Building/Buying New PC, Need Advice.

Okay. I know what a number SL can do to computers. I'm currently using a 533mhz Celeron with around 300mb RAM, a 64mb GeForce2 card, and instead of hauling ass, it drags it's ass on the carpet. Don't get me wrong, I love this little box that peiced together out of stolen parts, but now that I have a paycheck, I might be able to afford something better.

So.... Here's what I'm figuring so far, generally.

2.5ghz or better AMD proc.
At least 1gb of RAM.
200gb of multi-drive storage.
128mb of nVidia's latest asskickyness.
19" Flat CRT.

And, if I can get a bank loan, I'll just build something that'll run Doom3 while live-rendering Shrek and cough up trillion-digit prime numbers as it pours my coffee for me.
One can dream right?

What are you power SL freaks using?

1) Glad you're going AMD =) Think about one of the new 64 chips. ~,^
2) Chances are you -are- going to need a new motherboard, look into one with the ne serial ports and PCIexpress.
3)Patriot RAM is pretty nice and affordable, makes nice Dual Channel for about $100.
4)When looking for a HD, the new serial drives are nice (5% faster) but in a few months the 10,000RPM drives (about $250 for 70 GB right now) will go down and be -well- worth it. You can get a Maxtor 250, 16MB Cache for less than $100 right now with IDE.

Here is what I have:

AMD64 3200+ 1mb cache
Geforce 6800GT 256MB
1GB RAM
74GB 10k rpm Raptor Hdd
Abit Mobo with UGuru technology
LiteOn DVD burner
17" Samsung LCD
Logitech 530 speakers
Logitech 3100 cordless mouse and keyboard

If I where to do it again, I would pretty much do the same thing. AMD is king in my book for processors. I'm sure people will flame AMD, but thats MY opinion. Make sure the ram you get isn't the cheapest. Ram makes or breaks the computer as most people don't know. The new 16mb cache harddrives actually out perform my raptor, so you might want to get one of those. Don't use RAID for gaming, it's slower. The video card is really what you can afford. I would atleast get 256mb of ram for the video card. Samsung makes some of the best monitors in the world, keep that in mind. Logitech makes the best bang for the buck speakers. I prefer logitechs rechargable wireless optical mouse, so i bought their new laser one with a wireless keyboard. The mouse will run 3+ days without being recharged ( i charge mine nightly) and the keyboard should run for 6 months or more. Make sure you know what processor you want before you buy your motherboard. I usually buy what fits my budget instead of the fastest one. 64 bit is the way to go, Linux already supports it and Microsoft will by next year. I would also get a DVD burner since they are very well priced.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

no doubt any 64bit amd is very good, i dont know what prices are over where you live but right where i am these and lower are dirt cheap

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ [2.0ghz] socket 939, definatly min 1 gig ram, the gf6600 series are very decent for their price class to.

7200 to 10.000 rpm drive does actually help for SL, cache on my drive that is 10k is alot faster then the older 7.2k i used, (also help windows temp/cache), also have it sata I and II (raid or well just more drives), dont use the old flatcable more.

Get a mb with pci-express sli if you can (not that much diffrence in price anyway), might as well if youre getting a mb , i like Asus alot, they never had much issues for me , pretty clean, but theres alot of nice ones out there.


What i use?
64 FX-55 2.6GHz
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, nForce4 SLI
4 gig ram
845 gig total drives
gf6800gt
21" Lcd
2x19" Crt

will be using a 64 X2 4800+ 2.4GHz , soon i got it from someone who get it cheaper then usual, doubt it will do much diffrence but hey.

Oh yeah i noticed Samsung above my post, yeah i have one and using "highlight" future on it, you get a insaaane crisp display, i never seen a crt this bright and sharp (some program you get with it called Mouscreen, only work for that screen) im so glad i got that screen ^^ my old was sad compared.

If you go with AMD, make sure you get an Nforce 4 motherboard, with a Socket 939 processor. I'd recommend the ASUS A8N-SLI, with a GeForce 6600 GT PCI-express video card. That way, you can add a second 6600 GT at sometime in the future.

If you really think it's worth the money, you could get a dual-core Athlon 64. It might not pay off immediately, unless you run a lot of simultaneous programs, though. It's possible that SL 2.0 will take advantage of a dual-core CPU more than most applications.

As much of a geek that I am I can't support dual core chips for average person/gamer. Most games won't use the second processor and many apps still don't support it. With the way prices run I would just get a not so fast AMD64 and not worry about it.

When windows (im assuming you use windows) gets to be able to support dual proc 64 bit cpus and SL has SMP support then i would upgrade again. Remember, technology doubles every 18 months. I don't see either of these happening before that 18 month step.

get this one :

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, nForce4 SLI

It supports x2's when you want to try one later , and pretty nice card ^^

Asus makes some nice boards, so does Abit. Both of them are pricey compared to the competition. EPoX makes some great boards as well and they are much cheaper. It really comes down to what you feel is needed. Nvidia makes some great chipsets as long as you don't run Linux. I personally choose the Via chipset with my board so I could have the most compatibility.

The x2 processors have a distinct advantage in that you can run Photoshop and SL at the same time with no performance hit. XP pro does support multiprocessors so using the x2 has definite advantages. The cost on the otherhand is a definite drawback. Heck, you could buy a used computer that would be good enough for PS and just set it next to your computer for the extra cost of the processor alone...

What you can do is get a motherboard and memory that can use the x2 chips (socket 939), pci-express and get a relitivily inexpensive AMD cpu to hold you over until prices come down on the x2's in a year or two. You will have a rockin' system now with the ability to upgrade easily to something really rocking in the future. If you don't need the multi tasking and you don't plan to overclock, the AMD 64 4000+ is the FX-53 with everything locked and a good bit cheaper.

The 6600gt pci express is a good card for the price and two in SLI mode can perform better than a single 6800 Ultra for less money. The 7800gtx is the king of the hill atm but it's price is in the $600 range.