OT: New PC!

Thermodyne · #1 January 6th, 2006, 01:57 PM

You can put them back after the PSU is in.

AgentZero · #2 January 6th, 2006, 04:52 PM

Ah, well that's grand then. I'm well used to having to finangle computer bits around to get them working.

Another little question just came to mind. In terms of primarily gaming performance would I be better of with an AMD 2.4GHz with a 1MB cache, or a 2.2GHz with a 2MB cache? The 2.4GHz with 2MB cache is a bit out of my price range.

AgentZero · #3 January 10th, 2006, 01:53 PM

OK, so here's where the system is sitting at the moment:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.2GHz Socket 939
Asus A8N-SLI Premium, nForce4 SLI,Socket -939
Corsair TWINX2048-3200
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
Gainward GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 x2
Creative SB X-Fi Platinum PCI, Retail
Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 930BF TCO-99 Monitor, DVI-D, D-sub, 4ms
Logitech Z-5450 Speakerset 5.1 THX
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
Razer Diamondback Plasma
Zalman FS-C77 Fatal1ty CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-018-ZA)
Thermaltake Kandalf Black
Seasonic S12 Powersupply 600W
Plextor DVD�RW burner, PX-750A x2

I know, it won't be cheap, but I've got the funds for it, and it's just looking sooo purty. Anybody have any suggestions for things I might have forgoten about, or not even thought of?

AgentZero · #4 January 11th, 2006, 02:27 PM

Anybody? Any thoughts at all? I've changed the PSU to a Thermaltake PurePower 680W, for the simple reasons that a) it's cheaper and b) the Seasonic can't handle SLI. I've also changed the DVD drive to a Plextor PX-716AL because it's faster, & I don't really need two just yet.

Also, Thermodyne any thoughts on whether a Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower would fit in the case I'm looking at?

Will · #5 January 11th, 2006, 02:58 PM

With the components you have listed, you don't need anywhere near 600 or 680W of power. AMD lists your processor as 110W, your video card is probably in the 60-110W range, hard drive peak power is usually <50W, and I would imagine it's the same for optical disc drives. With what you have, 500W would be more than enough to power it, while allowing you to expand to more drives in the future. But, unless you're powering something like a RAID-5 array of 20 drives, you don't need anywhere near the 680W.

AgentZero · #6 January 11th, 2006, 03:07 PM

Agreed, but considering the 680W is priced about the same as a 500, why not? After all, an extra �10 for an extra 180W seems pretty good to me, considering I'm paying an extra �15 for my DVD drive because the cheaper site doesn't have it in a nice colour. Beige?! Sooo 1990s.

Will · #7 January 11th, 2006, 03:24 PM

Well, that's a good enough reason... besides, you never know when you want to build a cappuccino machine into your case...

Something that I didn't see on your list, though, is a UPS. Since you're investing a lot in this already, it would be a good idea to invest a little bit more so it doesn't go up in a poof of magic smoke if you're hit with a power surge. I got one connected to my monitor and computer, and so far (in 6 months) it's protected from noise 4 times, brown outs twice, and black outs 5 times (they were working on the power around my building a lot a few months back).

Also, for performance, you might want to get a second, smaller/faster hard drive for your system partition. Windows likes to send stuff to the swap file even if you have loads of free RAM still, so having a different drive than the one where all your apps are stored speeds things up a bit more.

Baron Munchausen · #8 January 11th, 2006, 07:24 PM

Quote:

AgentZero said:
Agreed, but considering the 680W is priced about the same as a 500, why not? After all, an extra �10 for an extra 180W seems pretty good to me, considering I'm paying an extra �15 for my DVD drive because the cheaper site doesn't have it in a nice colour. Beige?! Sooo 1990s.

Extra wattage is a good idea since a power supply is not intended to be used at max capacity most of the time. At less than full power it runs cooler and lasts longer, and the more capacity you have the more 'safety margin' you have for adding things to your machine later.

Fyron · #9 January 11th, 2006, 03:44 PM

Quote:

AgentZero said:
Creative SB X-Fi Platinum PCI, Retail

I still don't think you should buy a Creative card... M-Audio Revolution 7.1 and Revolution 5.1 are better quality cards.

AgentZero · #10 January 11th, 2006, 04:57 PM

Yeah, but I like Creative. They've always been good to me, though I know I might be in a minority there.
Well, that & the fact that the only site I've found that'll deliver to ROI that stocks M-Audio cards wants about �30 more for em clinches the deal in my mind.

Edit: Will, thanks for the UPS reminder. Anyone have any suggestions, since I've got pretty much no knowledge in this department, but give the state of the Irish electricity grid, I probably should. I've been poking around and UPSs seem to fall into two broad categories: Online & Offline. Anyone know what the difference is?