So I got off my lazy ***... (PC Questions)

[Danju]

...and got myself a job. Working full-time in the meat department of my local market. I'll be making about $8/hour (though it's still negotiable) and am really looking forward to all the animal blood. Apparently it will be my job to clean the blood by spraying with water leading it towards the drain, as well as cutting meat to meat (har har) customer specifications and answering their questions. Sounds fun.

So, how the hell does this relate to a PC? I'm looking to build a new one. I'm using this site to build a comp and need help deciding what parts to get. I generally know how good a part is, but I'm having trouble finding out what works well together and what doesn't. What I do know is that I want an Athlon 64 x2 6000+ processor. I'm trying to work from there. I'm not very good at this, so any help would be highly appreciated.

To make this thread a little cleaner, here's a list of parts and what I'm thinking of getting (some will be blank). The comp will be primarily for gaming, 3D modeling and video encoding. My budget is $2000:

Case: Xion III Gaming Mid-Tower (Neon-Green Lights)
Extra Case Fans: 2x 3-Color Neon Light Case Fans
Power Supply: Apevia 600w Power Supply (Green)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+
Cooling Fan:
Motherboard: MSI K9N4 (is what I'm thinking)
Memory: 2GB (2x 1GB)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB
Hard Drive: 500 GB
Optical Drive:
Sound:

[Warabit]

looks good to me. It wont list parts that will not work with the rig. I have 2 computers from that site and they both are great, I am on one right now. I would recommend getting one of the more expensive ASUS deluxe boards, or the crossfire. Better chipset, faster PCI-e slots, etc. Also a better Motherboard will allow for more upgrades later with less bottlenecking.

Cooling is up to you. Unless you are planning on overclocking the standard AMD fan will do just fine.

The special price optical drive should be fine unless you want the blu ray, or are looking for something specific.

for sound I would say get one of the creative labs cards. You get what you pay for so thats really up to you. I have an audigy on my pc and its sweet. I have the Inspire 7.1 speakers from that site too, they work very well for the price. so i recommend those, unless you have speakers or are going to get some elsewhere.

[Siendra]

I couldn't find that exact PSU, but none of the ones listed under "Aprevia" are modular in nature. If you're using a mid tower, spend the couple extra bucks to get a modular PSU. It's going to help with cooling and organization (And install is way easier).

Other then that, what brand of video card are you looking at? I'd stick to BFG or eVGA.

[Warabit]

eVGA cards are mostly what they give you. You will have the choice, so I second that reccomendation. Also, get windows XP.

[Danju]

Yeah, the video card brand is eVGA. Also, getting anything other than XP isn't even on the table.

What I'm most concerned about right is the power supply. I'm thinking of raising the wattage, though I don't want to take it too far. 600w should probably be enough but I've just been reading some crap online that's been forcing me to reconsider. The wattage aside, I'm trying to choose between CoolMaster, Thermaltake and a Tagan or some s***.

[Jon]

I believe a 600+ watt PSU is a bit overkill, unless you plan on putting another video card inside your computer. A nice 500 watt PSU would do fine with one video card and all the other standard componets.

[333jeffery]

600 watts is plenty for what you're building. Enermax power-supplies are some of the best, if that's an option.
As for CPU, the intel Core 2 processors beat the AMD chips in all gaming benchmarks. If you can wait a few months, intel is releasing the E6850 processor at a decent price, which would be perfect for a gaming rig.
For vidcards, go with the 8800 GTX, it's considerably more powerful than the 8800 GTS cards. Very close to the Ultra in performance.
In soundcards, go with a Creative X-Fi card.
For optical drives, buy Plextor. They're the best, and last forever.
Enjoy!....

[HSaabedra]

Originally Posted by Danju

Yeah, the video card brand is eVGA. Also, getting anything other than XP isn't even on the table.

What I'm most concerned about right is the power supply. I'm thinking of raising the wattage, though I don't want to take it too far. 600w should probably be enough but I've just been reading some crap online that's been forcing me to reconsider. The wattage aside, I'm trying to choose between CoolMaster, Thermaltake and a Tagan or some s***.

