[Souseke]

Hi. Im thinking of building a new pc.

Stuff that im keeping from my existing pc are 2 seagate hard drives and a lg dvd burner

What i propose to buy are:

Antec Neo HE 550W
Antec P180
ASUS A8N32-SLI deluxe
AMD Athlon 64x2 4400
Scythe Ninja SCNJ-1000 Passive (or do you think that the CPU will need a fan for it?)

Leadtek Geforce 7800GTX
(on this website
http://www.overclock...#aGX_2d065_2dLT
what is the difference between the:
Leadtek GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-065-LT)
and
Leadtek GeForce 7800 GTX Extreme Edition 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-070-LT)

Crucial 2x 1GB DDR PC3200

thanks for you help...

Edited by Souseke, 03 January 2006 - 06:41 AM.

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Well i wouldnt get the scythe i would get one of the 120mm fan HSF like the aksasa or thermal right if you want something quiet.

One of those cards will be overclocked, you would be better with a x1800xt that a 7800 the 256Mb 7800 costs almost as much as the 512x1800xt and the 512x1800xt is i think the best card out at the moment.The x1800xt256mb is also better than the 256 7800gtx im my eyes due to it having better performance where it counts and having better features definately not worth the ridiculously higher price of the 7800 you will get much more for your money with one of the x1800s.

If you are spending all that money you might also want to look into getting a x-fi card.

Edited by warriorscot, 03 January 2006 - 07:25 AM.

[warriorscot]

Well i wouldnt get the scythe i would get one of the 120mm fan HSF like the aksasa or thermal right if you want something quiet.

One of those cards will be overclocked, you would be better with a x1800xt that a 7800 the 256Mb 7800 costs almost as much as the 512x1800xt and the 512x1800xt is i think the best card out at the moment.The x1800xt256mb is also better than the 256 7800gtx im my eyes due to it having better performance where it counts and having better features definately not worth the ridiculously higher price of the 7800 you will get much more for your money with one of the x1800s.

If you are spending all that money you might also want to look into getting a x-fi card.

Edited by warriorscot, 03 January 2006 - 07:25 AM.

[Souseke]

if i get a x1800xt would there be any point in getting this particular motherboard as i only decided on this one cos it supports SLI...
What would you recomend in terms of motherboards if i decided to get the x1800xt...
also how do you need to setup the crossfire as i am fairly new to this..

what cpu cooler would you recommend instead of scythe?
I am after a fairly quiet rig...
thanks

Edited by Souseke, 03 January 2006 - 07:32 AM.

[warriorscot]

Well the thermaltake 120mm HSF or the akasa one are both good and quiet when you turn them down which you can do with a 120mm fan without a major drop in performance.

Crossfire you need a crossfire motherboard, crossfire has a number of advantages over SLI in that you can mix and match cards so you can later on get a newer crossfire card and it will work with the old one, which i likeas im never one for throwing anything away. http://www.techpower...e/PI-A9RD480/16 i found that review there will be plenty others you can google for them. There are good mobos from DFI and Saphire for the crossfire chipset and both offer good performance.The saphires have a passive chipset cooler and saphire is known for its high build quality.

Biggest difference between crossfire and sli is that the cards are connected by a simple cable on the outside so you dont have to mess with bridges and switches.

[Souseke]

Ok.
I have looked into motherboards and i quite like the
Sapphire PURE Advantage CrossFire Radeon Xpress 200P CrossFire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-003-SP) @ http://www.overclock...#aMB_2d003_2dSP
and to accompany that
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT @ http://www.overclock...#aGX_2d048_2dPC

and ive upped the ram to a Crucial 2x 1gb DDR PC4000
i think the motherboard supports it. not too sure. would it also make a differnce that it worth the £60 jump from the PC3200?

for hsf what about this one?
Akasa AK-920 EVO 120 Direct Heatpipe Copper with Fan Controller (Socket 754/939/775/478) (HS-025-AK) @ http://www.overclock..._Akasa_119.html

Edited by Souseke, 03 January 2006 - 09:43 AM.

[warriorscot]

EVO is a good cooler, check on the akasa website that it will fit on the motherboard.

