soundstreamer Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 This is my first time building a full PC. I have done many replacement parts but that is it. This is a budget gaming system I am trying to build and would like to see some feedback of what you all think. The only leftover part from my old Athlon XP system is my power supply which I had to buy a few months ago because my old one crapped out. I will be installing XP pro on this system. Case:Antec 300 [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042&Tpk=antec%20300"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...Tpk=antec%20300[/url] Power Supply: Xion Supernova 600W [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817190012"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817190012[/url] Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131299[/url] Processor: Intel E2180 [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116052"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819116052[/url] VGA: Sapphire 4830 [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102803"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102803[/url] RAM: OCZ 2GB DDR2 800 [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227198"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820227198[/url] Hard Drive: WD 320GB [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136074[/url] DVD: LG [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136153"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827136153[/url] I think that is most of my parts. I know I should have stepped up on my processor but it can be overclocked pretty good from what I have read(as soon as I learn more about that) and I was trying to keep the price pretty low and this will probably be the first upgrade to the system in the future. I hope to try to put this together this weekend so I might be posting needing some help if it doesnt go well. Thanks for any input or help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 Not bad. One thing to think about. You can get the AMD Phenom 8650 Toliman tri-core for about $10 more than the PD [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103253"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103253[/url] And an AM2 MB for less [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131324[/url] Extra core and faster CPU for about equal $. Just a thought... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vol_Bengal Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 [quote name='Elflocko' post='749497' date='Feb 26 2009, 12:19 AM']Not bad. One thing to think about. You can get the AMD Phenom 8650 Toliman tri-core for about $10 more than the PD [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103253"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103253[/url] And an AM2 MB for less [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131324[/url] Extra core and faster CPU for about equal $. Just a thought...[/quote] Elf... Do you really like the AMD chips? I know a lot of benchmark tests, etc. that show the AMD clocks faster, etc. but that just hasn't been my experience. I have had 4 different computers (two had AMD chips, two had Intel chips) and administer an IT Dept that oversees approximately 80 pc's and in my experience the AMD chips didn't handle the parallel-processing and/or multi-threading that you get with having 6-7 windows open at one time. I always found that the AMD's could handle 2-3 windows open at one, but much more than that they really got sluggish. Just my experience with them... ever since I had the Athlon T-bird about 4 years ago and had the same symptoms I bought another Intel box right at that time and I just haven't had the same issues since. I'll have had it 4 years now in October and am still happy with it - granted I bought it pretty top-end at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 [quote name='Vol_Bengal' post='749552' date='Feb 26 2009, 08:09 AM']Elf... Do you really like the AMD chips? I know a lot of benchmark tests, etc. that show the AMD clocks faster, etc. but that just hasn't been my experience. I have had 4 different computers (two had AMD chips, two had Intel chips) and administer an IT Dept that oversees approximately 80 pc's and in my experience the AMD chips didn't handle the parallel-processing and/or multi-threading that you get with having 6-7 windows open at one time. I always found that the AMD's could handle 2-3 windows open at one, but much more than that they really got sluggish. Just my experience with them... ever since I had the Athlon T-bird about 4 years ago and had the same symptoms I bought another Intel box right at that time and I just haven't had the same issues since. I'll have had it 4 years now in October and am still happy with it - granted I bought it pretty top-end at the time.[/quote] Not so much anymore, but that's changed over the years (the only reason I even recommended the AMD was because the chip he was looking at was a P4 Dual. Bang for the buck, that AMD is a better deal). Four to five years ago in the server market, the Opteron was stomping Xeon. We were getting significantly better performance from the AMD chips in Server 2003 and VMware, particularly in DB performance. I also got much better performance from the Athlon chips in workstations, particularly when running MySQL. Then came Conroe. Intel punched AMD in the mouth with that chip and hasn't let up. There's absolutely no comparison now when comparing high-end (the Quad Xeons that are in our ESX servers are unholy). I haven't bought an AMD chip since, though if I were building a budget system for someone I would. The low-end PD cost as much as mid-grade AMD, and it's still a good, faster chip. Oh, and for the record, Dell servers suck balls. I went from an HP infrastructure to Dell, and the HP's are so much more reliable... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vol_Bengal Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 [quote name='Elflocko' post='749593' date='Feb 26 2009, 11:02 AM']Not so much anymore, but that's changed over the years (the only reason I even recommended the AMD was because the chip he was looking at was a P4 Dual. Bang for the buck, that AMD is a better deal). Four to five years ago in the server market, the Opteron was stomping Xeon. We were getting significantly better performance from the AMD chips in Server 2003 and VMware, particularly in DB performance. I also got much better performance from the Athlon chips in workstations, particularly when running MySQL. Then came Conroe. Intel punched AMD in the mouth with that chip and hasn't let up. There's absolutely no comparison now when comparing high-end (the Quad Xeons that are in our ESX servers are unholy). I haven't bought an AMD chip since, though if I were building a budget system for someone I would. The low-end PD cost as much as mid-grade AMD, and it's still a good, faster chip. [b]Oh, and for the record, Dell servers suck balls. I went from an HP infrastructure to Dell, and the HP's are so much more reliable..[/b].[/quote] I've not bought a Dell server in 8 years... I've bought 10 HP's since... They are sweet machines... everything in the box is hot-swappable now, even the memory trays... from a build standpoint you're hard-pressed to beat HP servers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 [quote name='Vol_Bengal' post='749595' date='Feb 26 2009, 10:14 AM']I've not bought a Dell server in 8 years... I've bought 10 HP's since... They are sweet machines... everything in the box is hot-swappable now, even the memory trays... from a build standpoint you're hard-pressed to beat HP servers.[/quote] And those tiny little SAS drives are just adorable... