Looking to build a new set up...

[kriminal]

I've been 'out of the loop' so to speak for a while. So i was just curious if anyone here could give me a few pointers on what i should buy for max performance in a new set up. Will probably spend around $2k or so on it, excluding monitor.

If anyone could answer things such as will 2 Radeon X1600's perform as well as one X1900. Or what would be the best bang for my buck in the video card department. Basically what i need most would be the motherboard, processor, video card, and ram that would be the best bang for my buck. Possibly hard drives as well, from what i see the 74gb 10,000 rpm raptor is pretty popular. Any help would be appreciated.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Looking to build a new set up...

Dual video cards will not outperform a more expensive one unless they cost more, and I wouldn't want an X1600 for any reason. An X1900 is the top-of-the-line card to get if that's where you want to throw your money. If you're considering a dual GPU setup, 2x7800GTs are good. I'd say it's probably not a good idea, but SLI is the way to go if you do get dual GPUs. The 7800GT is also the best bang-for-buck as far as high-end cards go, but a a 7800GTX or X1900 would likely be moe suitable for your budget.

The new 150GB 10000RPM Raptors are a great choice for speed. The 74GB isn't any slower, but 74GB is probably not going to be enough.

For a motherboard, you can either grab the cheapest board that does what you need it to, or you can grab a decent overclocking board so you can overclock the processor. In the case of the former, there are lots of good offerings from lots of brands. In the case of the latter, DFI is the way to go.

For a processor, you'll either want a high-end dual-core Athlon 64 (X2 4800 or 4600) or an entry-level one (X2 3800, Opteron 165) that you'll overclock. You can always overclock the high-end ones, but they won't likely do any better than their cheaper counterparts.

For RAM, just grab some CAS 2 OCZ RAM. Get a 2x1GB pack.

Granted, this is all assuming you're doing this now. AMD's new socket comes out in Q2 of this year, so it wouldn't be too foolish to wait two or three months.

[kriminal]

Re: Looking to build a new set up...

Ok, so now that i finally have a definitive answer on if the s900 will outperform any crossfire setup (aside from x1900) i think ill go with that. As for the hard drive space that isnt a problem, im going to raid my other 2 drives in as well, but thanks for the info, didnt even know they had a 150gb one out.

As for the mobo the DFI lanparty (that everyone uses) was looking the most appealing, is there any specific ones i should look for, toward the oc'ing aspect?

Also, if i did wait for the new amd proc... what do you think the eta would be for a new oc capable mobo for it?

Thanks for the info by the way, its much appreciated.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Looking to build a new set up...

As for the mobo the DFI lanparty (that everyone uses) was looking the most appealing, is there any specific ones i should look for, toward the oc'ing aspect?

The DFI UT nF4 Ultra-D is the board you want. It's the best OCer out there (well, tied with other DFI boards, basically) and it is moddable to SLI if you ever do go with that.

Also, if i did wait for the new amd proc... what do you think the eta would be for a new oc capable mobo for it?

Based on experience, I'd give it two and a half to four months from right now. That's usually what it takes, but not always. The first Socket 754 boards all used chipsets that were incapable of overclocking significantly because they lacked working PCI locks. Socket 939, IIRC, had good OCing boards almost right after launch.