Help choosing components for a new system

[juan_mol]

Hi

i need some help. I want to build my own gaming rig and it wolud be nice to hear your opinions on what I plan on getting.

 

Motherboard:

MSI K8N Diamond Plus Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130037

 

Processor:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4800CDBOX - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103544

 

Ram:

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model VS1GB400C3 - Retail

two of them for 2 GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145505

 

Hard Drive:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148065

 

And a geforce 7900GT graphics card.

 

So what do you think?

Is everything compatible?

Will I be able to use DX10 if I replace the video card with a DX10 card when they become available?

 

Thanks

[walternowi]

Juan,

 

Your choices are very good. Make sure you pick up a good power supply. Seasonic, Enermax, OCZ and PC Power Cooling sell good ones.

 

Nowi

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

i would say, good stuff in your list, however, i wouldnt get that motherboard.

 

get the dfi board or the asus a8n32 sli, which gives you the full 32x for sli if you decide to go that route in the future.

 

also, instead of that cpu, get the opteron, cheaper and overclocks like a beast and is dualcore and the same speed, but is just a hellava lot better ovrerclocking than the x2 cpus.

 

dont worry about dx10, dx ten will not be fully supported for ages, as it will take atleast 1-2 years before the majority of ppl start to buy cards for dx10.

just cuz vista will be dx10, it will also support dx9 and so will new games for the next 2 years+.

 

a new video dx10 vid card is all that will be required to be 100% dx 10 compliant along with vista, or xp with dx10 installed.

[walternowi]

i would say, good stuff in your list, however, i wouldnt get that motherboard.

 

get the dfi board or the asus a8n32 sli, which gives you the full 32x for sli if you decide to go that route in the future.

 

Evil,

 

I believe the diamond plus board is also 32x for sli.

 

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1801794&enterthread=y

 

I concur with you that the ASUS is also a solid choice. However, I would not recommend the DFI Expert. I read that quite a few people experienced problems with this board.

 

Cheers,

Nowi

[juan_mol]

I have also heard of problems with Asus boards, so I will probably get the dfi.

Could you post a link to a good dfi sli 32x board and the opteron cpu Evil?

 

Thanks a lot

 

EDIT: How about this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136166

[walternowi]

EDIT: How about this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136166

 

Juan,

 

That is the DFI Expert board. Look at the discussions here.

 

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=91970&highlight=expert

 

I would advise you to stay away from that one.

 

Cheers,

Nowi

[chennuts]

Don't fret over whether both slots run at x8 or x16 speeds. There's no bandwidth bottleneck in either case and, as such, there will be no difference in performance if you ended up going the SLI route down the road.

[chennuts]

also, instead of that cpu, get the opteron, cheaper and overclocks like a beast and is dualcore and the same speed, but is just a hellava lot better ovrerclocking than the x2 cpus.

juan_mol, will you be overclocking your new processor? If you're not an overclocker (most users aren't), there's nothing wrong with your processor selection. If you're willing to overclock your processor, you can save some money at the expense of some risk, albeit relatively small, and go the Opteron route, most likely achieving the same performance as with your original choice as a result.

[juan_mol]

Actually i'm not planning on overclocking. I just don't want to risk damaging something.

 

And which motherboard do you guys recommend?

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

Don't fret over whether both slots run at x8 or x16 speeds. There's no bandwidth bottleneck in either case and, as such, there will be no difference in performance if you ended up going the SLI route down the road.

tests prove there is a slight margin to be had at this moment in time with teh 32x boards, although I agree with what your saying, if he is buyin a leet setup, since the 32x boards are out, he would be kinda stupid buying the 16x boards.

 

the slight and i mean very slight gain wont do much, but its a gain nevertheless and is always future proof.

 

as for the Diamond, i didnt know it was 32x, but saying that I would still go for the asus board as it has the best cpu power supply out of any motherboard there is = very very very stable cpu current/voltages

 

As for the dfi expert, YEA it is uber hard to crack, it has dumbfounded some of the review sites, where they cudnt figure out what settings did what, I wouldnt recommend it unless you are an enthusiast OCer.

 

as for the dualcore, well the amd x2 's are magic, ive had 2 the 4400 and the 4800 ive got just now, but if i had to do it all over, I would buy the optys, less heat and EXACTLY the same as the X2's but just with more headroom to overclock and its also a goodbit cheaper than the expensive x2's. missing some of the x2's extensions i believe buyt whocares about extensions when the majority of em are not used anyway. the top line optys go waaaaaaaaaaaay beyond x2 speeds, ive seen some hit 2.8 - 3gig easy on air, 3 gig is an fx62, like omg wtf hax.

 

thats my opinion.

 

but saying that, what you have now is real good kit, and will easily see you threw the next 2+ years easy.

since your not overclocking, then dont buy DFI, I seriously would buy the A8n32sli mobo, I have the deluxe and the 32, I havent put the 32 together as I am not killing a warranty just for a motherboard, so am gonna buy a cpu to put into it, which wasnt my planned idea, my plan was to dump the deluxe and replace it with the 32, but I been told my warranty will die as soon as i do it, which, I aint killing no warranty after 1 month :(

 

I would go with the Asus a8n32 mobo, lots of options and easy enough to setup compared to the DFI board.

 

the msi board you are looking at, I dont know anything about, I got 1 msi board, and I dont really like it, so that kinda put me off from buying msi mobo's again, but they do make leet videocards :)

 

basically, with the minor correction of mobos to the asus one, I would be happy with your list, I would get a raptor drive if i could afford one also, the 150gb ones 10,000rpm harddrive, not really necessary, but it adds an extra few inches to your e-penis, but your list is good.

[bflagg]

The only thing I wish I had done... and pass to you... get higher clocked memory. If your new board supports greateer than pc3200 sticks..then by all means get the higher sticks...

 

I don't overclock enought to be considered a hardcore OverClocker, but just using the simple bios stepping for the FSB (HT) will make a big difference and is well within the confines on system saftey (10- 20%)

 

My setup, the memory is the limiting factor.

my 4400x2 is at 2.2ghz and I O'C it to 2.42ghz.

If I go higher than 220fsb, then the system becomes unstable due to the memory (corsair high speed pc3200).

Heat is still within the confines of fan based cooling to handle....

 

So saying all that crap..I would suggest PC400 pc500 if you can....

(if you wish to push your system a bit...)

[walternowi]

Actually i'm not planning on overclocking. I just don't want to risk damaging something.

 

And which motherboard do you guys recommend?

 

For dual video cards, the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Motherboard suggested by Evil is an excellent choice.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=12808886&search=asus+a8n32&op[]=topcat,1,99

 

I think the MSI Diamond Plus in your first post is good too. I have the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum and am very happy with it. It is supposedly one of the best AGP (yes, I am still using AGP :( ) motherboards.

 

For single video card, these 2 are solid motherboards:

 

ASUS A8N-E

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131530

 

and the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

 

If you have time, read the motherboard buying guide linked here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1639727&enterthread=y

 

Like bflagg said, get PC4000 (DDR500) memory. Personally, I like the OCZ 2Gb kit. With rebate, it is under $180, a great deal.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227066

[juan_mol]

Thanks for all the help!!

i'm looking for a sli ready Mobo, right now I won't buy to video cards but in the future I will and I want to be ready.