Hi all first time posting on forum have been looking to upgrade from my current pc for the last 6 months and have now saved enough money... I have decide to build my own for the first time after fitting various parts to other pcs over the past five years I have managed to compile the following lists and stores of purchases.. sava is savastores and lotw is lowestontheweb any comments would be more than welcome and if you think of any other components which would be better suited please comment... I have compiled two possible rigs 1. First possible build CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ S939 OEM £227.94 lotw mbroad ATX Skt 939 nF4 SLI DDR PCIe SA RD 2GL 1394 M/B asus £103.39 sava GPU XFX Geforce 7900GT 256MB GDDR-3 PCI-E £199.99 lotw GPU 2 XFX Geforce 7900GT 256MB GDDR-3 PCI-E £199.99 lotw Memory Crucial 1GB 184-PIN DIMM 128MX64 DDR PC3200 UNBUFF £65.79 lotw Memory 2 Crucial 1GB 184-PIN DIMM 128MX64 DDR PC3200 UNBUFF £65.79 lotw Case P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower Case antec £79.72 sava HD Diamondmax 250GB 7200rpm SATA 16mb Cache OEM £57.93 sava DVD DVR-111D 16x Dual Layer Black IDE DVDRW +/- OEM £27.79 sava DVD ROM 16x DVD/40x Int IDE OEM DVD Rom Black £12.04 sava PSU 580W Easycon Series ATX 2.1 Sli/SATA Modular PSU £88.11 sava Monitor AL1916WS 19" Widescreen LCD Silver Black Monitor £170.43 sava Keybroad Oem Internet Keyboard ( PS/2 ) OEM Black MS £6.46 sava Mouse G5 Laser Mouse £41.95 sava OS Windows XP Pro OEM Inc Service Pack 2 £92.71 sava Total cost £1440.03 2. Build 2 CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ S939 OEM 227.94 lotw motherbroad ATX Skt 939 nF4 SLI DDR PCIe SA RD 2GL asus 1394 M/B 103.39 sava GPU XFX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR-3 PCI-E 349.99 lotw GPU 2 Memory Crucial 1GB 184-PIN DIMM 128MX64 DDR PC3200 UNBUFF 65.79 lotw Memory 2 Crucial 1GB 184-PIN DIMM 128MX64 DDR PC3200 UNBUFF 65.79 lotw Case P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower Case antec 79.72 sava HD Diamondmax 250GB 7200rpm SATA 16mb Cache OEM 57.93 sava DVD DVR-111D 16x Dual Layer Black IDE DVDRW +/- OEM 27.79 sava DVD ROM 16x DVD/40x Int IDE OEM DVD Rom Black sony 12.04 sava PSU 580W Easycon Series ATX 2.1 Sli/SATA Modular PSU 88.11 sava Monitor AL1916WS 19" Widescreen LCD Silver Black Monitor 170.43 sava Keybroad Oem Internet Keyboard ( PS/2 ) OEM Black MS 6.46 sava Mouse G5 Laser Mouse 41.95 sava OS Windows XP Pro OEM Inc Service Pack 2 92.71 sava Total Cost £1390.04 Also looking to purchase good cpu fan whiles building and a few extra case fans if need... so really the question is to sli or not total budget of £1500.00 max
the 2x7900gt will provide you better performance than single gtx, also if you clock them the gain will be even more noticable... you may want to revise the motherboard and ram though - what specific model are you going to use? and are you overclocking? if yes, that ram won't take you far. otherwise its very nice build... well.., you may also want to swap the maxtor hdd for samsung sp2504c - its really fast drive, proably faster than that maxtor, also, nec's are nice when it comes to dvd burners
Don't use Maxtor Diamondmax or Maxline disks with nForce4 chipsets. Thats asking for trouble. And to be honest, I don't see much difference in the two setups, except for the graphicscard. First a couple of 7900GT's in SLI and second a single 7900GTX Afaik, that SLI setup will beat the single 7900GTX, but I think you'll have to ask yourself wether its worth it. Does the extra cost weigh up to the extra performance? About casefans: You'll probably want to keep it quiet, so I'd advise getting some Papst fans. For CPU cooler a Thermalright XP120 with a papst fan would do a great job, as does a Thermaltake Blue Orb II, Big Typhoon or Sonic Tower.
