Building New Computer - Input Wanted

I too am building a new computer soon and wanted some input of specific parts from any computer specialists out there. I'll be doing this in phases as not everything is available yet and ease the burden on the ole wallet.


Phase 1 - in two weeks

Monitor
Samsung 213T 21.3 inch LCD - $537
(Best performance/value for 20+ inch LCD on market)

Processor
Athlon 64 X2 4400 - $605
(Dual core, 1MB cache each core, whips Intel dual core processor in head-to-head tests - Should be out in 2 weeks)

Motherboard
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe - $176
(Very good MB at present that is 939 socket)

Video Card
Sapphire X800 Pro 256MB PCI-X - $249
(very highly rated card that isn't 500 bucks)

Memory
Corsair 1 Gig - $87

Hard Drive
WD Raptor 74 Gigs - $166

DVD Burner
Sony DVD Burner - $50

Case
Xion XON-002 - $65

Total Phase 1 = 1935


Phase 2 - Christmas time/1st Quarter 2006

Motherboard
Switch to new Crossfire Xpress MB - est $200

Video Card
Addition of Crossfire ATI X800 (which will link up with previous x800 ATI PCI-X card) - est $299

Memory
Switch to DDR2 memory Corsair 2 Gig - est $180

Hard Drive #2
Addition of second large storage HD 400Gigs - $150

Audio
Purchase Creative Sound Audiogy 2 card - est $70

Sell old MB and old RAM on Ebay + $100

Total Cost of Phase 2 = est $899 + 100 = est $799

Overall its what I think is the best of the best system but hurts the wallet a bunch. Before I buy anything I just want some opinions of you guys and gals.

Thanks
Gambit

Dell 2001FP , nuff said.

Where is the raid set-up for the hard drives?

That shit is cheap these days, and it's built in technology in your motherboard. Not sure if the 10,000 rpm drives are worth the money, but I haven't compared them in a while, so the details are fuzzy.

And why buy SLI and not get 2 graphics cards? I am really impressed with this technology, have 2 PCI -express cards in my system now. I have the EXACT same motherboard.


The chip is sweet, but you are going to pay out the a*s for getting the VERY top of the line. Downgrade to an Athlon 64 3500+ and you save about 400 bucks, then you can come back later and get the duel processor stuff when it is cheaper

You can't use ATi cards in SLI. It's nVidia's proprietary technology.

My knowledge base is not the greatest so someone correct me if I'm wrong. So...

As far as harddrives go

RAID 0/RAID 1 setup is like having two hard drives but the computer reading them as one
THE RPM rate of the HD determine the speed. The Raptor spins at 10,000 RPM and the standard HDs spin at 7,200 RPM
Can anybody tell me if that speed is really worth it?

As far as graphic cards go

Head to head ATI vs Geforce cards, the ATI is a better card (as per most reviews). Right now only Geforce SLI can double stack cards. ATI version (crossfire) will come out soon (and supposedly will be top of the line).
So anybody think I should just get the 2 Geforce SLI cards now?

As far as chip goes

Yea It would be alot cheaper to get XP 3500+ but its going to be really outdated really soon. And I can actually use the X2 dual core ability when I run my orthocad program.

Gambit wrote:

My knowledge base is not the greatest so someone correct me if I'm wrong. So... As far as harddrives go RAID 0/RAID 1 setup is like having two hard drives but the computer reading them as one THE RPM rate of the HD determine the speed. The Raptor spins at 10,000 RPM and the standard HDs spin at 7,200 RPM Can anybody tell me if that speed is really worth it? As far as graphic cards go Head to head ATI vs Geforce cards, the ATI is a better card (as per most reviews). Right now only Geforce SLI can double stack cards. ATI version (crossfire) will come out soon (and supposedly will be top of the line). So anybody think I should just get the 2 Geforce SLI cards now? As far as chip goes Yea It would be alot cheaper to get XP 3500+ but its going to be really outdated really soon. And I can actually use the X2 dual core ability when I run my orthocad program.

Sorry I didn't notice the part about switching to a crossfire motherboard later.

