[mbenne]

So, I've decided to throw caution to the wind and attempt to build my own system for gaming (World of Warcraft) and just browsing the 'net / listening to music. I have no idea (really) what I'm doing, but I've heard it isn't THAT hard to learn. I'm looking to spend around $2000.00 or so, and here's what I've come up with so far.

Case: ASPIRE X-Navigator ATXA8NW-AL/500 Silver/Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811144089 - $155.00

Mouse: Razer Plasma Diamondback RZ-1600P Black 7 Buttons 1x Wheel USB Mouse - Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16826153104 - $55.00

Keyboard: Saitek PZ30AU Black 104 Normal Keys 4 Function Keys USB Wired Standard Eclipse Keyboard – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16823175103 - $47.00

Headset: Logitech 980233-0403 3.5mm Connector Extreme PC Gaming Headset – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16826106931 - $18.00

Monitor: SAMSUNG 910T-Silver 19" 25ms LCD Monitor 260 cd/m2 1000:1 0.294mm Pixel Pitch – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16824001161 - $367.00

Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813130487 - $172.00

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Newcastle Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...-103-465&depa=1 - $366.00

RAM: GeIL Value 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Blue Aluminum Heat Spreader. Dual Channel Kit System Memory – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...-144-322&depa=1 - $179.71

Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B200R0 200GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive – OEM
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822140152 - $107.00

Sound Card: CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER Limited Edition 70SB035000013 8 (7.1) Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16829102171 - $102.99

Video Card: eVGA 256-P2-N376-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130215 - $345.00

Still need to add a CD drive, but I have to go to work, so I wanted to post this beforehand to see what you all think.

Are there any problems with this setup? Is everything compatible? How do you think it will work? Is there anything I'm missing? Thanks a ton in advance guys.

[Advertisements]

Get a different case one without a psu and get a good quality psu above 400W(Or get one with a quality psu not generic).

Newcastle core cpus are old, get a slower(or equal) venice or san deigo one.

You want a smaller amount of better quality ram or the same in again better quality ram corsair make the best but ocz and Gell are also good.

Your mobo is a very good choice.

You dont need an expensive sound card unless you have a really amazing sound system at home or intend to put together your own music etc. Your mobo has decent sound integrated into it.

Get a SATA hard drive that ones IDE but it comes in SATA and SATA drives for some reason are cheaper alot of the time anyway.

[bleep] of a mouse great for fps games not sure about world of warcraft never played it, you could get a nice microsoft wireless one if you want instead the mouse you got there is for the hard core gamer.

Thats an expensive keyboard, look at a ideon zboard they make a keyset specifically for world of warcraft.

Your gfx card looks good but ive never heard of the manufacturer it may be US only, so i dont know what the bundle or build quality will be like. XFX and BFG make the best nvidia cards BFG is a bit costly but XFX is priced very competitively.

PS since when is [bleep] a swear word, oh well.

Edited by warriorscot, 22 June 2005 - 03:35 PM.

[warriorscot]

Get a different case one without a psu and get a good quality psu above 400W(Or get one with a quality psu not generic).

Newcastle core cpus are old, get a slower(or equal) venice or san deigo one.

You want a smaller amount of better quality ram or the same in again better quality ram corsair make the best but ocz and Gell are also good.

Your mobo is a very good choice.

You dont need an expensive sound card unless you have a really amazing sound system at home or intend to put together your own music etc. Your mobo has decent sound integrated into it.

Get a SATA hard drive that ones IDE but it comes in SATA and SATA drives for some reason are cheaper alot of the time anyway.

[bleep] of a mouse great for fps games not sure about world of warcraft never played it, you could get a nice microsoft wireless one if you want instead the mouse you got there is for the hard core gamer.

Thats an expensive keyboard, look at a ideon zboard they make a keyset specifically for world of warcraft.

Your gfx card looks good but ive never heard of the manufacturer it may be US only, so i dont know what the bundle or build quality will be like. XFX and BFG make the best nvidia cards BFG is a bit costly but XFX is priced very competitively.

PS since when is [bleep] a swear word, oh well.

Edited by warriorscot, 22 June 2005 - 03:35 PM.

