New PC - Limited knowledge

[xanthippus]

Hello everyone!

I've been thinking about getting a new PC for some months now, my current one is 3 years old and the motherboard doesn't support PCI express, thus my current Raedon 9700 simply doesn't do games justice. So while my hyperthreaded Pentium 4 3Ghz CPU isn't really all the bad still, i thought i might as well update the entire package if i'm getting a new mother board and graphics card.

I've been reading various articles but my hardware knowledge isn't all that great, notably when it comes to the reputation of brand names and all those funny abbreviations/letters/numbers that are added onto the end of the equipment. Basically, if anyone has a thoughts about the below kit then could you let me know before i spend my hard earned cash. Even if this means telling me to hold off for 1 more month because some new key piece of kit is going to be released which will mean it just makes sense to hold off for that little bit longer (however hard that may be!).


Case:
Antec Performance One P180 Miditower

Power Supply:
Seasonic S12 Powersupply 600W, 120mm Fan

Motherboard:
Asus A8N-SLI Premium, Socket -939, Super Cooling Pipe

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.4GHz, 512kb

Graphics Card:
Radeon X1900XT 512mb GDDR3

Memory:

Corsair Twinx2048-3200C2 DDR-DIMM, 2048MB w/two matched CMX1024-3200C2 DIMMs

Hard Disk:
Samsung SpinPoint P120 250GB SATA2 8MB 7200RPM

Soundcard:
Creative SB X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS PCI, 64mb, EAX Advanced HD 5.0

Oh, and also, any advice particularly on 'future proofing' the motherboard? Ideally i want to upgrade in the future, not start all over again (hence going for a high end system now). With the move to duel core processing/64bit information flow i'm keen to make sure that future AMD chips will work in the motherboard. As far as i know the 939 configuration should be ok for the next wave of AMD CPUs, but just want to make sure i get the best 939 board possible (supporting all those funny extra features which i'll be attempting to learn about over the next 48hours).

Cheers;

Rob

[Agent]

AMD are moving to a totaly new socket (M2) in the not too distant future. So 'future proofing' your board / CPU isnt going to happen

loads of info : http://www.google.co.uk/search?clien...=Google+Search

[bright_]

S939 will be fine for now, but as Agent said, socket M2 is in the not too distant future if you getting an SLi board, there is no point in using an ATi graphics card!
SLi is nVidia's way of combining 2 PCI-E cards. In the future to get an upgrade boost, you could buy another nVidia card of the same type, and put it in in SLi.
If you bought a Crossfire Board, and an ATi card, you could do the same with an ATi GFX card.

[MrChris]

nice comp but hes right about the sli thing...

altho it can be said that crossfire chipset and mobos aint exactly as good as an nforce 4 one...driver support for it aint to great either...

but with the power of a x1900xt... i doubt ull ever really need to add a second card

[NightshadowUK]

Few things I'd change:
- Go for the AMD 64 3700+ San Diego - it's cheaper than the 3800+ and just as good thanks to the 1MB L2 Cache (if not better if you plan on overclocking).
- From the Samsung hard drive to the 250GB Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 as it's apparently quicker (although I must say I love my Samsung).
- A 600W power supply seems a little OTT, maybe I'm wrong?
- The RAM... I'd be tempted to go for 2GB Corsair Value Select and save the £50-ish. The tighter timings will make for about a 2% difference and I don't think that's worth the premium price. I was silly enough to pay it and I'm now left wishing I'd gone for either Value RAM or higher speed stuff so I could run 1:1.
- Go for a non-SLi (standard nForce4) motherboard if you're getting an ATi card.
- Finally, the Fatal1ty X-Fi card, you're paying for the name. Go for the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music card, it's cheaper yet you still get the same super/sexy high quality sound.

