Building A Gaming Rig - A Living Document. (A HEXUS Project)

[schrickvr6]

Can you add OCZ to reputable PSU's (come out of same factory as Tagan's)?

Better mention that the XP-120 doesn't fit a lot of boards due to size - XP-90 is a lot more compatible with virtually the same performance.

& imho Shinetsu G-751 is probably a better TIM than AS5 (though dearer & harder to apply)

I couldn't agree more on all accounts.....

I recently picked up the big daddy ocz powerstream and i've never seen such a quality piece of kit...and that's coming from using antec and enermax psu's.

Imho the xp-90 is better due to the 120mm fans dead spot...unless you use a 190cfm delta or similar.

[alterion]

for those people on a budget antec do a great line of cases with PSU's for cheap as chips... £45 for a decnt case and quailty 350w psu or £60 for what is basicllay a cheiftec dragon w a 400w psu... have some of that. Also i would advise that the sweet spot for GPU's when they come out will undoubtedly be the x800xl. The next seciton i think needs to be covered is ram.

[Rave]

Looking at the current available AMD CPUs, the first and most far-reaching choice to be made is whether to go 32bit or 64bit. In short, if you can afford to go 64bit, then do so. The new 939 socket 64bit Athlon CPUs no longer need registered RAM like the old socket 754 models did, and the recently released Winchester core models overclock very well without producing an excessive amount of heat, due to the new 90nm (nano meter - One billionth of a meter) technology.

Socket 754 uses unregistered RAM as well, just in single channel mode. It's Socket 940 that needs registered RAM. I'm not arguing with your recommendation of S939 in general though, there's not much point buying S754 now as far as I can see.

As for desktop/encoding use etc: AMD generally win with unoptimised code (I.E. pure FPU rather than SSE/SSE2/SSE3 optimised), and code which is branchy or which otherwise penalises the P4's long pipeline. Code which can be optimised for SIMD and is fairly linear tends to run better on Intels. <covers head and waits for a slapping from the people who really know the specifics of CPU internals>

Rich :¬)

[Stewart]

I couldn't agree more on all accounts.....

I recently picked up the big daddy ocz powerstream and i've never seen such a quality piece of kit...and that's coming from using antec and enermax psu's.

Imho the xp-90 is better due to the 120mm fans dead spot...unless you use a 190cfm delta or similar.

Ok, OCZ PSUs will be added, as will PC Power and Cooling, which are quality despite costing 3 times as much as any other.

I did reccomend partnering the XP-120 with a high CFM fan, in fact I acually reccomended a Delta on a fan controller.

Yes its a biggy, but really, apart from fitting a bit snug near one of the memory DIMMs, there's no problems on the Asus A8V.

[Stewart]

Socket 754 uses unregistered RAM as well, just in single channel mode. It's Socket 940 that needs registered RAM. I'm not arguing with your recommendation of S939 in general though, there's not much point buying S754 now as far as I can see.

Yeah, I think I got a bit obsessed with dual channel, and assumed everyone used or was going to want to use it, so that's all that mattered. Will edit accordingly.

As for desktop/encoding use etc: AMD generally win with unoptimised code (I.E. pure FPU rather than SSE/SSE2/SSE3 optimised), and code which is branchy or which otherwise penalises the P4's long pipeline. Code which can be optimised for SIMD and is fairly linear tends to run better on Intels. <covers head and waits for a slapping from the people who really know the specifics of CPU internals>

Rich :¬)

Yes, its all getting very interesting now. Exactly when is a Pentium faster than the closest AMD equiverlant. Certainly not when gaming, and now it seems not for general desktop use, unless its a few specific tasks. Still got the lead for encoding and RARing it seems, unless someone thinks different...

[BUFF]

Yes its a biggy, but really, apart from fitting a bit snug near one of the memory DIMMs, there's no problems on the Asus A8V.

Maybe but there are lots of boards it doesn't fit.

