The Setup

Ok Guys, I know I already made a new computer thread, but know one really was reading it. Also, I have the final product.

Here are the specs....

Case: Antec SLK3800B Black Rackmount

Hard Drives: 200gb Maxtor Diamond Max 7200 RPM, 40gb Western Digital7200 RPM

Monitor: LG 715Z17" 16ms LCD Monitor

CD/DVD Burner: Sony IDE Burner 48x

RAM: Corsair XMS 1gb (2x 512)

Speakers: Creative I-Trigue L3450

Video Card: GeForce 7800GT

Sount Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2

Fans: Aspire 120mm Red LED fan

Headset: Turtle Beach TBS-2110-01 (5.1 Suround sound, with mic)

Mouse: Logitech MX510

Motherboard: Abit AN8-Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

Total Cost - $1502.46

Well, I also want do one of those 2 monitor set ups like a lot
of you are running. (If I can) That way I can have one monitor for
gaming on, and then one for a desktop to do like photoshopping, net
surfing, IMing, etc. While I am playing. Then after I am done playing
my desktop monitor will just go idle or something and it switches to my
good monitor that I used for gaming. Is this possible? If not, then I
guess I'll just have to play in window mode like I usually do.

Here are links to all the parts

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827131256

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811129163

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822144126

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822144183

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16824005060

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813127212

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130249

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829102163

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811998123

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16826104150

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16836502004

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145450

Opinions?

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Nice setup you got there man, hope you enjoy it :smile:

Dual monitor setups are neat, but not quite as powerful as many people
might expect. The main problem is that both monitors, typically, are
running off the same graphics card. When you are running a game, its
recommended to turn the card into single display mode to keep
performance up. If you keep it on dual, it has to render a 2D screen as
well as a 3D game, which isn't exactly gonna stop the game being
playable on something like your rig but I thought you should be aware
of it. Also, when you are in a game, it takes control of your input,
meaning you can't really do anything with windows without alt-tabbing
back to it and therefore coming out of your game as you would on a
single display.

There are benefits though. I sometimes keep up IRC and winamp on my
second monitor while gaming, which lets me see things like who's
talking and what songs are coming up on my playlist without having to
come out of the game. If you want to interact with these programs you
will have to alt-tab as usual but you can at least see the things. I
also happen to have media keys on my keyboard that work even when in a
full screen game, so winamp is still relatively controllable while in a
game. Other possible uses for a second monitor while in a game include
having up a bug/suggestion list while testing a level, or having up an
FAQ/walkthrough or something if you are into that.

More practical uses for dual monitors are in development work. It's
great to have two whole screens available while mapping or other
similar endeavours. Typically I find myself just using one for
hammer/milkshape and the other for IRC/winamp (it's basically dedicated
to those programs :biggrin: ), but occasionally I put it to better use by
having up reference pics, opening the program across both screens, or
having code up on both monitors for easy comparing.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Very good points there ReNo. So what your saying is, I should just go
with running on the game in Window Mode? More that I think of it, it
makes more sense to have one screen instead of 2. Why would I ever need
it, when I can just use one screen and have more things runnign in the
backround and more things on one toolbar.

I see the advantages if your writing code. But, I don't find myself
writing code at my own home very often. The main reason I wanted the
second monitor was because of my hard drives.

As you can see I have 2 hard drives. I'm getting 2 for more
organization. I was planning on using that 40gb hard drive for storing
programs. And then the 200gb hard drive for media such as Movies,
Music, and Pictures. Because right now I only have a 142gb hard drive
(I think it's supposed to be 160, but like my RAM it is inegrated or
something. I don't know or really care due to me getting a new computer
anyway), and im using about 47gb. Also, I have only had this computer
for like 3 months. This one I'm using now is the family computer, and
the one I'm buying now is going to be a personal one for my room.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Just decided to ad this baby on. Just because I use the one I have on
my computer now a lot for my SD camera card, and my PSP Dou card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820300607

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Wheres the procceser? I dont see one.

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Life is like a box of chocolates u never know what you'll get you might get a.....scream.

