Final Review

K

Kalgatha

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Ok guys, due to graduation moneys I have acquired enough to purchase and build a new computer! I've been wanting to do this for quite a while and now am ready to jump on it! so I've pieced this together so far, I don't want vista...and I'm gonna use it to game, Office apps, 3-D simulations, engineering stuff. thats pretty much it. but ne way here it is, tell me what you think/what i need to change/if something doesn't work well together/if i can get a better something for about the same price.

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

MoBo : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813136047

VGA : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130349

PSU : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817341002

CPU : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115043

RAM : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820220293

HDD : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822136218

CD drive : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106072

OS : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16832116378
 
Ok, here's my honest thoughts on this. IF it were me, and I had gobbs of money like you do, I would say that the RAM will probably hold you back if anything. Someone else can comment but from the looks of it, that's what it seems. Also, I'd go with a seagate HD with 32mb cache because it will be a bit quicker and you obviously have the money to buy one. Also, I'd get the 32bit version of XP as some users have reported problems with certain things in the 64bit. I see you do have 4GB of ram though, and windows 32bits only see ~3.5gb of that....someone else can help out on this 32bit vs. 64bit issue too...that's just things that I have heard. Currently I'm on XP Pro 32bit with 4gigs of ram and I'm doing just fine, though. That's my two cents. I can't comment on a lot of that as I've never had that kind of money to look at those spendy parts.
 
alright, well i was looking at this as my first choice of ram (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145194) but i decided to change to the patriot b/c its cheaper and i didn't see much of a difference. how bout this has a hdd (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288, and would it be worth it to get 2 and run it in RAID? if so which RAID would i run? i dont' even know which ones r which lol. and i'll look around the internets and see what i can find on the 32 vs 64 bit. thanx for your help! the total for all these parts come out to be around 1500$
 
your HDD link isn't working for me so I'm not sure which one you are looking at. You might see a bit of benefit with RAID, but probably not enough to notice. Raid 0 takes 2 drives and uses them kind of as one. So if you lose one HDD you lose all your info. Raid 1 takes 2 drives and mirrors them..so you have a backup if one fails. You can read more about it here.

The HDD's I would recommend are these:
Seagate 750GB
Seagate 500GB

Again, if it were ME and I was GOING to use raid, I would put 2 of the 500's in raid 0. Other wise I'd just get one 750gb and call it good. The latter would be my choice.

What I meant by the RAM holding you back is that it is just standard DDR2 800 RAM....newer RAM is DDR2 1066 or DDR3 RAM..but I don't know much about either of those..or if they have any real advantages which is why someone else on CF probably knows a boatload more about it. If theres no noticeably difference between 1066 and 800 or DDR3 and DDR2, the Patriot will be fine...I've got 4gigs of standard patriot in my system..but it's not as "advanced" and spendy as yours!

Glad to help in any way!

Zac
 
yeah i noticed my link wasn't workin, but i fixed it, it was to the same seagate 500 u posted. the mobo i have listed says it uses ddr2 800, thats why i picked those two. can i still just pop the ddr2 1066 in and it work fine? or do i need to search for a different mobo w/ ddr2 1066 listed?
 
Shoot. Thanks for catching that. I forgot your mobo said that. Yes, you will just need 800 for that mobo unless you can find one to run 1066 but I'd google the gains of running 1066 vs 800 first because 1066 is just a little bit more expensive. Right now, with that mobo, I believe if you put in 1066 it'd just knock it down to 800 and still work but you'd be wasting the money from upgrading from 800 to 1066. I'll try and google something to help you out a bit. Rams usually not my game unless we are talking 800. But you obviously have some money to work with which is why I'm trying to see if there's something just a bit better so you don't bottleneck with the RAM you get versus all other components in your PC! :)
 
What I meant by the RAM holding you back is that it is just standard DDR2 800 RAM....newer RAM is DDR2 1066 or DDR3 RAM..but I don't know much about either of those..or if they have any real advantages which is why someone else on CF probably knows a boatload more about it. If theres no noticeably difference between 1066 and 800 or DDR3 and DDR2, the Patriot will be fine...I've got 4gigs of standard patriot in my system..but it's not as "advanced" and spendy as yours!
Click to expand...
Some low latency DDR2 800 is all that is needed for an Intel platform because of the limitations of the FSB. Even with higher speed RAM, the extra speeds will make no difference to performance because the FSB severely limits bandwidth.

@ OP

Tests have shown that the X48 performs no better in overclocking than an X38 or a good P35 board, don't waste your money on one. I think an ASUS P5E would be the best choice.

Also don't bother buying factory overclocked cards, you're just paying more for what you can do yourself and at $345, you're getting dangerously close to the HD 3870 X2. Get a standard 8800GTS which is just a lower clocked GTS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127325

I think the Q9300 is only a good choice if you're not an overclocker. Sure, it's 45nm, but it has a smaller L2 cache and only a 7.5 multiplier. If you really want a quad then the Phenom 9850 Black Edition + a 790FX is the best choice IMO, the Q6600 has been dethroned.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103249
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130136
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220315
 
worshipme said:
Tests have shown that the X48 performs no better in overclocking than an X38 or a good P35 board, don't waste your money on one. I think an ASUS P5E would be the best choice.
Click to expand...

im not necessarily looking to overclock this machine just a whole bunch. i will tweak around with it and overclock some, but very little. i'm looking for a board that is more stable than anything and i've heard that the x48's are just that. and i'm also under the impression that intel is the cpu tyrant yet again and amd's cpu's are lacking in performance and heat output. now if im wrong correct me. i just want a good system for around 1500$ that will last me a couple years. also should i get sound card?
 
Any chipset will be perfectly stable at stock settings, but there really is absolutely no point in paying too much for an X48 when the P35 and the X38 perform just as well.

And AMD were lagging behind Intel until the B3 Phenoms which are a great comeback from what looked like a very dissapointing K10. They are performing as well if not better clock for clock than core and are even getting 1GHz+ overclocks with a good 790FX board.
The 9850 isn't a Q9770 beater but it's more than up to competing with the Q6600/Q9300 which are simarlely priced.
 
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