My New Pc Setup..., What do you think? Not bad eh? Options

[--DANNY--]

I just built a new pc and I'm curious as to what other people think of it...

Stats:

• Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI (939) Nvidia nForce4 Motherboard - $106
• AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (939) Processor - $228
• Patriot Signature Series 1GB (2x512) DDR-400 Memory - $73.95
• eVGA GeForce 6800GS 256MB GDDR3 PCIEx16 (Core:425Mhz, Memory:1000Mhz) Video Card - $195
• Antec 480Watt TrueBlue 2.0 Power Supply - $89
• WD Caviar SE 250GB SATAII 3GB/sec Hard Drive - $99.75
• Case, 21" LCD, Wireless Keyboard/Mouse, PCI WiFi - FREE (I already had it, lol)

It has basically any feature you would ever need... 10 usb 2.0 ports, 1394 FireWireB (note... it's 1394B... the next generation of FireWire), 7.1 Audio, Gigabit LAN, etc.

The case has 3 80mm Blue LED fans. The PowerSupply has a 120mm fan and is lit with Blue LEDS inside.

I'm also getting a water coolant setup very soon... link

For sound, I have it outputing through SPDIF to my Denon AVR-3801 Reciever, which has $10,000 worth of Energy Speakers connected to it. So ya... the 7.1 is AMAZING!
I'm also outputing the Video to my 65" Mitsubishi Widescreen Projection TV via Component cables from the Video Card.

Now onto the pics!

PC Setup: (I don't have any of it all together yet since I just got it setup and everything)
Blue Acrylic Case - Bad and only pic, meh
6800GS 256MB - Mmmmmmmm...
Motherboard with Memory - Suweet!
Motherboard with Memory/Vid. Card - Oooh... Ahh...

Audio/Video Setup:
My Home Theater - Now contains my pc. That's the TV I'm using, and the 7.1 setup that you can't really see, lol
Denon Reciever - Front
Denon Reciever - Back
An Energy Speaker - With Cover
An Energy Speaker - Without Cover

Screenshots:
FEAR - Maximum Settings/Resolution
Call of Duty 2 - Demo - Maximum Settings/Resolution
Call of Duty 2 - Demo - Maximum Settings/Resolution
Call of Duty 2 - Demo - Maximum Settings/Resolution

So what do you guys think? Oh, and the total price for everything I just bought was like $750 or something close to that...

-Danny

[xboxbox451]

Very, very nice, and I'm very, very jealous. It's been a bit since I built a PC, so I'm kinda of out of it as for whats hot and whats not, but the system looks like a screamer. I, on the other hand always stick with Asus and Intel. I tried AMD once, became a fanboy but then lost interest.

You should look into adding a couple of removable storage chassis's to your PC so you can swap out multiple drives. I always build my PC's with removable chassis's,which I currently have two in my system (one for storage only) and I keep an image drive as a backup for when a drive craps out, which usually craps out when you need it the most. Also, by keeping one drive as a back up, its a super snap to reformat an existing drive. Just use an app like Acronis True Image to transfer the data from the backup drive to your formated and your up and running within a half hour.

I found these chassis's to be quite good --> Startech Link. You can buy them cheap at www.buy.com

The only downfall is the extra fans that are in the tray to keep the drive cool.

Btw, what kinda of monitors are you sporting? I hope thier LCD's, one 21" and one 19", preferably Dell's. Thats my dream one day.

[gerbil]

looks like you've done your homework danny ...

although you may need a back up plan for your case ... the blue case is good and all but ... a dear friend is stuggling with his case ... due to the multiple case fans as well as the noise it makes ...

good for yah ...

btw, how much did it cost you?? must be an arm n a leg ...

[BrutalDrew]

Theres nothing really wrong with the build.

However, an Opteron (146?) would of been a much better choice then the 3700+ if your overclocking. It would of been cheaper and overclocked better. I would of also gotten a single 1GB stick of G.Skill value. This way you can upgrade to 2GB without running four sticks. The G.Skill also overclocks very well for the price.

A Fortron AX500-A would of been a better choice then the Antec. It is a more capable supply and cheaper.

Also, I really hate the case. But that is personal preference, so it doesn't really matter.

[heinrich]

Very jealous of your receiver!

[--DANNY--]

although you may need a back up plan for your case ... the blue case is good and all but ... a dear friend is stuggling with his case ... due to the multiple case fans as well as the noise it makes...
btw, how much did it cost you?? must be an arm n a leg ...

