AMD Gaming System "upgrade"

[Davermonk]

Hello. I'm getting ready to "upgrade" my 2-year old computer with pretty much all new hardware. I was wondering if you guys would mind taking a look and giving me your opinions.

My goal is to make a new gaming computer to run "high-end" games & Adobe CS2 apps. Ideally, I'd like to go another 2 years before my next build (though I realize it won't be able to run every game 2 years from now). I do not plan on overclocking (and therefore will stick with the HS/Fan combo that comes with the retail CPU). I also don't plan on running SLI so I went with a cheaper mobo that seems to be getting great reviews.

I'll be reusing some parts from my (2-year old) current computer, including the Antec TX-1050B server case, Asus CD-RW & DVD-ROM drives, floppy drive, case fans, keyboard/mouse, monitor, speakers & WinXP OS.

Here is what I'm planning to order...

• $ 84 ASUS A8N5X
• $449 SAPPHIRE Radeon X1900XT
• $357 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester CPU
• $141 CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB)
• $100 WD Cav 16MB/250GB/7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
• $100 Antec TruePower 2.0 550W PSU

Total price of this package is $1,220.

I recently changed my mind from an eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB to an ATI X1900XT 512MB because the ATI seems to be one of the hottest cards out there at the moment (besides the $700 GeForce 7800GTX 512MB). Hopefully the ATI card will get along with the nVidea chipset.

I'm going with ValueRam because I've read that CAS latencies don't give a big boost in performance on AMD systems (at least not enough to justify the $60 difference between ValueRam and XMS or OCZ Gold).

I'd really appreciate your thoughts/comments. I'd hate to make this purchase, only to find out that one or more of the parts won't work with the others.

Thanks for your time.

[#43 fan]

I believe that the nVidia chipset will not have a problem with the ATI card.
Nice setup.
I believe everything will work.

[vikeor]

ifs its PCI-E then its PCI-E and it will work :]

i dont recommend the 4200+, its better to get the 4400+ that has 2x the cache or the 3800+ and OC it...

the rest looks good :]

[FlyinHawaiian]

I agree with vikeor.

[erhan28]

Nice setup, I also agree with vikeor with the cpu being a 4400 rather than a 4200. more cache = FuN

[towlies high]

cant beleive no one mentioned this, but i DEFINATLY would NOT get that power supply with that high end of a system. look at FSP, PC power and cooling and OCz. atleast 550watts, even though the reveiws of that power supply are good ive heard bad things about antec, better to be on the safe side

o and i got that mobo in my secondary comp, works great. went in without probs and had zero issues.

[EXreaction]

Antec isn't a bad psu maker...but they are usually overpriced...if you like Antec, you can get that psu from ZZF for $50 after rebates...
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=273503

But I would buy this powersupply for it...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104155

[quickoldcar]

You will definately see a difference between cas 2 and anything else. 5-2-2-2 very fast
anything else is sluggish in my eyes. 6-3-3-2 is acceptable to me.

[EXreaction]

You will definately see a difference between cas 2 and anything else. 5-2-2-2 very fast
anything else is sluggish in my eyes. 6-3-3-2 is acceptable to me.

You would never notice that...
You might want to read up.
http://www.corsairmicro.com/main/trg-cas.html

[famosbrown]

You would never notice that...
You might want to read up.
http://www.corsairmicro.com/main/trg-cas.html

Nice link there Ex...

Famos

[erhan28]

You will definately see a difference between cas 2 and anything else. 5-2-2-2 very fast
anything else is sluggish in my eyes. 6-3-3-2 is acceptable to me.

do you mean 2-2-2-5 ??

In that case there is no ram that is 1 gb each dual channel for 2 gigs in 2-2-2-5 but OCZ has one that is 2-3-2-6

[Davermonk]

...Buy CAS-2 if you want to wring the last bit of performance out of your system

I'm kind of hoping I won't need to do any wringing of performance out of this system for at least a year lol.

I came across some negative comments about Antec during my research, but I've always had good luck with them personally so I'm going to give them another chance. I think 550w is going to be enough for my dual-core, non-SLI setup.

The only change I made was to drop down from the X2 4200 to an X2 3800. The Toledo processor that I really wanted was too far above my target budget, so I figured I'd make due with the 3800 until the prices on the FX chips go down a bit. Since my current system is running on Athlon 1800 CPU and a GeForce 3 ti2000 GPU, I think the X2 3800 will keep me happy for a while.

I ordered the parts last night (and of course went with next-day delivery) so I should have them tomorrow. I'll be putting the stuff together this weekend (or most likely Friday night when I get home from work lol). I'll come back & let you know how it all works out.

Thanks for everyone's help & input!

[towlies high]

have fun new builds kick@ss, just remember to be cautious about the static

[Davermonk]

Oddly enough, when I built my current computer a couple years ago, I did it on top of a washing machine.

My washing machine is in a 2nd bedroom (only place it would fit lol) and it turned out to be the perfect "table" to assemble the computer. What could be better than a big piece of metal that's already grounded?

Of course, I cleaned off the top of the machine and laid down the anti-static bags from the components so nothing every actually touched the washing machine. But I would carefully grab the sides before I'd handle any part to drain off any charge I might have been carrying.

Oh, and I wasn't running the washer at the time. I guess that probably helped.

[FlyinHawaiian]

Man Davermonk! Kill 2 birds with one stone. What way to finish a computer than pulling out a pair of warm skivvies and slippin' em' on?

[towlies high]

actually the top of anti static bags are very conductive, seein as that thing has lasted you 2 years i dont think any static affected it

[erhan28]

I Touch a metal object first with boh hands to see if there is static and then go to work. I've also shorted out the back part of the GPU on my x800xl and sparks flew and pc turned off and yet it has no problem and no burnt marks so. lol I've heard some bad stories on static and just shared mine. Try assembleing it in a rubber ball :P

[Davermonk]

Just finished putting the system together.

Had one small scare when I hit the power button and the fans would spin for 2 seconds, and then everything would stop.

Figured out that the IDE cable to the floppy was plugged in backwards (only took me an hour ). After that, it was smooth sailing!

I just installed & played FEAR for the first time. In the self-test, I had 47/105/249 fps (min/avg/max) and it ran great.

Thanks for everyone's assistance in helping me put my system together. Once I get my system fine-tuned, I'll be back to give a little bit back to this great community.