# Building a New PC
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 29, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141 "2004-12-29T20:07:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/1 "2004-12-29T20:07:46Z")
I’m building a new PC, and would like to hear some of the Teeming Millions thoughts and views on it. The purpose of this PC is to play Half-Life 2 in its full glory…anything else is secondary!
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz “Winchester” Processor
Cooling: Zalman CNPS7700-CU CPU Cooler Retail
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe NF4
Memory: Corsair TWINX1024-3200PT 1GB Kit DDR400 XMS3200 Dual-Channel Memory
Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB Ultra ATA/133 7200RPM w/8MB Buffer\*
Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 80GB Ultra ATA/133 7200RPM w/8MB Buffer\*
Optical Drive: NEC 16X Double Layer DVD+/-RW Drive Black
Optical Drive: (Toshiba?) DVD drive\*
Video Card: MSI nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Floppy Drive: none?
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1\*
Speakers: ALTEC LANSING VS3151 5.1 Black Speaker System\*
Case: Lian Li Aluminum Mid-Tower PC-V1200
Power Supply: Antec NeoPower 480W Modular Power Supply
Monitor: Samsunt 19" CRT\*
\*Legacy items pulled from current PC
I plan to use a USB key as a bootable drive in emergencies. My floppy drive is about 12 years old and I’m not sure I want to reinstall it, but I have no other nor will I be venturing anywhere to buy one before I build. I also play to add another 6600GT in June for SLI video.
Questions? Comments? Criticisms? Talk amongst yourselves…
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### Author:  [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/2 "2004-12-29T22:25:01Z")
Not a critique in any way, but more a question out of ignorance:
Why the AMD Athlon instead of a P4 (about 3.4 GHz)?
I’m assuming you’ve researched this and can save me the leg work 😉
(I upgraded about a year ago so I’m set for awhile)
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### Author:  [@velveeta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velveeta)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/3 "2004-12-30T01:14:42Z")
> [@Fear the Turtle](#):
>
> Not a critique in any way, but more a question out of ignorance:
>
> Why the AMD Athlon instead of a P4 (about 3.4 GHz)?
>
> I’m assuming you’ve researched this and can save me the leg work 😉
>
> (I upgraded about a year ago so I’m set for awhile)
Because the AMD 64 chip blows Intel away. For serious gaming, they beat the Intel chips - even the overpriced Extreme Edition - in nearly every benchmark test. I used to be an Intel fan, but they fell behind AMD in the gaming department. We’ll see if they can reclaim their title when dual core chips come out next year.
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### Author:  [@Toddly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toddly)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/4 "2004-12-30T02:52:10Z")
That should be a rocking good system. The components are all top notch. I hope all goes well. 🙂
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### Author:  [@velveeta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velveeta)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/5 "2004-12-30T12:34:04Z")
Just an FYI, that power supply you have may not be enough to run two of the higher end nVidia cards. I think you’ll be okay running 2 6600’s, but for the 6800’s they recommend at least 500W, and for the Ultras it’s up around 550W. I see you didn’t make the same mistake I did though and bought a 24-pin power supply. I have a 500W 20-pin and had to buy an adapter cable which doesn’t give me the power I need to run 2 high end cards either. :mad:
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/6 "2004-12-30T12:49:05Z")
Generally speaking:
A64 \> P4 at gaming
P4 \> A64 at Photoshop and media encoding
For me: gaming \> photoshop and media encoding.
I was checking ASUS and MSI. _Maybe_ I can sneak in 2 6800GT. If lightning strikes me three times in a row and I actually win a lottery, I can think about dual 6800Ultras, and I’ll splurge on a new power supply (and a AMD FX processor). The plan now is to have a good system now and bump it up with another $200 card in June. 2 6600GTs will be fine on my PS.
Should be a ton quieter and a bit cooler than my current “Concorde” PC (if you’ve heard a Concorde jet, you’ll know what I mean!)
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### Author:  [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/7 "2004-12-30T13:31:03Z")
Hey. I’m building too, for somewhat the same reason. My #1 priority is quiet, though, with performance as a secondary. My figuring is that a good current system will be able to go gangbusters on current games. And I am sooooo tired of the jet engine I have next to me now (Alienware make fast but noisy PCs).
If you haven’t already, check out the articles and forums at [www.silentpcreview.com](http://www.silentpcreview.com) – very helpful.
The case and PSU you have selected aren’t going to help a lot at reducing noise. If you can stand a bit more expense, there are some good options. Or you can pick up $15 of noise-reducing foam and use that. You can also swap standard 80mm fans for quieter 120mm ones. It looks like your HD choices are also somewhat noisy. Seagate or Samsung drives are pretty good in that regard.
For comparison, my current plan look like this…
Case: Fong Kai FK-333 (big heavy thing, but should be quiet)
PSU: Seasonic Super Tornado 400w
CPU: Athlon64 3500+ OEM
CPU Cooler: Thermalright XP-120
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-k8ns Ultra-939
Video card: Radeon x700
RAM: 2x512MB PC3200 Geil
HD: Seagate Barracuda ATA x2
Floppy: Mitsumi 7-in-1 media reader (reads SD/MMC/CF etc in addition to floppies)
Optical 1 Pioneer 6714512 DVDRW/CDRW
Optical 2 DVD-ROM (from existing system)
Sound foam Akasa
Current tab looks like about $1100, before OS. What’s yours?
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### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/8 "2004-12-30T15:11:58Z")
Hey, that’s my intended system!
