Help with parts for first time build

[BarbecuedPork]

I'm thinking of building a PC to upgrade for a good long while, but I don't know too much about components (I know, of course, what the numbers and terms mean, but I don't know who makes the best stuff, what components have unexpected problems etc.) I've shopped around a little tonight and come up with a list of parts that look good, but I'd appreciate some help or other suggestions. The PC will be mostly used for gaming/recreation stuff, and perhaps some amateur sound production as well. Ideally, I'd like to keep it for awhile, or at least not have to replace everything in two years.

Here's what I'm looking at right now:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64FX. Probably either the single or dual-core 2gHz.
Mobo: A8N SLI Premium
RAM: 2x1gb Corsair(DDR400/184pin)
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7600GS 512MB
PSU: Hiper 580W (in case I want to use more power later)
Case: Thermaltake Tsunami
And of course a couple hard drives and CD/DVD.

With a pretty much randomly selected low-latency LCD, peripherals, and WinXP, it comes to about $1500. I could spend a little more, up to $1750, but of course cheaper is preferable.

Aside from general help, I'm unsure as to how dramatic the benefits of moving to a liquid-cooling system(and appropriately larger case) would be, and whether the extra cooling would be worth the extra cash and hassle.
I'm also not totally sure about going with AMD over Intel for the processor. The core duos look pretty nice, but I've had good experiences with AMDs in the past. The AMD setup was a little cheaper, and I understand they're releasing a new range of processors in '07 sometime, which'll be nice if this mobo is compatable.

[PatioFurniture]

For my money right now, I wouldn't even consider AMD, core 2 duos are the best on the market by far. And why are you getting DDR instead of 240 pin DDR2?

[azzey]

That mobo is s939, to answer the DDR2 question.

I strongly suggest you don't buy those parts as they are not the newest and are more expensive than the newer versions of the parts. Stick with AMD if you wish but at least move up to AM2.

[BarbecuedPork]

That mobo is s939, to answer the DDR2 question.

I strongly suggest you don't buy those parts as they are not the newest and are more expensive than the newer versions of the parts. Stick with AMD if you wish but at least move up to AM2.

Alright. Here's what I'm looking at now:

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 5000+(2.6gHz dual core)
Mobo: Gigabyte M59SLi
RAM: Corsair DDR2-800/2x1GB

Here's an alternative Intel build:
CPU: Intel E6600 Conroe 2.4gHz
Mobo: eVGA 680i

Thanks for the help so far.

[saphalline]

Modern gaming is much less CPU-intensive and much more GPU/VPU-intensive. I would still suggest a dual-core CPU since they're so cheap, but a large part of your budget should be spent on the vid card. Any Core 2 Duo or Athlon64 X2 processor is "good enough", but D3D 10 is where it's at for future gaming. Now, I'm going to lay down a vid card, the best one available at the moment, and you're going to build a system around it.

Meet the almighty GeForce 8800 GTX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143075).

Fully D3D/DX 10 compliant, with a unified shader model architecture, 6 independent 64-bit memory controllers, 128 stream processors operating at 1.35 GHz, a centralized thread dispatch processor operating at the 575 MHz core speed, 768MB of GDDR3 RAM at 1800 MHz, and 2 SLI connectors, the G80 weighs in at a hefty 681 million transistors on a 90nm process. Any 8800 GTX vid card alone will consume 2-3 times the power of any modern dual-core CPU (ie Core 2 Duo & A64 X2) and the fun doesn't stop there! With dual-vid card SLI being a reality, and triple SLI being an option in the future, the GeForce 8800 GTX is like no other vid card on the planet. Not only does it outperform any other single or dual- vid card option, it also smacks the graphics core of the PS3 into its place. The sheer power it offers is not even tapped by modern games.

Long live D3D 10! Long live Vista!

[BarbecuedPork]

Modern gaming is much less CPU-intensive and much more GPU/VPU-intensive. I would still suggest a dual-core CPU since they're so cheap, but a large part of your budget should be spent on the vid card. Any Core 2 Duo or Athlon64 X2 processor is "good enough", but D3D 10 is where it's at for future gaming. Now, I'm going to lay down a vid card, the best one available at the moment, and you're going to build a system around it.

Meet the almighty GeForce 8800 GTX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143075).

Fully D3D/DX 10 compliant, with a unified shader model architecture, 6 independent 64-bit memory controllers, 128 stream processors operating at 1.35 GHz, a centralized thread dispatch processor operating at the 575 MHz core speed, 768MB of GDDR3 RAM at 1800 MHz, and 2 SLI connectors, the G80 weighs in at a hefty 681 million transistors on a 90nm process. Any 8800 GTX vid card alone will consume 2-3 times the power of any modern dual-core CPU (ie Core 2 Duo & A64 X2) and the fun doesn't stop there! With dual-vid card SLI being a reality, and triple SLI being an option in the future, the GeForce 8800 GTX is like no other vid card on the planet. Not only does it outperform any other single or dual- vid card option, it also smacks the graphics core of the PS3 into its place. The sheer power it offers is not even tapped by modern games.

Long live D3D 10! Long live Vista!

