I'm going to get a new computer pretty soon but I've been told that some things could be changed. Since I'm paranoid and I don't like wasting money I'm bringing it to a hardware forum. I've searched around for the proper forum to post this in but I couldn't find anything appropriate.

Alright, here is my future computer so far:
Intel Core2Quad Q9300 2.50GHz
Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4 s775
DDR2 3GB 800MHz
SATA2 160GB Seagate Barracuda
NX 8800GT 512MB PCIe
TFT 19" Samsung 943NW

I posted this on a gaming forum because I was bored and I got some criticism that I would like to check with people who know for certain what they are talking about.

My build was called "good" but I was told that
1, I shouldn't use 3GB, yet 2GB of RAM, because using 3GB will HARM performance. Is there any truth behind this?
2. It would be worth it to invest in a stronger video card. I'm obsessed with the video card for this computer because I will be stuck with this PC for years. I don't know much about hardware so which video card would be best? I've read that the 8800Ultra is the best but I don't know if it's true or not. Price is not a concern but I'd rather not use SLI
3. I should have put in a non-raptor HD. I don't know what this means but I don't really think it matters. If it can store games, music, movies, software, then I'm fine.

Thanks

I need this machine to be able to play ALL the newest games and the ones to come fairly well on medium to high quality.

Dude, with that video card, you should definitely get a bigger monitor, say 22". Makes gaming a lot more pleasant and multi-tasking more easier. Not much more $, compare to the 19" you listed.

And where's the optical drive?

Alright, I'll go with the 22"... and you're right, it's not too much more expensive, just a few euros here and there.

Never heard of an optical drive... I'll look into it. Thanks

Personally I'd go straight for 4GB of ram, because if you use 3x 1GB sticks you'll lose dual channel. You would have dual channel with 2x 1.5GB memory sticks (DIMMs) but for gaming on Vista I'd have to recommend going for 4GB even if your gonna stick with the 32 bit version. Also 4GB of DDR2 memory is not at all expensive these days.

I think you'll also find that 160GB of Hard Drive space is not enough these days. You could easily fill that up in no time with some games and media. I'd recommend going for a 320GB or 500GB hard drive. Better yet, buy two 320GB HDDs and run a RAID0 setup for improved performance. Remember that with RAID0 there is a higher risk for data loss.

Some Dude said:






That means DVD/CD drive.

Some Dude said:

1. Get 4GB DDR2 as Adam mentioned above.

2. The video card is fine. Don't bother getting the Ultra. The performance gain is not worth the extra cash you will pay for it.

3. Traditional SATA hard drives have an RPM of about 7200 w/16 to 32mb of cache. Raptor hard drives have a RPM of 10000. Higher RPM = lower seek times (good), louder operation, lower capacity and a higher price tag. They are not a necessity but they help load games faster. I would stick to normal SATA hardrive like the one below.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148136

As for the videocard I'd go with an 8800GT 512MB or Radeon HD4850 (which just launched today) or if you are not planning on building this right away you might as well just wait for the 9800GTX+ which is faster then both and launching for $229 sometime within the next few weeks. Otherwise the HD4850 is an amazing deal at $199 or less. The 8800GT 512MB is still a great card as well and can be found for under $160.

Some Dude said:

A lot of this was covered in previous post, so this is just re-enforcement for the most part.
1. What they were refering to is that in order to reach 3GB you'd most likely have to use three sticks of DRAM. If you do this, you will not be able to take advantage of DualChannel Mode, so your speed to Memory will suffer. I would go along with the others here in suggesting a 4GB implementation, and go further in suggesting a 2x2GB implementation for the best speeds.
2. I was unable to find the GA-X38 MB, so am assuming the GA-EX38 derivative. If you are locked into this MB/Chipset, please be aware that even though you're not interested in a multi-GPU configuration now, that this MB supports Crossfire and NOT SLI. This means that in order to support this configuration over a period of years as stated, you may want to go with the new ATI Crossfire capable GPU offering mentioned previously in this thread rather than the NVidia SLI capable GPU that you've specified.
3. The Seagate Drive specified is not a Raptor (this is a Western Digital specification for their high speed HDDs. A super high speed HDD is not "necessary" for gaming, it just gives some bragging rights when running certain benchmarks. I would through my hat in the ring recommending a 360-500GB SATA-II type drive with a spindle speed of 7200 or so (WD has come out with a energy saving HDD that has a variable spin rate but I'm unsure of the present availability in the world market).

CPU. I may get some push back from some of the others here, but I'd recommend that you look at a Core2Duo offering on the 45nm fabrication process running at a higher speed, such as the E8400 or E8500 Wolfdale cores running at 3+GHz vs the quad at 2.5GHz. Right now there aren't that many applications or games that can take advantage of 4 cores, but most if not all of the games require very fast CPU speeds, so the Dual Core processor running faster will give you a better return in performance for now, AND use less Power. Down the road you can easily replace the CPU when the quad core prices come down more and the speeds go up.

Optical/DVD/CD Burner/Reader. Any modern system needs one of these, no if ands or buts. I'd like to make a recommendation that you get one that supports Dual-Layer encoding as well as the LightScribe feature running on the SATA bus. Right now DL media is expensive, but if you may be looking at burning a lot of data out to disk, then the DL support allows double the data. The LightScribe feature allows you to use your DVD Burner to actually burn labels directly onto the (supported) media, something that makes keeping track of whats on a DVD a lot easier to track.

Good luck on your selections.

I run a 32bit OS, Windows XP, and I thought that 32bit OS's only reads 3GB? I could be wrong though. Either way I will be going with 4GB, 2x2GB

As far as the HD goes, 160GB is more than enough for me. I have had an 80GB HD for the past 3 years and have not once had a problem unless I went and downloaded multiple anime's and movies, which I don't do anymore btw. Double of what I have never had problems with will be good for me. Plus, I just play a few games like Silkroad Online and Rappelz (and I suck at them both :blush

The motherboard is something the guys at the hardware store came up with because the one I selected first had problems with the video card. It doesn't matter for me if it has SLI or not... one video card is good for me.

I will be looking at the video card a bit more. A few guys at some other forum told me I should go with the GTX but it will cause heating problems..

Oh yeah, and which would you guys get, a 19" or 22" monitor?

DVD-RW +/- ... is that an optical drive or am I just loosing it?8)

Thanks

Some Dude said:
Sorry to confuse you. Optical disc drive is the general name for CD / DVD / HD-DVD / Bluray / etc, any disc medium drive that utilize laser(s) to read / write data from or to the medium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_drive

Hope that clears up.