Legit Reviews

Question - would this config:
CPU Cooler - ZALMAN CNPS7000B-AlCu LED 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4800CDBOX - Retail
Memory - CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWINX2048-4000PT - Retail (gonna OC)
Motherboard - MSI K8N Diamond Plus Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail (MaxPC raved about this thing)
Graphics - 2x eVGA 512-P2-N570-AX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail (w00t!)
PSU - PC Power & Cooling 510 SLI-PFC ATX12V 510W Power Supply - Retail
Case - SILVERSTONE SST-TJ05S-X Silver Aluminum front panel/door, 0.8mm SECC body ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Fans - 2x Antec 77095 120mm Blue LED Light Case Cooling Fan - Retail
DVD Burner - PLEXTOR 18X DVD�R DVD Burner included Replaceable beige front bezel Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model PX-760A/SW BL - Retail
CD Burner - PLEXTOR CD Burner Black IDE Model PX-230A-BPS-BL - OEM
Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD4000KD 400GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
Use the built-in Creative SE for now...
Total is $2,892.70 w/ shipping as of this post (some rebate goin' on)
last for a good 3 years? I can do that, even if it means I'm "obsolete," (as opposed to waiting around for AM2/Conroe) need to get this in summer so I can enjoy it (not allowed to bring beast computer to college....sadface)
Keep in mind I can Step Up my GFX for the 8800GTX if they show up in a month, and that this system will be overclocked.
(ironies abound as the thread right below this one as of now is the thread about my OCing of my current rig...)

I would probably drop the cd burner, because the dvd burner will burn cd's fine. With the extra money I would buy a Creative X-FI sound card. You'll thank yourself later. Onboard sound has come a long way, but if this is going to be a gaming rig, I wouldn't skimp on the sound. Otherwise, 10/10.

510W? You gotta be kidding me.

At least a 600 for that build.

Plextor...yuck

if ur goin e-vga..go for the geforce 7900 gt oc superclocks...they have just as much power as the gtx for less..up to you either way ..that way u can get that sound blaster x-fi as well..sound card is killer..i upgraded from a sound blaster live...WAYYYYYYYY better...

just FYI plextor have the best quality of any CD-RW/DVD-RW... ask any person whose into burning.

Also i know u dont want to hear this but seriously wait for the Intel Core CPU's!

And yeah 510W will no way power that beast, u need MINIMUM of 600w, 700+ to be safe, especially if OC'ing. And dont even think u can skimp on this, cause if u get a PSU failure ur done for...

Sony and Liteon are also top quality, i have never had a coster from either drives so long as the app did not cause the error.

Update
- SILVERSTONE SST-TJ05S-X Silver Aluminum front panel/door, 0.8mm SECC body ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
- MSI K8N Diamond Plus Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
- eVGA 512-P2-N570-AX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
- PC Power & Cooling 510 SLI-PFC ATX12V 510W Power Supply - Retail
- AMD Opteron 170 Denmark 1000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model OSA170DAA6CD - Retail
- G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ - Retail
- Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000KS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
- PLEXTOR CD Burner Black IDE Model PX-230A-BPS-BL - OEM
- PLEXTOR 18X DVD±R DVD Burner included Replaceable beige front bezel Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model PX-760A/SW BL - Retail
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
- ZALMAN CNPS7000B-AlCu LED 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail
- Antec 77095 120mm Blue LED Light Case Cooling Fan - Retail
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2 - OEM

I have rooted around [H]ardForum and based on the PSU ratings, there are enough amps on the PSU to power those GFX cards. I'm not saying anyone is stupid, it's just based on this thread I was under the impression that the 510 = 650 from other companies. The max output is 650w according to PCP&C anyway. This is supposed to be the Mercedes of PSUs (It's PC Power and Cooling!)... And besides, I've been hearing of a rash of 7900 failures, especially with the uber-overclocked ones. So no GFX OCing for now. The Opty will OC nicely from what I have researched. Will reconsider the optical drives, however. Only concern there is that Lite-On is a love or hate company from what I have seen. Some people swear by them, others at them.

dont get both cd-rw and dvd-rw... instead keep the DVD-RW... seriously dont need to spend the extra on both!

Anyone know if the TurboCool 850SSI would fit in my case?

FINAL config based on all the advice from [H]ardForum and MaxPC....comments?
Mobo - MSI K8N Diamond Plus Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
GFX - 2x eVGA 512-P2-N570-AX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
PSU - PC Power & Cooling TURBO-COOL 850 SSI T85SSI SLI, EPS12V, SSI 850W Power Supply - Retail
CPU - AMD Opteron 170 Denmark 1000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model OSA170DAA6CD - Retail
RAM - G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ - Retail
Floppy - NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM (for the RAID....)
Hard Drive - 2x Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM RAID fun....500GB for less than 1x 400GB
Combo Drive - BenQ Combo Drive Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model CB523C BK - OEM
DVD Burner - NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model ND-3550A - Retail
Soundcard - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
CPU Cooler - ZALMAN CNPS7000B-AlCu LED 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail (overclocking fun)
Speakers - Logitech X-230 32 Watts RMS 2.1 Speaker - OEM (this works, I'm no audio nut, unless these are HORRIBLE I'm not changing this)
OS - Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2 - OEM (because)
Comments? Trigger isn't being pulled till May 26th, so there is time for changes.
TOTAL - $3028.05 including shipping from the Egg.

ok... i know i should have posted on this a long time ago... but been kinda busy with school so its only been moding and short posts.

first off... DONT BY ANYTHING just yet. your only weeks away from AM2 and Conroe and we need to see numbers before you go buying anything. My guess is AM2 is going to offer about 5-10% improvement in performance based on DDR2 alone.

