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dopierrebozo · Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:56 pm

ok, the these are the specs of the com i'm going to get:
Asus A8N SLI Nvidia nForce4
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Corsair PC3200 DDR400 2x512mb
Coolermaster C5
inno3d 7800 GT 256MB
Logitech X530 speakers
OCZ Powerstream 520w
re-using hard drive and optical drives (IDE)

I live in Singapore, so i guess listing the prices here would be redundant, are any of the parts too powerful or too weak? i'm planning to get another 7800 GT for SLI later on. i'll be using the com mainly for gaming (and for schoolwork, but that's not a priority

) As for overclocking, i'll probably only do it on the video card

oh, and i guess wanted to ask, how old were you when you built your first pc? i'm barely into my teens, and the money for these parts is from my parents..don't wanna screw up

Many thanks in advance.

newtrip · Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:03 pm

That looks like a pretty solid build to me.

I was 18 when I built my first PC, but it's really not all that hard. Just watch out for static electricity when you are building it. If it worries you, you can buy a strap for your wrist, or if you're like me, you can just touch the metal edge of the grounded case before you do anything with the parts.

I think you'll do just fine.

spiritwalker2222 · Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:13 pm

Ya it looks good. I would think about spending a bit more money and getting a dual core cpu. Especially if you don't mind overclocking, then a 3800+ or opty 165 would be good bets.

LicketySplit · Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:16 pm

Everything looks good. If you have any questions be sure to ask here..someone will be able to help. Good luck and welcome to the forums.

paco · Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:30 pm

spiritwalker2222 wrote:
Ya it looks good. I would think about spending a bit more money and getting a dual core cpu. Especially if you don't mind overclocking, then a 3800+ or opty 165 would be good bets.

ya plus the money is coming from the parents

I agree it should be a good build

Mr. Bamboo Head · Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:54 pm

might want to consider picking up two 1gb sticks of ram instead. ocz has 2x1gb 2-3-2-5 pc3200 platinum that i'd recommend. it'll help a lot if you're playing BF2 or any other recent games. especially if you do buy a dual core.

spiritwalker2222 · Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:04 pm

The extra ram is another good option, but it can be done in the future with another 2x512 sticks of ram without much of a performance penalty. Assuming that 3500+ is a newer core.

MadBrad · Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:04 pm

Good solid machine you have there.

Two possible changes.

1. Look at the 3700+ CPU. In the US, the price difference is small, but the extra CPU cache can give a nice boost in certain applications.

2. 2 x 1GB sticks of RAM are better than 4 x 512MB. The ability to run at 1T timining is a big performance boost.

If you can obtain a few extra dollars, I think both items would give you a definite performance boost for just a little more money.

Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:13 pm

MadBrad wrote:
2. 2 x 1GB sticks of RAM are better than 4 x 512MB. The ability to run at 1T timining is a big performance boost.

Not THAT big, but for a new build, definitely go for 2x1GB.

dopierrebozo · Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:34 am

Ii'm considering the patriot ddr400 2*1024mb RAM, which will cost SG$115 (US$70) more than the corsair 2*512mb, but, what would the extra RAM benefit most? because i don't mind waiting half a minute more for the programs to load, if that can save me the $115, which can be saved for the 2nd 7800 GT i'm planning to get.

from what i've read from tomshardware.com, 2GB does not really improve the performance of games (battlefield 2 only got a 1.3FPS increase)

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/13/how_much_ram_do_you_really_need/page6.html

oh, and thank you everyone for your suggestions so far

Mr. Bamboo Head · Mon Jan 16, 2006 3:03 am

toms hardware is crap
no offence intended...
tom's little graph was of 800x600.... i guess if you plan to play at that res with your 7800gt it wouldnt really matter......
if you decide to up the resolution a bit, you'll notice a huge difference
one of my buddies went from 2x512 ocz platinum to 2x1gb sticks and he noticed a huge frame rate jump. still, if you wanna cut cost, get a single 1gb stick instead of 2x512. sacrificing dual channel now will allow you to run at 1t later and makes upgrading easy.

computron9000 · Mon Jan 16, 2006 3:11 am

first hand experience. i played w/ a 7800GT with 512MB single channel. 2 x 512MB dual channel and 2x1GB dual channel.

At 1024x768 and below it was flawless with less than 2GB, at almost any settings.

Over that resolution, I'd get the occasional multi-second stutter.

After I put the 2GB (2x1GB) it was remarkable the difference. Pure smooth, no frame drops, 60+FPS MINIMUM (not average). 1600x1200.

Task manager reveals BF2 at well over 1GB w/ all my system stuff (usually 150-250MB in memory) @ 1600x1200 all high settings. This means with 1GB or less of RAM, very simply, you'll occasionaly require info to be loaded in-map from your hard drive, which is ridiculously slow compared to your RAM. Thus the reason for big hiccups.

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