I wish I could afford this...

[Jaeth]

... right now.

This is what I'm considering to get for myself as my first "real" gaming/development rig. (That is, I have actually owned a few computers before this one, but none as powerful as this one will be.) Please let me know what you think. The prices are with 25% Danish VAT.


Motherboard
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe ($240)
--
nVidia nForce4 SLI X16, Socket 939, 8 Channel Surround Audio, Dual GLAN, Firewire, SATAII RAID, SLI Dual PCI-E VGA, Passive Cooled Northbridge, Dual DDR400.

Processor
AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+ ($585)
--
2.2 GHz, Dual Core, 2x1MB Cache, Socket 939, BOX.

Cooler
Zalman CNPS 7000B-CU LED ($41)
--
AMD Socket A / K8 & Intel Socket 478, Built-In Blue LED Light, 18-27,5 db.

Video Card
EVGA GeForce 7900GT CO SC 256MB ($480)
--
256MB GDDR3, Dual DVI, VIVO, HDTV, Copper Cooling, PCI-Express, Retail.
(Might get myself another one of these later on and run SLI.)

Sound Card
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS ($247)
(Meh, I want the rack and the X-RAM.)

Hard Disk Drive
Western Digital Raptor 150 GB ($354)
(Might get myself another one of these later on and run some kind of RAID.)

RAM
Dane-Elec Dual Channel 2x1024 MB PC3200 DDR400 ($264)
(Might get myself another 2x1024 MB later on for software development.)

Case
ThermalTake VA3000SWA, Silver ($166)
--
Aluminium, Plexiglas sidewindow, Silver (No PSU)

PSU
ThermalTake Silent PurePower Series 680 Watt ($158)
(Can't have enough power, hehe.)

Monitor
Samsung 20” SyncMaster 204B ($689)
--
0.255 dot, 5ms, Pivot, DVI-D, 1600x1200Hz, Silver.

Operating System
Microsoft Windows XP Pro 64 Bit Edition UK OEM ($184)
(I know Vista is coming out later this year, but I need an OS and buying a non-64 bit OS would not be cheaper for me.)


Removed total system price because it's too much of a hassle to update it all the time.

By the way, I'm not interested in overclocking my system or anything. Most of all, I just want it to run well without making too much noise.

[raghajabooy]

I think you should buy that. Then 1 day after you decide that you need something better and give that setup to me

[Neatton]

Looks like a good build however I would recommend to wait for AMDs socket AM2 which should be coming out in the next few months or at least by summer. These new boards will also support DDR2 so you will want to change that Ram as well. On a personal preferance a Lian Li case would own that antec. For montior id run over to dell.com and check out there 20" widescreen I think its 2005FPW or something close that thing rocks. Otherwise that thing looks good

[Jaeth]

Yeah, going to wait for AM2 - not like I can afford the system at the moment anyways. I'm not sure about the case... I have no idea which one to choose. I checked out Dell's 20" monitor, but I don't like it. It is OWNED by the Samsung in all regards, better brightness, better contrast, better response time.

Now, need to get myself 21,000 DKK / 3,309 USD...

[rabb1t]

I'd counter the AM2 suggestions and recommend waiting for Conroe.

The prices are with 25% Danish VAT.

Let me hear you say vat!

[Jaeth]

AM2... Conroe... What's the difference?

Oh, and... VAT!

(I obviously didn't catch your drift, heh.)

[Neatton]

The difference is that Conroe is going to be the new Intel core where AM2 is going to be AMDs new socket. I personally dont see the benchmarks for the last 5 yrs of AMD being the better gaming processor changing in this cycle but eh I love AMD so take it for what its worth.

[Jaeth]

Oh well, I'm not THAT hardcore of a gamer when it comes to hardware. Been playing WoW for a long time on a laptop (gasp!) and still enjoyed it - anything above 30 FPS is amazing to me. And that was at low detail settings.

So, I guess, whatever I end up buying will be a nice "upgrade".

[Trevis]

Originally Posted by Jaeth

This is what I'm considering to get for myself as my first "real" gaming/development rig. Please let me know what you think. The prices are with 25% Danish VAT.

I somehow think it might be overkill for gaming/development. What are you developing ? Video, photoshop, 3D programming, web site ?

The most important part for game is video card, if you can get 50+ fps at high quality setting it would be enough.

I don't think you should over spend on newest technology becauses newest technology becomes cheaper faster. Upgrade your current system with recent technology parts that is on sales saves some dollars for upgrades.

Also you bought a seperate sound card, are you audiophile ?
You should get a decent 5.1 speaker and headphone to go with the card.

Raptor HDD, I would go with 250GB non-raptor HDD then upgrade to Raptor HDD when it's more affordable. Then you can tell what performance gain you got from Raptor HDD.

Monitor. Maybe high end 19" would be more affordable. Or you would consider Dell 21" ?

[Jaeth]

Originally Posted by Trevis

I somehow think it might be overkill for gaming/development. What are you developing ? Video, photoshop, 3D programming, web site ?

J2EE level development. It's not uncommon for me to run 10+ programs and a lot of servers + compilers at the same time. You'd be surprised how much juice you need for that stuff.

Originally Posted by Trevis

The most important part for game is video card, if you can get 50+ fps at high quality setting it would be enough.

Which is why I'm getting a good card.

Originally Posted by Trevis

I don't think you should over spend on newest technology becauses newest technology becomes cheaper faster. Upgrade your current system with recent technology parts that is on sales saves some dollars for upgrades.

I don't have a current system. I have my laptop. And... Well, it just doesn't cut it anymore. By the way, I won't buy this system right now - I'm saving for it. And actually, I'm not going bleeding-edge on this system.

Originally Posted by Trevis

Also you bought a seperate sound card, are you audiophile ?
You should get a decent 5.1 speaker and headphone to go with the card.

Pretty much audiophile, yes. I have a nice stereo that I'll be using with the card - and some very nice headphones, too.

Originally Posted by Trevis

Raptor HDD, I would go with 250GB non-raptor HDD then upgrade to Raptor HDD when it's more affordable. Then you can tell what performance gain you got from Raptor HDD.

Benchmarks have already proven that Raptor HDDs are worth it. I don't care about the added cost, and I don't need that much capacity, since I have external drives for backups/large files.

Originally Posted by Trevis

Monitor. Maybe high end 19" would be more affordable. Or you would consider Dell 21" ?

I actually chose that monitor because of the 5ms response time, and the superb brightness/contrast. Again, cash isn't an issue here.

I'm actually making some changes to my "wish list" - adding a better case and bumping up the sound card a few notches.