New to the board, need some advice

[guitarboy716]

Hey guys, this is my first time to post on this board.

Well, I'm building a new comptuer for myself. I have about 1500 bucks to spend, but I want to keep it around 1200.

I have decided to go with the Athlon64 chip because, well, its cool, and it uses the Socket 745 (so if I want to get a new chip in the near future, I wont have to get a new mobo as well)

can yall take a look at this list and see if its ok?
My dad will handle all the software (Windows Xp Pro etc), but I'm doing the hardware

http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishR.asp?ID=550755

that is the list of parts I'm buying, but I'll sum it up here as well

Athlon64 3200+

GIGABYTE K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU, Model "GA-K8VNXP"

EVGA GeForce FX 5900SE

Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD1200JD

Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200


and a cheap soundcard (I dont wanna use the onboard audio because it apparently uses up to 6% of the CPU)

Turtle Beach 6 Channel PCI Sound Card, Model "Santa Cruz"


then the rest is just cd-rw, dvd drives, case, mouse etc
all those are fine

I just wanted opinions on the main guts of my comp seeing as i've never built a computer before

Thanks !!
rick

[amd_man2005]

Get an ATi 9800pro, the 5900SE is a value crap version of the FX5900. But since the FX series is having troubles with DX9, ATi is the way to go right now. Also, make sure you get ECC RAM, as what you got is non-ECC

Welcome to TT! :wave:

[Wiggo]

Also, make sure you get ECC RAM, as what you got is non-ECC

Only Opteron and Athlon FX (atm) systems require ECC memory the basic Athlon 64's don't. :rolleyes2

[guitarboy716]

yeah, I from what I understood (from reading) the 64's dont need ECC, but heck, I dont even Know what ECC means...I'm kindof new at this stuff...

I've built computers before for other people, i've just never bought my own parts and built my own system


I figure I should tell yall what I'll be using this for.
I want a great computer for college, I want to be able to play games, do photoshop, play music, make cd's, and then do the various comp sci stuff I do

so yeah, I dont think I need a vid card that good, shoot, right now I have a TNT2, which is the worst card i've ever seen, and yet I still play games with it, so pretty much anything will be better than what I have in this computer now.

I want the vid card to be about 175, the one I picked is 188, so thats not bad, plus it comes with a game

is the mobo I picked good?
I've read reviews, but I want other opinions

thanks for the advice guys

Oh, one more thing, I'll be useing a 350 watt power supply, I have 8 fans, 1 Hard drive, 2 cd/dvd, and two PCI cards

that should be enough right?

[Wiggo]

I think that ya'll be pushin' ya luck with a 350W PSU and I'd suggest a quality 420-480W one.

[guitarboy716]

alright, i guess another 50 bucks wont hurt me

can anyone give their opinion on the mobo and cpu?

[amd_man2005]

Only Opteron and Athlon FX (atm) systems require ECC memory the basic Athlon 64's don't. :rolleyes2

:o I thought they all did, my fault.

[guitarboy716]

I did some re thinking

I'll have 3 case fans, the cpu fan, the graphics card fan, one HDD, two cd/dvd drives

I think a 350 should be able to cover that dont you think?

One more question, if I was looking to get another Power supply, what would I have to look for?
I know it has to work with the ATX form board...but is there anything else?

like...anything Athlon specific?

[Fatguy3]

Some suggestions from the fatguy:

The 5900SE is really a piece of junk, we're not kidding :) If you really dont want to spend that much, I'd look at getting a 9600XT or a 9700 Pro, you can get a 9700 Pro for about 220, and will last you alot longer. You really wont be doing the athlon 64 justice with a junk video card.

[amd_man2005]

9600XT is about $180, and it comes with a voucher for free HL2. I'd recommend you get it.
:cheers:

[guitarboy716]

well, i found those cards for 159, thats a very very good price to me, if infact these cards are good
i read the reviews on tomshardware.com and they seem to think its a great bang for the buck
they recomended it, and the pro

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-125-124&depa=1

what do yall think about that one?

[Fatguy3]

If you cant afford a 9700 Pro, get that, Gigabyte is a good manufacturer.

[guitarboy716]

yeah, i really dont wanna spend much more than that right now on a vid card...

but thanks for the advice

[johnerz]

not a bad price - check this one out

http://www.pchardware4u.com/details.aspx?SKU=024739&REF=3

only 129 bucks!

[Fatguy3]

thats only a 9600, not a bad card, but its worth the money to get the XT, plus the XT is retail, so it will come with Half-Life 2 and a few other games and such. Considering Half-Life 2 will reatail at 50 bucks, the 160 dollar card you're really only paying 110 dollars, because everyone will be buying HL-2 :)