Moderator: Thanas
Hardware suggestions Tips/tricks Places to purchase componants Compiled guide to building the computer
As for add-on sound cards, I'm a fan of the Chaintech AV-710 (very good stereo-out). Creative Labs cards will marginally improve framerates (as they can offload some work) but have gigantic and sometimes buggy driver packages.Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:For sound, I tend to stick with onboard. People claim there are gains from having a sound card, but I can't tell the difference. Of course, some motherboards have crappy onboard sound, so watch out for that. We don't know yet which are the good Conroe mobo's, so I can't make any specific recommendations here.
I actually have a 330W PSU driving an overclocked Opteron 165 and 7800GT without any problem. It is also nice and quiet (Seasonic S12).You're going to want at least a 450W power supply, and make sure it's name brand. Don't be lured by the siren call of high watts at low prices, because cheap prices in the power supply industry means cheap quality.
Antec makes good-quality cases. The P150 and P180 are optimized for staying quiet, though the latter is heavy and the former's PSU has some compatibility issues. Neither are cheap. The SLK8000B series is a popular one and pretty cheap.I don't have any real case recommendation, as that's one area I don't keep up on. I tend to just visit Falcon Northwest, iBuyPower, or similar sites and use whatever case they use.
True. I just figured it was better to err on the high side. I'm actually running an A64 3000+, 9800 pro, and two HDD's on a 250 W. It's got a 16A 12V rail, though, putting it more on par with most 350 watters.phongn wrote:I actually have a 330W PSU driving an overclocked Opteron 165 and 7800GT without any problem. It is also nice and quiet (Seasonic S12).arthur_tuxedo wrote:You're going to want at least a 450W power supply, and make sure it's name brand. Don't be lured by the siren call of high watts at low prices, because cheap prices in the power supply industry means cheap quality.
I agree. But this machine is not going to last 3 years. It's GPU is very much a mid-range card, it runs modern games decently, it will run games a year from now okay, and in two years it'll be a piece of crap, and will need to be replaced. If anything, a better GPU is the way to go.Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:I say that if you're going to make a big purchase, do it right the first time so you don't have to mess with it later.
There's still tax, and it's not like the shipping gets cheaper as you add item. The man has a budget, and a place like ZipZoomFly (which I've had fantastic experience with by the way), would help him meet that budget more easily.Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:Anyway, it's true you can sometimes save money by getting your stuff from different retailers, but I trust Newegg, and per-item shipping tends to decrease the more stuff you buy from the same place.
But additionally with no performance premium, from what I've read: Especially considering that DDR2 memory is more expensive (I would imagine: admittedly I havn't checked), and has considerably higher latancies.Ace Pace wrote:Yes, at no price premium, within a few weeks even motherboards will be down to normal prices.
If it were me, I'd get the extra RAM and the faster GPU. Since we don't know how closely he needs or wants to stick to his budget, we don't know whether that's feasible. But I do agree that it's better to get the X1800 XT and only 1 GB of RAM than the other way around.InnocentBystander wrote:I agree. But this machine is not going to last 3 years. It's GPU is very much a mid-range card, it runs modern games decently, it will run games a year from now okay, and in two years it'll be a piece of crap, and will need to be replaced. If anything, a better GPU is the way to go.Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:I say that if you're going to make a big purchase, do it right the first time so you don't have to mess with it later.
RAM, on the other hand, is the easiest upgrade you can do for your computer, hands down. Unlike pretty much every other component it is expandable. So in a few months when he has more $$ he can pluck down like 70 bucks and get the second gig.
Perhaps. I've heard good things about ZZF, but have never personally used them. If you can get free shipping and no tax with them, then I suppose that's the way to go.There's still tax, and it's not like the shipping gets cheaper as you add item. The man has a budget, and a place like ZipZoomFly (which I've had fantastic experience with by the way), would help him meet that budget more easily.Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:Anyway, it's true you can sometimes save money by getting your stuff from different retailers, but I trust Newegg, and per-item shipping tends to decrease the more stuff you buy from the same place.
DDR2 RAM nowdays isn't that more expensive, if it still is, and since preformance is roughly the same, it's irrelevent.Pezzoni wrote:But additionally with no performance premium, from what I've read: Especially considering that DDR2 memory is more expensive (I would imagine: admittedly I havn't checked), and has considerably higher latancies.Ace Pace wrote:Yes, at no price premium, within a few weeks even motherboards will be down to normal prices.
Officially, these chips will be released on 07/23 IIRC.Does anyone have an idea of how long it will take for computer makers to start putting these Core 2chips in their systems?
If this is right, we can expect high retail prices and availibility problems, since most people will prefer a Conroe over a Pentium D, so the demand should be quite high.The scary statistic is that by the end of this year, only 25% of Intel's Performance Mainstream desktop processor shipments will be based on Conroe. The remaining 75% will still be NetBurst based, meaning they will be Pentium 4, Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition.
