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[BlackSalad]

this is what I am planning on ordering:

-MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
-Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
-NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3520A BK - OEM
-Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
-OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model OCZ4001024ELDCPER2-K - Retail
-THERMALTAKE Silent Purepower W0014RU ATX 480W Power Supply - Retail
-AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail
-eVGA 256-P2-N376-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail


with shipping from newegg its about $1400
any suggestions?

 

[Shogmaster]

this is what I am planning on ordering:

-MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
-Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
-NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3520A BK - OEM
-Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
-OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model OCZ4001024ELDCPER2-K - Retail
-THERMALTAKE Silent Purepower W0014RU ATX 480W Power Supply - Retail
-AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail
-eVGA 256-P2-N376-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail


with shipping from newegg its about $1400
any suggestions?

The Raptor.... very fast, yes, but very loud... and expensive... Are you doing high end video editing or MAYA or some such other stuff? Otherwise, for just gaming, it's a waste IMO. Just get the regular SATA WD JB series or Seagates. Same for the RAM. It's just wasted money for like 3 fps. A good brand normal DIMMs will do just as well.

 

[gigapower]

I'd get another HD for just Windows and general crap and just use the Raptor for games. Other then that you did your research well.

 

[Diablos]

I have a 74GB Raptor, and it's not loud. It's only "loud" when it's loading a lot of data. Otherwise, the drive is extremely quiet.

 

[teh_pwn]

Great setup overall. But I'd tweak things to make it quiet and less expensive.

I agree with shog.

After I built my PC, I felt like I should have worked on making it more quiet.

Don't waste money on expensive RAM. The difference in performance is almost non-existant.

If you're paying a premium for that processor over say a 3500+ don't. Unless things have changed, the difference is not worth the money.

 

[Polari]

Get cheaper RAM, and more of it. The 4GB limit is gone - take advantage.

 

[BlackSalad]

Thanks for all the input, I suppose I should clarify a few things.

This computer will indeed be used for gaming but it will also be running some intense engineering programs (ChemCAD, MATlab, etc,,) so thats why I went w/ the raptor. I also have 2 80 gig drives ready and waiting for storage.

I went with the ram I did just because of a recommendation from a friend. I may overclock this thing a bit, he said the Ram was awesome for that. I was looking and saw this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145450 seems to get some pretty good reviews, but I've been out of the computer hardware loop for awhile. Are there any decent brands of DDR400 that sell 2 gigs (1 gb x 2) for under $200?

And with the 3700 over the 3500, I heard that the San Diego core was much better, but that again was through 'word of mouth'

 

[Shogmaster]

I went with the ram I did just because of a recommendation from a friend. I may overclock this thing a bit, he said the Ram was awesome for that.

Are any of the apps you plan to run for long runs? Is any of this for professional work? Cause I don't believe in risking bread and butter to just save couple of bucks via overclocking.

 

[BlackSalad]

Long runs? Not sure on that, is that like rendering for long periods of time? if so yes, that will happen every once in awhile, but nothing too intense (just rendering 3d graphs, compiling code) and this is more or less for personal use and research.

EDIT
Another note on the raptor, this computer will be having large files transfered to/from a network onto the HDD.

 

[BlackSalad]

---

 

[teh_pwn]

If you're doing professional work, I'd highly suggest not overclocking.

When my PC is OCed from 3.0 GHz to 3.6, everything works fine with games and stuff. But as soon as you run some professional program for long periods of time, it'll crash in about 5-10 minutes.

I made some lengthy Matlab program that attempted to brute force a solution to some homework project. It used the CPU 100% at all times and it stressed it too much for an OC.

 

[rc213]

Great choice for Athlon 64 core, it has the 1mb cache and SSE3 support. Also the ram is great, I have the same pair in my rig now running at 200mhz 5-2-2-2 timings.


Edit: Make sure figure out if your motherboard has a 20 or 24 pin ATX power plug and if u will need a 6pin PCI-E power plug. Im currently in the process of building a new PCI-E setup and noticed almost all the new boards have 24pin ATX power and that the PCI-E cards dont come with the 6pin PCI-E power plug.

 

[BlackSalad]

awesome, thanks for the replies guys

Anyone use Corsair XMS series ram? It seems to be a bit cheaper

 

[AB 101]

What I have now, getting outdated by the hour though.

