Comments on new build

[David Richards]

Hello all,

I was hoping if I could pick your collective minds about this setup,
which I'm going to build in about 2 months time as a general use /
gaming computer (though I don't play many first person shoooters, which
is what most people seem to mean by 'gaming'):

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI deluxe
Case: Coolermaster centurion 530
Power supply: Akasa AK-P460FG-BLUKV5
Graphics: XFX GeForce 6800GS 'XXX' Edition
Memory: DDR 3200 SDRAM 2x518MB
Hard drive: Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 250GB SATA-II
DVD drive: Pioneer DVR-110DBK

Added to this will be a floppy drive, and things like keyboard, mouse
(obviously). I'll use my existing hi-fi speakers and 17" TFT monitor as
well.

I'd like to check that I haven't been stupid in my choice of components,
and also my budget still has a little room in it, so what would you
change in the above if you had an extra £20-30?

 

[Chinooks_FURY]

Nice setup. In two months, check the prices on GPU's. I would suggest a
7800GT of somesort - either BFG or eVGA. They are the price/performance
"sweet-spot" for sure. Same with the CPU - check the price difference
between the 4200+ and the 4400+. The release of AM2 will force the price of
the 939 platform down and it will be interesting to see what you can get for
your dollar/pound.

Good Luck!

 

[David Richards]

Power supply: Akasa AK-P460FG-BLUKV5

by the way, this is a 460W supply

 

[Bob Knowlden]

Consider an A8N-SLI Premium instead, to eliminate the chipset fan. The fan
is an inexpensive item, but the mainboard has to be removed form the case to
replace it when it fails. (Apparently there have been a lot of failures with
early revisions of the board, but I don't know the life expectancy of the
current replacement fan.) I'm contemplating fitting the heatpipe cooler to
my A8N-SLI, and hope that it'll fit.

I'm not familiar with the Akasa PSU, but if the 6800GS uses a PCI-E graphics
card auxiliary power connector, you may find it convenient to get a PSU that
includes one. (Two, if you ever intend to try SLI.). I imagine that the card
will come with an adapter to take power from Molex connectors, so it's not a
requirement.

Speaking of graphics cards, I'd recommend the 7800GT over the 6800GS, but
the 7800 costs about 1.5X the 6800GS (in the US, at least). The 6800GS is
supposed to offer good performance for its price.

I might prefer a Seagate drive to the Deskstar, but that's based mostly on
gossip and innuendo. (My own drives at the moment are Western Digital.)


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Carbon]

Memory: DDR 3200 SDRAM 2x518MB
Hard drive: Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 250GB SATA-II

I'd like to check that I haven't been stupid in my choice of components,
and also my budget still has a little room in it, so what would you
change in the above if you had an extra £20-30?

I'd consider doubling the ram. You don't really need it but it's fairly
cheap right now and I'm assuming Vista will be a real memory hog.

I know you'll do this anyway, but if you're going to wait as long as a
couple of months you'll want to re-evaluate your shopping list. It could
be that prices will drop enough for you to upgrade some of the components.

The Deathstar doesn't have the best reputation. I've stayed away from them
but I have a couple of friends who've gotten burned. But maybe they've
improved since Hitachi bought the line from IBM.

 

[David Richards]

I'd consider doubling the ram. You don't really need it but it's fairly
cheap right now and I'm assuming Vista will be a real memory hog.

I know you'll do this anyway, but if you're going to wait as long as a
couple of months you'll want to re-evaluate your shopping list. It could
be that prices will drop enough for you to upgrade some of the components.

The Deathstar doesn't have the best reputation. I've stayed away from them
but I have a couple of friends who've gotten burned. But maybe they've
improved since Hitachi bought the line from IBM.

Yes, I was considering doubling the ram, especially as I've heard that
2x1GB modules would give better performance than 4x518MB, which is what
I'd end up with if I upgraded at a later date.

Oh, since you mentioned the hard drives, a quick question: are SATA-300
and SATA-II completely different things? I had it in my head that they
were different names for the same thing, but I'm now starting to doubt
that. If anyone could clear my confusion, I'd be grateful.

Dai

 

[Bob Knowlden]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ata

If you credit the above, there is no officially blessed "SATA II", although
some use it as synonymous with SATA 300.

Just to complicate matters, there's also NCQ (Native Command Queuing), which
is available on some SATA 150 and SATA 300 drives. I'm not familiar with it,
but it may be a Good Thing, under the right circumstances.

 

[KC Computers]

Hmmm, thinking about it, its very unlikely that I'll ever use 2 graphics
cards in SLI. Can anyone reccomend a motherboard that is as good as the
A8n-SLI premium, with SATA-300 support, but that doesn't have SLI (and
hence would be a bit cheaper)?

The ASUS A8N-E supports SATA-300 but does not have firewire.

 

[David Richards]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ata

If you credit the above, there is no officially blessed "SATA II",
although some use it as synonymous with SATA 300.

Just to complicate matters, there's also NCQ (Native Command Queuing),
which is available on some SATA 150 and SATA 300 drives. I'm not familiar
with it, but it may be a Good Thing, under the right circumstances.

Thanks, that's cleared my confusion. While pricing components, I've seen
websites that have SATA 300 and SATA - II drives as different categories.
Nice to see they know what they're talking about ;-)

Dai

 

[David Richards]

Consider an A8N-SLI Premium instead, to eliminate the chipset fan. The fan
is an inexpensive item, but the mainboard has to be removed form the case
to replace it when it fails. (Apparently there have been a lot of failures
with early revisions of the board, but I don't know the life expectancy of
the current replacement fan.) I'm contemplating fitting the heatpipe
cooler to my A8N-SLI, and hope that it'll fit.

Hmmm, thinking about it, its very unlikely that I'll ever use 2 graphics
cards in SLI. Can anyone reccomend a motherboard that is as good as the
A8n-SLI premium, with SATA-300 support, but that doesn't have SLI (and hence
would be a bit cheaper)?