If you read the specs on the motherboard you would see that it comes with an AMD Athlon 64.

<table class="tblSpecs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tr><td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Model</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Brand</td>
<td>ABIT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Model</td>
<td>AN8-ULTRA</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Supported CPU</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">CPU Socket Type</td>
<td>Socket 939</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">CPU Type</td>
<td style="color: red;">Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64/Athlon X2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">FSB</td>
<td>1000MHz Hyper Transport (2000 MT/s)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Supported CPU Technologies</td>
<td>Hyper Transport, Cool 'n' Quiet</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Chipsets</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">North Bridge</td>
<td>NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Memory</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Number of DDR Slots</td>
<td>4x 184pin DDR</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">DDR Standard</td>
<td>DDR 400 (PC 3200)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Maximum Memory Supported</td>
<td>4GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Dual Channel Supported</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Expansion Slots</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">PCI Express x16</td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">PCI Express x1</td>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">PCI Slots</td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Storage Devices</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">PATA</td>
<td>2 x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">SATA</td>
<td>4 x SATA II</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">SATA RAID</td>
<td>RAID 0/1/0+1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Onboard Audio</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Audio Chipset</td>
<td>AC97 Codec</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Audio Channels</td>
<td>8 Channels</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Onboard LAN</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">LAN Chipset</td>
<td>NV GbE LAN</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">LAN Speed</td>
<td>10/100/1000Mbps</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Max LAN Speed</td>
<td>10/100/1000Mbps</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Rear Panel Ports</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">PS/2</td>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">USB</td>
<td>4x USB 2.0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">IEEE 1394</td>
<td>1x 1394</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">S/PDIF Out</td>
<td>1x Optical</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Audio Ports</td>
<td>6 jacks</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Onboard USB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Onboard USB Connectors</td>
<td>6x USB 2.0 (3x headers)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Onboard 1394</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Onboard 1394 Connectors</td>
<td>1x 1394a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="tblSpecsGroup">Physical Spec</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Form Factor</td>
<td>ATX</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tblEmp" width="130">Dimensions</td>
<td>12.0" x 9.6"</td></tr>
</table>

Thats just copied pasted off the mother board spces on the link I gave.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

It doesn't come with a processor. That's the TYPE that will work on the board.

I use dual monitors one for video and junk, the other is the normal interface. So, basically, one becomes a TV.

I don't suggest buying anything Sony, especially when it comes to CDs.

Find a HDD, either from WD, Maxtor, or Seagate (maybe) that has a 16M cache, instead of 8 ... and one that's bigger with a longer warranty. Like 5 years.
Also, no need to buy two. Just one larger one; if you're going to have a SATA board, you might as well buy SATA drives.

Abit, eh? :rolleyes: At least it isn't Asus.

Don't buy a sound card, the board already has 8channel sound, and yes, it works just fine.
Unless you're a sound producer, or have a band or some professional aspect of your life is in sound ... the onboard sound will be good enough for anything you do.

That fan is really retarded. :razz: Aren't there going to be enough fans in the stinking thing already?

The mouse is nice, I'd get one if they had it in the old color (silver or something)

If you're going the route of headphones and such, I'd suggest finding something in the bluetooth realm. Wireless, strong signal ... you just might need a antenna or something as such. However, the good news is: if you ever get a phone with bluetooth, not only can you use the headset on the phone, but you could use the phone to control the computer.

Ram is too expensive. You can get a single stick (which has lower access time) for much less and with a lifetime warranty. Duel channel? Why?

You should choose a processor. I'd suggest just a 64 for now, probably one of the slowest ones (it'll be fast enough). Then upgrade later.

I don't suggest getting an X2 (duel core), since nothing is really made for it yet.

If you cut back where I said, that should cover the price of the CPU.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Dual hard drives is nice though Crono, for backups while formatting for
example. I was also under the impression this stuff was ordered,
otherwise I'd have given some feedback. If its ordered, commenting is
kinda just rubbnig salt in the wounds :razz:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Every company in the world has good days and bad days. My Asus A8V Deluxe has worked flawlessly for nearly a year now. I heard the warnings about Asus and decided that like web browsers its all a bunch of s**t anyway. People pick and chose and if a part goes bad they almost invariably blame the manufacturer. In rare cases this might be true but with todays competition, making s**tty parts will spell doom for any corporation. A few parts that slide past inspection does not mean the company as a whole is bad.