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vol_Bengal Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 [quote name='Elflocko' post='749626' date='Feb 26 2009, 12:20 PM']And those tiny little SAS drives are just adorable...[/quote] like drink coasters with a green blinking light! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steggyD Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 The new Intel Wolfdales are awesome. Should be able to get one of them pretty cheap, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 [quote name='steggyD' post='749874' date='Feb 26 2009, 09:15 PM']The new Intel Wolfdales are awesome. Should be able to get one of them pretty cheap, right?[/quote] Talking about the i7? Sorry, I'm starting to have trouble keeping the names straight. Those are still kinda pricey, but give it 6 months. Thank you, Mr. Moore.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steggyD Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 No, I'm talking about something like this. They have low end ones also. This CPU is cheaper, but better ... [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819116072[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 [quote name='steggyD' post='749939' date='Feb 26 2009, 11:57 PM']No, I'm talking about something like this. They have low end ones also. This CPU is cheaper, but better ... [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819116072[/url][/quote] Ah, I was thinking of the Nehalem chip. Yeah that's not too bad. Pentium is getting pretty long in the tooth for my taste, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steggyD Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have called it new, since it's last year's technology, but they are great CPU's. The whole 45 nm technology thing in the Nehalems, Wolfdales, Penryn. I just think the E5200 is a better buy than the E2180. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundstreamer Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 I finished my build the other day and I must say I am pretty happy with it so far. I am kicking myself for not going with the Intel 5200 now as that is a much better processor. I got a good deal on the MB and RAM as a combo is the main reason for going with Intel. I thought about going with a WD Raptor drive but decided to hold off because eventually the solid state drives will come down in price. I have not seen one running in person are that as fast as what is said? I need to go out and get a game to work my system out as I have not bought anything recently because my system couldnt handle it. Im thinking about picking up Fallout 3, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 [quote name='soundstreamer' post='752831' date='Mar 3 2009, 10:06 PM']I finished my build the other day and I must say I am pretty happy with it so far. I am kicking myself for not going with the Intel 5200 now as that is a much better processor. I got a good deal on the MB and RAM as a combo is the main reason for going with Intel. I thought about going with a WD Raptor drive but decided to hold off because eventually the solid state drives will come down in price. I have not seen one running in person are that as fast as what is said? I need to go out and get a game to work my system out as I have not bought anything recently because my system couldnt handle it. Im thinking about picking up Fallout 3,[/quote] Cool Glad everything came together. As for the Raptors, yeah those things fucking scream. Not just games, but day-to-day operation they're pretty sweet. I'm looking forward to the SSD too, but I'm waiting on them to make some more progress on the write ceiling. You can still only write to those things a finite number of times before they crap out. Sure, it might be a million, but I'm still not entirely comfortable with them yet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundstreamer Posted March 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 [quote name='Elflocko' post='752832' date='Mar 3 2009, 11:10 PM']Cool Glad everything came together. As for the Raptors, yeah those things fucking scream. Not just games, but day-to-day operation they're pretty sweet. I'm looking forward to the SSD too, but I'm waiting on them to make some more progress on the write ceiling. You can still only write to those things a finite number of times before they crap out. Sure, it might be a million, but I'm still not entirely comfortable with them yet...[/quote] Thanks for the info on the SSD drives I had not heard that yet. But I also have not done a lot of research. That is some interesting but fucked up news about them. Any idea on what the reason is behind that problem or when they might be able to correct it? Also thanks for all your help around here with computer help. You have helped teach me a few things in some or your other posts although a lot of it is also over my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 [quote name='soundstreamer' post='753459' date='Mar 4 2009, 07:55 PM']Thanks for the info on the SSD drives I had not heard that yet. But I also have not done a lot of research. That is some interesting but fucked up news about them. Any idea on what the reason is behind that problem or when they might be able to correct it? Also thanks for all your help around here with computer help. You have helped teach me a few things in some or your other posts although a lot of it is also over my head. [/quote] Don't get me wrong; SSD is the future. I'm just not comfortable [i]quite[/i] yet with the current technology. Per [url="http://techreport.com/articles.x/15931"]this[/url] article: [quote]While the X25-E's faster write speed and quicker access latency are great, it's on the longevity front that the drive offers the biggest step up over the X25-M. Multi-level memory cells are limited to 10,000 write-erase cycles before they burn out. Single-level memory cells, on the other hand, are good for 100,000 write-erase cycles—a difference of one order of magnitude.[/quote] They're getting really close. Give it another year or so and I think the SSD will finally be a real alternative to spinning disk in regard to both life cycle and price point... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Bunghole| Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Soundstreamer...buy, then play Fallout 3. You won't be disappointed. It is a GREAT game. Try Crysis, too. Eye-popping graphics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundstreamer Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 I will be buying Fallout 3 soon but I was at Gamestop yesterday and they had Assassin's Creed on sale for $20 so I picked that up. They still wanted $50 for Fallout and I have seen it online for 30 or 35. Im running Assassin's Creed at 1280x1024 with everything maxed and it is running smooth as silk. God its great to have a fast PC again. Its finally fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Bunghole| Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 [quote name='soundstreamer' post='754267' date='Mar 6 2009, 06:18 PM']I will be buying Fallout 3 soon but I was at Gamestop yesterday and they had Assassin's Creed on sale for $20 so I picked that up. They still wanted $50 for Fallout and I have seen it online for 30 or 35. Im running Assassin's Creed at 1280x1024 with everything maxed and it is running smooth as silk. God its great to have a fast PC again. Its finally fast. [/quote] I bought Crysis off ebay for $17...and Fallout 3 for $20. And goddamn yes, it's nice to have a capable machine. Thank you 4GB RAM and Nvidia video card! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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