So building a new rig....very slowly

hairball

gotta be slow because its gonna cost money.
also I haven't really finalised everything that's gonna go in yet,
bought the case: Lian Li PC65B/BLACK
bought the PSU: Hiper HK580
bought the CPU cooler : zalman cpsn 9500


and thats it so far...all I know is I want to run dual 7800gxts and also want it to be fairly future proofed...I have some ideas of my own but I'd be into some input from you guys on what else goes in, I got time (mainly cos I can't afford everything at once) so there ya go...a relatively blank canvas....pls scrawl your opinions:)

thanks in advance

K.O.Kiki

Looking through the CPC PSU test, your Hiper looks flaky -- 71% efficiency@100% load (below ATX spec), weird noises, and it was one of several PSUs which couldn't sustain 100%--it lasted about 3 min's.
So, I'd be doubtful of SLi-ing 7800GTX's.

Not that you'll need 2 of them for a long while!

As for future-proofing--

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU (4400+ or 4800+, depending on state of insanity;) )
• nForce4 mobo
• Creative X-Fi soundcard

Have you also considered ATi's new X1800-series? With a Crossfire board, that's future-proof as well.


Btw, anyone know when AMD are supposed to announce their new processor family?

gline

yeh x2 cpu, some decent ram, x-fi sound card and better psu, like seasonic or something and you got yourself a kickass system

hairball

thanks lads......not sure if we're talking about the same hiper...the one I've ordered is just out and has been given nVidias sli ready seal....now whether thats all just bull remains to be seen, but thanks for the heads up anyways.
also to answer your question about amds new chipset, presum ing you mean the opterons, its supposedly spring next year, which conveniently leads me to my next question.....wait til then to decide on a processor??, maybe get a socket 940 board now just to be covered and worry bout a new processor later??

hairball

by the way is CPCs website actually any good...don't wanna sign up for yet another tech site that results in crap email news that the unsubscribe link won't work on:)

stevenmu

Just a generic suggestion, instead of buying a part every now and then and having them sit in a box in your house somewhere devalueing, save the money and let them devalue on some shop's shelves instead. Then when you have the money put away, you can buy the same kit cheaper, or more powerfull kit for the same price.

WizZard

The above is very good advice!

hairball

good advice indeed...my plan is to but mobo,gfx, ram and processor all at once....all I've bought at the mo is the case, psu and cpu cooler...true, I could have waited a bit longer but I do actually want to have it sorted by jan/feb next year....also the plan is (has to be) that it's intially up and running on one gfx card but ready for sli when I can afford to do it

stevenmu

Yeah, building a basic system and then adding to it when possible is a sensible way of doing it. I've seen people who'd buy a graphics card one month, then maybe a CPU the next, the memory the next and so on, which completely defies logic.

hairball

Exactly....that saidIhaven't gotten off to agreat start.....my case came today, except, it wasn't mycase....I guess someone in stores was having a bad day, so back it's going.....oh by the way I took the very sensible advice offered above....returned the hiper and ordered a seasonic s12 600W instead....thanks again for that.
I thinkthe whole mobo/cpu/ram/grafix question may haveto wait a while , while I see what AMD are doing with this next gen m2 malarkey.tho, that said I wonder if being a guineapig's a good idea
what do you guys think?? any1in a similar position??

hairball

actually just saw a review for an asrock 939 dual which will at the time of m2 realease have an upgrade board released to hold the new processor and ddr2 ram.
anyone seen this??

Cuddlesworth

I you are waiting for next gen hardware, you are in for a big surprize. Because 4 months down the line there is always going to be a better cpu/gfx/ram. Better you take the plunge and later on sell what you have and take it againn. Lets face facts here the only things that will keep for a while are what you have already

hairball

yeh thats why I bought only those now.....always wanteda lian li....not planning on changing that for a long time(if I ever get the right one)

astrofool

Prices on ALL computer parts come down, regardless of what it is, so you really are better off either buying all parts now, or buying all parts next year.

I wouldn't worry too much about M2, its really just the same chip, but with ddr2 support, and will be available february or march next year, almost 6 months away at least

hairball

hey , you know what...I knew posting about this here was the right thing to do astrofool, you've salved my conscience very nicely there and gotten rid of the last of my qualms about spending a **** load of cash on yet another rig:P