[kr580]

Building a PC for my brother. I've never used SATA or SLI so I'm not sure about those. I belive it's all good though. I've done tons of reading but this will only be my 3rd build so I'm still not 100% sure about compatiblity. I'd rather ask here than trust my instinct and end up a PC that doesn't work.

Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 532
PSU: Antec SmartPower 500w
Mobo: ECS C19-A
CPU: Intel P4 630
Memory: PQI Turbo 2x512MB DDR2
HDD: WD Caviar SE 80GB
DVD: Pioneer DVR-111D DVD±R DL
Video: Leadtek Geforce 6600 (x2 for SLI)

Also, he says he wants a good gaming/movie PC but what he's using now is pretty much junk compared to this and I belive this setup (if alright) will more than fill his needs. Does this seem decent for a bargain/starter gaming PC? Aside from switching over to AMD is there anything I could switch to make it a better gaming PC but not hike up the cost a bunch?

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Oh, and OS will be XP Home.

[kr580]

Oh, and OS will be XP Home.

[BlackPandemic]

First, I would change the power supply from a SmartPower to a TruePower. From the place I was at, I think the guy said the TruePower is more reliable and has a tad better amperage across the board, or something like that.

As for SLI, don't. The increase you'll get isn't worth the price. So just go with one video card.

Also, for a monitor I would suggest getting a LCD at least 19" considering he'll be watching movies. Do you have a budget for this thing?

[kr580]

First, I would change the power supply from a SmartPower to a TruePower. From the place I was at, I think the guy said the TruePower is more reliable and has a tad better amperage across the board, or something like that.

As for SLI, don't. The increase you'll get isn't worth the price. So just go with one video card.

Also, for a monitor I would suggest getting a LCD at least 19" considering he'll be watching movies. Do you have a budget for this thing?

I'll look into the PSU. Thanks for the SLI advice, I'm clueless. and he already has a nice 19" LCD so he's set there.

Thanks for the reply.

[warriorscot]

The motherboard isnt from one of the best companies i would shop around see if you can get an Abit, MSI or gigabyte board since its intel you could use asus the intel boards are more reliable than the amd ones from asus.

AMD usually saves money as well performance which is something to think about.

[Fenor]

I would just like to pipe in that SLi does make a MAJOR performance increase on games that take advantage of it. Take Quake 4 for example. With one video card I only get about 35FPS (Frames Per Second), but with two video cards I get the FPS cap of 60 constantly no matter what is going on onscreen. Even WoW (World of Warcraft a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game)) plays 20 fps better with two video cards SLi'd. I have two nVidia 7800GT's in case you are wondering.

Fenor

*EDIT* The rest of my system spec's can be found in my PROFILE

Edited by Fenor, 09 June 2006 - 09:32 AM.

[warriorscot]

Yeah but you payed for an extra card, you needed an SLI mibi which costs more than a non SLI, you need a more powerful SLI compatible PSU and on older sli you only got effective 8x transfer rater bottlenecking the faster cards.

So youve got two cards youve payed more than double for them when you add in the neccesary extras, two 7800GTs for me to buy would be £388 add on another £50 for the compatible mobo and biggger PSU, and thats £100 more than the x1900XTX the fastest single card solution wiht a single GPU, and you still have the option for upgrading the mobo and using dual card later. Also when you upgrade its just one card to replace instead of two, its half the heat output because there is only one card and half the power consumption.

Yes SLI does make a difference but its rarely proportional to the price you pay and the practicallities often let it down. Ill never buy dual cards because it is just a scam to get you buy one more card if the gfx card makers come to depend on it they will eventually get lazy and stop developing single cards as well as the doubles, two cards is twice the profit for them. Its the reason its often marketed aggresivley even though its innapropriate for a great number of users who use it.

Its biggest downfall is low res performance dual card solutions were primarily designed for high resolution systems because cards at the time werent powerful enough to provide good performance at such very high resolutions as some hardcore users were after so it was a stop gap measure until cards caught up with monitor resolution. This is reflected in benchmarks as effieciency is greater at high res than low res on dual card systems.

[BlackPandemic]

On the mobo, Warrior I disagree because I have an ECS mobo and it works fine (my mobo even has UV reactive slots for everything, added bonus! haha). If you want to go more expensive and "better" go right ahead but my mobo (ECS 945P-A) works fine.

