Proposed system specs (1 Viewer)

[CrashOveride]

Hi all,

Asus A8N-E Nforce 4 Ultra Socket 939 Pin Motherboard $145
AMD x2 Dual Core 3800+ $486
2 x 1G Corsair / Kingston DDR400 $280
Seagate 8M SATA 250G $159
256MB Forsa 7800GT VIVO $495
BenQ DW1640 $61
Gigabyte GZ-XCCL $85
19” Samsung 913V – 12ms “3 year 0 bright pixel wt” N/A
Creative LX 520 5.1 $69
Polyview V398: 19" Widescreen LCD (1440x900, 8ms) Monitor - D-Sub/DVI - Black/Silver $480
Winfast Leadtek DTV1000 Digital TV Tuner Card $80
Logitech Cordless Keyboard + optical Mouse $59

Total $2399

Go kingston or corsair for the RAM? Also i'm a bit iffy about the Polyview...it's like a no name brand and bad dead pixel policy (hence low price for otherwise good widescreen monitor). So Im considering a Samsung as they have a kick ass 3 yr 0 dead pixel policy.

Comments? Appreciate any input, thanks.
(I'm getting most things from MSY but random components from cheap places found via www.staticice.com.au)

 

[Collin]

What are you trying to do exactly? Probably gaming, since you're after a high-end Geforce 7. If this desktop's primary purpose is going to be gaming, I'd ditch the LCD and go for a CRT.

Kingston and Corsair are both good. I've been on 1GB Corsair TwinX for 18 months now, and I'm reasonably pleased.

 

[CrashOveride]

What are you trying to do exactly? Probably gaming, since you're after a high-end Geforce 7. If this desktop's primary purpose is going to be gaming, I'd ditch the LCD and go for a CRT.
Kingston and Corsair are both good. I've been on 1GB Corsair TwinX for 18 months now, and I'm reasonably pleased.

Not really hardcore gaming, just the casual BF2 or what have you
Want it mostly for hardcore multitasking.

I was going to go 4400+ but realised there wasnt much advantage so saved a bit of cash by cutting back to 3800+ and using that saved cash to up the GFX card.

 

[withoutaface]

If you want to do gaming I'd advise stepping up to a monitor with 8ms reaction time.

 

[CrashOveride]

If you want to do gaming I'd advise stepping up to a monitor with 8ms reaction time.

Yeah I just had that 12ms one in there to show I wasn't certain about the Polyview.

Also, how hard is it for someone who has never assembled a system from scratch to actually do so ?Is it easy to make damaging mistakes etc?

 

[AsyLum]

Yes, potentially.

I suggest being extra careful when it comes to screwing the motherboard on, putting the cpu in and always make sure you're grounded.

 

[CrashOveride]

I might just pay 'em to do it.

What do people also think about getting a particular PSU vs. the one that came with the case?

 

[Templar]

19” Samsung 913V – 12ms “3 year 0 bright pixel wt” N/A
So Im considering a Samsung as they have a kick ass 3 yr 0 dead pixel policy.

0 bright pixel is not the same as 0 dead pixel.

As for PSU, the ones that come with brand name cases are decent, although personally I prefer to buy a separate high end PSU. Since your case is a Gigabyte I would strongly advise purchasing a better PSU, especially since the cost of the case is low.

Be aware that 1GB RAM modules don't come in 2-2-2-5 timing (probably doesn't matter for you since you're not overclocking or pusing the system). Otherwise Kingston and Corsair makes no particular difference to your system at this level.

 

[CrashOveride]

0 bright pixel is not the same as 0 dead pixel.
As for PSU, the ones that come with brand name cases are decent, although personally I prefer to buy a separate high end PSU. Since your case is a Gigabyte I would strongly advise purchasing a better PSU, especially since the cost of the case is low.
Be aware that 1GB RAM modules don't come in 2-2-2-5 timing (probably doesn't matter for you since you're not overclocking or pusing the system). Otherwise Kingston and Corsair makes no particular difference to your system at this level.

I'll go for the $49 X-Blade http://www.fluidtek.com.au/images/blkxblade.jpg
I think its 400W PSU should suffice.
Yeah no OC for the time being.
So with the pixel thing, I checked the samsung website and it seems for differnet monitors there are individual policies. Anyone recommend a good 19" lcd that comes with a good defect pixel policy?

Also is PQI Turbo ram reputable? They really want to offload that stuff @ fluidtek.

 

[withoutaface]

Go anything by BenQ.

 

[SashatheMan]

have u talked to MSY. they god shit all, last week i went. They said they will be stocking up mid Jan

 

[CrashOveride]

We're at about mid Jan now, but I havn;t been yet.

And because MSY dont work Sundays, im trying to see what kind of system i can create over at fluidtek.

withoutaface: The BenQ monitors are a bit ugly, though. The ones that arn't don't have impressive contrast ratios or response times.

 

[Templar]

I'll go for the $49 X-Blade http://www.fluidtek.com.au/images/blkxblade.jpg
I think its 400W PSU should suffice.

Also is PQI Turbo ram reputable? They really want to offload that stuff @ fluidtek.

Regardless of what the PSU is rated, that is a crap brand case, hence crap PSU. Plus it's obvious a $50 case would not come with a decent PSU, a decent PSU itself would cost at least that much.

I have never heard of PQI Turbo RAM, so it's probably not reputable. Maybe it will work OK with a system that is never fully ultilised or pushed, but I would personally get well known brand components.

In general with places like Fluidtek, MSY and CWorld, they're good to pick up cheap components, but their advice is terrible.

 

[CrashOveride]

Plus it's obvious a $50 case would not come with a decent PSU, a decent PSU itself would cost at least that much.

Well it's $50 when you also buy a gig of their PQI Turbo RAM. Otherwise, it's $99 and i have seen it advertised at other sites for a bit more.

It might be a bit crap, but surely it's better than all your other standard AOpen cases and what not. It has the front usb ports which the sopranos don't. I'm not really willing to fork out more than $120 on the case.

 

[Casmira]

I wouldn't touch a polyview LCD, my mate got one and we compared it too my LG and his was really nasty, mine is 16ms (LG L1710S) and I play fast hard games like UT and I can tell you I do not notice ANY ghosting, if you can somehow spot the difference then you must be a tomcat or a nightcrawler to pick up that sort of shit. From memory, samsung makes real ace LCD's~

Kingston or corsair is same RAM imo, if you are overclocking go for corsair but at rated speeds it'll run just fine.

You're going too have a really fucking nice system! I wouldn't bother with 2 CPU's or have they managed too work around that bottleneck caused with CPU's and video cards? as Templar was saying you'd need a decent PSU or your computer will run very shoddy and unstable. Get an antec case they come with a nice PSU, sometimes its like only an extra $50 or $100 on top of the PSU price and you'd get a really ace case.

I would be very worried about the heat caused by your 7800.

My info might be a little dodgy, ie. 2 years old because thats when I could be last bothered too read up on latest parts released (ie. I'd spend 2-3 hours a day reading on it, now I just skim over).

Don't touch the MX700 duo! the keyboard is known too die easily, aim for MX1000!

Otherwise, nice system MSY is great with warranty they took back my 2 dodgy HDD's fast and effecient, just hang onto your damn recipt!

 

[CrashOveride]

This fluidtek place doesnt seem to answer the phone or emails, which ive read is commonplace for the fkn bastards.

 

[Templar]

These stores are great for buying components cheap. Don't bother communicating with them as they don't know anything about the hardware they sell.

Soprano has top USB ports. And AOpen is not know to make good cases. If you want an economical good case, get an Antec as Casmira has suggested,. They make great cases and PSU.