DescentBB

OK, so I have finally gotten my list down pat. Here it is.

Athlon X2 4800+ 2.4Ghz Dual Core
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe
2 1GB sticks of DDR400 RAM
600 watt power supply
2 Plextor PX-716SA DVD-RW
74GB Raptor
2 Maxtor Diamond Max 10 300GB Hard Drives in RAID 0
2 XFX GeForce 7800 GTX
Creative X-Fi
Thermaltake Armor VA8000SWA case
Logitech MX518 mouse


Not sure on the monitor yet, definately a 19" LCD though

Speakers to come later, probably the logitech z-5500 digital 5.1 thx

Any thoughts?
Suggestions?

wow nice!...can I have your old one?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I also bought a Microsoft Precision Pro so I can play some D3 again.

Now if I can only figure out how to join games again...

I hate to think what that will cost you.

Other options for DVDRW's? I've read a lot of reviews that say that the 716's are the best to get.

As for the back up drives, what would you suggest then if not 600gb on RAID0? I won't be ordering until Wednesday afternoon...

Nexus_One wrote:Athlon X2 4800+ 2.4Ghz Dual Core

Overkill.

Nexus_One wrote:600 watt power supply

Craziness.

Even with ALL options ticked, this page says you only need a 400 watt PSU.

It's your money though.

You realise that box is gonna be hella noisy too don't you?

Actually when you add the processor and memory and optical drives you get to 568W. But for normal use, 600W is overkill.

600 W is not overkill. 2 GeForce 7800 GTXs require at least 500 W, as recommended by nVidia. Why buy a thousand-dollar X2 4800+ when you can buy a $500-something X2 4200+ or 4400+ that performs almost the same? I wouldn't get a 19" monitor if you plan to play D3 a lot. ^_~ I would go with the 17" for D3, because the rear view camera images are too small.

Why not get one of those X16 boards? And why not get DDR500? The mouse is kind of blah too. Why not try Optorite's corded laser mouse? ^_~ 1600 dpi. ^_^

Neo wrote:600 W is not overkill. 2 GeForce 7800 GTXs require at least 500 W, as recommended by nVidia.

There's recremended, and then there's realistic. Throw an FX-55, gig of ram, and one GTX in a system and the entire machine will draw 285 watts when under load.

600w is not overkill, esp if its some POS brand.

Mobius that PSU page is REALLY outdated.

The page Mobi mentions is kindof funny.

It says my system needs 336W and I'm running this off a PSU rated at 275W. And it's been rock stable in this config for over three and a half years.

PSU rating isn't all that if you ask me. It can vary.

OK, so now that we are almost completely off subject, how about a few more quick things...

I've scaled back a little bit just to save headache in building. No more Raptor drive, just the 2 DiamondMax hard drives, and no RAID.

I'll still probably use a 550 watt PS just to be safe.

Viewsonic 191b LCD monitor.

Any issues there?

I recommend this for DVD burner. I own two of em and Bill owns a couple too and they're bulletproof. Excellent burners.

I've been very happy with my NEC 2500A but I need some new opticals for my main rig, thanks for the tip on the 3540A, Pun!

i'd like sata interface for all my drives, otherwise that would be fine with me

Is there a benefit to having the optical drives be on the SATA interface despite the fact that the drive can't deliver (much less write) data fast enough to overload an ATA/66 interface?

Most important thing Nex,, what brand is the PSU guna be?

punisher wrote:I recommend this for DVD burner. I own two of em and Bill owns a couple too and they're bulletproof. Excellent burners.

Hey Pun', is that supported by Win98se? I looked but couldnt find anything...also, do you think I could install one of those myself? I installed a new sound card and upgraded memory myself but I'm still a newbie

While we're on the subject of PSUs, what are some good brands for PSUs?

Neo wrote:While we're on the subject of PSUs, what are some good brands for PSUs?

Forton Source (FSP/Spakle)
OCZ
Antec
Enermax
and if you are really loaded, PC Power & Cooling

I own two of the Plextor PX-716SA DVD-RW drives. I have also installed two more on machines I have assembled for relatives. They have all been trouble free and are very fast. Don't worry about buying them!

As you may have seen in another thread, this is the PC I just bought from Falcon Northwest:

ICON Aluminum Chassis
Silverstone 650Watt Power Supply
Windows XP Professional
Asus A8N-SLI Premium Motherboard
AMD Athlon64 FX-57
Zalman ZNPS7000LED ALCU - CPU Cooler
Corsair TwinX 2048MB 3200XL-PT (4/512MB)
2x nVidia BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB PCIE - SLI
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS
2x Maxtor DM-10 300GB SATA 16MB Cache (RAID 0)
2x Plextor PX-716SA DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW - Black
Sony 1.44MB Floppy Drive - Black
Razer Diamondback Plasma Limited Edition Infrared Precision Gaming Mouse
Ergodex DX-1 Falcon Edition

It positively rocks.

Your system specs are similar, so I think you'll enjoy it as much as I'm enjoying mine.

I do have a suggestion. If this is going to be a gaming-oriented rig, I would consider getting the FX-57 instead of the X2 4800+.

No games are multi-threaded right now, so dual-core doesn't buy you anything there. Also, I've read some reports that some games crash on dual-core chips because the cores aren't running at the same speed.

bunch of people i play BF-DC and AA with, they have to download a special patch because they keep getting a error along the lines of:

Critical Error: Negative Delta Time

djordan wrote:I own two of the Plextor PX-716SA DVD-RW drives. I have also installed two more on machines I have assembled for relatives. They have all been trouble free and are very fast. Don't worry about buying them!

WarAdvocat wrote:Is there a benefit to having the optical drives be on the SATA interface despite the fact that the drive can't deliver (much less write) data fast enough to overload an ATA/66 interface?

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