My Asus motherboard is great.... END OF STORY.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

A few of my mates run Asus kit and have had no troubles whatsoever. My
parents run an Asus motherboard and its been great too. Abit are also
hugely respected in the overclocking field, so I dunno what you have
against them. Actually I probably do as I'm sure we've been over this
before, but I can't remember :biggrin:

And crono, would you REALLY want to be lugging your PC headphones
around as a bluetooth headset for your phone?! Typically headphones are
rather beefy things that encase your ears, I for one wouldn't dream of
using them with my phone :biggrin:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Yeah, I havent ordered it yet, sometime this week maybe. Crono, any
suggestions on what RAM I should buy then? Also, I didn't realize that
it already had a sound card. And I didn't realize it didn't come with a
64, so I guess I need one of those now. I'm fine wth the headphones...
I only wanted a headset to play CS. I was thinking of not even getting
the 5.1 ones, but I was like what the hell might as well if I'm buying
all this other s**t. About the fan.... It's $7.50 calm down. I just
wanted SOME sort of "hot" LEDs on it :smile: . And, what's wrong with Sony?
From my experience I have no problems with it. If you have any idea
wbat kind of burner I should get then find it on
www.newegg.com (so I can order everything all at once) and
post a link.

P.S.

I am still going with the 2 hard drives, it just makes sense to me.
More organization, if I decide to reformat I can save my media, and I
can bring the media hard drive over to my family computer If for some
reason I need to use that. I know I have to install it everytime but
whatever not much of a problem. I'm not that impatient.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

If you want to move your media drive around, you may want to consider
getting an external hard drive. Should be fine for media playing if you
get one with a USB2.0 or firewire interface. I don't know anything
about external hard drives but it seems like a good idea to me :smile:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Ram: Something cheaper. That's all. Make sure it has the timing you want and a lifetime warranty. It can still be corsair ... if you want. It should be less though. (Buy a single 1GB stick. Don't bother with duel channel)

Guys, I should clarify. I've NEVER seen an Asus board work well past a year. EVER. This is considering more than 4 board, of different models. That would imply that they're not very good. Choose as you may, I'm not saying they shouldn't work or anything, I've just found them to be unreliable and expensive. But that's an opinion. I'm not saying they wont work.

And no, the boards were not bought at the same store or anything like that.

I know the benefits of having two HDDs, I have two. But it was more of an after thought more than anything else. One flaw in your point though: don't reformat. It's a stupid and POINTLESS thing to do. If you do it because you like deleting all of your personal files ... then ... okay. But, most people do it to clean up messy program installations and formating, through windows, does nothing about that.

Secondly, It IS a good idea to have two HDDs if one of them is significantly smaller than the other. The smaller one would hold the OS and THAT'S IT. If anything happens, it's no big deal. (and yes, the drive with the OS is the one that most often fails or has malicious attacks ... which would spread to the other, but that can be cleaned, since it isn't the drive which is loaded off of)

However, choose different drives, please. (Maybe a bigger cache on the 40GB? And a 250GB with larger cache)

Maxtor MaXLine III 250GB 16M This was $97. It went up :sad: . Anyway, it has not only a bigger cache, but a longer manufacturer warranty too. That will be very useful if anything ever happens. ($101.50 - ATA133)

You could get both in SATA if you wanted. That wouldn't do much at the moment, since they're still only spinning at 7200RPMs. (Can't find a replacement for the WD)

Sony can't make cd drives. It's as simple as that. The burners that came out in ... I think it was '01, from Sony didn't work with XP properly. They jam. Just look at the PS2 ... seriously, just stay away from them. I have a pioneer DVD burner, works great. A friend of mine has one, his works great too. So, haven't had any problems with that.

You should understand, I'm not telling you what to buy with the burner ... just don't buy Sony. I beg you.

