New PC I'm building....Advice/criticisms/etc?

[lotusblossom02]

OK, here's my new rig I'm going to order probably tonight or tomorrow.

Let me know what you all think!!

LIAN LI PC-60APLUSII W Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply 100
Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
ZALMAN 9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail EVGA 640-P2-N825-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Grand Total: $1,323.81

Minus a total of $50 in mail in rebates.

What am I doing with said PC?

I'm going to enjoy Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion the way it was MEANT to. Not on this piece of crap AMD XP 2500 processor with a Geforce 6600 AGP card.



Oh and I'm going for blue cathode tubes and blue fans in that purdy white case...for a UK Wildcat themed PC!

I've gotta start looking around for a Wildcat fan grill

[eddie]

Another fellow builder =)
I'm using integrated graphics... Don't complain

Just some questions: What currency you using here? Where's your optical drive? DO you intend to overclock your processor?

And consider Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, it's now really affordable after the recent Intel price cut...
I regret getting my c2d e4300 >_<

[yoshi]

If I knew anything about computers, I'd say it looks good . Maybe I should have had you build mine o_o.

[UmbreonMatt]

What I do recognise from that list I like. ESPECIALLY the price, if that's US$ you're talking about. In comparison, I really paid way over the top for mine. It's what comes of having to rely on local stores I guess...

Enjoy Elder Scrolls with better graphics btw, 'tis a wonderful game that I've since grown bored of. But the difference in gameplay as a result of the graphics can't be THAT drastic, can it?

[eddie]

matt_hui_ck Wrote:It's what comes of having to rely on local stores I guess...

Which local store did you go?


And lotus blossom I think Valueram is more worth it then hyperX if you don't overclock ram... Will you?

[lotusblossom02]

I want to see how hot this system runs before I think about OC-ing anything. From various other builders, with that case and those parts I should be able to OC very well and it shouldn't run hotter than 35°C on the CPU. These are people OC-ing by as much as 500 mhz!

That currency is in USD, yes. And yes that is what you get for relying on local stores lol no offense. Newegg is the way to go

I would like to OC eddie but like I said I want to know how hot it all runs before I start thinking about that. I've never been able to successfully OC even my current system. The board I got upped voltages by PERCENTAGES instead of actual voltages. And it wasn't small increments. It was in increments of 5%'s. Even jumping up 5% made my system horribly unstable. So If anyone has tips/instructions/etc on OC-ing...*drools at the ability to do so*

And I am one of those die hard AMD people. I can't stand intel and refuse to ever build a system with an intel chipset.

And matt...I have had oblivion since it came out. I like all the eye candy etc. OK not like I love it. That was my biggest complaint about morrowind is how much better the game would be to me if it looked better. With my old system I couldn't have all the pretti-ness without affecting the stability of my PC. So after playing it for a month I uninstalled it. I was just gonna wait until I got a new PC which happens to be a year and a half later haha.

and eddie i'm assuming to OC I'll have to OC the ram eventually too? I don't know much about it and won't attempt anything until I am much more knowledgeable.

And Yoshi...building isn't that hard at all if you take the time to learn. I started building pc's when I was 15 (almost 10 years ago now...god I'm getting old). I *really* enjoy it and you learn so much about your rig and the quirks about it how to fix it etc. My last build was nearly 5 years ago and that's the PC I'm using now. It's lasted this long and still runs very well for how old it is. It was time to move onto next gen though for the games haha.

[+darwin]

I fully and totally support another AMD user.... The only thing that i'd change is to go to a single 2gig ram chip rather than 2X1gig. Even though yourt MoBo has 4 slots, you'll probably fill them fast enough, especially if you're gaming. And ram prices ALWAYS drop before any other piece of hardware.

The only other piece of advice I can give is that an IT friend of mine just bought that same videocard and I swear you can roast hotdogs next to it!!! Don't be stingy when it comes to cooling.

[Benladesh]

Josh got the same processor but one gig of ram. His computer is brand new and lagging to no end. i don't know if its his computer or that the stuff isn't good =S

[+darwin]

IMO, lag seems to be the result of too much user startup problems. A little bit of caution as well as user awareness should defeat user lag on a system like that. When it's up and running, that comp should be running circles around 99% of whats out there.

