Advice on building a custom computer

Last edited by PorkyCorky on Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:02 am; edited 1 time in total

Thanks, Myrdaal. I figured you could, just thought I'd ask. Better safe than sorry.

KoolDrew, would you care to explain why SLi is a waste of money? And also, why is the Opteron processor better?

Dual 6800GS's should perform about the same as a single 7800GTX, but you'll have to deal with extra noise, increased power draw, and the extra price for an SLI motherboard. Also, buying an SLI motherboard for future-proofing is a terrible option. By the time you add another card you would be much better off selling what you currently have and buying a new card that would perform better.

The ONLY time you should even consider SLI is if you are made of money and can afford something like dual 7800GTX's. However, because of how fast new and better cards come out I don't recommend that either, but some people are fine with spending that much.

The Opteron is a better processor because it overclocks much better and has 1MB cache.

Last edited by PorkyCorky on Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:10 am; edited 1 time in total

Ah, I see.  That does make sense.  ;)

I do not plan to overclock my CPU and probably nothing at all.  Would it still be wise to upgrade to Opteron?

One other thing, ePoX seems to be getting worse and worse reviews.  I am think about changing to another brand of a motherboard.  I have found a Gigabyte (GIGABYTE GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard) for 106$.  I've heard good things about Gigbyte, do you think this would be a better choice for my first build?

And also, the reason why the Gigabyte mentioned is an SLi motherboard is because it is only one dollar more than my original ePoX motherboard, and with this I can add two cards if I want to later.  But, I think you have turned me against that, lol.  :)

Youlll see everything no problem. But once windows is loaded you only load with the lowest color setting unless windows has a driver for your card (which it would install during the installation process) or a generic driver to make your card function (dont leave it with a generic if it has it)

But anyway, everything will appear as normal BUT, if your video card registers as unknown, you will have lowest color setting, and you wont beable to sleep/hibernate

AMD is also stopping the production of Socket 939 Opterons, as well as the 3000+, 3200+, and 3500+ Athlon 64's. I'd grab one as fast as possible.

Ah, I see.  I saw that the Opteron prices were a bit much for my budget.  Since I don't plan to overclock at this point (possibly after I get the construction part over with, just depends on my confidence) I think I will stick with Athlon.

I was getting weary about the ePoX motherboards since the reviews on NewEgg were starting to get lower ratings and had statements like, \"Bios is outdated and requires an ancient piece of equipment called a 3.5\" floppy drive to update. Supplied raid driver does not support Win XP 64. Nvidia 64 bit drivers are on the web, but their do-it-yourself tech support is only marginally better than EPox.\"  If you think ePoX is a good choice then I will stick to it.

Are they trying to fade out Socket 939s?  I thought they were the most common CPU type.

Here is the most up-to-date version of my computer. See anything that desperately needs changing?

[Link]

It's ten dollars cheaper than the RAM I had decided upon before. Most of the reviews for the RAM are very good. I believe I will attempt to use it, if not, then there is the return order on NewEgg.