My Proposed Rig

[Gorakka]

Hey guys this is my first post

I'm posting up the stats of a good local deal I am being offered, and would like your feedback as to how good a gaming rig you guys find it to be.

Here goes:

1. AMD Athlon64 x2 Dual Core Processor
2. GIGABYTE K8N Pro-SLI Nvidia nForce 4 SLI MCPS PCI-E Chipset -Multi-Layers Socket 939 Motherboard, AMD COOLING FAN & HEATSINK
3. Latest AMD Technology (266/333/400Mhz Internal System Bus System On Die) & Re-Programmable Flash Plug & Play BIOS
4. Genuine Super Fast Synchronous Pipeline Burst CACHE Built-In On CPU (200Mhz Processor Bus Speed ON DIE)
5. On Board 2xEnhanced “Ultra DMA 133/100 (ATA100) Bus Master Ready” IDE Controller (Up to 4 IDE Devices), And Floppy Drive Port
6. On Board 2 x PCI-E Ports, 4 x Enhanced USB Ports, 1 x 16550 High Speed UART Serial Ports,1 x SPP/ECP/EPP Parallel Port
7. “160GB” 8MB 7200rpm W.D./Maxtor/Seagate Ultra DMA 100 (ATA-100) Enhanced Cached IDE Dual Channel Hard Disk Drive
8. “1GB” PC3200 DDR 400 Memory-DDR 400 (PC3200) High Speed RAM With EPROM (AMD Approved)
9. “256MB” Nvidia GF 6200TC 3D PCI-E Video Display Card - 256MB 128 Bit Blaze High Speed 2D/3D Video Card Support DirectX 9 with Full Screen MPEG/DVD Playback True Colour Graphic Accelerator Card
10. 19” Hanns-G A grade LCD Monitor
11. 1.44MB 31/2” High Density Floppy Disk Drive
12. 1394B Firewire, GIGABIT Network Card
13. 16x Dual Layer DVD RW Drive - Enhanced Cached ATAPI IDE CD-ROM
14. Realtek “6 Channel” AC97 Digital Audio Stereo Plug & Play Sound Card(Integrated)
15. 1200W PMPO Sub-Woofer 2.1 Channel Powered Amplified Shielded Speakers System
16. “SHAW” 550Watt. Deluxe (AMD XP Support)ATX (Full Depth Size) Medium Tower Case-Thermal Fan Speed Controller
17. Genuine “GIGA-BYTE” Keyboard & GIGA-BYTE Ergonomic Optical Mouse
18. Windows XP Home Full Version (CD + Manual)
19. Full Set Of User Certificate, Disks, CDs, and Manuals. Software, And 24Hrs Plus Performance + Burn-In Test
20. 60 Month Return To Base Labour(Hardware Diagnotics) Warranty, 12 Month Return To Base Parts(Hardware ONLY) Warranty.

Thats the deal. But before you point out the obvious crappy components, the following are upgradable to these:

Upgrade To : 256MB Nvidia GF 7900GT PCI-E

Upgrade to : ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe

Upgrade To : 20” CMV T38D 8ms DVI LCD

Upgrade to : 2G DDR400 MEMORY


All up it ends out being affordable. Now while I have pretty much grown up around computers, hardware still throws me

So I would appreciate your imput.

BTW I am a hardcore gamer who would really like to finally enjoy playing the games i love (cmon v:soh) at something other than the minimum settings.

Thanks

- Gorakka

[Neatton]

With the upgrades it wouldnt be a bad system but keep in mind that the new AMD socket is now released and intels is going to be released in about a month. The new AMD socket supports DDR2 which is I believe a 10pct increase in performance. Also it does not mention which X2 processor it is and the price in order to say if it is a good deal would need that info. Just off the hardware though you should be able to play most games right now at descent settings.

[Gorakka]

Hey thanks for your speedy reply.

Yeah i forgot to put in what processors I had the options for.

They were:

AMD Athlon64-939 x2 Dual Core 3800+

AMD Athlon64-939 x2 Dual Core 4200+

AMD Athlon64-939 x2 Dual Core 4400+

AMD Athlon64-939 x2 Dual Core 4800+

It all adds up to roughly $1500 US by my calculations, with the upgrades (few hundred less for 3800, couple hundred more for 4800).

Ok so with the new socket would i be needing a totally new motherboard?

Well assuming I was to stick with the deal above, what parts of it should I be looking at upgrading? I am trying to make this, maybe not state of the art , but at least a force to be reackoned with

Thanks again

- Gorakka

[Neatton]

The only concern id have is that it sounds like there selling you this rig at a price that it would be if they were the newest parts. Being that they are not anymore this should go down. In any case I would suggest to just purchase the best you can afford. It is always going to be obsolete however the better the parts the longer that will take. I would for sure at least get the better vid card and probably the 2 gigs of ram from there. Its up to you but id just piece it together at newegg myself if I were you will save alot and get better stuff.

[Gorakka]

Hmm yeah. I was piecing together at newegg.com before i realised that they do not ship internationally. A pity, but I have found a well recommended Australian dealer with a more extensive list of hardware that I can simply choose and have it assembled for me.

My last question would be, will the 'ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe' MB support DDR2 or will i have to buy the new AM2 MB and AM2 Processor when they are released?

Cheers

- Gorakka

[Greymain]

You should at least check out the new Intel Conroe chip due to be released in July before building a new machine.

[Neatton]

To answer your question that mobo will not support DDR2 and if you want to go with AM2 you would need to purchase a new mobo proc and ram if you want to upgrade. If you do not care whether you use Intel or AMD then Grey is right you should look into conroe. I however will not ever by Intel as I feel that there business methods are unamerican and break monopoly laws.

[Greymain]

Guess me being not American permits me to buy what is best rather than politically correct.

I does seem odd to me on this side of the pond that so many americans seem to get so passionate about corporations such as intel and SOE. I think us Brits just think that all corporations are without morals just interested making money legally.

[Fooee]

I allways buy AMD's also. The last time I bought a Intel, it overheated on me the day after I got it(I know it was just a fluke) but I have never had any problems with AMD's. I currently have an AMD 64 X2 4200 and it rocks. I did just recently go and buy an ATI Radeon X1900 GT and am ready for Vanguard!!

[Greymain]

I have used intels processors since the 8086 chip, both at home and at work. I have installed and supported many thousands of PC's and have only had one processor chip failure in a machine that has been "burnt-in". That machine had a short that blew the machine up.

Te only examples of dead processors I have encountered have been due to them being mishandled or badly installed during system build.