Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Reschke on February 09, 2005, 11:29:58 PM

Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: Reschke on February 09, 2005, 11:29:58 PM
With the $1500 here are your games that you will primarily play on it and the everyday basics that you need to get your computer working. This is assuming you don't have anything at all and are just building your first system. You already have the games you just need something to play them on.

GOTTA HAVE HARDWARE


GAMES LIST


Here's my list:
COOLER MASTER CAV-T03 CAVALIER 3 w/500W PS and extra 80mm fan $109

AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ (939 PIN) GIGABYTE K8N ULTRA-SLI; CRUCIAL 1GB DDR400 (512MB x 2); ASSEMBLE/TEST BUNDLE) $499

VIEWSONIC 17" E70FB $125

2 WD 120GB 1200JD SERIAL ATA150 7200RPM 8MB BUFFER HARD DRIVE w/ SATA cable $180

PLEXTOR DUAL 12x8x4x/DVD+-RW 48x24x48x/CD-RW SATA INTERNAL $130.14

SONY 52X CDU5221-XV CD ROM $18.50

GIGABYTE NX66T128D 128MB NVIDIA GF6600GT PCI EXPRESS DDR VGA W/TV&DVI $185

LOGITECH CORDLESS DESKTOP LX700 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE  $74.48

Microsoft Windows XP Professional w/sp2  $134

SONY 1.44 BLACK FLOPPY DRIVE w/ cable $13.90

Grand Total from Mwave.com $1,470.01 without shipping
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: humble on February 10, 2005, 12:22:39 AM
My only question would be the 939/PCI-exp combo vs a 754/AGPx8. You could pair a DFI lanparty or Gigabyte 754 board with a x800 XT or other top end card and get better bang for the buck. From what I've seen on gaming systems they use smaller HD's as well usually stripped 60's or smaller. Certainly a good combo though. Assuming I could massage everything within budget I'd go with a Sceptre X9-gamer LCD ($395) vs a CRT.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: Reschke on February 10, 2005, 09:18:31 AM
Go with whatever chipset you want. I dropped in the 939 AMD since that is what I am looking at for the next system I am going to build. I didn't look at LCD's for this one but that Sceptre sure does sound like a good price for the budget. On the hard drives there really isn't that much difference in price when you are comparing the small drives with the mid size drives.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: humble on February 10, 2005, 10:45:54 AM
The smaller drives provide faster thruput for a gaming system from what I gather...as for 939 vs 754. For now you have better OC capability with the 754 MB's as well as petter pricepoint on highend VC's.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: JB73 on February 10, 2005, 11:34:17 AM
that moniter will not be able to run 1280x1024 with more than 60hz refresh (meaning seeing flicker)

also you don't have any memory listed.

add $200 or close for 1gb corsaire
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: Roscoroo on February 10, 2005, 11:55:10 AM
"AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ (939 PIN) GIGABYTE K8N ULTRA-SLI; CRUCIAL 1GB DDR400 (512MB x 2); ASSEMBLE/TEST BUNDLE) $499 " <--nice price for that full combo

memory is lusted after right there ...

i myself would use the neo platinum mb .. and a 6800 ... but i dont see anything wrong w/ the giga mb

the only thing i dont like is the coolermaster power supply (coolermaster makes cheap junk as far as im concerened)  id use a antec or enermax.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: eagl on February 10, 2005, 11:56:28 AM
Looks decent to me.  You're cutting corners on a few things but overall it shouldn't matter much.

I will say however that going for 2 hard drives (I assume you're going to set up RAID array) then getting a 6600GT doesn't make sense to me.  Get a single seagate 7200.8 drive in 200 or 300 gig size because it'll have about the same seek time and not really that much lower overall throughput, and it should be quieter too.  Then get a 6800 or 6800GT instead of the 6600GT.  The 6800GT benchmarks about as fast as a dual 6600GT SLI setup in some games, and significantly faster in other games where the SLI configuration doesn't work right.  You can always get that second 6800GT later when the price drops, instead of the second 6600gt.

If you're planning on overclocking, getting premium memory might help.  Crucial stuff is fine and getting pc4000 memory should give you an easy 50mhz memory overclock, but the latency on that memory might be slow and premium PC4000 memory (like crucial ballistix) would speed things up somewhat.

You can find s cheaper dual layer dvd recorder elsewhere.  Newegg keeps selling some dual layer dvd recorder for $69 and another one for about $80, so shop around.

The comments on the monitor are very valid.  Do a search on http://www.anandtech.com for their value and mid-range system builder guides and look at the monitors they select.  60hz absolutely sucks and you should try to ensure your monitor runs up to 1600x1200 at 70hz, otherwise you'll get headaches when playing games and wonder why your eyes are twitching.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: Siaf__csf on February 10, 2005, 12:00:17 PM
Better yet get an lcd screen. I know I won't buy crt's anymore.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: humble on February 10, 2005, 12:19:59 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Siaf__csf
Better yet get an lcd screen. I know I won't buy crt's anymore.