[audioboy]

for the most part I agree with warriorscot, he gave you some good advice. the video card should be ok, but do check out the brands he mentioned as well.

for the ram, go with the big names- kingston, corsair, OCZ, crucial. look at the manufacturers website for your motherboard, they usually list compatible ram. anything on that list will be good stuff.

LCD for gaming can be dicey. you definitely want to go for the low latency monitors- 8-12 ms to avoid smearing. for best video quality in gaming, you gotta go with a CRT, but that of course eats up desk space, especially the bigger ones!
check out tomshardwareguide.com, they recently did some reviews on 19" LCD screens for gaming- all involved 8ms response time, and one of their recommended monitors, an hitachi (forget the model number) has been on sale at newegg in the past week, may still be.

on the plus side, once you build this monster and start WoW up, you will be too busy playing that to spend money on anything, so you will definitely get the most out of your system! (just got hooked on that game myself)

[mbenne]

I've made a few revisions:

Case:

Power Supply:

Mouse: Logitech MX518 931352-0403 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1x Wheel USB + PS/2 Optical Mouse – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16826104178 – $39.99

Keyboard: Saitek PZ30AU Black 104 Normal Keys 4 Function Keys USB Wired Standard Eclipse Keyboard – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16823175103 - $47.00

Headset: Logitech 980233-0403 3.5mm Connector Extreme PC Gaming Headset – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16826106931 - $18.00

Monitor: SAMSUNG 710N-BK Black 17" 12ms LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 600:1 0.264mm Pixel Pitch – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...-001-171&DEPA=0 - $219.99

Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813130487 - $172.00

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Newcastle Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...-103-465&depa=1 - $366.00

RAM: OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820146890 - $174.01

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive – OEM
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148065 - $125.00


Sound Card: CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER Limited Edition 70SB035000013 8 (7.1) Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16829102171 - $102.99

Video Card: BFG Tech BFGW68256GTOCXV Geforce 6800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814143029 - $379.00

DVD Burner: NEC Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 4X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner – OEM
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827152035 - $45.99

Total: 1689.88

That's without a case and powersupply, can anyone recommend something that I can make look good and stay cool?

[warriorscot]

Well i was just looking at the new antec pro series stainless steal with a 480W truepower psu, i might get that as it is a nice case and the PSU is most of the money anyway so its a good deal. I forgot to mention the monitor you want for a TFT 17 to 19" with a 8-12ms response and a DVI connector. I am going to get a great 19" with a 12ms off ebuyer AG Neovo F419 19" TFT 12ms 500:1 (Analogue & DVI) Monitor - Black (3 Years Warranty) dont know of you can get it stateside though.
You really shouldnt get a newcastle core , you really shouldnt get a new core a winchester at worst but preferably venice or san diego alot of the better pc sites over here just dont sell 939 newcastle cores. Even if you get a faster cpu it isnt as good if the core is old.
I cant beleive you looked at all those cpus with cheaper better cpus on both sides and picked the expensive crap one, get this one or the venice 3800+ both are cheaper and much much better:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103539
San diego is the best the venice is a close second.

Oh and the seagate barracuda i read some bad reviews on it check out hitachi or maxtor they make the best.

Edited by warriorscot, 23 June 2005 - 04:44 AM.

[mbenne]

Here's a few things I changed:

Case: Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Computer Case (Black)
http://www.xoxide.com/tttsunami.html - $114.99

Power Supply: 500W ULTRA X-Connect Modular Power Supply - UV Blue
http://www.xoxide.co...500-uvblue.html - $97.99

Monitor: SAMSUNG 915N-Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 0.294mm Pixel Pitch - Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16824001185 - $324.00

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego Integrated into Chip FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor – Retail
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103539 - $334.00

Hard Drive: HITACHI Deskstar 7K250 14R9463 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive – OEM
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822145072 - $84.00

Cooling: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
http://www.xoxide.co...ticsilver5.html - $6.99

Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu CPU Cooler
http://www.xoxide.co...cpu-cooler.html - $41.99

I'm getting close to the $2000 mark now...don't really want to spend more than that. Do I still need anything else?

[warriorscot]

You dont need thermal paste or a cpu cooler someone mentioned that you are really supposed to use a pad on amds which it comes with included on the bottom of the hsf. Unless you are going to heavily overclock dont bother with another cooler as the one you get is half decent. Also large heavy coolers can damage your board and that is one of the heaviest you can buy, thermalright make the best coolers and some of the lightest (XP-90 aluminium version).

