I've been reading some posts and viewing some sweet mods on here for a couple of days, and I've decided to make my first post and my first build! :-).
I got my motherboard today (Intel D945Psn) and pentium d 820 chip with all the goodies from intel retail edge (for 215$). Any comments on what kind of RAM will make this baby fastest for the money or any changes at all? I'll be purchasing some time tomorow! I know a lot of you will flame my pentium D 820, but before you begin, it's it defitnelty worth it for how much I paid, and I plan on getting a Geforce 7800 GTX soon and with that Geforce 7800 GTX, almost any proccessor should be fine. I only play games like Age of Empires 3 and probably a little more graphic enhanced games nowsince I'm upgrading from my POS 1.5 Ghz Pentium 4 which is now the minimum req. for most games. So I'm not changing my mind about the proccesor or motherboard, the other stuff i need help chosing to make this baby fastest as possible for the littlest amount of $$ :-)

Heres what my choices are so far:

Intel D945Psn Motherboard with Pentium D 820 - $215

OCZ Value series 2 GB (2 X 1GB) DDR2 --- $163.44 (Price dropped 30 dollars)



Case pick #1 - $179.99 (with 500 watt power supply, for $129.99 same case no PSU, might go that route and buy my own PSU, but hopefully this PSU can handle my specs plus a geforce 7800GTX?)

Case pick #2 ---- $69.00 (or i was considering the same case in black)

video card i want geforce 7800 gtx but what is the best model brand name for the money? - ill guess 450 $.

Power supply - i dont know if i need yet depending on what case I buy.

I have the hard drives, and dvd burners and cd-rom drives.. i think that does it. I might buy two SATA hard drive if the price is right and set up RAID. Any good deals? But for now I'll stick with my 250 GB maxtor.

Total PC price about 530 $ without the video card! Not frikin bad!

Also I will probably buy the Logitech Z5500's while their on sale at newegg so add 215 or w/e. Are these pretty good? I will probably end up getting a very good if not the best sound card out for this, or does it not make a differnece? Any advice on the sound cards?
Another question is I believe the LEXA case by NZXT has a power supply with only 20 pin...What if my motherboard has a 24 pin connector only? WIll it work with 20 of the 24 pins in use?



P.S. Any top of the line or good TV tuners out there? I'll probably want to record some live TV while watching some shows too. (Do you need Windows Media Center EDition or can I use XP Pro?) send me the link for some good tv tuners that can record and watch at same time! Sorry for bein a noob, I'm pretty good with computers but it's my first build!

.........Linkin24

Kick back and enjoy the show....its gona have F@Holding in it.....

Please check out the Sweeet Pimp Links..

• The first link is the Best!!!
• T2's F@Holding ARMY
• http://team.pcapex.com/
• http://gallery.pcapex.com/
• http://articles.pcapex.com/
• http://forums.uberw00t.com/
• http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/

Quote: Originally Posted by Linkin24 Also I will probably buy the Logitech Z5500's while their on sale at newegg so add 215 or w/e.

Free Pencil Holder too!!

I like case #1 out better out of them 2 cases.

Quote: Originally Posted by THRASHER2 .........Linkin24 Kick back and enjoy the show....its gona have F@Holding in it..... Please check out the Sweeet Pimp Links.. The first link is the Best!!! T2's F@Holding ARMY http://team.pcapex.com/ http://gallery.pcapex.com/ http://articles.pcapex.com/ http://forums.uberw00t.com/ http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/

T2 you always forget these 2 links geez

Ator's F@H Force
Team Ups

Welcome to PimpRig!

A few words of advice... be very careful of what PSU you buy, most PSU's sold with PC cases are
kinda crappy... Hence it is better to buy your case without the PSU & but the PSU seperately....

That way you can buy one which is rock stable, efficient & has a modular cabling system... so your
PC will be more stable, cooler & the innards will look cleaner!

Furthermore you will notice pre-modded cases get less respect here... afterall.. most of us consider
modding to be a hobby & a means to create something unique...

Happy reading & participating!

TDR

Welcome to the wonderful world of PimpRig.

Quote: Originally Posted by theups T2 you always forget these 2 links geez Ator's F@H Force Team Ups

The saying goes "All is fair during LOVE and WAR."
When it comes to F@H ALL BETS ARE OFF! MUUUHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAH!

I would get a good brand name PSU instead of the bundled one.

When it comes to video cards my approach is don't get the top one, instead get a less expensive one and overclock it. In your case I would go with this one and save a lot of money.

Get 2xSATA2 drives and RAID them, your system is only as fast as the slowest component - the hard drive...

Other than that it looks like a sweet system

And welcome to pimprig!

You got some nice choices there , and welcome to PR

I'm gonna have to pipe in as the third to say , buy a NAME BRAND PSU , and i would go with case #2 looks good and is HALF the cost both are good cases but your paying alot for the bling factor in case $1. You might try shopping around for an even less exspencive case , and do some of your own modding to make it look the way YOU want it. Pre-mods are nice but all in all they are someone elses idea of cool your just stuffing parts into.
There is a review of case #1 here http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread.php?t=60082 if you want to know more about it before you buy . Godfoot did a really good job checkin the case out.