- Abit Fatal1ty nForce based motherboard
- Athlon 64 3500+
- 1 GB PC3200 Geil DDR Ram
- Thermaltake Tsunami Dream case
- eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra
- Seagate 250 GB SATA HD
- Lite-on combo drive
- Lite on DVD burner
- Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS
- Windows XP Pro

Using a 20" Apple Cinema display (aluminum DVI)

Running thru a DVI KVM and sharing it with my PowerMac G5 2 GHZ dualie

Using a Logitech wireless MX Duo KB/mouse setup.



The system you are choosing looks pretty damn sweet.

Would love one of the new ATI or nVidia cards but really can't justify it right now. Maybe the next round after this one.

 

[Borys]

What I have now, getting outdated by the hour though.

- Abit Fatal1ty nForce based motherboard
- Athlon 64 3500+
- 1 GB PC3200 Geil DDR Ram
- Thermaltake Tsunami Dream case
- eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra
- Seagate 250 GB SATA HD
- Lite-on combo drive
- Lite on DVD burner
- Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS
- Windows XP Pro

Using a 20" Apple Cinema display (aluminum DVI)

Running thru a DVI KVM and sharing it with my PowerMac G5 2 GHZ dualie

Using a Logitech wireless MX Duo KB/mouse setup.

Outdated, huh?

In that case I wish I had an "outdated" rig.

 

[Vieo]

It needs more Twice7 Cube!

 

[Particle Physicist]

Great setup overall. But I'd tweak things to make it quiet and less expensive.

I agree with shog.

After I built my PC, I felt like I should have worked on making it more quiet.

Don't waste money on expensive RAM. The difference in performance is almost non-existant.

If you're paying a premium for that processor over say a 3500+ don't. Unless things have changed, the difference is not worth the money.

any suggestions? im thinking about building my own pc, but i really dont know much about price/value of pc parts.

 

[Vieo]

any suggestions? im thinking about building my own pc, but i really dont know much about price/value of pc parts.

The PC I'm using right now is one I built myself about two years ago. I'm gearing up to build a new one right after Longhorn hits. I'm thinking this time around I'm gonna add more Twice7 to my PC. :lol

Anyway, before I built my PC, I knew absolutely nothing about building them except where expansion cards go. To get my built, I did a ton of research. A lot of those hardware review sites also are helpful because when they review stuff like the P4s that use that new Socket T(LGA?), they show you step by step how to install stuff. Just do a lot of research and if you still don't feel comfortable, get someone to help you. =P

 

[Slurpy]

What I have now, getting outdated by the hour though.

- Abit Fatal1ty nForce based motherboard
- Athlon 64 3500+
- 1 GB PC3200 Geil DDR Ram
- Thermaltake Tsunami Dream case
- eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra
- Seagate 250 GB SATA HD
- Lite-on combo drive
- Lite on DVD burner
- Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS
- Windows XP Pro

Using a 20" Apple Cinema display (aluminum DVI)

Running thru a DVI KVM and sharing it with my PowerMac G5 2 GHZ dualie

Using a Logitech wireless MX Duo KB/mouse setup.



The system you are choosing looks pretty damn sweet.

Would love one of the new ATI or nVidia cards but really can't justify it right now. Maybe the next round after this one.

How the fuck is that outdated?

I have an AMD Athlon 2600, w/9600XT and I dont consider that outdated- because it can run any modern app just fine. Gaming is another issue, but can also hold its own at moderate rez. What you have is top of the line.

 

[alejob]

Geez, I'm planning on getting a new PC later this year and that might be better than what I'll get. I don't like you :_(

 

[teh_pwn]

any suggestions? im thinking about building my own pc, but i really dont know much about price/value of pc parts.

I'm not familiar with the best bang for the buck anymore. Anandtech does have price guides though. And if you post in their forums I'm sure people can give great recommendations. Their forum is huge, you'll get responses fast.

 

[Wraith]

That machine is going to scream - both from a performance and a noise perspective. If you plan to sleep in the same room as the comp(that is, if you're in college or live in a studio apartment with little dampening), you might consider some quieter stuff.

I think I read that the X850 is quieter than the 6800, for instance, and it provides comparable performance. The Raptor is going to make a lot of noise no matter what. I don't know what kind of heatsink/fan combo you're getting, but I would definitely take noise into consideration there. You could check out www.silentpcreview.com for some hsf recommendations.

 

[Raven.]

I've heard some non-64 windows os become unstable when a large amount of ram is used. Is this true? How much is too much if so? I'm planning on going over 2GBs.

 

[BlackSalad]

Now comes the real decision

I need to decide on a case. I was almost sure on the thermaltake but then this case caught my eye:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811163035

VS.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811133132