Yep thats right i am finally moving from my

AMD 1900+
768mb ddr
soundblaster live 5.1
gf4 ti4200 64ddr
30gb hdd
cdrw 4.4.32

Lately been using new gfx and sound cards and hdd. so moving to new comp but putting above back in old comp to make it a usable 2nd comp.

To a medium/top range pc now which consists of

Antec p160w case (aluminum)
asus a8v deluxe rev 2.0 motherboard
amd 64 3500+
2gb Geil value ddr
asus v9999 GE (6800 256mb gddr3)
soundblaster audigy 2 zs
200GB hdd
19" Hansol 930D
nice wireless optical mouse
(get new keyboard soon too)

cost me a damn fortune for me on a budget but damn i hope its gona be worth it.

lovely Skeeter - the best games should run fairly well (That's a great card - overclocked 6800)

I've been searching for the GE, where'd you manage to find one?

From a mate for £60 hehe.

lol you know if he's got anymore?

Nope lol.

Try overclockers.co.uk maybe?

Hardly anywhere stocks the GE version - and they're about £130-£150

Nice computer Skeeter, love the graphics card Can't find those anywhere over here!

Here's my specs for the one I have now and I'll be building one soon. I may be going overboard on the one I'm building. You can usually tell when you think to yourself, "Should I get a new car or a new computer?"

Here's my current one:
Standard Black Tower
Some A-Open A4E Mobo
1GB DDR400 RAM
Sound Blaster Live 5.1
80GB Maxtor Hard Drive
BFG Geforce 6600 GT Overclocked for my AGP port, no PCI-E...
17" CRT Moniter by SyncMaster (I think)

That's not even mine, it's my parent's but they know nothing about computers and I built it so it may as well be mine

Here's the one I've got all set up to be shipped on TigerDirect.ca:

Case: Xion II Mid-Tower (looks awesome, look for it on TigerDirect as I'm unable to upload a pic of it right now)
Mobo: Asus A8N 32-SLI-Deluxe
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 (godly 8O)
RAM: 4GB DDR400 Dual Channel
Hard Drive: 500GB Seagate
Moniter: 19" LG 1980Q
Sound Card: Sound Blaser X-Fi Platinum
Speakers: Logitech Z5500 5 Speaker Surround
Video Cards: 2 GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB cards SLI'd on the Mobo *drools* (Damn hard to find the 512MB model )
Keyboard and Mouse: Logitech MX5000 Bluetooth Wireless Mouse and Keyboard

Final cost: $5838

Now I need a loan....

OMFG I want that now

You lucky b***ard mate, good on you

hey, thanks, but it's not even close to a done deal. $5838!!! That's almost 3000 pounds right? (I don't have a pounds key on my keyboard, sorry ) My budget is going to explode!!

And have any of you seen that new Dell computer that is able to SLI four Geforce 7800 GTX 512MB graphics cards together!!!!!!!! *drowns in own drool* ewwwwwwwww

Imagine that kind of graphics power in your PC. 96 graphics pipelines!!! How many does the X-Box 360 have? 24 maybe? 8O *mind explodes with possibilities*
32x Antialiasing!!!!!!

Check it out at http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_28569.html
I can't wait until Quad SLI mobo's become available. I may just wait till then to get my PC!

And please excuse all my technobabble in this post

amazing.. absolutelly amazing. That thing will last you ten years!

1.

I was actually considering this case but then i found it a bit weak after hearing comments from another forum as its a cheap case with most money gone in looks and not construction design or cooling design. So i went with this beauty as i might as well get a good one if its gona last me a good few years.

I recommend you think about a nicer case, anything by antec, enermax, lian-li, coolermaster should be great. For a awsome computer like ur getting buy a alluminium there realy light and look damn cool. Im in love with my case its damn huge and light as a feather and insides look like somit from a sci-fi computer hehe.

A bit overboard with the cpu i think you have gone to be honest. For £150 you can buy a opteron 146 its clocked at 2ghz BUT its damn overclockable if you have nice speedy pc4000 or better ram and can easily reach fx speeds and even beat em sometimes in benchmarks

2gb ram should be enough unless ur heavily into photoshop with large images or multiple filters all the time. Or into heavy editing of media.

Rest seems good mate, happy times await you Good luck with build. I would be **** scared building anything over a grands worth of components incase i **** it royally up as it would be an expensive mistake. Even tho i know what im doing as i built my whole familys 4 computers inc my own i still hate building them incase the cpu or ram **** up.