For the video card, I would suggest EVGA. From what I have read they have a lifetime warrenty, allow overclocks and 3rd party coolers. They also have the step-up program and I also heard that their customer service is top notch (I have never had to try it out).

Intstead of raid, you might want to check out a raptor. They have dropped a lot in price since I bought mine a couple of months ago. Both the raptor and a raid set-up are not really practicle but for real live performance, but they are cool.

For the 2 cases, I give #1 a vote but if money is a factor, I would buy the cheapest case you can find and mod it. You don't need to do anything spectacular. A top blow hole and and your own paint job (no matter if it sucks) will get more respect around here than premods. But don't let what others think swade you. if you like either case, get it. Just remember you will be prouder of something you did on your own. (I was going to say, save money, but i don't think it is true in the long run.)

Thanks for the advice, just need a bit more of advice and I should be set!

I ordered mostly everything today. I already have my intel d45psn motherboard, and intel pentium D 820 proccessor. To add to the build I bought the following, please tell me if these are good choices and is the power supply enough for a geforce 7800 GTX down the road?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811146018 - NZXT Lexa no power supply - 129.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104155 - OCZ modstream 520 W PSU with a nice blue glow. - 108.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121120 - some nice add on speakers (Logitech Z-5500 5.1) -$ 219.99

For now I have my Maxtor 250 GB 16mb cache running and Iomega DVD RW/CD-RW DL

Things I'm going to buy SOON:
(I'll probably have to get a nice sound card down the road here: any top of line sweeeet ones for 5.1 systems?)

(Video card is coming after christmas, but here is my two selections: leaning more towards the GTX )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130247 - eVGA Geforce 7800GT - $304.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130254 - eVGA Geforce 7800 GTX - $469.00

RAM! This has to be bought in the next 2 days and willing to under 200 $$ for GOOD 2 X 1 GB...The one i wanted is out of stock on newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227060 - OCZ Value series (2 X 1 GB - 2 GB) DDR2 667 PC2 5400 - $166.44

However...I think I found a better one??? I'm not sure if this is better or if it will work with my motherboard but here it is:
http://www.directron.com/ocz26672gvpdck.html - OCZ Value PRO series 2 GB(2 X 1GB) DDR2 667 PC2 5400 w/ copper heat spreader - $169.00 on sale for $159.00. What exactly is a heat spreader and is it good that this one includes one because the other pair first mentioned doesnt. HOpefully this RAM is better and will work because its cheaper and I can order it NOW. Let me know thanks!

Unless you plan on overclocking, the value series should be fine. You will be basically getting the same performance for less of the price.

Heatspreaders just help to disipate the heat generated by the ram. As long as the ram is not overclocked, it should be fine. But I think the extra money to get heat spreaders would be worth it. You can get them for around $5 and I think they would make the insides of your case more blingin'.

For the price point for the power supply, I would do more research on it before you get the OZC psu. From what I heard it is a good psu but depending on your different goals for the build (quietness, overclocking, looks, stablity, ect.) you might want to check out some more. If you want quiet, I would check out seasonic. I have an antec smart power 2 500W and it works just fine for me and I got it for around $60. Sometimes waiting for the right real pays off. Just spend some time at the hot deals section on different forums and wait till you find a good deal.

Instead of the gtx, I would get the GT. (unless you got mad cash) What monitor will you be using? If you are just using a regular 19" or below I would say get the 7800gt, but if you have something like the dell 2405fpw, you might want to look into the GTX. Also, if you are big into fps you might want to consider the gtx also. RTS's will run just fine on the GT. Age of Empires 3 runs awsome on my 7800gt and dell 2005fpw. With the EVGA, if you get the 7800gt and decide you want the GTX a couple months down the road, they have a step-up program to do so.

Also what are you planning to use for a cooling. Are you going to stick with stock or get an aftermark hsf? That is something you don't need right away, but is something you want to think about.

Let us know how it turns out and post some pics. And MOST importantly, there is a new virus going around that not only infects your computer but your body. They call it the cancer virus. The only way to keep your self safe is to run Folding @ Home and make sure you sign up for team 596.

That ram is an excellent deal. Defenetly jump on that.

I wasn't really sold on eVGA video cards, as I'm a pretty avid ASUS, buyer (that goes back many years), but I looked at some reviews and I think they're pretty good for the price. so I don't think you can really go wrong. You can check out:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...00_gtx_review/
http://www.avault.com/hardware/getre...7800gtx&page=1
http://hardware.gamershell.com/artic...iew/index.html

It seems like it is defenetly not a card for the overclocker, but it is a great value out of the box.

Does anybody know anything more about those speakers he mentioned? I just checked logitech's web page and they are selling for $399. So newegg to the rescue again.