The Apevia line is known for cheap poorly built units that fail under heavy load.

What matters more than what you mentioned is the ability of the voltage rails to consistently deliver 3V/5V/12V. A 600W PSU with 60% efficiency is worse for components than a 500W with 88% efficiency. If the rails cant deliver the required voltage all the time parts can degrade or become damaged because the PSU is trying to feed power and can't due to leakage, leading to failure. Stick with Antec and get a SoundBlaster card for discrete audio.

The video card you selected will be your biggest bottleneck since 3D modeling programs require RAM and processor over video memory while games are optimized for that GPU.

[Danju]

Originally Posted by 333jeffery

600 watts is plenty for what you're building. Enermax power-supplies are some of the best, if that's an option.
As for CPU, the intel Core 2 processors beat the AMD chips in all gaming benchmarks. If you can wait a few months, intel is releasing the E6850 processor at a decent price, which would be perfect for a gaming rig.
For vidcards, go with the 8800 GTX, it's considerably more powerful than the 8800 GTS cards. Very close to the Ultra in performance.
In soundcards, go with a Creative X-Fi card.
For optical drives, buy Plextor. They're the best, and last forever.
Enjoy!....

I was thinking of going with Intel Core 2 processors but I dunno. Due to my budget, my choices would be the Duo E6700 or the Quad Q6600. I'm sure I'd be absolutely fine with the AMD processor I chose, though.

I think I might be able to afford upgrading to an 8800 GTX. I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for your comments.

Originally Posted by Axl X

The Apevia line is known for cheap poorly built units that fail under heavy load.

What matters more than what you mentioned is the ability of the voltage rails to consistently deliver 3V/5V/12V. A 600W PSU with 60% efficiency is worse for components than a 500W with 88% efficiency. If the rails cant deliver the required voltage all the time parts can degrade or become damaged because the PSU is trying to feed power and can't due to leakage, leading to failure. Stick with Antec and get a SoundBlaster card for discrete audio.

The video card you selected will be your biggest bottleneck since 3D modeling programs require RAM and processor over video memory while games are optimized for that GPU.

I'm probably going to switch to an Enermax, what do you think of those? I'm pretty much lost when it comes to discussing PSUs.

2GB should be enough though, right? I would hope so. I won't be gaming that much, though, so I could feasibly get a cheaper card and upgrade to 4GB RAM.

[HSaabedra]

Originally Posted by Danju

I'm probably going to switch to an Enermax, what do you think of those? I'm pretty much lost when it comes to discussing PSUs.

2GB should be enough though, right? I would hope so. I won't be gaming that much, though, so I could feasibly get a cheaper card and upgrade to 4GB RAM.

XP can only address 4GB of RAM so its best to max out, and I've heard good things about Enermax PSUs. Just keep in mind what you need to look for from what I detailed.

I would downgrade the card unless you really need max everything on games. Are you using a widescreen monitor? If so kick down to 512 or even 256 for the GPU, since HD encodes don't even utilize the GPU all that much. With video encoding its all processor and RAM as well so max out RAM. Your processor is fine for what you're building the computer for.

[Danju]

Originally Posted by Axl X

XP can only address 4GB of RAM so its best to max out, and I've heard good things about Enermax PSUs. Just keep in mind what you need to look for from what I detailed.

I would downgrade the card unless you really need max everything on games. Are you using a widescreen monitor? If so kick down to 512 or even 256 for the GPU, since HD encodes don't even utilize the GPU all that much. With video encoding its all processor and RAM as well so max out RAM. Your processor is fine for what you're building the computer for.

I think I'll do that. 4GB sounds overkill, but I suppose I really could use it if I want to take things more seriously. Thanks for the input. I'll make sure to watch out for my power supply as well.

[{NG}Fidel]

PC Power and Cooling, SeaSonic and SilverStone are the BEST PSU makers out their bar none.