[Stewart]

It has problems with the K8N Neo2 Platinum and can't be used and blocks DIMM1 on the Abit AV8, so of the 3 most popular 939 boards, its only the Asus board that it fits.

Seems to work with most others though, but some give a 'caps mechanically obstruct pipe slightly, cap tilting necessary.'

[mike_w]

I would add to the graphics card section the 6600GT. It seems to beat the 9800 Pro/XT in most tests, and only struggles when the resolution and AA are turned up. You can pick them up for around £150, and they should (hopefully) drop after Christmas since they are still quite recent. Vanilla 6800s are also probably worth looking at for around £200 (again, hopefully less after Christmas).

In terms of heatsinks, I'd recommend a Thermaltake Volcano/Venus 12 - cheap, cools well and comes with a fan controller.

This thread is a great idea - perfect as a reference guide. Actually, why isn't this stickied?

[Stewart]

This thread is a great idea - perfect as a reference guide. Actually, why isn't this stickied?

Thanks for your kind words Mike.

Its not a sticky at the moment because no-one reads stickies.

Maybe once its up and running, and there are loads of us contributing I'll sticky it and the people invovled will know whats what. At the moment though, more people will read and get invovled, hopefully, because its not a sticky.

I'll make the first changes suggested later tonight by the way. With full credit to those who suggest it given at the end. Glad to see you lot gettting invovled in this project.

[r1zeek]

This has sparked my interest Vaul.

Do we get to debate the suggested changes, or are they going to be made if enough people suggest them?

[Stewart]

This has sparked my interest Vaul.

Do we get to debate the suggested changes, or are they going to be made if enough people suggest them?

Well, if something is suggested and it seems sensible, then it'll be changed. If someone disagrees, then we'll look at both sides of the arguemtn and make a choice. I doubt we'll all agree, but it should be a decent guide to building a gaming rig, with the collective knowledge and reccomendations of our members.

I know there are people out there who know a lot more about this than me, Rave for instance, who's post went mostly over my head, and I wrote the guide.

Still, the point is to get people invovled and if its interested you, that's half of the battle.

[menthel]

For the cheap case a Jeantech Phong is great. Sold in PC world of all places. Good cooling and nice, simple looks. For the mid range processor, many people are saying the 3000+ winchester is the way forward. Very cheap and o/c's to high heaven.

[Stewart]

For the cheap case a Jeantech Phong is great. Sold in PC world of all places. Good cooling and nice, simple looks. For the mid range processor, many people are saying the 3000+ winchester is the way forward. Very cheap and o/c's to high heaven.

Yeah, the 3000+ overclocks to the same speeds as the 3200+ according to reviews, but I thought as its not much more cash, and you get the extra bit of grunt at stock, if you don't want to overclock.

[malfunction]

Would suggest FSP as another PSU manufacturer to add. And how about the Zalman 7000 heatsink as a suggestion for a cooler with good performance and low noise? (Zalman have released a 7700 version now that's bigger as it uses a 120mm fan not a 92mm one but like the XP120 it doesn't fit all mobos)... Also the XP120 + delta fan would be a NOISY combination - a stellar performer I know - but worth pointing out that unless you're deaf you probably won't want to live with it.

And how about links for each product (either just manufacturer product pages or those plus a few suggested suppliers + a link to users.hexus.net for ratings)

[malfunction]

Oh and how:

About a list of things to be wary of like 'SE' versions of GFX cards

and

Listing the equivalent nVidia cards for your three picks (i.e. 6600GT is rougly same price as 9800 Pro and has similar performance)

[Thorsson]

Would suggest FSP as another PSU manufacturer to add. And how about the Zalman 7000 heatsink as a suggestion for a cooler with good performance and low noise? (Zalman have released a 7700 version now that's bigger as it uses a 120mm fan not a 92mm one but like the XP120 it doesn't fit all mobos)...

However the Zalman 7700 has greater height clearance than the 7000 so might fit some mobos that the 7000 won't (and it's great for cooling the MOSFETs too).