lokase

Hi guys,

I am buying in for another 3-4 year stretch in hardward and wanted to get your opinions.

Here is the quoted system from my hardware guys:

1 Intel Pentium D, Lga775, 2.8ghz (820), 2x1mb, 800mhz Fsb
1 Intel - Motherboard 945g Lga775 Dc Max-4gb Ddr2 Atx Pcie16 Pcie 4pci Vid Gbe Sata 1066m

2 Major Ddr2 533mhz 1gb 240pin Memory
1 Antec 9bay Mid Tower Atx Black 450watt Atx12v Front Usb/Firewire
1 Vantec Stealth Ball Bearing Case Fan 120x120x25mm
1 Lg Gsa-H10a 16x/16x Dvd-Rw Internal, Bulk, Black
2 Seagate - Eide 250gb Sata 3gb 7200 Rpm 16mb Cache
1 Ati Original Radeon X1600pro Pci-E 512mb Ddr2 Tv-Out Dvi Retail


Some upgrade options:
Intel Cncipd920 Intel Pentium D, Lga775, 2.8ghz (920), 2x2mb, 800mhz Fsb
Intel Cncipd830 Intel Pentium D, Lga775, 3.0ghz (830), 2x1mb, 800mhz Fsb
Intel Cncipd930 Intel Pentium D, Lga775, 3.0ghz (930), 2x2mb, 800mhz Fsb
Intel Cncipd840 Intel Pentium D, Lga775, 3.2ghz (840), 2x1mb, 800mhz Fsb
Intel Cncipd940 Intel Pentium D, Lga775, 3.2ghz (940), 2x2mb, 800mhz Fsb
Plextor - Texel Px-716sa/Sw 2.4x Dl 16x/8x/16x Dvd+/-Rw 48x24x48x Cdrw Sata


Let me know if you guys see any glaring errors or ommissions and please suggest any upgrades I may look at from the options listed.

I am mostly interested in any other suggestions you could make for the video card. I am already thinking of changing it to AGP.

I am also thinking of making it 4gigs of ram instead of the 2gigs listed.

Thanks in advance for your inputs .

Cheers,

__________________

Forest Stalker of the 80th Season
Quiet and stealthy Lokase slips into the forest to resume the hunt.

Sanchek

That's similar to the system I made recently.

My thoughts would be:

Stick with PCI-e. Can you even buy that card in AGP?

The Ds run pretty warm. Get a better cooler than the stock Intel one (Zalmans are nice bang for buck).

I'm not up to speed on the model numbering, but make sure to get the more recent D chip with the thinner process. I assume it's the 9xx series. It runs a bit cooler, which you're going to want.

fildien

In the 512MB version? I don't know, but in the 256MB version you can. Honestly Lok if I was going to drop the cash for a new mboard and CPU I'd go PCI-E simply b/c graphics mfg are not going to make anything else on the AGP arch. So far the 7800 GPU is the latest I've seen from nVidia and I doubt ATI would do differently.

Take heed, if you go Intel get an aftermarket cooler. As Sanchek says Zalmans are nice. I would disagree with him, THEY ARE DAMN NICE!!! Since installing some silver compound and a Zalman my CPU temp has dropped nearly 20 degrees under load And they are mucho quieter than that slinky stock fan.

__________________
Nurta <Shark Baby>
Mind Trick - Empire

Revellie

If your looking for 3 to 4 years of viablity in the system I would make sure to go with atleast 2nd fastest chip avaliable if not hte fastest. and the more cooling the better.

Rev

Eliot

I'd go AMD X2 3800 for ~85 bucks more ($295) with an MSI mobo and Pci-e. Pci-e is a no brainer. I've found that the higher end AGP card market is inflated due to all of us old AGP'ers trying to squeeze 20 more FPS out of our suddenly passe rigs. Caught me by surprise too...

From what I have read (I'm not a fanboi of AMD) AMD still has Intel on the ropes with desktop processors and their (Intel) dual-core implementation is analogous to gluing 2 single processors together. It was a jerk reaction by our dancing boys in the colorful hazmat suits. Whereas the core of AMD's are chock full of engineering goodness! (Google that if you want, I'm just a talking head.)

Sanchek

All I know is the people using AMD x2 had all kinds of trouble with various games and even the OS, while my Pentium D was perfect from the get go.

Elemak the Enchanter

I dunno, I have a 4200+ x2, and no problems. Encodes videos faster, or at the same speed as my old processor (3400+) while I game. That and typically AMD processors do better with gaming that Intels, but then Intels do better at most desktop software. So really it depends on what you're going for.