Sorry about the swearing but its obviously needed

i got my case for two reasons

1) it was very light (under 5lbs)
2) it has lots of fans and a door.

i use my computer for LAN parties alot, and thats why i need it light. If you dont take it anywhere, you can easily have a 50lbs steel case that looks sweet. I just dont suggest it for LAN parties, cause you dont want to have your back hurting when your sitting in the same chair for 12 hours straight without standing up.

Hey, thanks for the info about the case Skeeter. I'm still looking around for one, but I don't want anything aluminum or silver in colour. I'm keeping it mainly black for reasons unknown to even me. (yes, I'm odd that way...I think)
And the Xion II comes with a 450W power supply which I'd need to replace anyway so I might as well get an empty one and a seperate power supply, or at least find a case with a 500W+ power supply. I may have found a good one here. Aluminum but painted black. It's the Thermaltake Black Kandalf Full-Tower AXT Case.

What do you think?

Sorry, the processor stays. I'm wanting this thing to last for awhile. I also don't trust myself with overclocking as I can't limit myself. I've fried a few graphics cards...

I can't put PC4000 or higher RAM in the system cause the mobo doesn't support anything above PC3200 so that's why I went with 4GB. And I'm not changing the mobo as it's the only one on the market that I could find that supports full 16x SLI.

Thanks for the constructive critisism! I appreciate it!



I hope so but I highly doubt it. But that's the way it is with technology

1. Nice case, costs alot from what ive read. But seems top one This one aint too bad btw if you wana look it over. here

What you would like is the antec p180 black i think, about 90 quid on ebuyer.

2.

The motherboard will say only supports pc3200 BUT it can take pc4000 it will just be clocked down to pc3200 speeds hence overclocking with cpu you can safely overclock the ram to pc4000 speeds without worry. So you can take pc4000 ram

Np about cpu dude, just fx chips aint worth the price really, the x2 4000 (dual core) is far better in many peoples opinions also decently fast too.

I've looked over that Tsunami case before and it's still an option at this point, though it looks kind of plain and doesn't have a window.

Also, I've upped the processor from the FX-57 to the new Dual Core FX-60, lol $300 more...

I wonder if I should just scrub this and get a car...

FX-60 i didn't even know that was out yet

Well my computer is built WOOHOO!!

Had some troubles though.

1. tiny part snapped off when replacing the front bezel as it was awkard to close. Need superglue to stick it back on hehe..

2. hdd wernt getting detected and so installing windows was a nightmare.. eventually replaceded ide cables reorginized a bit inside and seems to have worked nicely.

3. the **** 120mm fans i bought, 1 akasa amber one. With the screws included. The damn screwes wouldnt **** fit and got stuck and had to call my bro to help get it out with pliers. Also another 120mm fan an aerocool exatcly the same issue. The screws are just damn too large and get stuck real easy. WHY OH WHY LORD DID THEY SELL THEM WITH SCREWS TOO BIG..

Sorry im very tired but i won the battle hehe in the end.

33 degrees C load 30 idle hows that for pure cooling power with just a arctic freezer 64 pro and a fan in the back

I am getting this case off mate for £15 as hes getting new one looked over the specs and its worth it but the look alone kicks ass lol

not only that, but it's a complete and utter waste.

4gb ram - by the time having that amount is even remotely useful, we'll be well past using ddr ram.
video cards - same again. 2 x 256 i can understand. but the 512 cards on their own don't use all of the memory allocation they have as it is. having two of them is just multiplying the amount of redundant video memory you have. by the time any program is written that actually utilises over a gig of video memory, the rest of your video card will be in a museum.

lose two gig of ram, downgrade the video cards to top of the line 256mb cards, and use the money you save to upgrade your processor to the latest dual core.

you'll walk out with change from what you're looking to spend, and an altogether better rig.

dual core processor plus SLI video cards >>>> the rig you're proposing.

I agree ther with scatter.

Also wait till later this year as amd is bringing out a new motherboard type called M2, which will be supporting ddr2 amongst other things. That socket type would be the way to go if i were you.

Oh the nostalga of my old 8088 processor with its blazing 3 mgz speed and
5 1/4 floopy, no hard drive, 4 color monitor, and beeping sound effects! LOL!
Tim (plasticpanzers)

Wow...FOUR colours...just think of the possibilities...

...

I LOVE that case, Billy!

Just hope the Dragon doesn't fry your parts out!

...

I've just gotten a new monitor - it's of course a 17" Flatscreen, got it from Aldi for 130 quid.

Haven't had any problems with it yet, although it's taking me a while getting used to the higher resolutions - everything's tiny!