I’d been checking [newegg.com](http://newegg.com) on a daily basis waiting for the SLI nForce4 motherboards to be be released. Now all I need to do is justify buying that, and an Athlon 64 3000+, and 1GB of DDR400 RAM, and at least one GeForce 6600 if not two…
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### Author:  [@velveeta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velveeta)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/9 "2004-12-30T15:52:52Z")
> [@lno](#):
>
> I’d been checking [newegg.com](http://newegg.com) on a daily basis waiting for the SLI nForce4 motherboards to be be released.
They’re already out, but newegg doesn’t have them yet. I have one in my system.
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### Author:  [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/10 "2004-12-30T15:57:22Z")
> [@Fear the Turtle](#):
>
> Not a critique in any way, but more a question out of ignorance:
>
> Why the AMD Athlon instead of a P4 (about 3.4 GHz)?
>
> I’m assuming you’ve researched this and can save me the leg work 😉
>
> (I upgraded about a year ago so I’m set for awhile)
If you want to see some benchmarks, [here are some pretty good ones](http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4/pentium4-570j/index.x?pg=5) - note that in every gaming test, the Athlon 64 3500+ beats out the **3.8** ghz Pentium 4. Also note that the retail box of the Athlon 64 3500+ cost about 275; the 3.8ghz Pentium 4 cost **795.** :eek:
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### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/11 "2004-12-30T17:04:58Z")
> [@velveeta](#):
>
> They’re already out, but newegg doesn’t have them yet. I have one in my system.
[What’s this, then?](http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-517&depa=0)
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### Author:  [@velveeta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velveeta)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/12 "2004-12-30T17:44:56Z")
> [@lno](#):
>
> [What’s this, then?](http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-517&depa=0)
They didn’t have them last week, and since you said you were checking on a daily basis, I took your word for it. Liar. 😃
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### Author:  [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/13 "2004-12-30T18:14:41Z")
Problem with my setup… the mobo I have listed is AGP, not PCIE. Woops.
Guess I need a different board…
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### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/14 "2004-12-30T18:26:44Z")
> [@velveeta](#):
>
> They didn’t have them last week, and since you said you were checking on a daily basis, I took your word for it. Liar. 😃
They appeared there on Monday or Tuesday of this week, which prompted my next statement, “Now all I need to do is justify buying that”. 😃
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### Author:  [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/15 "2004-12-30T19:48:08Z")
So can we all agree that the Athlon 3500 is probably this seasons hottest chip? Why yes I also happen to have one, it’s been humming away happily for three days already 🙂
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/16 "2004-12-30T20:30:12Z")
nice, and i haven’t yet gotten around to assembling my own cheap system yet… are two 6600GT better than one 6800 Ultra?
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### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/17 "2004-12-30T20:42:29Z")
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> nice, and i haven’t yet gotten around to assembling my own cheap system yet… are two 6600GT better than one 6800 Ultra?
Depends on the benchmarking setup and the game in question, of course. [Here’s a bit](http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2258&p=4) that indicates one 6800GT will slightly outperform a SLI setup of two 6600GTs. From that and the other benchmarks Anandtech did, it looks like the ideal upgrade path would be a single 6800GT, and then in 6-12 months, pop in another. On the Far Cry benchmarking they did (skip ahead two pages or so in that linked review) they had a 105.9% performance boost by adding a second 6800GT. The 6600GT had about a 60% improvement by adding a second.
Of course again, finances and personal circumstances would dictate the best path for you, considering that two 6600GTs are cheaper than a single 6800GT, and the expense can be spread over several months to a year.
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### Author:  [@Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirka_T_Bawa)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/18 "2004-12-30T21:50:05Z")
If you are looking to do SLI, you might want to think of a higher CPU. On a review I recently wrote on SLI (not live yet) I had a Athlon 64 3500+ on an Asus A8N-SLI Motherboard with 2 GeForce 6800Ultras. There was pretty much no gain from having only one card in, or having 2 cards. From what I was able to tell, the reason is the CPU wasn’t able to keep up.
With the amount of money you are spending on SLI, it would probably be worth it to upgrade that CPU a little.
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/19 "2005-01-03T14:33:33Z")
> [@lno](#):
>
> Of course again, finances and personal circumstances would dictate the best path for you, considering that two 6600GTs are cheaper than a single 6800GT, and the expense can be spread over several months to a year.
That was indeed my thinking. The tech geeks on Anand Tech forums all poo-poo the idea (in much harsher tones) as if money for videocards grows on trees _(hmm, money is printed on paper, paper is made from trees…maybe I need a better analogy)_.
Got the beast up and running, with some headaches with the Windows install (surprisingly, Windows doesn’t like changing the motherboard, processor, videocard and a few other items and starting right up on the previous install). Turns out I was using an Upgrade code on a non-Upgrade install disk - and I couldn’t find the Upgrade disk (argh!) nor the Full code. Finally found the disk (the Full code was trashed accidentally long ago…one day, I need to call MSFT and get them to reissue the code). Running smoothly and quickly. Half-Life 2 looks great (but levels still take forever to load). City of Heroes looks significantly better. Pirates runs much faster. The system is much quieter (now to replace that tiny chipset fan with another 120mm fan 😃 )
**faldureon** , I chose the A64 3500+ “Winchester” because the price jump to the next clock speed (3800+) is huge. For me, it was the price/performance breakpoint.
**Brainiac4** , have you ordered your parts yet? How goes your build? And did you check out Legion of Superheroes #1 out last Wednesday?
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### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-a-new-pc/282141/20 "2005-01-03T15:16:19Z")
That case you listed (the PC-V1200), is a very bad-ass looking piece. Finally a case that’ll allow the pci cards to be upright, instead of upside down, by flipping the mainboard. Not that it matters, but I always thought the montior plugs and ethernet plugs looked funny upside down, since PCI came out. If ya’ll ever got into computers when ISA slots were the norm, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
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