Building new pc (1st in 7 years!) Need Help.

[vscott83]

I am on a $1,000 budget, yet everything I have listed on the add to list I can get for under $720, even with adding the LG monitor. I have a little cushion room. Ultimately I jumped on the $125 deal with having a pc that performs more than just running Diablo 2 & Guild Wars lol Plus, being the nerd I am, would like to run Diablo 3 when they finally release it.

[One4yu2c]

CPU
If you're heavy into video editing, that's where a quad-core comes in and you'll want to pick up the fastest one you can afford. Or if you plan to overclock, you can get away with picking up a slower clocked quad and OCing the difference.

But if your primary focus is going to be games and other non-content creation tasks, you'd be better off picking up a higher clocked dual-core, or an inexpensive lower clocked dual and again OCing the difference. This also holds true for mainstream Photoshop editing. A quad-core isn't going to really flex its muscles unless you're doing a lot of work with filters and other time intensive tasks.

Hard Drive
As has been mentioned, skip the RAID array with the two slower hard drivers and invest in a single faster drive.

Videocard
Whether or not the 7800GTX works for you depends on what games you play, your monitor's resolution, and how much eye candy you have turned on. I recently unloaded a 7800GTX on Ebay for much more than it's worth, but up until that time, it had no problem handling titles like Counter Strike: Source and the like. I wouldn't want to throw something like Crysis at it, though, and right now is a fantastic time to be in the market for a videocard. Both ATI and Nvidia have come out with new cards and are engaged in somewhat of a price war, so the bang/buck factor is comparatively high at this point in time.

EDIT: Looking at the games you wish to play, you're definitely going to want to upgrade your videocard.

Power Supply
Antec's NeoPower wouldn't be my first choice. It's a good unit when it works, but earlier batches were known for being problematic. And while later revisions were supposed to have addressed the issue, we've helped forum members RMA units where that wasn't the case.

If it's within your budget, take a look at Corsair's line, which are both modular and some of the best performing units we've had come through our labs. And FWIW, we're one of only a handful of sites that really put a PSU through its paces during evaluations.

OS
You can stick 4GB of RAM in a 32-bit OS, but what will mostly likely happen is that only around 3GB will be recognized. In short, the rest isn't wasted, but it's not utilized as efficiently as with a 64-bit OS, which will recognize all 4GB (and more). And if going with a 64-bit OS, Vista is an easy choice over XP.

[vscott83]

Wow, you guys are the greatest. I appreciate all the help, I really do. Are there any known compatibility issues with 64 bit Vista versus 32?

[One4yu2c]

I've been using 64-bit Vista on my main machine for quite awhile now and it's pretty rare that compatibility becomes a concern. Every so often a piece of software won't run, like Threatfire, but unless you're using incredibly old hardware/software, the vast majority of the time you won't run into issues.

On a side note, welcome to the forum!

[vscott83]

That's good to hear. I'm starting to get into the world of networking and I keep hearing Vista is a better OS for it. Thanks for the welcome, I am enjoying this forum a lot! This may be another dumb question, but the Viper 2 case I am getting has an open 3.5 slot, can you buy bay off USB ports to fill that in? I'm kinda anal about having an open case, even if it's just an empty bay slot.


*buy a bay of USB ports

[One4yu2c]

You sure can (LINK). Alternately, you can fill a 3.5" bay with a fan controller, too (LINK).

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by vscott83

That's good to hear. I'm starting to get into the world of networking and I keep hearing Vista is a better OS for it.

Well that really depends. Networking isn't as much about the OS as it is about the equipment you are using. Vista does dumb down quite a bit of the initial setup, but it also makes some of the basic troubleshooting a little more difficult if you're used to networking in XP. If you are talking about the graphical view of your network then yes, it makes it all nice and pretty for you. When it comes down to actually troubleshooting a network nothing is better for that then Linux. There are tools in Linux that will trace down problems in your cabling, amongst other things. If you are "Getting into Networking" as in setting up a home network then Vista is good. If you are "Getting into Networking" professionaly then you might want to learn some Linux, because that's what most of the networking equipment out there is based on.

[vscott83]

OK kind of a late reply but it's been a long night lol The MoBo is an EVGA 6501 Ultra. Not sure if that means it's good or not....

[theburan]

probably this one here then:EVGA | 650i Ultra Motherboard

The 650 chipset is pretty nice, I have an abit mobo with that same one... doesn't overclock very well, but it's rock stable for me.

The biggest deal with it is that you probably won't be able to use the newer quad cores, but something like the q6600 would work in it just fine. The 8000 series dual core processors should work in it though (might need to update the bios first though).

And if the sounds like most motherboards I've tried, it'll be good... but it still won't sound as good as a discrete sound card. Might be something worth picking up, even if you just look for one used or on clearance.

EDIT: Also, why is it late? This is early man! Still got work for another 2 hours, even. lol.

[vscott83]

I work 8-4:30 Mon-Fri, soon to be 2nd job Mon - Wed 5:30-9:30pm.. Need more $$ for pc stuff lol

As for the Mobo, my friend has all the bios and driver updates on his usb stick so at least I am good for that. I'm getting excited for this new pc, my current one is soooo crappy