[eddie]

lotusblossom02 Wrote:These are people OC-ing by as much as 500 mhz!

Peanuts

darwin Wrote:And ram prices ALWAYS drop before any other piece of hardware.

DDR2 Ram prices are going up slightly now (after the drastic drop. 512MB S$95 [Dec06], 1GB S$47 [Jun07], 1GB S$68 [Aug07], all 3 sticks are PC5300 Kingston Valueram from the same shop at different times) btw... and even the prices of so-called outdated DDR(1) sticks are going up too...

darwin Wrote:I fully and totally support another AMD user.... The only thing that i'd change is to go to a single 2gig ram chip rather than 2X1gig.

This board supports dual channel ddr2 right?, so running 2x1g will have better performance than 1x2g...

One more important thing: 32-bit operating systems recognise only up to around 3(or 4?)gb, which means even if you put 4x2=8gb only 3(or 4?)gb is recognised... So no point buying so much. This applies to XP, not sure about vista, correct me if I'm wrong.

lotusblossom02 Wrote:and eddie i'm assuming to OC I'll have to OC the ram eventually too? I don't know much about it and won't attempt anything until I am much more knowledgeable.

No there's lot's of things you can OC but most common is processor and it's also the easiest, and if you are new to OCing don't OC ram. Too dangerous. Try the processor first. And if you don't OC ram, buy kingston valueram, it's a lot cheaper. People buy hyperX for OCing

And there should be a way to overclock without using percentages... Try the manual mode (OC in Mhzs). I did it with the M2NPV-VM with Sempron

lotusblossom02 Wrote:And I am one of those die hard AMD people. I can't stand intel and refuse to ever build a system with an intel chipset.

And why do you hate intel? Don't let your emotions get in the way of value for money
People buy AMD because the board normally comes with much better integrated graphics then Intel's GMA <--
And till native quadcore from AMD comes out... Intel > AMD

http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showpost....ostcount=1 <-- Check this post out. A very good guide based on your budget. But prices are in Singapore Dollars (1USD = 1.5SGD)

darwin Wrote:IMO, lag seems to be the result of too much user startup problems. A little bit of caution as well as user awareness should defeat user lag on a system like that. When it's up and running, that comp should be running circles around 99% of whats out there.

Rightest statement ever.
I hate it when people blame processor when their com lags badly (eg. "my core 2 duo com lags badly dun buy core 2 duo" etc.)... More often than not it's due to various software issues...

[lotusblossom02]

Quote:This board supports dual channel ddr2 right?, so running 2x1g will have better performance than 1x2g...

I wasn't out of PC building that long that I didn't know that. That is why I went for 2x1gb instead of 1x2gb.

And I think that's true on the 32bit. I remember reading that's why so many went to 64 bit. I don't plan on getting Vista until things are worked out better. I waited a full 2 years before going XP. Granted once I did I never looked back but still I'd rather everything be running smoothly.

And ty darwin for saying that about the processes. Heck with my current system (AMD 2500 XP, 1.5gb PC 3200 ram, 80GB 5400 rpm hd (not sata either...), Geforce 6600 256mb ram) I get zero lag. I have my machine tweaked in registry settings, etc. to use what I have to the max. With said setup that I ordered (and if your friend has the same processor) like you said....should be running circles around most everything. Even Oblivion should run fairly smoothly (though a bit choppy around gates from what i'm reading) and that game is a BEAST when it comes to resources.

And Eddie, I was slightly misleading there. I have OC'ed my vid card before. Actually my current vid card is OC'ed. And I've read reviews into my current board...there is no other options on upping the voltages other than by percentages. It's the most non-friendly OC'er board out there apparantly. Haha. And of course it's what I had to buy.

Also one last quick thing about the RAM...I was always told that much more than 2-4GB of RAM really doesn't help you. This is outside of the argument you presented for 32 vs 64 bit. That most people just don't do enough on their PC to utilize the extra memory. True or no?

And lastly...the guts of the PC will be delivered tomorrow! :* *excited*

Of course the case won't be here until Thurs and I'm going out of town on Friday. /big let down.
But it's ok. The reason I'm going out of town is much much more important than any PC ever.