New PC, need advice

[[DnC]]

Yes sortof. I've had no problems getting separate sticks from diff manufacturers to run dual channel but some people prefer matched pairs. Get 2 matched sticks at rated for DDR3200 cl2.5 or cl2 if possible.

I've decided to get two 'Kingston 1GB DDR PC3200 CL3 ValueRAM' sticks.

The x800xl is very similar to the gt/gs. The x800gto is also in the same price range I think.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/...wer_end_cards/

Post the link of the vid card you intend to get.

I'm going for the 'Asus EN6800 GT PCI-e 256MB', cool-prices.nl - dutch site though.

I'm most likely going to buy my new system from the person who assembled my current PC. He knows where to get things cheaper. He does this as a side job (?). Plus I know he's trustworthy (ex-colleague of my father). Not to keen on ordering things on the internet, unless I know the company (and it has a good rep).

Personally I like the nForce4 MBs as they have soom pretty cool features...

Memory, 2 GB is good in my opinion... It always your high demand games to run while you leave you AV and spyware and whatever going. Plus if you ever try BF2 you will appreciate it...

CPU, I never get the boxed ones, no real reason just personal preference...

Additionally unless you really need all that HDD space I would personally go with the Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 HD (two of them if you have the spare cash)...

After thinking it over a bit I decided to get a 'AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego (S939. 2.4GHz. 1MB. Boxed)' (maybe it's going to be a tray version considering he assembles it himself and is quite experienced with it). This is also a nForce4 MB.

Those WD's just aren't worth the price if I can get far more for not all that much more. Plus I have good experiences with Maxtor's. However I've changed the PATA to a SATA II.

New setup (getting more and more closer to the end product):

Motherboard: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego (S939. 2.4GHz. 1MB. Boxed)
Memory: Kingston 1GB DDR PC3200 CL3 ValueRAM (KVR400X64C3A/1G) 2x
Processor: Asus A8N-SLI Premium S939
HDD: Maxtor 250GB SATA II 16mb Diamond Max 10 (6v250F0)
Graphicscard: ASUS EN6800GT/2DT/ 256mb GF FX 6800.DVI. PCI-e
Audiocard: Creative SB Audigy 4 Bulk
DVD RW: NEC 4550 dvdwriter black bulk
DVD Player: ASUS 16x DVD Player retail Black
Case: Sweex Neptune Prescott 400 watt 2x USB 2.0. sound
Cooler: Zalman CNPS7700-Cu CPU Cooler

I might still change the cooler (Zalman) to a CNPS9500 one and the audiocard might change aswell. At first I thought it was a 7.1, but apparently it's a 5.1. Anyone any experiences with both and can tell if there's much difference?

In the end I decided for a system that provides me with more longtivity (?).

[orangat]

The reason I asked for the link is to make sure that the 6800gt is a legit version with 16pipes and 256bit interface with ddr3. Asus (and others) do sell crippled versions with the same name with less pipes or cheaper ddr1 memory.

I would go for an dual core 3800+ instead which costs slightly less. If you prefer 4000 single core then get the newer san diego.

5.1/7.1 is unimportant. 7.1 is more of a gimmick.

[[DnC]]

Just got a reply from the guy and it looks like a good offer. However some things are unclear and the GT is a GS, which it shouldn't be. Anyways he also made a second offer with a different processor and MB. It's a 'Mainboard MSI K8N Diamond Plus' with a 'AMD Dual-Core Processor Athlon 64 x2 4200+' for not a bad price.

I'll ask him aswell if the graphicscard is a 16 pipe and 256bit one.

I have sent a message back and await another answer from him.

[CBR]

Im not familiar with how that case works but it says its meant for Prescott motherboards. It might still work fine for standard motherboards too though.

IMO it would be better to get a 3500+ and then a 7800gt graphics card as that card doesnt cost that much more than the 6800gt from the website you gave a link to. Overall it should be same cost for you.

Getting a dual core would be nice too and a 3800+ X2 is within same price range. And Opterons are the thing you really want for dual cores, but difficult to find though.

I got a Maxtor 200 GB in my now old pc and that was noisy and newer ones might be better. But Im happy with the Hitachi's I got.

The ram is ok but for a game like RTW and of course MTW2 you would like to have high memory bandwidth as that seems to be the real bottleneck, if you want to play more than 10k men on the battlefield and still have good fps. That can be done by getting some higher quality ram and do a bit of overclocking. But everything costs money that you might not want to waste on a PC and the Kingston ram will be fine.


CBR

[[DnC]]

Well I reasoned that upgrading to a newer graphicscard later on would probably be cheaper then getting a new processor and/or MB.

The one whom I'm going to buy the new PC from offered two 1GB DDR400 memory modules (he looks at my requests and tries to find the same, something simular or even better for the same or better price). I do not however know which brand, which I have asked in the e-mail I send earlier.

EDIT: Just received an answer.

Anyone have any experience with PQI memory? http://www.pqimemory.com/ That's the memory brand.

Also is 16MB cache on a harddisk that much better then a 8MB?

[orangat]

Cache sizes on harddisks should only be compared to models within the same manufacturer. More cache doesn't automatically mean better across manufacturers. So if you were contemplating two Maxtor choices, get the one with the bigger cache.

[[DnC]]

Well the harddisk is a Hitachi and I'm fine with that now at the moment.

At the moment I'm only comtemplating whether to take a 3800+ dual-core proc or 4200+ dual-core and whether to take a 6800 GS or 7800 GT. Gonna check up on which would be the better pick.

And whether or not the memory is of good quality.

[Geezer57]

Anyone have any experience with PQI memory? http://www.pqimemory.com/ That's the memory brand.

Don't have any personal experience with PQI, but it's been sold for quite a while on Newegg, with generally favorable customer reviews. You can see here that most PQI memory in your size range gets a 4 to 5 egg rating: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&ATTR8=&ATTR9=

I wouldn't hesitate to use it in my systems, especially if ultimate performance were not a major factor.

P.S. Go for the 7800GT over a 6800GT - the price difference is very minor if you shop carefully, but the performance delta is quite significant. The newer GPU also draws less power (while performing better), and so runs cooler in addition.

[[DnC]]

Thanks everyone for your help!

My final setup, which I've already ordered:

Motherbord: MSI K8N Diamond plus
Processor: AMD Athlon 64-x2 4200+ dual core with original cooler (can always get another one if this one isn't good enough).
Memory: 2x PQI 1024 MB DDR400
Videocard: MSI PCI-E NX7800 GT-VT2D256E
Harddisk: Hitachi S-ATA II 300 MBs 8 Mb 250GB
DVD Player + RW: Benq
Audio: Sound 7.1 onboard