Ya, the fans are getting pretty loud after almost a year now. I'm either going to buy a new case, which is what I'm looking into right now. Possibly a Lian Li with Water Cooling.
And the PC stuff cost me about $800 after everything that I just bought.
I already had EVERYTHING that I didn't list a price for.
I picked the case up for only $30 if that's what you meant though, lol
But for the other stuff, the TV was about $2000 when I bought it quite a while back (a few years), the Reciever was a little over $1200, same with the DVD player, the Center Channel Energy Speaker alone cost about $1350...
But that is all with HUGE employee discounts while working at GoodGuys as a Home Audio Tech/Floor Manager.
And it was all several years back with most of the products were top-of-the-line and new on the market...

However, an Opteron (146?) would of been a much better choice then the 3700+ if your overclocking. It would of been cheaper and overclocked better. I would of also gotten a single 1GB stick of G.Skill value. This way you can upgrade to 2GB without running four sticks. The G.Skill also overclocks very well for the price.

A Fortron AX500-A would of been a better choice then the Antec. It is a more capable supply and cheaper.

Also, I really hate the case. But that is personal preference, so it doesn't really matter.

I'm not considering overclocking untill I get Water Cooling, but the 3700+ is the overclocker's Wet Dream.
With sufficient cooling, it can be overclocked from 2.2Ghz to about 2.8-3.0Ghz without breaking a sweat. The motherboard is going to be the issue with overclocking. But like I said, I'm not even considering that yet. If I decide to overclock, I'll maybe swap out for a new motherboard or just stick with mine and overclock it to about 2.5Ghz or so.

And remember... I only paid $228 for the 3700+...

As for Memory, 2GB doesn't really help out that much. In most applications/games it will only give you a 10-25% increase in performance than 1GB. So I decided to stick with 1GB for now, and If I ever decide to up it to 2GB, I'll just buy another set of 2x512 of what I have now.
And I wouldn't really want to attempt to overclock the memory, I don't like risking too much...

And as for the case, it's something I bought for $30 because it had a slight crack in the front panel above the 5.25" Drive Bays, and I liked it at the time. But it is growing old on me. As I said at the beginning of this post, I'm investigating LianLi cases right now...

Very jealous of your receiver!

I get that a lot.

One of these days, I'll post pics of my entire Home Theater setup.
I'm currently looking into buying 2 more 4 person sofa's to set up on risers one behind the other behind the current sofa I have. So that it has more of a Theater aspect to it.
Also looking into carpetting the walls with 1/4" black carpet to increase the acoustics of the room.
But ya, the reciever setup is pretty chaotic right now, lol
I am running out of optical inputs! I have my Xbox, Xbox360, HD Comcast TV Reciever, Denon DVD-2800 DVD Player, and now my PC... AGGHH!!
So ya, I may have to upgrade soon to a newer AVR model...

I'm glad people don't think my PC sucks! I got A LOT of help from some of the guys over at OverClockersForum.com. And I did quite a bit of research before I purchased anything.

Thanks for the comments so far,
-Danny

[esperado]

I'm actually making a new computer and I managed to go with the same video card and ram. I was going to get the 3700+ as well, but I read a review which said that the 3200+ Venice was great for overclocking and could get up to 2.7 ghz on stock cooling alone . The video card is supposed to be great for OCing as well . I can't wait for the stuff to get here.

[--DANNY--]

Ya, everything runs like a dream.

And from what I've heard, the 3700+ is WAY easier to overclock than the 3200+. And it's only about $25 more.

But ya, it's so fast, lol I was used to a 1.8Ghz Intel CPU....
When WinXP is loading and that black screen comes up that says Windows XP and the loading bar that is green, or blue if you have SP2. Well the loading bar only moves about half of an inch if that, untill it's already done loading.
It takes about 7 to 11 seconds from the time I press the power button, to the time It's waiting at my desktop... I love it! lol

But ya... now I'm just looking for a new LCD Monitor (preferrably 20"), and a 7.1 Sound Card that has an optical audio out. And I'm also price hunting for another 6800GS 256MB to run in SLI.

-Danny

[netdevil69]

Nice to see you took my advise and got the 3700.

[sk8phreak88]

Nice setup, how ever. You would see a HUGE boost going from 1gb ram to 2 gb's ram.
Also, for the cpu, I woulda saved up a bit more and got a 3800+x2. There reaallly nice, they help you in not just extra programs, but even just windows runs better.
I guess its "To each their own" though.

[BrutalDrew]

I'm not considering overclocking untill I get Water Cooling, but the 3700+ is the overclocker's Wet Dream.