The faster memory SHOULD be compatible but no guarantee as it doesnt have to be compatible and its only better if you are going to do a good bit of overclocking on the system. otherwise you are better with the
PC3200 stuff with the lower timings. Also you might check out corsair they make the fastest ram with the lowest timings and i usually find they are cheaper crucial has a good reputuation but also a reputation for being expensive.

You might check other websites like ebuyer they are often cheaper than overclockers they just dont have as good a selection of quality parts. i saved about a hundred pounds by moving half my order from overclcokers to ebuyer and i would check out the case on amazin they stock antec cases and often are cheaper.

The gfx card is a good deal, wish i could afford one. All you need to do later on to get crossfire working is to get a new crossfire master edition card and you can put in your pc and connect it to the x1800XT and you can get some really good performance, this is pretty good so you will be able to get one of the newer DX10 cards next year of you want without having to throw away the x1800 which still has alot of memory and power.

[Souseke]

Thanks for your help.

DX10 is out next year. i heard its not backward comptiable and stuff
is it worth doin such a massive rebuild knowing that it will be outdated wi the dx10 stuff when its released?

[warriorscot]

Only the gfx card will be outdated. As far as i know it will be backward compatible at least in part. The main differences is it uses a simpler method of rendering, even at that at least you will have crossfire and if nothing else the x1800 is still got alot of raw processing power and a very large amount of ram. DX10 is not coming until vista is released and cards for it will be after that the R600s from ati will probably be christmas time autumn at the earliest.

[Souseke]

ok
There are only two things i can see cheaper on ebuyer
they are:
the ram which is 2x 1gb Crucial PC3200 (the corsair im finding to be very expenisve everywhere) @ http://www.ebuyer.co...oduct_uid=92005
and the cpu which is the same but cheaper @ http://www.ebuyer.co...oduct_uid=91327

what do you think?

also the akasa website doesnt say whether the hsf will fit in motherboard. there is nothing on it apart from what sockets it takes...

Edited by Souseke, 03 January 2006 - 01:23 PM.

[warriorscot]

Yeah thats odd, maybe it was a review i read where they tested what it fitted on, as far as i know it fits fine on everything but other 120mm fans dont always fit but they are slightly different eg the thermalright cant fit because it has such large fins.

Thats the cheapo crucial stuff youve picked its equivalent to this stuff from corsair http://www.overclock...lue_Select.html not the better XMS stuff with the good timings and overclockability, crucials good stuff is the ballistix its the stuff that costs alot the proper crucial ram is £200 pounds compared to the same stuff from corsair the corsair is 20 pounds cheaper.

On ebuyer they had x1800xt s but they were roughly the same price so its 6 and 2 3s where you get the card.

[Souseke]

so which ram do you recommend. can you point me to a link on the overclockers website... i just find they have more choice and are averagely priced... i am willing to spend up to £200 for a decent 2gb ram set.
I want to build a computer that will last a couple of years wi room to upgrade for the future...

Edited by Souseke, 03 January 2006 - 02:23 PM.

[warriorscot]

Well the corsair XMS c2pt stuff in 2gb is the best stuff you are going to get its about £180 overclockers is an easy enough site to find the stuff its all under the directories in components. Take a look at it there is various prices and speeds.

Its worth it to shop around you can someimes save if one place has a deal theres lots microdirect, scan, dabs etc. all worth checking for prices. Overclockers are good and the prices are good for the smaller items but the big stuff is often cheaper elsewhere.

[Souseke]

yeah, ill shop around and see if i can get a better buy. now that i have a good idea about what to get.
thanks for your help by the way...
I was looking at this for the ram Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3500LL Pro TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-093-CS) @ http://www.overclock...orsair_XMS.html

but i dunno if the motherboard supports it. do you know if it does and how do you know?

[warriorscot]

It should be supprted, its DDR ram and thats what the mobo specs say it needs and its of a good speed, its greater than the max supported but motherboards auto underclock the ram to PC3200 speed unless you overclock the system in which case you can take it up to its original speed as long as you raise the mobo chipset frequency by the same amount.

Its easier to say i just know because im a scary big geek im my spare time. Although that ram is good dont feel you need to get it because its the bset the other 2gb sticks are also more than adequate.

[Souseke]

I know i would like 2gb ram. which ones out of the other do you recommend on that cousair page on overclockers... the budget one? I'm dont know what i should be looking for as im not that sure with hardware....