And on the processor. Most people here will say "AMD for gaming." I have an Intel and it runs games just fine (I believe I have the same processor as you are buying). AMD will increase performance but you need a different mobo to change to AMD which I think is just too complicated. The P4's work fine for me (and I'm a gamer).

[Fenor]

I wasn't saying SLi is cheap, was just voicing my knowledge about what BlackPandemic said about SLi not being worth the price increase. Considering when I bought my two 7800GT's, they cost less then one 7900GTX and they perform better. So it was well worth the money.

Fenor

[warriorscot]

ECS are ok but not great, performance wise they are ranked pretty low and have some reliability problems because they are cheaply made, they arent the most common we see but we do see them, although we dont get as many as i remember getting when i started here.

Aye indeed, they were cheap when the 7900s came out because they needed rid of them.

Switching to AMD isnt any more complicated its actually pretty simple because the mobo choice is easier for AMD, the advantage of AMD isnt so much performance as it is price which is why i often suggest it not because of performance but price.

SLI does work at times, it just doesnt always if you can get a good deal then yes, but the best deal for getting good gfx is patience, card prices rock bottomed after the 1900s were released which made the twin 7800s practical in that window where prices were high but not as much now that the cards are cheaper.

[kr580]

Well even with these parts my bro said "What costs so much?" referring to the $850 price tag, so I'd think he'd rather have a cheapish PC for now and upgrade if he really needs it. As it stands right now this PC is easily way better than what he's using and the one he's using is fine for him. The only reason he wants a new one is because his is virus-ridden and no matter what we do, we can't get it fixed. We've tried several computer repair companies, DIY guides, asking on forums, etc... nothing works.

I chose the ECS board because it's a decent price for it's abilities and I myself have a ECS in this PC and it's never given me a problem. I'm very happy with it.

And, I'd rather stick with a P4 for now. I know AMD can be better but I don't think he'll notice the performance difference. It's really not that big of a deal.

As for SLI... I'll get one card for now and if it's not cutting it I'll get another and see how it works.

Any other advice/comments?

Edited by kr580, 09 June 2006 - 03:21 PM.

[kr580]

Also... I had a Leadtek PX6600TD-256 Geforce 6600 picked out for him and he said "Isn't there anything better for like $100?" so I found him a eVGA Geforce 7600GS. My question is, will the eVGA be a vast improvement over the Leadtek? He seems to think he needs something better than a $75 card. He would be playing mostly FPS games but not that much.

[Samm]

Re. the virus problems....

Have you tried simply formatting the hard disk & re-installing windows?
After the fresh installation, make sure you install a decent Anti-virus program & keep it updated, a good malware utility or two (e.g Ewido, spybot) & a firewall (disable XP's built in firewall & install a third party one).
If a lot of the viruses/malware have arrived via email, then I suggest he changes his email address as well

BTW I'm with Warriorscot on the ECS issue

[BlackPandemic]

Considering he needs what seems a bargain PC and I know (having one) that ECS's get the job done to the extent that most users need it to be, changing the mobo is a step he can skip.

If FPS is what he'll be playing than yes, a better video card always helps because (unless he plays crazy RTS's) there is a lot going on in the screen at one time. And with graphics nowadays, the better the video card, the more he'll enjoy the newer games.

KEEP IN MIND: DX10 cards are coming out soon (DirectX 10) and if you'll want one of those, go with a cheapo card until they come out. If not, just get a decent video card (like what you've chosen) and your new computer should be ready to go!

[jrm20]

BTW I'm with Warriorscot on the ECS issue

I thridly agree about the ecs boards, dont get mad at us because there is a reason..

For the price of that ecs board $79.99 you can get a Gigabyte for the same price or a couple to a few bucks less that is a better overall board..

I havnt herd much about them lately because I stay away from those brands, No offense, I just buy premium boards thats just me..

Ecs isnt that bad but I had problems on one before that was about 4-5yrs ago and its the only mobo that gave me problems so far. It was one of the older ones with the sis chipset with integrated graphics and It had bad problems when you tried to install any other kind of video card.. I even disabled all of the onboard graphics back then and the board never acted right.. I havnt had any problems before with DFI,Gigabyte and MSI so far at all not even one problem... Abit I had tiny prob on one pc but they are great mobos.

I think ECS is an alright board nothing wrong with it but I would buy a Gigabyte over it no questions asked for the same price..