The Opteron is still a much better overclocker. Both processors are architecturally the same and they have the same amount of cache. However, the Socket 939 Opterons are cherry picked/binned A64s for low-voltage and very tight tolerances to meet the stability demands of single socket workstations, so they overclock great and rock for gaming. An Opteron is also cheaper IIRC.

As for Memory, 2GB doesn't really help out that much. In most applications/games it will only give you a 10-25% increase in performance than 1GB. So I decided to stick with 1GB for now, and If I ever decide to up it to 2GB, I'll just buy another set of 2x512 of what I have now.

2GB makes a huge difference in BF2 and a few other games. In fact, With the highest settings, its not even playable on my machine with 1GB. With 2GB, it runs flawlessly. Not to mention other high end multimedia tasks. As more memory-intensive applications and games come to the market 2GB of RAM will make an even larger difference.

Also, if you run 4 double-sided sticks you will most likely be forced to run a 2T command rate.

I'm glad people don't think my PC sucks! I got A LOT of help from some of the guys over at OverClockersForum.com. And I did quite a bit of research before I purchased anything.

I don't like saying anything bad about another forum, but I really hated that forum. It is filled with a bunch of people who really have no idea what there talking about. I couldn't stand all of the peopl;e giving out false information. Especially the tons of people who seem to think disabling the pagefile and other such garbage increases performance.

I am not saying everybody there does not know what they are talking about, but they really do not have the best signal/noise ratio.

I am not trying to make you stop posting there or anything. I am just stating what I think. If you want to continue to post there, do so. However, once you learn more you may come to realize what I am talking about. I would highly suggest checking out other forums for second opinions, though. That has nothing to do with my opinion about that forum either. it is always a good idea to get a second opinion.

[esperado]

Did your EVGA card come with just barely enough anti static wrap and just inside the box without any padding as well?

[esperado]

Also, did you model number end in AX or TX, because TX means no lifetime warranty >.< Now I know why Newegg failed to specify the last part of the model #, that with the crappy packaging makes me want to RMA, and if they try to give me a restocking fee I'm gonna be pissed.

[XPxAxBxLxOX]

Did your EVGA card come with just barely enough anti static wrap and just inside the box without any padding as well?

Mine did. That is the only downfall from the video card I got.

[SickJoda]

I just built a new pc and I'm curious as to what other people think of it...

Stats:

• Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI (939) Nvidia nForce4 Motherboard - $106
• AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (939) Processor - $228
• Patriot Signature Series 1GB (2x512) DDR-400 Memory - $73.95
• eVGA GeForce 6800GS 256MB GDDR3 PCIEx16 (Core:425Mhz, Memory:1000Mhz) Video Card - $195
• Antec 480Watt TrueBlue 2.0 Power Supply - $89
• WD Caviar SE 250GB SATAII 3GB/sec Hard Drive - $99.75
• Case, 21" LCD, Wireless Keyboard/Mouse, PCI WiFi - FREE (I already had it, lol)

It has basically any feature you would ever need... 10 usb 2.0 ports, 1394 FireWireB (note... it's 1394B... the next generation of FireWire), 7.1 Audio, Gigabit LAN, etc.

The case has 3 80mm Blue LED fans. The PowerSupply has a 120mm fan and is lit with Blue LEDS inside.

I'm also getting a water coolant setup very soon... link

For sound, I have it outputing through SPDIF to my Denon AVR-3801 Reciever, which has $10,000 worth of Energy Speakers connected to it. So ya... the 7.1 is AMAZING!
I'm also outputing the Video to my 65" Mitsubishi Widescreen Projection TV via Component cables from the Video Card.

Now onto the pics!

PC Setup: (I don't have any of it all together yet since I just got it setup and everything)
Blue Acrylic Case - Bad and only pic, meh
6800GS 256MB - Mmmmmmmm...
Motherboard with Memory - Suweet!
Motherboard with Memory/Vid. Card - Oooh... Ahh...

Audio/Video Setup:
My Home Theater - Now contains my pc. That's the TV I'm using, and the 7.1 setup that you can't really see, lol
Denon Reciever - Front
Denon Reciever - Back
An Energy Speaker - With Cover
An Energy Speaker - Without Cover

Screenshots:
FEAR - Maximum Settings/Resolution
Call of Duty 2 - Demo - Maximum Settings/Resolution
Call of Duty 2 - Demo - Maximum Settings/Resolution
Call of Duty 2 - Demo - Maximum Settings/Resolution

So what do you guys think? Oh, and the total price for everything I just bought was like $750 or something close to that...

-Danny

nice. how big if your hhd?