New PC help needed

[caveman16]

     Hey Guys and Ladies,
Back in Nov 2005, I got very good advice from ct Joyce and others  concerning the parts make-up of a decent PC.    Well, - -  most of it was way over my head so I decided I needed a lot more study on my part.     That was 5 months ago and as I continue to read and study  - -  I'm still in kindergarden.  

     My present PC is a piece of pure junk . [ Gateway Microtower ]

     I've decided to go ahead  [ with your help ]  to buy  or have "put together" a PC .   Some of the things I wish to go with are : #1        A budget I can live with  - - -  $1500.00 plus if really necessary.     #2      A company to put it all together for compatibility  such as  www.IBUYPOWER.com.  [ I just don't feel confident and I would have no one nearby to help if needed ] .     #3      Must be upgradable .  FSX  and Vista are my goal .    

     I'm sure there are other questions to ask and to be answered but will " go" with this for now .    

     Sure do appreciate your help,          caveman

[legoalex2000]

!!!!!!$1500!!!!!!

you got good money there, you do. you could up yourself to an 64FX or an X2.

we could help you online, that way you dont have to waste labor money. all you need is to keep this computer on, and ctjoyce, congo, or I could walk you through the steps.

ramos

[ctjoyce]

Well I can personally vouch for IBuyPower as I have bought 3 systems from them (yes even CTJoyce was a n00blet once). However you will waste atleast $100 at any online or walkin store on them building it. So basically your best off doing it yourself. The hardest part is usually getting the HS onto the CPU. Everything else is plug and play.

What I reccomend.
Processer: AMD 3700+
Motherboard: Asus A8n-32 SLix16
RAM: Corsair XMS 1GB
Video Card: eVGA 7900GT
Case: Thermaltake Soprano
PSU: Hiper Type R 580W SLi

Your media and Hard disks are up to you (though I prefer Samgsung or Plextor DVD burners and Western Digital SATA HDDs).

But that system has alot of room for the future. The Motherboard is a SLi x16 board, and one of the finest I've ever seen ASUS make. You will have full use of all your PCI-E pipelines unlike conventional SLi boards.

The 3700+ is one heck of an over clocker. I have seen people push that thing to 3.2Ghz on air (Zalman CNPS-9500 and Swiftech N bridge cooler). Its 64Bit so your fine for FSX and vista.

The GPU is brand new, and mops the floor with the ATi rival (X1800) and the whole 7800 series.
The RAM is the same kit I have in my rig. Low latancy, and fast timings make this the ideal AMD choice.

The case and PSU are also parts that I personally use. PSU is by far the best I know on the market. I have been able to do things that have fried other PSUs to this thing without any preformance drop. As for the case, Cool Quiet, Efficent. Not to mention it looks nice too.

Well I hope you have fun with whatever you build, and if you want to make it look as nice as it is fast, drop by the forums at www.kustompcs.co.uk to get some ideas. My old setup is in the gallery (Sheila).

Cheers
Cameron

[congo]

The new Asus A8N-32 SLIx16 mainboard is based on the latest nvidia SLI chipset incarnation where both PCIe 16x slots have full 16x PCIe support, as opposed to the earlier SLI boards where a single video card can use 16 PCIe lanes, but if 2 cards are used in SLI mode on the original SLI chipset, then the cards get 8x PCIe lanes each.

On the surface, this looks like a good thing. The entire story is not being told unfortunately and I think more people should be aware of it before recommending this chipset.

The new chipset does not perform as well as the old one. I'm not sure exactly why as I've lost the link to the info, but when I find it again, I'll be posting a thread about it.

It has to do with the bus architecture being compromised due to a chipset limitation when enabling the 2 16x PCIe slots. This in effect creates a system bottleneck on one of the buses in one direction only, but a bottleneck all the same.

This is a real shame because the Asus board is otherwise a lovely product.

[ctjoyce]

Grrr, so much for finally finding a decent SLi x16 board. Is the MSI one any good?

Cheers
Cameron

[caveman16]

     Hi Guys,    I'm watching very intently and appreciate your helping  me.      As I study the site :  www.Ibuypower.com .  there are a number of PCs that parts are changed to up-grade the advertised PC.         I sure don't mind spending some to make sure the PC  parts all  are compatable.  

     It would be nice if I could find one of  " THEM " that would fill the bill .     Your thoughts on this idea  ?          Too easy for you  ?                     As  I've  said  - - -  I'm very apprehensive  about the assembly of a PC.

      caveman

[congo]

Grrr, so much for finally finding a decent SLi x16 board. Is the MSI one any good?

Cheers
Cameron

It's not Asus's fault, it's the chipset itself. They aren't a terrible board by any means but I'm not recommending them because of this issue.

Caveman, you can buy all the parts online and they will often assemble it for a small fee, this is actually a good idea, because then they must take responsibility if something doesn't work.

[Politically Incorrect]

You may want to check out Monarch, I think thier build fee is $50.

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv

The nice thing about having it built along with what Congo states, it that they will also install the OS, most will do burn in tests to assure all parts are working etc.

So in most cases when it arrives you can plug it in and fire it up.

The only thing I have noticed when reading forums about complaints to DoA's, most relate to damage during shipping so you may want to use a company that offers a choice of shipper, some shippers are better than others

[town]

You may want to check out Monarch, I think thier build fee is $50.

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv

The nice thing about having it built along with what Congo states, it that they will also install the OS, most will do burn in tests to assure all parts are working etc.

So in most cases when it arrives you can plug it in and fire it up.

The only thing I have noticed when reading forums about complaints to DoA's, most relate to damage during shipping so you may want to use a company that offers a choice of shipper, some shippers are better than others

100% agreement. you can buy the best PC in the world but in the hands of an idiot shipper it magically turns into a rather large babys rattle

[congo]

Well, handling is out of your control unless you pick it up yourself, and even then you don't know if it's been dropped or something, so you can't really worry about it and it's just bad luck if you get a damaged component. It doesn't matter where you buy from, this is always a risk.