[audioboy]

I think you made a great choice on the case and psu in that last revision. good stuff, and should look real nice too!

here is that review I mentioned about 8ms LCD screens, and here is the hitachi monitor they like.

the stock hsf would be fine, but you are free to use whichever you like. I read a review recently saying that zalman model you selected does a good job, but is a real pain to install. the review showed an artic cooler model to be best, but I cant remember which right now. if your interested, say so and I will post it later when I find the review again.

your about there, gonna be a great system!

[mbenne]

So, I don't really need the extra cooling and thermal paste? Meaning my system won't overheat without it? I don't plan on overclocking at first, just want to get it all together and running well. Speaking of which, how hard is this thing going to be to put together? I've never really worked with the inside of a comp before, so I have no idea what goes where. There's instructions for everything, right?

And thanks for the monitor, if I end up not needed the cooling unit and paste, then I'll interchange it with the other. Also, I'm going to need an ethernet card as well I believe, are they all about the same?

[warriorscot]

You dont need an ethernet card you have onboard gigabit LAN that covers ethernet to. Its easier to think of it as a lan card rather than an ethernet card save you getting confused.
Yeah i had a friend who mentioned that review and the cooler http://www.arctic-co...hp?idx=10&disc= i believe thats the right one correct me if im wrong. Yeah you wont need another hsf and paste(you want pads anyway) the amd one they give you included isnt as crap as the ones they used to fob you off with.
Not that hard as long as most of it isnt OEM you will get instructions and drivers and probably a few good apps to get you goin. They even come with pretty pictures to show you what to do.

[mbenne]

You dont need an ethernet card you have onboard gigabit LAN that covers ethernet to. Its easier to think of it as a lan card rather than an ethernet card save you getting confused.
Yeah i had a friend who mentioned that review and the cooler http://www.arctic-co...hp?idx=10&disc= i believe thats the right one correct me if im wrong. Yeah you wont need another hsf and paste(you want pads anyway) the amd one they give you included isnt as crap as the ones they used to fob you off with.
Not that hard as long as most of it isnt OEM you will get instructions and drivers and probably a few good apps to get you goin. They even come with pretty pictures to show you what to do.

Ah, I see. I might pick up that Arctic Cooler fan instead of the zalmann, just to be on the safe side as far as temp Well, I'll look at the other monitor and see about that since I don't need the other things. Is there anything else I should look at? All the wiring/plugs/connectors comes with everything, correct? Otherwise, all I need now is the rest of the money to get this stuff, heh.

[warriorscot]

Well, good luck, mind an get the pads instead of paste i still dont get why it makes a difference but AMD made the chip so i guess they know best.
The arcitic cooler one want pull the cpu out the board either, ill say it again for good measure Good luck ,dont [bleep] it up and youll be fine.

[audioboy]

yep, thats the hsf I was referring to. the chart in the review shows the stock hsf to give temps of 46c idle, 57c load. the artic cooling freezer 64 gave them 36c idle, 46c load, and runs quieter than the stock fan. this was on a 939 pin athlon64 3500 cpu.

bear in mind those temps will vary, depending on the case cooling you have. that case has some good sized fans, so you should have no worries. try the stock fan for now, and switch to the other later if you get worried about temps. btw, 57c load is an ok temp, dont need to even start worrying until you get over 60c. al always, cooler is better...

get a static wrist strap, to make sure you dont zap anything during the build.
a lot of questions on building are answered in the pinned topics at the top of this forum, and a great troubleshooter is pinned at the top of the harware forum.

and feel free to post here if you hit any snags, we will be happy to help out!

[warriorscot]

You know i actually got a static wristband for buildin my new rig, previously when puttin somethin in my pc i was just really careful and did it on th kitchen table so as not to get static from a carpet. But now i have one i dont have the really much idea how to use them properly i know you attach yourself to what your working on but does that mean the case or the mobo or the individual part. Do you have to do anything before you start.

[Cloud Striffe]

No just attach the wristband to the case and you will be fine. I use them at work they can be quite helpful when working in electronics. And it is just irratating if you mess up something and have to return it when it was alright until you zapped it.