How do the 7900/7950 series cards compare? I know they aren't compatable with 3-card SLi, but I don't see myself wanting or being able to afford such a system for at least a couple years. My idea with taking the relatively inexpensive 7600 alongside an SLI capable system was that I could save up for a pair of killer cards in the future, when the current ones come down in price or new ones are out. How's the 640 meg 8800 as a compromise?

Thanks a lot for all of your help so far. Every time I learn something, I find out how much more I have to learn...

Guess that'll make it all the more rewarding when I finally get my rig up and running. :cool:

[BarbecuedPork]

In response to saphalline's challenge:

Case: Antec P180 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811129017)
PSU: Hiper 580W(SLI compatible) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817128001)
Mobo: Gigabyte M-55 SLI AM2 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813128321)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64X2 4600+ (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103750)
RAM: 2 gigs Patriot 667 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820220064)
And the revered 8800... (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814143075)

How about that? It comes out to be $1,800 all told. Anywhere I could cut costs further? The case is a bit pricey, but with an(eventual) pair of 8800s in there I think I'll want those 3 12cm fans.

My other line of thinking is that I could build an otherwise faster Intel system and cheap on the video card for now (512 meg 7600) and save for an 8800 in a short while.

[saphalline]

That mobo uses the older NF4 SLI chipset. You want a mobo that uses a chipset that isn't 18+ months old! Like this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128014). The new NF5 series chipsets are out and about, and the NForce 570 SLI is the lower end SLI chipset to have. Plenty of capabilities and plenty of power!

You'll also need DDR2-800 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220144) to keep that A64 X2 happy. You won't get the full efficiency out of it otherwise (don't ask).

Other than that, everything looks good. But I do agree with you that a Core 2 Duo system with a cheaper "tide you over" vid card would fit your budget much better. Just remember to get a 2GB kit of DDR2 for whatever new system you build. It's expensive now, but it will allow you to go without another RAM upgrade for quite some time (even with Vista). 2GB of RAM is where it's at now!

[BarbecuedPork]

That mobo uses the older NF4 SLI chipset. You want a mobo that uses a chipset that isn't 18+ months old! Like this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128014). The new NF5 series chipsets are out and about, and the NForce 570 SLI is the lower end SLI chipset to have. Plenty of capabilities and plenty of power!

You'll also need DDR2-800 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220144) to keep that A64 X2 happy. You won't get the full efficiency out of it otherwise (don't ask).

Other than that, everything looks good. But I do agree with you that a Core 2 Duo system with a cheaper "tide you over" vid card would fit your budget much better. Just remember to get a 2GB kit of DDR2 for whatever new system you build. It's expensive now, but it will allow you to go without another RAM upgrade for quite some time (even with Vista). 2GB of RAM is where it's at now!

I think I'm going to go for the Core 2 Duo system with a cheaper(7600 series) card and pick up an 8800 in a few months when the price drops, but I'm having a little mobo confusion. I can't find a motherboard that supports core 2 duo, SLi 5/600 and DDR2800 ram for under $200. At that point, it seems to make sense to go for the newest 680i mobos, for about $40 more. Are there any cheaper mobos that fit my needs, or should I just suck it up and get a $250 680i? This (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188009) is the one I'm currently looking at.

Thanks again for your help.

[saphalline]

There is nothing cheaper. If you want a Core 2 Duo system with SLI and a good chipset, you must choose the new NForce 680i SLI chipset. NVidia is the only company that can make SLI chipsets since they designed SLI in the first place. You must choose an NVidia SLI chipset if you want SLI. There is no other way.

I just recommended that exact mobo in another thread a few hours ago. I like that mobo.

[BarbecuedPork]

There is nothing cheaper. If you want a Core 2 Duo system with SLI and a good chipset, you must choose the new NForce 680i SLI chipset. NVidia is the only company that can make SLI chipsets since they designed SLI in the first place. You must choose an NVidia SLI chipset if you want SLI. There is no other way.

I just recommended that exact mobo in another thread a few hours ago. I like that mobo.

I have one last question before I get everything together for the build, involving PSU choice. I read that the 8800 series cards require a whole mess of current(12V@28amps!) but most PSUs I've looked at are putting out current in the range of 12V@15-22 amps. Is this a case of needing a massive(expensive) PSU, or am I misunderstanding something?

[saphalline]

Take a closer look at the specs for the PSU you picked out. +12V1 @ 20A, +12V2 @ 18A. That's 38A total! You're fine.

Also keep in mind that those requirements are not for the 8800 alone, but rather how much +12V current your PSU needs to fuel the system and still have enough left over for the 8800. The 8800 sucks a lot of power, but not 300+ Watts! :p

[BarbecuedPork]

I'm ready to build my system and will be ordering everything from newegg in the next couple days. Here's what I'm getting:

Intel E6600 Conroe CPU (Going up in price!)
eVGA 680i SLI Mobo
BFG Tech GeForce 7600GT GPU
2 gigs Corsair XMS DDR2 800 RAM
Lian Li PC7B Plus Case
Antec Truepower 430W PSU ($25 NIB from a friend who doesn't need it, I'll get a bigger one when I get Geforce 8XXXs in SLI)
Seagate 250gb HDD
LG CD/DVD RW Drive

$1200 with a hundred bucks in rebates :cool:

[PatioFurniture]

Good choice with the conroe...and because of that you would be ok using DDR2 667, unless your doing some serious overclocking....