey THX,

is PNY any good?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Knotter8 on December 05, 2005, 01:23:44 AM
Quote
Originally posted by THX
Looks like a monster.  Only thing I\'d consider changing is the ram.  If you want to OC, Corsair pales in comparison to OCZ or Kingston.  If you plan to stay stock then no worries.


Nah, the pc\'s mainly for 3D work and 3D rendering so it needs to be both speedy and stable ; no OC\'ing for me.

Paul2 ; PNY makes the best 3D professional Quadro cards. Their regular Geforce cards are no better than any other brand though. I suggest BFG or EVGA.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Paul2 on December 05, 2005, 05:29:53 AM
What about RAM?  Is PNY any good?  I have a Corsair & K-byte for DDR SDRAM, I was wondering if it\'s any good.

I thought Corsair was a good brand because it was a bit more expensive than K-byte.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Samwise on December 05, 2005, 06:18:04 AM
Corsair = good, K-byte = ??????? so prolly baaaaad.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: JBean on December 05, 2005, 06:50:10 AM
nice rig knotter, any thoughts of softmodding the GTX to a quattro?

getting my upgrades today... 7800gt and new PCI-e mobo.  Then 2x1GB sticks of Ram and possibly a X2 3800+ after Christmas.

Upgrades for the Holidays :)
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Samwise on December 05, 2005, 06:59:51 AM
Argh, you guys make me wanna update. Which is kinda silly really since 95% of the time I\'m just browsing the net.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Knotter8 on December 05, 2005, 09:31:33 AM
Quote
Originally posted by JBean
nice rig knotter, any thoughts of softmodding the GTX to a quattro?

getting my upgrades today... 7800gt and new PCI-e mobo.  Then 2x1GB sticks of Ram and possibly a X2 3800+ after Christmas.

Upgrades for the Holidays :)


Looks like a worthy upgrade as well Jbean.

Modding the GTX to Quadro ? Nah...Quadro\'s get their stability from specific drivers and by being clocked lower than Geforces. Since Cinema4D works great on about every videocard I\'m not gonna underclock it just to have it think it\'s a Quadro.

That\'s one of the reasons why i love C4D ; you can have great C4D performance without the need for an expensive Quadro which\'ll always perform less than it\'s Geforce brother in games.

The best feat of my new rig is the X2 4800 ; that will literally do high end renders (almost) twice as fast as my P4 3,2 Ghz.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: JBean on December 05, 2005, 10:29:07 AM
Just went home for lunch to see a big newegg box on my porch.  Can\'t wait to dive into it tonight and get all setup.

yeah, the x2 4800 is quite a chip.  I always thought that 3d modeling progs only used quadro cards, a buddy of mine who does 3d modeling flashed all of their 6800gt\'s to quadros for some reason.  

But yeah, if you can use that card without modding it then you get the best of both worlds (gaming & rendering).  That XXX card is pretty beefy, must have set you back a pretty penny.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Samwise on December 05, 2005, 10:32:52 AM
It\'s not that they only can use Quattro cards, they just run a lot faster on them.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: Knotter8 on December 05, 2005, 12:06:15 PM
Ow crap :mad:  i will have to call the store tomorrow morning ; I wanna change the order. Yes I am a nasty customer.

I want to have changed :

- from Asus A8N-sli Deluxe to Asus A8N-sli Premium

I read alot of negative reviews about the A8N-sli Deluxe\'s little chipset fan. I hope the store\'s willing to change the order to the Premium version with the heatpipe solution. Both boards have about the same specs though.

Let\'s hope the stuff is not shipped yet :(

About the Quadro\'s ; I guess Maya\'s the only 3D app which still bitches about what videocard is used. Both 3DsMax and Cinema4D work just as well on 6800GT\'s as on Quadro\'s.
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: JBean on December 09, 2005, 08:55:35 AM
I had a hell of a time getting my new motherboard (MSI K8N Neo4) to recognize my Sata drive.  For some reason it would just hang at the post screen and wouldn\'t go any further.

I ended up having to install on an old 8 gig IDE drive I had in the dungeon and then I was able to flash the bios and installed my slipstreamed XP and now i\'m gold.  

and my 7800gt is running nice and cool... idling around 48-50C... less than my 6800gt with a Nv5
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: THX on December 09, 2005, 09:01:31 AM
with the stock cooler?  How does it look like>?
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: JBean on December 09, 2005, 02:20:44 PM
yeah stock cooler.. I liked how the air exausted out of my case with the nv5, but i\'m probably not gonna mess with the stock cooler on here since it\'s the all copper cooler.  This is the 516 I got.

(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg336.imageshack.us%2Fimg336%2F8240%2Fdscn21688lq.jpg&hash=60800fbdc5849cf2838cdc312cb8f6f1f7b96098)
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: THX on December 09, 2005, 03:36:20 PM
looks loud :(  glad to hear it\'s a good cooler though
Title: I\'ve given second thought to building my compy...
Post by: JBean on December 09, 2005, 05:20:06 PM
actually it\'s pretty quiet... it winds up a little bit during games.  I got the sound jacked up when I game so it dosen\'t really matter.