I've got to agree with you, amazing how much better my new LCD is vs my old llayma pro 450 19" CRT...
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: JB73 on February 10, 2005, 01:02:26 PM
Quote
Originally posted by humble
...my old llayma pro 450 19" CRT...
what did you do with it?
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: humble on February 10, 2005, 01:12:43 PM
Quote
Originally posted by JB73
what did you do with it?


When my cpu fried it went dead...guessing its a fuze but not sure. Just havent had time to trouble shoot it yet....
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: JB73 on February 10, 2005, 01:27:49 PM
ahh rgr...

 i need a better monitor, as i actually have an older model of the 17" viewsonic. i run at 1024x768 85hz, but my ti4800 can run 1280x1024 at 85hz... i would like to see that some day.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: Vipermann on February 10, 2005, 02:28:22 PM
DO NOT use the Gigabyte 6600 that you have listed in an SLI board. It will not work.

It has the connector, but the board is not listed in the approved SLI list and I know from personal experience it will not work (at least with the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe) in SLI mode.

If you want a 6600 get the XFX one.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: MOSQ on February 10, 2005, 06:48:36 PM
You forgot the cost of the HOTAS.

If you go CH, you just blew your budget to bits.

Also TrackIR costs.....
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: OIO on February 10, 2005, 07:16:32 PM
Bit of advice for you:


Invest in a 21" monitor.


Your PC will come and go but your monitor will remain with you for a long, long LONG time.

a 21" is also a significant 'advantage' in online games.

Save some money and drop the wireless stuff... you have to be in front of the PC to be able to  play anyways. If you think its a pain in the arse when you lose your tv remote control, wait till you lose your wireless mouse.. heh!

You need 2 hard drives..for what (I see no RAID mentioned there)? save money and just get one.. unless you really really need it.

aside from that..nice system. Id go for a 256mb vid card if you could afford it too.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: JB66 on February 10, 2005, 08:29:39 PM
I would stay away from the gf 6600 series....I remember Skuzzy writing that most of them were failed 6800's and have a high rate of failure.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: DAVENRINO on February 10, 2005, 08:49:42 PM
Quote
Originally posted by OIO
Save some money and drop the wireless stuff... you have to be in front of the PC to be able to  play anyways. If you think its a pain in the arse when you lose your tv remote control, wait till you lose your wireless mouse.. heh!


I love my Logitech cordless stuff, but then I sit 10' from my monitor.:D
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: Reschke on February 10, 2005, 09:08:04 PM
This is a what if thread. It wasn't a cost comparison for what I would buy versus what I wouldn't buy. I just wanted your opinions on different setups and different configurations. Everyone does things a little differently and if I was to do this setup it would be used for more than just playing games.

I haven't heard anything or read anything bad about the PCI-e Gigabyte cards on a Gigabyte motherboard.

As for the SLI side of things I was shooting for possible expansion with higher RAM and SLI functions later on down the road. AND it was the only relatively inexpensive PCI-e card I found in just a few minutes of searching that Mwave had listed in the price point I was shooting for.

In my current system I have 1GB of DDR400 RAM working with a Skt754 3200 A64 on a Gigabyte K8Ns Pro with a BFG 128MB 6800OC video card. The only real drawback is the 40GB hard drive that I have in the system. I have the option to go with a SATA drive but that means that I have to get a copy of either Drive Image or Ghost and copy the entire drive over to the new setup and I am not sure that I want to do that right now. Besides my old copy of Ghost is corrupted from my days working in the computer shop a few years ago.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: Reschke on February 10, 2005, 09:10:37 PM
Quote
Originally posted by OIO
Save some money and drop the wireless stuff... you have to be in front of the PC to be able to  play anyways. If you think its a pain in the arse when you lose your tv remote control, wait till you lose your wireless mouse.. heh!


Hey I love the current Logtiech MX700 Duo setup that I have with the cordless mouse and keyboard. It even works every time I want to use it unless the oldest boy has run the battery down in the mouse. Then within an hour or so on the recharger its good to go again.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: Schutt on February 11, 2005, 02:56:25 AM
Get a normal keyboard and mouse saves 50$

Get one harddrive... more than fast enogh... save 90$

Get XP home oem, save 50$ with what you listed no need for xp professional at all. Weather its with sp2 or not doesnt matter since you have flatrate anyway.

DVD RW is to expensive.. can get for 100$ ... save 30$

Get a DVD Rom instead of a CD ROM, pay 5$ extra.

scrap the CRT monitor 115$
now for the 330$ Get a TFT display.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: Reschke on February 11, 2005, 08:24:20 AM
While I agree that you can get cheaper hardware I was going for the best bang for my $1500. As I mentioned earlier here this is a what if and yes I do need two hard drives. One for work and one for home. As for a DVD drive versus a CD drive I cut cost there and a few other slots getting the best bang for the $1500 spent.

So post your setup instead and lets see what you would put in there and list the source you got the prices from.
Title: OK guys here is your chance...You have $1500
Post by: RightF00T on February 15, 2005, 11:59:14 AM
Anyone selling a monitor?  I could use one for under $75 to get me back into AH.  Thanks in advance. :)