[freeman]

Well, it's come time for me to upgrade from my now outdated system to something that can actually run battlefield 2!

And so, with a budget of $900 AU I have constructed a fairly soild system (I think so anyway) making the jump to PCI - E* !!!!!!!

So here it is, please tell me what you think:

CPU : AMD ATHLON 64 3000+
MOTHERBOARD: FOXCONN NF4XK8MC-RS* >>>>> (All the usually stuff with 5.1 sudio and 10/100 mb LAN)
HARDDRIVE: Western Digital 80 gig 7200rpm
VIDEO CARD: SAPPHIRE ATI Radeon X600 Pro
DVD Burner: LG 16x DVD + R
RAM: 1 gig Kingmax super ram (DDR 400) (PC 3200)
KEYBOARD + MOUSE: Microsoft black optical value pack
CASE: Codegen with 350w PSU

As for the monitor and speakers... well I already have a LG 17" and Labtek 5.1 surround sound speakers.


All in all, for $900 AU I think it's pretty good. Definetely a step up from my old system with an Athlon AMD 2200+ and a Radeon 9200.

Plus I get Splinter Cell; Pandora Tommorow with my X600!

[mace]

Seems pretty good X600 and 1gb ram for $900

[Raken]

Don't get integrated sound, buy an audigy or sound blaster. It will seriously shame your 5.1 speakers. And well if its going to be a gaming computer. Drop the Gig of ram to maybe 516 or 726(I think that the correct amount) You won't need it. What you will need is FSB. Your ram could be 200gig and it wouldn't matter FSB is the rate at which bytes are processed. Gigs are just the amount of temporary memory you have capable not the amount of which have doing something at the moment.
FSB currently goes to 800? lest someone just made it higher.
Another note 350w might not be enough in the long run. You might want to get that checked on anyway.

Note: With the splinter cell. It wouldn't run on my GeForce (the game came with the freaking Video Card!) because of some video shading error

Everything else looks good, However where are you ordering this from? is it being made for you? are you making it?

[freeman]

Well, I'll be allocating some of that system ram to the video card anyway. As for the sound card, I'll probably get one later when I have more money and yes a 350w power supply will be adequate for this system.
I'm ordering the parts from GAMEDUDE (Australia) and i'll be making it myself.

[Raken]

Make sure you get all the drivers..

And don't forget an OS...

[sinfox]

i'll just echo raken slightly.

front side bus is a very important factor. your fsb is the rate at which data is bassed between memory processor, etc. if it's not equal all the way round you'll hit a bottleneck.

your fsb will generally be determined by the ddr memory interface of your motherboard. although it's a figure you can set yourself in the BIOS it's a good idea to not push the memory frequency too far. in amd systems you're looking at configuring a fsb of 400mhz (unless you begin to overclock).

setting the fsb and memory speed in synch comes in two stages. the fsb is usually the core speed of the processor doubled. in the case of a 3000+, you'll set the core speed at 200mhz which will be doubled to make a 400mhz fsb. you then set a multiplier for the cpu's total speed, again with the 3000+ you'll be setting a multiplier of x10, which will give you a 2ghz clock speed.

then you need to configure your memory. setting memory frequency is pretty simple, in an amd system which uses dual channel ddr (which is the norm usually) you'll set it at half the desired speed - aka, 200mhz. you then need to make sure you have two seperate sticks of 512ddr in your memory banks, this will then double the memory frequency to 400mhz, eliminating bottlenecks and giving overall performance.

what i disagree with is the amount of memory requred. i'd state 1gig as a min in 2x 512mb sticks. remember that the os needs memory as well as the programs you want to run on it. windows xp (the norm for an os) is pretty memory hungry, i'd give a gig, assuming that xp will take up about 250meg (ish) of it, leaving a good buffer for your desired programs.

with regards to motherboards.. the built in 5.1 is very rarely good quality.. only the nforce chipset's soundstorm has really been worth note (for on-board sound)

[Raken]

That and MSI's Neo2.

[freeman]

Well, thanks for the comments everyone. I'll take everything you said into mind. But i'll definetely be doing a little overclocking and tweaking.
And in regard to what Raken said; I already have an OS, and any drivers that I don't get with my parts, I either get them off PC Powerplay DVD's or DL them.

[Tau_Killer]

i would love to have ur old system :'( mine at the moment sux

[freeman]

Well, I've just had a budget increase, and with it comes a higher end system.

I suppose it's good I wasn't able to get the above system at the time I made this post because now I'm getting this one: (Tell me what you think)

(it's due to arrive in a few days) BOO YEAH!


Motherboard: Abit AX8

CPU: AND Athlon 64 3000+

Video: Abit Radeon RX600 PRO-GURU 256MB

RAM: 1gb Corsair DDR PC 3200

Drive: Samsung 16x DVD Burner

HDD: 80gb Seagate 7200 rpm

CPU Fan: Thermaltake beetle

Keyboard and Mouse: Microsoft Optical Value Pack - Black, naturally.

Sound: Creative Audigy 2

Case: The Pride and joy of my system!: XG Quantum, it has LCD display core temps and 7 speed fan control, 5 blue led fans, steel door, screwless drive bays and an internal drive bay door for easy access.
WHATS NOT TO LIKE!!?!?!?!

Power: 500w Vortec PSU

All come to approx. $1400 AU