Legit Reviews

Hello everyone,

Within the next few months I'll be building a new computer. Its my first build, so there's a few questions I have. First off, I plan on using it mostly for gaming, mainly CS:S. Here are some system specs that I threw together:

intel Pentium 4 640 Prescott 3.2GHz
ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE or ABIT AA8XE
1GB (2x 512MB) Corsair XMS 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM
Rosewill 256MB Radeon ATi x800XL GDDR3 PCI-Express x16
2x 80GB Seagate Barracude Serial ATA150 7200 RPM
Not sure on case as of yet...any suggestions?

Okay, is the Fatal1ty price worth the performance you get? Am I making a good decision with intel over AMD, or should I look at AMD? Is that a good choice of a video card, or is the 6800GT a little better in gaming performance? If you guys could help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm really impressed with your site and how friendly everyone on here seems to be, so keep up the good work guys! Thanks in advance!

The newest version of the system:

AMD 3500+ Venice
DFI LP nF4 SLI-Dr
XFX 256MB 7800GTX
Corsair XMS 1GB (2x 512MB) 184-pin DDR 400 (PC 3200) 3200XL
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB 16MB Cache Serial ATA150
OCZ Powerstream 600W
Saitek Eclipse Keyboard
Logitec MX518 Mouse
ThermalTake Tsunami Case w/ side panel window

lemme be the first to welcome you

i'm not positive, but i dont think the legitreviews boys like the fatality mobos too much... i could be wrong, but i think i remember reading that a while back. i think they said it was overrated.

i've actually got a brand new, unopened 925x motherboard that i've been trying to sell for cheaper than retail. if you're interested, send me a pm.

as for gpu, i think you might want to go for the x800xt.... for the source engine, it's better than the 6800gt.

you might want to invest in larger hard drives... 80gb seems kinda small, nowadays.

anyways, that's just my point of view

I had the AA8XE board, and was less than impressed with it. I would pass on all 925-915 boards as they are dead in the watter unless AUDIO gives you a good price on that great board of his.
Look into a 945 or 955 board, the 925/915 boards will not support dual core processors, which are the future, and if you ever want to upgrade, you'll need a new motherboard.
Right now i'd have to say I'm not overly impressed with too many boards. I won't recommend the ABIT Fatla1ty line, as they just aren't worth the money, ASUS has been really lacking in the BIOS dept on their new 955 board, and I've run into a bunch of issues there. I'm anxiously waiting on DFI's 955 board, they have really stood out with some great boards. I'm currently working on some Foxconn boards that seem promising, I'll let you know how they turn out.
As to the rest. AUDIO is 100% right, invest in a good size HDD, 80GB just won't get you too far. The XL video card is a good value, and you can't go wrong with Corsair memory.

Thanks for the tips! My next (maybe last) question is, intel or AMD for a gaming system? I've heard AMD generally runs better, but I'm certainly not sure. Also, what AMD processors would be good to look at if this is the case?

Once again, you guys are awesome and I appreciate the help!

-shwA

P.S. I'm going to make some adjustments based on what you guys have told me and research I've done, then maybe you guys could let me know how it looks...

It seems the processor to get now would be thwe AMD X2 4200.
AMD definitely is a better gaming processor, and with the X2 being their dual core desktop processor, multitasking will no longer be an issue.

Hmm...I will most definitely check that out. Dual Core is the way to go?

You won't see a big benefit from dual core while gaming. I have been working with Intels 820 and 840 processors, and they are not great gaming processors. however the AMD side of things looks more promising

Alright, cool cool...soooo, capper...do you have about $1000 that I can permanently borrow???

this boy is poor.... I have spent my allowance for the next year or so.
My understaning is the 4200 will be pretty inexpensive, about the same as a 3500+

Haha, yeah...I'm poor too ----> college.

So the 4200 should be somewhat cheap? That would be good news.

well, by looking....not as cheap as I thought, about $500. That being the case, I'd look at the 3500+ if you are on a budget and want to do some gaming.

I second the 3500+ processor if you are building a gaming system. I posted a Mushkin Redline memory article today and am happy with the performance that can be had with the Venice core.

An overclocked AMD CPU with some Redline memory on your DFI board of choice should overclock nicely! ;)

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice - $192
Mushkin Redline XP3500 - $169

I personally use an Intel 570J on my personal system because it feels faster when doing all my multimedia work. I usually have Photoshop, Dreamweaver, FTP clients, Instant Messengers, MP3 players, web browsers and other applications open at the same time and Intel seems to respond quicker than AMD CPU's when I change windows and what not.

I personally use an Intel 570J on my personal system because it feels faster when doing all my multimedia work

Intel is better for porn?

Hmm...that might be a more convincing arguement that AMD's better gaming performance. Maybe that's why intel does so good...

If I go with the 3500+ Venice, would you recommend I go with the DFI nF4 SLI mobo with it? Then maybe go with the 6800GT video card?

I think very highly of DFI boards. In my opinion they are far and away the best boards available on the market.
I would recommend the SLI board if you are wanting SLI, but if you are planning to use a single video card, go with the Ultra and save some money....you can use that money for a high end card like an ATI X850 XT

i think you should go with the x800 series rather than the 6800 series.... the source engine favors ati. doom3 favors nvidia.

I try to stay out of the video card argument, like AMD and Intel, both ATI and NVidia have their die hard fans. I personally use an X850 XT and love it. I was using a pair of 660 GTs in SLI, and they worked okay....just personal preference.

Hehe, I just keep comin' with the questions, and you guys keep comin' with the answers. I really appreciate it.

Anywho, next question... ...is PCI-Express worth it over AGP on the video card? With personal experiences, I'm a little partial to ATI...so I'm looking at either the X800 XT, or the X850 XT...on the DFI nF4 Ultra mobo I don't think it has AGP slots, only PCI-Express. If PCI is the way to go, will I notice much of a difference between the 800 and 850?

Here's the system so far as I have it:
AMD 3500+ Venice
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra
Corsair XMS 1GB (2x 512MB) 184-pin SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel
Seagate Barracuda 160GB 7200RPM Ultra ATA100
-Insert video card here-

Thanks for the help so far!

PCI-Express is the future, don't go AGP, although support for it is still strong, it will fade away soon enough.
go with the X850, the X800 is basically the same card, but ATI improved some of the thermal properties on the X850 and scaled back the memory a tad for better stability . the X800 was a little too aggressive with the memory, and they had a problem getting enough memory to meet the timings they set on the X800, which is why they losned the timings a bit on the X850.......I'm babbling, I'm sorry....really tired tonight.

Alright, here's what I have hardware-wise...

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra Socket 939
Corsair XMS 1GB (2x 512MB) 184-pin DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel
Sapphire 256MB Radeon X850XT PCI-Express x16
Seagate Barracuda 160GB 7200RPM Ultra ATA100

Now I guess its time to look at a case and PSU...yay!

Hmm...I think a ThermalTake Tsunami Case and a 480W PSU...