The speakers on it were horrible and it doesn't have a headphone jack, and I can't use my old speakers coz they're glued onto the side of my old monitor.

So now i'm using the speakers that came with my new computer, and it's gonna take me a while to get used to them as well - the volume dial is on the other side now!

well i havnt decided if im keeping it yet MOE looking on ebay and they go for about 90-100 pounds and im getting it for £15 so may sell it lol but i does look rather nice lol

I agree with Scatter and Skeeter. 2GB RAM, and nobody needs a quadrillion FPS at 800x600 in Quake 2. 30-40fps at 1600x1200 with a tad of AF is all a fellah needs, and if you can get that out of Quake 4 now then you'll be able to continue to do so for a couple years. I kind of doubt the efficiency of SLI anyway. More cost effective to just get a single somewhat better card and replace it with a newer model every so often.

Fact of things is, within two years, even the most bleeding edge system now will be severely hampered due to improvements implented in new architectures that nothing today can simply do or even come close to emulating. Ex: That Fx57 you initially mentioned, yeah, it'll pwn, for another 6 months or so, until more and more applications get heavily multithreaded, and then my cheapo X2 3800+ @2.6ghz will pwn any single-core chip on the market. Therefore, any CPU you should get should also be dual-core. Another example: the 25 or 30% improvement AMD got just from placing the memory controller on-die as compared to a similarly clocked Athlon XP chip.


I don't buy in to the waiting for M2 deal though. I personally think it'll be a revision more than a evolution or revolution, something to keep up with the Jones's with Intel's all new architectures. And the socket itself won't be interesting, not until 65nm chips comes out, but thats not until what, second half of this year? If you want a rig in the near term, dont lose any sleep over waiting for the M2. Buy a quality 939 NForce4.

Recommended:
Watercooling (do it yourself -- cheaper, 120mm fan)
X2 3800+ (or a level higher with 1mb cache)
DFI LanParty NF4 SLI (the latest OC specializing board)
500 or 600w Seasonic (not beautiful, but the best, and quiet)
Any fully SATA2 HD w/ NCQ (it'll help, and if it doesnt, can disable the NCQ)
2gb DDR (I've got two sticks of PDP, but theres different better deals now)
7800GT or GTX, depending on budget and wishs

Thats all, and use the integrated sound. It does 5.1 surround for me just fine, and saves some $$$. Take that system, watercool the CPU, chipset and GPU, possibly on different loops or entirely different resevoirs/multiple radiators, and then OC the living crap out of it. Then you'll have your system performing better for like $2300ish than that $5000 computer did!

And despite the naysayers, sure, OCing might fry some chips.. in ten years, as opposed to what normally may last 30 or 40. And who will be using anything we've got now in 10 years asides from maybe the then-modern equivalent as a Linux firewall box?

Oh, and watercooling is just sexy.

Call me ignorant or whatever, but how can you use water to cool your computer?

Won't you just get electrocuted? 8O

Nope you gets kits you see like radiator tubing and waterblock wguch is like a heatsink with sectons for tubing to go on where water flows in and out.

Replaces fan more or less and knocks about 5-10c off ur temps sometimes too.

Expensive like at over 50 quid or more.

I'll just stick to what i've got.

Wouldn't know how to install it anyway. By the way, where do you put the boiler for the radiators?

Thanks Skeeter, i've never heard of water cooling for a computer outside of this thread.

If Intel hadn't abandoned the NetBurst architecture, I'd of wagered new PC's would've come installed with watercooling sets by default straight from the likes of Dell and such, with all the thermal problems they had with it.

Skeeter said it pretty well. It knocks off a good bit of heat, and can be completely or very nearly silent compared to fans. It allows for much higher overclocks than could be achieved on air.

Oh, and it's also distilled water, so if there's a leak.. well, it still sucks, but it doesn't fry the motherboard or burn down your house Additives should be put in too to cut down on buildup

Personally i feel the best Socket 939 motherboard avalible (alround good stuff) is either

ASUS A8N SLI-Deluxe (About £100)
ASUS A8N32 SLI-Deluxe (About £150)

These always seem to come top in labs tests especially the first one

The DFI's are best for balls-out overclocking, BUT...

If I could go back..

I'd of bought what you just recommended TrekBoy I recommended it for him to get him the performance he wanted for a lower price, but I'd of got nearly the same from that board yet wouldn't have spent DAYS and DAYS in the BIOS wondering wtf it was in the memory settings that weren't right. It autodetects settings like crap, always have to tweak. Pretty big pain. So yeah, those boards rock. top quality!