Gambit wrote:

My knowledge base is not the greatest so someone correct me if I'm wrong. So... As far as harddrives go RAID 0/RAID 1 setup is like having two hard drives but the computer reading them as one THE RPM rate of the HD determine the speed. The Raptor spins at 10,000 RPM and the standard HDs spin at 7,200 RPM Can anybody tell me if that speed is really worth it? As far as graphic cards go Head to head ATI vs Geforce cards, the ATI is a better card (as per most reviews). Right now only Geforce SLI can double stack cards. ATI version (crossfire) will come out soon (and supposedly will be top of the line). So anybody think I should just get the 2 Geforce SLI cards now? As far as chip goes Yea It would be alot cheaper to get XP 3500+ but its going to be really outdated really soon. And I can actually use the X2 dual core ability when I run my orthocad program.

The only thing to remember about 3500+ vs your duel core... will it truly make a significant difference in the things you plan to use it for? In my mind the speeds are fun, but they don't add up to much more than really big benchmark numbers. My 3500+ with SLI cards, etc runs Half Life 2 flawless at max resolution and all effects maxxed. Not many games are more intense on a puter than that. The other nice thing about the 3500+ is it has a lot of overclock potential (haven't even started doing that myself), so it's a pretty damn nice chip for 1/3 the cost.

Don't go cheap on the display. Get a Dell 2001FP or a FPW (widescreen) or get the 24" model 2405FP or FPW

I have the Dell 2001fp it looks amazing.

Desflurane wrote:

My 3500+ with SLI cards, etc runs Half Life 2 flawless at max resolution and all effects maxxed. Not many games are more intense on a puter than that. The other nice thing about the 3500+ is it has a lot of overclock potential (haven't even started doing that myself), so it's a pretty damn nice chip for 1/3 the cost.

HL2 runs on like a frekken 486... how your setup runs EQ2 is a better show of it's strength EQ2 has to be the single most power hungry game out there right now...

r00typooh wrote:

Desflurane wrote: My 3500+ with SLI cards, etc runs Half Life 2 flawless at max resolution and all effects maxxed. Not many games are more intense on a puter than that. The other nice thing about the 3500+ is it has a lot of overclock potential (haven't even started doing that myself), so it's a pretty damn nice chip for 1/3 the cost. HL2 runs on like a frekken 486... how your setup runs EQ2 is a better show of it's strength EQ2 has to be the single most power hungry game out there right now...

no way. pac man. i mean, look at all the dots and fruit

r00typooh wrote:

Desflurane wrote: My 3500+ with SLI cards, etc runs Half Life 2 flawless at max resolution and all effects maxxed. Not many games are more intense on a puter than that. The other nice thing about the 3500+ is it has a lot of overclock potential (haven't even started doing that myself), so it's a pretty damn nice chip for 1/3 the cost. HL2 runs on like a frekken 486... how your setup runs EQ2 is a better show of it's strength EQ2 has to be the single most power hungry game out there right now...

Check out the BF2 demo.. 128MB video card is required they claim.

Frax wrote:

r00typooh wrote: Desflurane wrote: My 3500+ with SLI cards, etc runs Half Life 2 flawless at max resolution and all effects maxxed. Not many games are more intense on a puter than that. The other nice thing about the 3500+ is it has a lot of overclock potential (haven't even started doing that myself), so it's a pretty damn nice chip for 1/3 the cost. HL2 runs on like a frekken 486... how your setup runs EQ2 is a better show of it's strength EQ2 has to be the single most power hungry game out there right now... Check out the BF2 demo.. 128MB video card is required they claim.

i have BF2 cranked with 1600 res and all options on. no video lag. 128mb card.

yea only thing is Larger LCD monitors have longer response times 20ms . I think there was a 19-21ish tho that was at 8ms? or 12ms? but those are pretty steep.

Dyloc wrote:

yea only thing is Larger LCD monitors have longer response times 20ms . I think there was a 19-21ish tho that was at 8ms? or 12ms? but those are pretty steep.

Yeah, I actually looked into this after these posts. There are multiple 12 ms 19 inch monitors. If you go bigger than that, they seem to have a lot of quality issues at this time