[killkoy]

-if you are future proofing you could consider going dual core, not much of a bonus at the moment(apart from multitasking) but future software will make use of it
-The falal1ty version of the x-fi has onboard memory(so doesn't need to use ram but i am not sure how much of a bonus it gives - look up some reviews)
-As far as motherboards go the asus premium is very good, i have it but a new model has just been released, the Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe as far as i am aware it is the same as the premium only the graphics lanes can both run at 16x in sli mode and the nforce fore raid controller supports raid5, (only supported by the sillican image in the premium.
if you want to get an sli board i would recomend getting a nivida gpu as you can upgrade in the future by adding a second,
-if you want a 1st generation gpu the nividia g71 should be retailing in march.
-i can recoment the samsung spinpoint drives as they are queit and fast(cant compare to a hitachi as i dont have 1)

[NightshadowUK]

Fatal1ty X-Fi review - mentions the on-board memory.

Hitachi T7K250 review - mentions the Samsung P120S.

[sprog]

The Antec Performance One P180 is widely regarded as a great case but have you seen one?

In my humble opinion it is very plasticky, which is why my similar post quotes the Aurora.

[ajbrun]

Do you really need a 600W power supply? I'm not entirley sure myself what is actually needed, but I'm pretty sure that's way over the top.

[bright_]

If you don't mind a noisy HDD, and you like speed of loading a Raptor could be an addition. All depends on price limit to be honest.

[xanthippus]

Cheers for the replies guys you've given me more to think about and research in the coming days.

Going for a SLI motherboard was a bit of a noobish mistake to make it seems, i thought that the technology would also enable a ATI card to work and my plan was to go for the single Radeon X1900XT and then add another at a later date when it started to struggle. It was this logic that made me go for a 600W power supply, to ensure that whatever future demands my system would make with two graphic cards etc, it would be able to cope, again an attempt by me to think long term, but it seems from the replies that this may be excessive.

Once again, thankyou for the feedback, it is very much appreciated, and it'll certainly help ensure that i come up with the right system.

[Agent]

In my experience, ive not really seen a use on the desktop for SLi.
Ive found it better to just sell the old card, and replace it with the new model when it comes out.
For example, a lot of people were talking about SLi really taking off when the Geforce 6 prices fell to make way for the Geforce 7. In reality, its easier, cheaper and can perform better if you just sold the geforce 6 and brought a 7.


Get a new list rewrote from what people have said in this thread and we can do the same for that one

[project187]

ffs give hima break on the psu side that one is actually rated as the best,plus why get one with less power? go over and its good for ages plus it aint like he hasnt got the cash looking at it.

[bright_]

yes, but he can use the cash saved on the PSU to buy different parts in another area. Just because he has the money doesn't mean we should reccomend him to spend over the odds

[project187]

bah why skimp on a psu and it will ast for more than one system and a good 480 is still like 60 ish or summit

[xanthippus]

Ok, i've done a bit of thinking and some reading today.

I've decided to change from getting the Creative SB X-Fi Fatal1ty, to getting the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme. I was close to choosing to go for the Corsair Value Select Memory, but after reading it is important to stick with high quality memory if you're going to over clock i'll probably stick with the Corsair Twinx2048-3200C2 DDR-DIMM, 2048MB, as over clocking is something i want to get into/understand.

In regards to the motherboard, i'm going to stick with the Radeon X1900XT 512mb GDDR3 GPU, so i would ask is there a clear favourite amongst motherboards that will house a ATI card and be good for over clocking the CPU (+ideally has an onboard network card and a number of USB ports)? I probably won't ever link/add another GPU, as i've also been sold by the argument that it is mostly always better to simply get the latest card at the time rather then add a 2nd old one.

I think i'll also spend another 2 days reviewing my choice of CPU (mainly thinking if i should get a X2 or not). This potential system is essentially for gaming, and i don't believe there is any real advantage to getting one at the moment, and when M2 comes along and all the best but old X2's and FX's come down in price i could simply upgrade my then outdated motherboard which can't use a M2 with the best of the 'outdated' X2's and FX's. Getting a AMD 64 3800+ seems like getting a very decent chip, at a decent price, that will last for a decent amount of time at the moment.

Again any views will be read with great interest and i particularly thank Project187, Bright, Agent, Ajbrun, Sprog, Nightshadow and MrChris for helping me navigate a tricky minefield of decision making.