Not really looking to overclock @ the moment but the option would be nice... Have looked @ the deluxe and for £40 extra maybe worth the cost?? ram wise I have no Idea in relation to the current market whats hot and not... will look @ the HD cheers for advice will stick with the pioneer for the mo as it is a make I have used since year dot very trusted and never let me down so far touch wood..
Cheers for headsup on hd... extra £50 for that little bit of extra grunt on higher resolution I thinking that I might opt for the gtx and upgrade possiblily latter to sli if needed or jump straight to dx10 card...when the prices become reasonable... will have complete a bit more reading up on the benefits of sli...me thinks before I make decision of GPU...
The setup's posted are deffo of a high standard but why are you buying now? why are you putting major ££'s when AM2/Conroe is just round the corner?? Wouldnt you think its best to sit this one for a bit longer and see how much prices/newer tech will come down in price.... Personally i would wait as AM2/Conroe are sooooo close and the benifits of getting even newer tech will prob be worth it. Also on the question of Sli.....well do you need it? also what rez do you usually play at? and what games do you play? and the final question is will my monitor support super high rez that Sli was designed for? You'd have to ask yourself all these questions to see if its benificial for you...as the added cost aint nothing to be laughed it. Personally i would just get one powerfull card and be happy with it.
Atanum has got a point there... AM2 is due this week. On the other hand you've got people that say that the new AM2 platform doesn't give you a real performance advantage. Or at least, not until there is going to be a new core type, since the current chips aren't very memory bandwidth hungry (in contrast to Intel chips) anyway, so the adition of DDR2 on the new AM2 socket isn't really usefull. Maybe just wait for a few weeks. If AM2 really doesn't provide a real advantage, you can just go buy a S939 system, and pay less for it than you do now (pricedrops on older systems when something new comes out and all... )
well the conroe benckmarks we have seen have been released from Intel so surely they must be a bit biased or something? btw nice rig, but i wouldnt buy a pc now.
Ermm...no. Go onto Xtremesystems forums and see their little scores and you see the conroe can run superpi within 21 seconds....nothing to be sniffed at and also when running at full speed it can deliver some huge numbers.
Looking to possibily build in a few weeks from now anyway didn't realise that we were so close to am2 I know conroe is a few months away from intail release but will have limited availability intailly and wider availability toward the end of the year really can't wait that long BF2 is getting on my nerves to much.. currently have amd 3000 512mb ram leadtek 6800 le 128mb 80gb hd medion pc errrr.. it was cheap what can I say...usually play @ 1024/768 so don't think I will going for sli...happy with 1024/768 never tried any higher as card would probably melt ...suppose a few pepole are in the same situation as me regarding upgrades.. the above will be a big leap from my current desktop so hopefully 939 will come down in price nicely within a few weeks...and wait on reviews for am2 if in time... have a week off coming up in two weeks and have also booked for july so either timeperiod for build really not saying it will take a week for me to build lol but would prefer to be around when the parts are delivered..errrmmm
hmm... you could wait a month or so, get 965 based board, conroe compatible, get yonah for it and gfx card of your choice, some nice ddr2, and when conroe comes out just swap the processor
did think about that but I have not been able to find any motherboard currently which will run a conroe chip suppose that we will see in the next few weeks...this would be ideal.... have also read somewhere that there will be compatability problems with current intel mobo's...
currently, conroe is supported only by intel badaxe 975xbx mobo which seems to be only available to oem system builders, future boards that support conroe are all based on i965 chipset so watch out for those
If running at a resolution of 1680x1050 would it be wise to get a dual 7900GT setup or get one 7900GTX? Personally I'm not waiting for AM2. If there were real performance increases, I would, but right now I would rather go for a more mature chipset than take my chances on a new one when the gain isn't even worth it.
And I lack patience. I get the money tommorow, and its not mine to begin with. Instant gratification must be had.
