Okay heres what I have got The system is going to be used for moderate gaming usage as well as everyday use and will be on all the time. I will NOT be overclocking anything at all CASE Antec Sonata III case with included 500w PS ( will this be fine to run the graphics card?) http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=013961&cid=CS.664 Video Card BFG GeForce 8600GTS OC 320mb OR XFX GeForce 8800GTS nVidia 8800GTS 320mb They seem the same both have lifetime warrenty http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=014486&cid=999.243.390 CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=013513&cid=CPU.907 Motherboard Asus M2N-E Socket AM2 nForce 570 Ultra MCP Chipset http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=010459&cid=MB.526 Hard drive 320gig seagate drive 2gig ddr2 667mhz ram (either patriot, kingston, or Transend) Whichever is in stock Okay so does everything seem fine with that? I know everyone is saying go core 2 but usually its because of overclocking which i am NOT doing at all. However i may consider the Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 if you guys think it is much better then the 6000+ in its standard unoverclocked condition. The other big IF in that factor would be if i could find a motherboard which i can fit the 8800 on in the same pricerange as i was getting the AMD board for which seemed to be the biggest problem because the intel board seem to be much more expensive. Anyways im open to ALL suggestions so feel free to let me know. Im looking to put this together fairly soon though.
Usually you don't want to go with a PSU that comes bundled with a case(I don't know about this one so I'll leave that to others). You would want to go with GA-965P-DS3 and a Core 2 Duo CPU. They already perform better and if you overclock(I don't see why not) they will be MUCH better. Also get the 8800 GTS and a CPU cooler.
Well the power supply is an antec earthwatts 500w For the graphics the 8600 was a typo i am going with an 8800 As for the motherboard, whats the difference between the GA-965P-DS3 and the GA-965P-S3 The GA-965P-S3 is cheaper but i couldnt find any differences. Also you mentioned "just go with a core 2 they outperform before overclock) but you didnt mention a specific model. I am trying to budget the pricing here and the motherboard already seems to be a bit more money. http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/amd_6000/19.htm After reading this is sort of what made me want to go with it, I am building it for a good friend of mine who is NOT a huge enthousiast and plays games moderately. So will the proccessor make a huge difference in the games or is it more focused on the video card ?
The DS3 is only a hundred dollars and I think it gives better performance than a S3 especially in overclocking.
Okay so I went to pick up the parts today and got most but some were sold out so i will get them in a couple days. I bought the GA-P35-DS3L motherboard The intel E6550 cpu with new 1333fsb 2gigs of ddr2-5300 transend memory Picked up a vantec stealth 120mm fan Seagate 320gig hard drive They were sold out of the sonatta 3 case/power supply and they were out of the 320mb 8800gts I am going to be getting the XfX 8800 Are there any other cases you would recomend? And then a power supply if so i would like both to come to about 120 so if its possible to to better let me know thanks.
Well if you want a case with a GOOD powersupply look into the Ultra Grid case with the 700W power supply.
Okay i found a store which carries the ultra Ultra Grid ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side, Front USB, Audio Ports and Ultra XVS-Series 700-Watt Power Supply http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=2448862&sku=ULT40034 Is this the right one? It seems like a pretty good deal. How are these "ultra" power supplies? It seems to have a bit more power then the antec but antec seemed to be more "efficiant" The antec has 34amps on the 12v rails
That is what I have and it seems fine. All the reviews I have read are very positive about this case AND its PSU.
Well i went with your suggestion and went with the ultra "grid" case. Havnt had a chance to look at it much yet because im at work now but i cant wait to go home and put it together tonight. Also picked up the XFX 8800gts 320mb How are the fans that came in the case? Should that be sufficiant cooling or would anything extra be needed?
Cooling is fine but you should consider looking into a Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro(Only 30 bucks at Ewiz, that's where I got it from) and you should probably replace that CPU duct with a 80 mm exhaust fan. I have that same case with the Freezer 7(no exhaust fan yet, I'll get one soon) and the only reason I had to buy that extra stuff was because I was overlocking(check my sig) pretty high and that raises the CPU, northbridge temps. Also my RAM is overclocked so that generates some heat as well. I do hope that you overclock as well and the better CPU cooler is a nice thing to get even to make the CPU last longer. Also a northbrigde fan would probably be a good thing if you're overclocking.
If the computer was for me i would overclock it. But because I am building it for a friend i will not be overclocking it because he is simply looking for a reliable machine. It will be fast enough for his needs in its current form. So will the stock heatsink and the cpu duct be fine if i am not overclocking it at all? The only thing i might do is use some arctic silver 5 instead of the thormal pad which came on the heatsink. From what i have the stock cooler works decently. It does have a copper core ( not sure if they all so but this one does)
All of the stock one have copper cores. Yeah the stock cooler should be perfectly fine at stock speeds, I think mine was just messed up because I bought my CPU used. I got temps of around 55 degrees while idling and at stock speed. But I undervolted it to 1.1v because that's all you need for stock speed and I got it down to 35C with the stock cooler. BTW use AS5 on the CPU cooler instead of the thermal pad and replace the northbridge heatsink gunk with AS5 as well.
Ok so its together. Had some issues getting to to boot at first it wouldnt post at allll Fixed that (not even sure how) Now when trying to install vista it will NOT regognize my hard drive at all and i cant find any sata drivers on gigabytes website I dont know what to do
Well the hard drive shows up in the bios and everything but when i try to install windows on it. It is as if there is nothing there I will try it in another computer and try another one in this i guess to see.
I ended up having a defective hard drive i tried a spare and it worked. I went and exchanged it for a fresh one today. Im gonna try it again now and hopefully all is well.
Yeah man hopefully everything will be fine. After you finish it all direct your friend to this website. http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=103676
Okay it is all up and running now. Hopefully everything will be fine Ill leave it on overnight and hopefully it will all be stable Do you know of any good software to run the cpu hard that will work with windows vista? My temps in bios are about 30-32 for cpu and "core temp" from windows it was at 25deg so it seems to be running at decent temps....havnt had a chance to test it under load yet....but the arctic silver still needs time to cure as well