And why, oh why would you ever gimp yourself with an ATI video card get a 7800 GTX.

__________________

lokase

Hi everyone,

Here is the upated specs on the new system:


1 INTEL MOTHERBOARD 945G LGA775 DC MAX-4GB DDR2 ATX PCIE16 PCIE 4PCI VID GBE SATA 1066M
1 INTEL PENTIUM D, LGA775, 3.2GHz (840), 2x1MB, 800MHz FSB (3 YEAR WARRANTY)
1 Zalman CPU Fan LED-CU CNPS9500
4 MAJOR DDR2 533MHz 1GB 240PIN MEMORY

1 ANTEC 9BAY MID TOWER ATX BLACK 450WATT ATX12V FRONT USB/FIREWIRE
1 VANTEC STEALTH BALL BEARING CASE FAN 120x120x25MM

2 SEAGATE - EIDE 250GB SATA 3GB 7200 RPM 16MB CACHE
1 PLEXTOR - TEXEL 2.4X DL 16X/8X/16X DVD+/-RW 48X24X48X CDRW SATA

1 ATI Original Radeon X1600PRO PCI-E 512MB DDR2 TV-Out DVI Retail


I am thinking of taking the processor back down to 2.8GHz to reduce the cost of the system by $200 CDN, hopefully the 4 GIG in ram will offset the reduction in CPU power.

I am going to stay with ATI atm. I have been happy with my previous cards and since ATI is a Canadian company I thought I would buy local. I can always upgrade down the road if I find the card lacking.

Let me know if you see any issues with the system.

Cheers,

Lokase

__________________

Forest Stalker of the 80th Season
Quiet and stealthy Lokase slips into the forest to resume the hunt.

Sanchek

Does the Intel board prevent you from overclocking?

The difference in power consumption and heat output between the 8xx (90nm) and 9xx (65nm) chips is worth going for the 9xx. You could get the 3ghz 9xx to save money, and overclock it to 3.2ghz easily.

Binuven

Howdy!

Hmmm, if you're looking for a gaming system, I'd definately go AMD, but if you do have your heart set on Intel, going with an Intel mobo is definately the right choice. Our store has been in business for 14 years now and they've NEVER had an Intel board come back broken or burnt out. Their track record is and continues to be flawless.

If you do decide to go AMD, you'll definately get more bang for your buck as you can get a far better performing processor for your money. And don't worry about heat, the AMD processors are actually running cooler than the Intel 775's these days.

X1600 Vid cards are definately priced nicely for a medium build game system. We've brought in the ASUS models and they're holding up VERY nicely. ATI cards are definately not bad (using an X800GTO Fireblade edition myself), however I do agree with the guys, if you can afford to go NVidia, I'd definately consider it. If cost is an issue, you can get more performance for your dollar by going ATI. It's all about how much money ye want to spend.

Something to keep in mind when buying a vid card btw (sidetracking here a bit), with regard to frames per second, the human eye can only see so much. If you go to the following site:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/...index0504.html

they have a listing of games and how they hold up using various cards. The human eye can only see approximately 32 frames per second, so anything above that is gravy. It really depends on the load you plan on putting on your card.

Seagate hard drives. Great warranty, but they tend to be slow. They are all usually (technically) 7200 RPM, but if you look at the figures, they are the slowest of that type. I'm a big fan of Western Digital, especially their SATAII drives. I'm using a 250GB SATAII with a 16MB cache. It's not a Raptor (also Western Digital, /drool), but it's not too shabby either.

With regard to RAM, make sure it's dual channel kits that you're using. Geil, Corsair, OCZ, anything, just as long as they're matched. It'll ensure that you get full performance. I tried running dual channel with generic RAM and it was a pain. The RAM ran at a lower speed and sometimes wouldn't run in dual channel at all. Go with the kits (I'm pretty sure you are, but just in case), you'll thank me later.

I'm using an Antec case and power supply myself. I'm currently using the NeoPower 480W. If your case comes with the power supply included, there's a good chance it's a SmartPower. These guys are Antec's cheap models and tend to blow up around a year into the systems life. They generally just die, so your parts inside should be ok, but I will warn you, if your power supply does fry any of your electronics while it's in it's death throes, it WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY. It doesn't happen often, but consider yourself warned.

I hope this helps. With all the advice flying around here, just keep in mind, ultimately it's what you're going to be happy with that's important. We'd all love to have the best of the best (I work in a computer store, I die a thousand deaths daily watching high end systems go out the door LOL. Canadian too ^_^), but it's bang for buck that most of us are looking for.

__________________