Also, BlueTooth headphones aren't bulky. I never said THOSE headphones. I said, BlueTooth headphones.

Also, just to be clear, limiting yourself to one place to buy all your parts is rather detrimental, I know zipzoomfly.com almost always has better prices on video cards.

[EDIT]
The eVGA card isn't cheaper there, but the MSI equivalent is.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=321958

It'd save you: $49.01 ... include the shipping charge which is no longer there: $54 savings ... and it should get there a day earlier.

That specific card is what I'd buy, but, that shouldn't sway your opinion. It's just letting you know they're not a shoddy brand or something like that. The "lite" version is just the card in the box, rather than being bunddled with Chronicles of Riddick. But is that one game worth almost $80? (No, you can buy it, if you really want it, for $20.)

All the other cards I checked were either the same price or ten dollars more. However, that looks like a pretty good deal. It is a retail version, so, it's not refurbished and isn't OEM or anything like that. If anything is wrong with it you can replace it with zipzoomfly AND if anything happens to it (within three years) it's covered under warranty ... unless you overclock it ... don't do that though.

Just showing you some other options. However, most things on that site are more expensive in other hardware areas. But they usually have free shipping.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Well, I wanted to buy everyting in the same place to make one order, not several.

When did I say bluetooth were bulky? Look, I couldnt care less about
the headset, its more or lessa a mic to use on CSS, and there are
headphones with it witch makes it fine for me. And yeah I shouldget
that hard drive you suggested. Whats does cache have to do with(sorry i
dont know what it does/means)

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Reno made the bulky comment.

Cache is the little bit of memory that holds small bits of data based on the idea that, "You just accessed it, chances are you'll want to access it again soon" ... thus making it so the hard drive doesn't need to be accessed again.

Case in point: bigger is better. I just wish they didn't raise the price. I was going to buy that drive :sad: .

As for ordering from more than one place ... what would be the big deal from only ordering from two places? I don't know if newegg would actually ship your ENTIRE order together ... I doubt they even could. So, if you're worried about getting more than one package: you can almost count on it.

Anyway, look at the link I put up. I gave my suggestion and shared what I know and think. So, other people will come up and give what they think, deduce your decision from that advice ... along with your own needs. You are the one that is going to use this machine after all.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

yeah I know it will come in more then one box, but Id liek to only fill
out one order (you can order everything together on new egg)

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

I know.

So ... you're lazy to the point that you wont fill out two internet forms? Also, you're doing it at the expense of $50? I'm just trying to understand this, is that what you're doing?

If your reasoning was, "I don't want that hardware", that's fine, that's okay, but to say you just don't want to fill out a form ... that's ridiculous. So you get two charges on a credit card instead of one. They'd go through around the same time and it'd be less total price.

But, okay.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I am that lazy :smile:

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Crono, are there any brands you do like?

About the ram, it seems to me that 2 512 sticks are generally slightly cheaper than one gig stick. Generic ram is fine generally.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Even though they're cheaper ... getting a single stick would probably be worth it. Since, you'd have one more slot free, and potentially better access times.

But yes, cheap, generic ram is fine. Just make sure it has a lifetime warranty!

Of course there are brands I like. :razz:

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yes, but it seems like your advice on which brands to buy is "dont get these brands:" followed by a long list. See my LCD monitor thread for an example...

In my experience, and the experience of friends, Asus is pretty good. I've got an asus board, and it works just fine (there were issues a while ago but they turned out to be something else). It was also the cheapest board I could find that had what I wanted.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

I've explained before. However, it's simply annoying that Asus is the brand the bulk of people suggest when people ask for manufactures. And it's not based on knowledge on the topic that they suggest it.

They usually are more pricey ... they're never the cheapest, that's for sure. (although some of the cheaper stuff you may not want, right?) But, as I've said before, only brand to fail on my numerous times when it came to motherboards. I just personally stay away from them.

And I list the stuff you want to stay away from because it's a shorter list. There are always brands, models, and makes not many people know about, so why exclude them? I also specifically state what I know about them and my reasoning behind why I say what I say.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.