BF2S Forums Before I buy this new setup...

Nice budget oriented rig. There are a few things I, personally, would do differently.

I've heard of lots of SATA hard drive failures, although I forget which brand....might want to check newegg.com and read the reviews. It could be the segate drives.  I would go with Western Digital, they seem to have a great reputation.

I'm not sure if you are aware, but the 7900 series have some MAJOR issues right now. There was an alleged fix, but I hear that it did nothing so far. Some people are on their 7th and 8th RMAs without a working card. I sent mine back and got the only working 79 series....7950gx2. Evgas website has the 7900 series problems well documented so I suggest you check that out.

Good luck with the new rig.

i run a maxtor 140gb hard drive for my files/os.. and run all my programs/games off of a WD 10k raptor, and never had a problem with either.

other than that.. good comp for your $$

max wrote:

also in addition to the above: apparentely that line of mobos has major problems. If you dont need SLI get the DFI nf4 ultra-d. very good mobo.

Ya, I'd suggest the ASUS A8N5X. It's $78.99 from Newegg. That's what I use and I love it. It's so easy to overclock with too. As for the memory, I'd suggest CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200). Newegg lists that at $178.00 and a lot of people on there suggest that over the ValueSelect. That's just my 2cents though.

max wrote:

just that for overclocking nothing goes over DDR-4000 RAM and a DFI board

Ya but the DFI nF4 Ultra-D is a more advanced board. It may be a bit more work for just a casual oc'er. It all depends what he wants to do.

If you are just going to use it as is with out OC ing then "your good to go" now get back in the fight

That system is more than adequate for what you want to do!

908741059871059781 wrote:

I've heard of lots of SATA hard drive failures, although I forget which brand....might want to check newegg.com and read the reviews. It could be the segate drives.  I would go with Western Digital, they seem to have a great reputation.

I have a 74gb Seagate Barracuda and it is one year old and still runs like the day I bought it. Good drive IMO.
All in all a very good rig...........I say go for it. And good luck with it.

On a side note. Dude try and keep the shit in your sys tray to a minimum, if thats still your sys tray. They are small programmes yes, but the do need processor power every now and again and connect to the Internet looking for updates and shit and the take time on the load in. This leads to glitches, lag spikes etc. I have my AVG down there and thats it.

The setup looks good, but dual core is not better for games than single core. In fact I think it takes away game performance and most people end up shutting it off in the BIOS. I've got a 7900GT and I've had zero problems with it, so don't feel like you're taking a chance with it. It's the same with all hardware, sometimes there's bad ones mixed in there. I've got the A8N non-SLI version, it's a great board. It's got a real nice Overclocking program built in that should help you OC without feeling like you'll fuck it up. The blue Antec fans are really nice. Very bright. I've got the tri-speed versions so you can control speed (duh) and more importantly, the noise. If you're gonna be using more fans, just make sure you buy the same company and preferably at the same time so the colors are matched up. I bought one of my fans before I got the last three and the color is off a little. It's close enough, though. I have a non-Antec blue fan and the shade is completely different. So yeah, good build!

does the casing have to be so damn dear? damn !

My current PC lives on a board. Now that's ghetto

I run dual core and love it. BF2 doesn't support it though, and I disable one of the CPU's when I play. I don't notice any performance issues. I just bought a Logitech G15 and I love this keyboard. I run so many programs now in the background it's unreal. I never used to have this many things going on, but with dual core it makes it all possible. And for a simple user like you, I'd still suggest the ASUS A8N5X Socket 939. It's simple. In the future if you do want to get into oc'ing, then this would be a great mobo to start on. You can always upgrade in the future. And since you're on a budget, you can't beat it for the money.

But all in all, you chose a very nice system. Very close to mine, and I run all high settings. The only thing you might want to reconsider is the PSU. You might want something a little more powerful, especially if you're planning on going SLi, then you would definitely need a better one.

Last edited by bubbass (2006-06-14 11:15:03)

SysTray wrote:

ASUS A8N-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - $108.99
Antec Performance I P-160W Silver 1.2mm Anodized Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $93.99
SAMSUNG 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Beige ATA/ATAPI Model SH-W162Z / BEWN - OEM - $32.99
Antec 77095 120mm Blue LED Light Case Cooling Fan - $13.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA NCQ 3Gb/s ST3160812AS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $73.99
CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model VS2GBKIT400C3 - $162.99
Antec NeoHE 500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply - $99.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - $297.00
eVGA 256-P2-N563-AX Geforce 7900GT CO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - $274.99
SubTotal:    $1,158.92

Is there any way I can go any cheaper in price without losing any performance from what I'd have with this?

You have way more power than you need unless you're planning on running dual 7900gt or gts's.  My current system is running off an antec smart power 350. 
For less money you can get an opteron 165 that will OC better than the x2 3800.  Check Monarchcomputer and use coupon code from fatwallet.
While samsung might make a decent burner, NEC is the best and they are only a few $ more.
For about the same price as that ddr400 you can get a good ddr500 2 gig kit.  (newegg)
Last part is personal preferance, but Asus motherboards are nice, but DFI is supposed to be the best.  I'm using a very cheap ECS KN1 SLI Lite and it's rock solid.  8.1 audio, sata, sli, etc. etc.