Conroe on the otherhand could be a real gem... we could be looking at 64bit dual core for $250 with the potential of overclocking to 3ghz!!! the Conroe may based on my research and from what i hear on the grape vine perform about 1.7 times beter clock for clock than a P4. Figure clock for clock vs AMD it should be 1.15-1.2 times better. One of the things im really looking froward to is the fact that intel's top end chipsets are Crossfire compateble!

If your serious about droping 3k into a computer then you dont want to get stuff that is about to be last gen

Now when it comes to evaluating the system you have listed, you have done a good job with your parts and research, i only have a few comments and suggestions. First off, ditch the floppy, i dont even use my DVD drive more than once or twice every six mths. Next the PSU is kinda overkill you need a stong one for sure but i dont think 810w is really needed. I would look at something in the 500w range, something like the OCZ Powerstream, Zippy, Fotron, Emacs or Sparkel.

Now... this next thing is a personal preference but... I think SLI and honeslty Crossfire are a waste of money. Unless you have a massive 24" or 30" LCD then just about any highend card will do it solo. Infact most people i talk to seem to say the X1900 can run higher resolutions with HDR and effects. I personaly think the X1900 is the card to get, and if/when i build my conroe rig this summer i am fairly certin that its what im going to be getting.

I know that your not going to want to hear this right now but i would hate for you to go and spend 3k i want you to have a top performer. So if you can dont pull the trigger just yet! wait until we see some AM2 dual core boards and CPU's and see what kind of performance we get from DDR2 on AMD. Also wait until Conroe comes out, intel may be just about to release an increadable chip, it could overclock like mad, and perform like crazy. Plus it should produce much less heat than either AMD or previous generations of the P4 meaning quieter operation and reduced power requirements.

just got some more info from another source, the NDA on AM2 is up on the 23rd so not long to wait at all.

$3028.05 for a system when Conroe and AM2 are just months away...

I'd personally think twice unless you have no concern dropping the money.

per the comment about crossfire or sli.. it's pretty tight gaming at high resolutions at max quality settings... just another matter of money.

Well NOTHING is being ordered yet, so if Conroe/AM2 show their faces about May 24th, I can wait....a little longer. The reason I want SLI is so that even on a smaller display, I can run games at higher settings years down the road. People with 2x 6800 Ultras are happy now, but people with, say, a 6800GT might have to dial down settings on some games. As in, massive overkill NOW and no worries later. I see your pont on the CPUs though. Can switch mobos as long as they don't blow the budget.

man, i wish i could stay up with all the new tech out. i'll probably be living in the agp and socket 478 age for a while (though i think i have maxed those out pretty well.)

here is one thing to think about with SLI/Crossfire, lets say you get two cards now so you spend $800 on two top of the line cards... yes its overkill now and you will be ok when the next games come out.... or will you because DX10 is looking to be a big change from DX9... So while someone who bought two 6800's is happy now they can still get about the same perfomance from a single 7900 or x1900. I think your better off geting a top end card now for $400 and then selling it for $250-300 when the next gen cards come out making them a $100-150 upgrade... that means you spend a grand total of $550 or less for top end performance rather than $800 for something that will NOT support DX10.

How big of a problem will the lack of DX10 support be? FPS-wise I mean. Will games just crawl or what? I can upgrade the video, that's the one thing where I'll actually consider upgrading....because of finances/other circumstances upgrading is generally not something I'm thinking of for this though.

too early to call, but I know when a certain upcoming processor comes out you will want it really really bad.

This is the new config as of now:
Mobo - MSI K8N Diamond Plus Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Combodrive - BenQ Combo Drive Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model CB523C BK - OEM
DVD Burner - NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model ND-3550A - Retail
CPU Cooler - ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED 92mm 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan with Heatsink - Retail
Floppy - NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM (need that for the RAID.....)
Hard Drives - 2x Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
RAM - G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ - Retail
CPU - AMD Opteron 170 Denmark 1000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model OSA170DAA6CD - Retail
Soundcard - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
Videocards - 2x eVGA 512-P2-N570-AX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Being anal, don't want anything going wrong. Total price is $2925.06 including shipping. Can ditch the Opty, MSI S939 and DDR1 for Intel compatible hardware as long as it doesn't blow the budget....or kill the PSU.
EDIT: Dropped back on the processor. Price is now $2652.06 w/o Raptor 150. It's $2932.05 w/shipping AND Raptor 150. Raptor = good? Or bad?

EDIT2: Ditched the current RAID HDD because those are server models...and somehow NewEgg keeps deleting stuff randomly out of my cart so I thought I had more money left than I did. So the WD2500KS moves in, a single drive and I'll keep the Raptor.