Newbie would like advice for first build!

[Jenesis]

Hi! I've found the articles on this site very helpful for researching my first build, so I thought I'd come and see what you guys think of my intended setup. I haven't ordered any of these things yet, I'll do it all at once. So it's the good old newbie question: Will it work! :)

Motherboard: MSI K9N Diamond AM2 ATX DDR2 nForce 590
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ (2.6GHz) Socket AM2 Dual Core
Memory: Corsair 2GB Kit DDR2 PC2-6400 Dominator
Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB Raid SATA II 7200RPM OEM
Case: Aspire X-Cruiser Black ATX Windowed Case
PSU: 650W EZ-Cool Silent pPFC Power Supply AMD 12cm Fan
Cooler: AKASA AM2 Cooler 120mm Blue LED Fan
Optical: HP DVD940i 18x DVD+/-RW/RAM Lightscribe
Graphics: BFG 7300GS OC 256MB DDR2 PCI-E

[Note about the graphics: I intend to save up (again) for an 8800 after this system is built. The 8800 will replace the 7300.]

So what do you think? Will it work? Thanks in advance :toast:

[BXtreme]

Nice to see am2, ppl tend to go for c2d rigs more these days :p I'll be going am2 soon...
CPU- gd
Mobo-GD
gfx- save for the dx10, righty you did ;)
hdd-enough space
psu-gd
ram-Good
Overall- Awesome :D esp. when with 8800 ;) btw which one are you gonna take?

[Jenesis]

Thanks for reply! Glad the rig will work, compatibility issues are more than slightly confusing for poor little newbies ;)

Re the 8800, I'm not sure yet as it'll probably be August/September (just in time for University!) by the time I get one, but if I had to choose now I'd probably go for the XFX 8800GTX 768MB DVI PCI-E.

[BXtreme]

But GTX will be bottlenecked by this config, you might pick GTS versions though....

[KennyT772]

The system should not be bottlenecked at all unless he is running a bunch of canned benchmarks etc. In short that system will not set any records, but it will play any game maxed out at 1600x1200(crt res) or 1650x1080?(lcd widescreen). Just make sure to get a good display, and a good mouse/keyboard.

[BXtreme]

ya, but a really powerful cpu, like E6xxx oc'ed to @least E6700's speed is required for not holding back the GTX, as discussed earlier in a thread.
And, ya, a really big monitor will be required or the 768mb of memory would get beaten gpu lower than it by 1 or 2 notches ;)

[Jenesis]

The monitor isn't a problem, I'm getting a nice 21" or bigger LCD monitor (haven't decided on a specific one yet) for passing my exams this semester. As for the 8800, thanks for the advice, as I said I'm not getting it for ages so when I can afford it I'll check the compatibilities more carefully.

And I'm a she, thanks anyway ;)

[BXtreme]

If you're not going 8800, then the whole setup is nice imo ;)

[KennyT772]

For 1600+ 512mb is the new recommended. 256mb cards are fine but they have issues running high AA and AF at larger resolutions.

As for BXtreme's comment, this is not necessarily true. Some games these days such as supreme commander require a powerful cpu. The Amd will not kill performance, but overclocking the Intel will be much easier than the Amd, and the Intel will be much faster and cheaper out of the box.

Heres some good ole' HardOCP reading.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMwNiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTI2MiwzLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[BXtreme]

For 1600+ 512mb is the new recommended. 256mb cards are fine but they have issues running high AA and AF at larger resolutions.

As for BXtreme's comment, this is not necessarily true. Some games these days such as supreme commander require a powerful cpu. The Amd will not kill performance, but overclocking the Intel will be much easier than the Amd, and the Intel will be much faster and cheaper out of the box.


as now you've mentioned an exception, you need 4+ gigs of ram too to play supcom at smooth fps, said by wile E ;)

[KennyT772]

True but if you read the first link you will see the diff of multicore/single for for that game. It shows where things are headed in the pc realm.

[BXtreme]

But at stock, 5200+ beats E6300 and E6400 by a slight margin, so price-wise it's a gd deal @ stock i.e
Nothing else :toast: many ppl out there don't oc everytime they buy a proccie ;)

[Jenesis]

many ppl out there don't oc everytime they buy a proccie ;)

Quite ;)

[BXtreme]

My 2nd rig in specs is gonna be replaced by almost the same proccie and board you're getting ;) Just doing it for the price i.e, amd's cheap 'ol dual cores lol.
btw kenny, your ram says 260mhz in your specs :ohwell: how is that possible :S(no offense)

[Jenesis]

Price isn't a main factor in my choices - I have a Dell laptop at the moment, bought for me for University, and while it's pretty good for a laptop it's obviously not a gaming rig! As a poor student I need to squeeze every penny :D although I thought I'd splash out on the HDD - I am sick to the back teeth of having to uninstall practically everything else to install a large new game...

[BXtreme]

ya :rolleyes:, that depends upon the user entirely....for me it's gonna make a substitute for a better onboard soundcard, sli, and mainly a better price/perf ratio....it's goin to be 2 weeks or so after I get it, if you get it 1st be sure to give some feedback on it. It'll help me out in my decision :-) l8er ;)

[kwchang007]

that looks like a pretty good build. just one thing that could be a problem, but i don't think so. the psu needs at least 26 amps on the 12 volt line, for a 8800 gts, i was helping my friend pick parts for his comp and we realized like a day before he ordered. for the 8800 gtx i think you need two lines right?

[KennyT772]

Your Psu choice is fine.

There are DDR1 kits that will do 300+ mhz or DDR600+ speeds. My kit is DDR500 or 250mhz, overclocked to 260. Max I have hit is 285mhz at 3.1v.