NotebookForums.com › Forums › Off Topic › Desktop and Hardware Discussion › How does this sound?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

How does this sound?

post #1 of 13
1/19/06 at 12:38am
Thread Starter 
Case ( Raidmax Ninja-918 ATX Mid-tower Case w/450W Power Supply Silver )
Case Lighting ( None )
Power Supply ( Standard Case Power Supply )
Processor ( [939-pin] AMD® Athlon-64 X2 4400+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology )
Processor Cooling ( CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit + 2 EXTRA CASE FANS )
Motherboard ( eVGA nForce-4 SLI Chipset Dual DDR w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, Dual PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 1024 MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC3200 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand )
Video Card ( [PCI-Express 16x] Nvidia Geforce 6800XT 256MB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
Hard Drive ( Gaming HARD DRIVES [Serial ATA-150, 10,000 RPM] WD Raptor WD740GD 74.0GB 8M Cache Hard Drive )
2nd Hard Drive ( 80 GB HARD DRIVE 80 GB 7200 RPM Ultra ATA-100 Hard Drive )
Raid Controller ( None )
Raid Configuration ( None )
CD/DVD Drive ( None )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( [** Special !!! ***] 16X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Beige )
Sound Card ( Creative Lab Sound Blaster Audigy SE )

~$1400

Also, how much of a performance gain (or probably loss) can i expect if i go with 2x 80 gb 7200rpms with RAID 0 from a 10k raptor and 80gb 7200k? Does the 10k drive make a difference? what kind of things would i save on it?

Also, does the sound card really make a difference upgrading from the onboard sound to the creative card?

Thanks,
jcll2002

If you have an additions or subtractions, please say.

Thanks.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 13
1/19/06 at 1:36am
Let me point out three things.

1) You want an Audigy 2 ZS (better quality sound and reduced CPU time in games = more FPS)
2) You want RAID 0 with the same sized HD's. 10K RPM drives are loud. RAID 0 will increase performance by about 25%
3) For memory you want 1 DIMM and not 2 512MB DIMMS
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 13
1/19/06 at 2:37am
I just threw together a similar system. Your system looks pretty good. I had some problems with my on-board audio, but I think that's probably a small hardware issue more then anything. I bought a seperate sound card and it is all fine now. (I was curious from the beginning if the audio was better on-board or having a seperate card)

I dont' have my drives raided together. I have one 10k WD drive (74 gig) for windows / games, and a 250 gig 7200 for media. Loving the 10k drive so far. Is fast and when I want a clean install to get ride of old games, it's seperate from my media drive.

I went a different route then you on vid card / processor. I'm not sure which is better. I went with the 7800 gt and a 3200+ venice amd chip. I initially had 1 gig ram (getting another gig in 2 shipping days) ... My guess is that is where the major price difference comes from.

I paid ~ 1400 and got the system (without the 250 gig drive) along with a good samsung 19" lcd.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3000BPBOX - Retail

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail

Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

eVGA 256-P2-N516 Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner Model SOHW-1693S - Retail

SAMSUNG 940b-Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor - Retail
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 13
1/19/06 at 4:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobile_Hackbox
Let me point out three things.

1) You want an Audigy 2 ZS (better quality sound and reduced CPU time in games = more FPS)
2) You want RAID 0 with the same sized HD's. 10K RPM drives are loud. RAID 0 will increase performance by about 25%
3) For memory you want 1 DIMM and not 2 512MB DIMMS

How can you say that about the memory? 2x512 will be dual chanel, and will perform better.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 13
1/19/06 at 4:14am
id also price the system out seperatley, see if its cheaper to build by yourself.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 13
1/19/06 at 9:50am
Does the performance boost you get from using the:

Processor ( [939-pin] AMD® Athlon-64 X2 4400+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology )
vs'
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939

justify the price difference between the two processors? I don't know much about the differences between the processors, so thought I'd ask. I just noticed the one I bought cost ~130$ and the one he has for his system cost ~500$ off newegg.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 13
1/19/06 at 11:27am
Thread Starter 
Dual core...

Theres no way im getting a new system w/o dual core.

So is it better to have 2x 80 drives with RAID 0 or an 80gb 7200 and a 10k 74gb?

BTW, its liquid cooled. I knew i cheaped out alittle w/ the graphics but it was either that or the hard drive...what do you think?

Another option is to go sli and get two 6600gts or 6800s... i dont know

This is the kind of system that i want to be happy with for years. I have a 9300 right now and realize that it was a mistake... i could have gotten dual core, sli ect
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 13
1/19/06 at 9:36pm
I would get 2 X 200GB 7200RPM drives in RAID 0.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 13
1/19/06 at 9:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr. roboto
How can you say that about the memory? 2x512 will be dual chanel, and will perform better.
I would reserve the space to upgrade memory later. But that's just me. 1GB of ram for this type of system seems a little low. For a gaming rig your vid card GPU and memory speed means more.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 13
1/19/06 at 11:40pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, im coming from my sig...1280mb 533mhz.

The performance will be better w/ the RAID 0 rather than on the 10k?

Is it better to go with SLI 2x 6600gt or equivalent or just oc a 7800gt?

One more question, what are the pros and cons of liquid cooling?

Thanks,
jcll2002
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 13
1/20/06 at 1:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcll2002
Yeah, im coming from my sig...1280mb 533mhz.

The performance will be better w/ the RAID 0 rather than on the 10k?
Much better because you are interleaving the data on two disks instead of one. Plus a RAID setup makes for more logical contiguous hard drive space. Read performance is excellent on a RAID 0 setup.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jcll2002
Is it better to go with SLI 2x 6600gt or equivalent or just oc a 7800gt?
either one will work fine. I personally don't get the GT's (too expensive). You can overclock the lower end models and get close to the same performance.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jcll2002
One more question, what are the pros and cons of liquid cooling?
Liquid cooling means a heat exchanger and coolant. There is no dust accumulation on a heatsink too. Coolant means a risk of spillage/leaks. Regular fans work great for me. I don't mind cleaning fans with a vacuum.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 13
1/20/06 at 11:18am
Thread Starter 
So liquid cooling doesnt provide more room for ocing?...

If it doesnt, i can just choose the options for two more fans and i will be able to get something else worth the $100.

Again, does the creative sound card provide a much greater experience than onboard?

thanks
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 13
1/20/06 at 12:10pm
If you do a search on my previous posts, you should find one where I asked about 2 lower end cards (6600gt or 6800gt) SLI or one 7800gt. They did a good job answering it as far as which would give the best performance.

I ended up going with one 7800gt when I got my machine a month ago.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Desktop and Hardware Discussion
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Off Topic › Desktop and Hardware Discussion › How does this sound?