www.NJLanParty.com

Posted: **Tue Aug 08, 2006 2:49 am**

Posted: **Tue Aug 08, 2006 5:12 pm**

If you're looking for an AMD system I'd suggest going with an AM2 motherboard and CPU it'll cost you a few more $$ but has a better upgrade path for the future.

Just some examples:
MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131011

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103751

You might consider PC Power and Cooling PSU's as well. About the same price as what you are looking at and very solid.

http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/ ... how=S61EPS

I'd also suggest looking at newer model video cards in the 7900 family, the 7800gtx is not a bad card but a 7900 series is the current generation and has some performance and feature improvements.

Posted: **Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:29 pm**

could you suggest a videocard for what i have lined up for my system so far?

Posted: **Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:26 pm**

I really don't have a favorite, I would check out what BFG, eVGA and XFX have to offer. The GT's run from about 240 to 350 and the GTX's from about 430 to 500. When I got mine about a month and a half ago I went with an XFX 7900GT that had a $30 rebate and good specs compared to other cards in it's price range (I needed to stay under $300).

In each class they have the same amount of memory but the core and memory clock speeds will differ eVGA offers some pre-overclocked cards.

7900GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... &maxPrice=

7900GTX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... &maxPrice=

Posted: **Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:18 am**

I would not buy the 7800GTX, especially at that price. A 7800GTX will perform just like a 7900GT, except it will be hotter while running, much harder to overclock (the G71 is smaller as compared to the G70 that is the 7800 series), and overall a much less value.

But I caution you all, if you order a 7900GT, do not order any 7900GT except for this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130033

I went through 6 cards that were not revision 2, and now I have a revision 2 and it works perfectly.

Thanks.

Posted: **Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:52 am**

To be honest I have really no complaints about anything you have choosen except the case.

Its a pretty sweet case with the window, blue lights etc. But its also a very large case, which can be a major issue when travelling to LAN parties. Especially when you have to climb those stairs at the NJGamers parties.

I noticed you are going with a single CD/DVD ROM drive and no burner. If your not swapping in from another unit it just adds to the size down factor for your case. See if you can find a location near you that has the case in stock or one with the same dimensions, like CompUSA to see if you are really going to want to haul it around to LAN parties.

Also, a 250 Gig hard drive for 69.99 after the rebate is every reason to by two! Your board supports Raid:

PATA 2 x ATA100 up to 4 Devices
SATA 3Gb/s 4
SATA RAID NV RAID 0/1/0+1/5 JBOD
Additional RAID Controller Sil 3132

for redundancy or you could just have half a terabyte of storage

The video card is a great one, I have used BFG cards for the last 8 years in fact I have 2 in my system right now and I love them. The specs on this card are nice and I haven't seen many posts on issues..

One question though whats your plan for RAM???

Oh and one more thing if you are ordering the parts and building yourself you may want to checkhttp://www.pricewatch.com. You may find some of your components really cheap.

You may also want to look in to a bare bones system where the MB/Case/RAM/CPU and whatever else you want is installed and tested before shipping. I have purchased quite a few systems for myself and clients from http://www.cyberpowerinc.com. The only benefit to doing it this way is CyberPower is a vendor to go back to when a certain part doesn't work and they are great with returns..

Just had to add this cyberpower is offering AMD gaming system with water cooling as part of the package..

Hope to see ya at the next LAN party.
Diggs

---------------------------------------------------------------
RAM is life.. Without RAM you would forget everything..

Posted: **Wed Aug 09, 2006 2:29 pm**

Thanks Diggs, I'm considering looking for a new case because it is a bit large, and I am grabbing my old cd/dvdR drive from my curent computer.

As far as RAM goes I'm not sure how much I'm going to need or where to get enough from.

I think i'm going to get those two HD's too

Whats the deal with the cyberpoiwerinc place?

Posted: **Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:34 pm**

Cyberpower Inc is a company out in california that I started using about five years ago. They had good reviews on a few sites and since I have been using them, they have grown to a pretty large business.

They offer full systems to barebones to everything in between. Building your own system is a lot of fun and is good learning experience but can also be a headache. I don't know your overall experience with hardware but buying your own components for your own system becomes a problem when you run in to problems with specific items.

Depending on the person I am either buying for or helping build a new system I usually suggest certain pathes to take.

If you build from scratch ordering all your components, you are buying those components with the standard 30 to 90 day return policy of the vendor. After that you need to deal with the manufacturer of the items which, depending on the company, can be even more of a nightmare.

Cyberpower, along with many other builders, Alienware, etc.. Usually offer anywhere from a one to three year waranty on the systems they build for you.

So if you were to buy your box, motherboard, HD, vid card, ram, and cd/dvd drive from them. They put all the components together and then perform a burn in.

Burn in is basically loading an OS with some software that tests the components non stop over a certain period of time, usually 48 to 72 hours.

Then they ship it off to the customer and you do the OS install. If anything goes wrong with the hardware you have one place to go to resolve the issue.

I don't want to discourage anyone from building from scratch but I'm sure many of us have stories when dealing with a company that has given us the run around when trying to return an item bought at a computer fair or a vendor online.

Most of the original NJLP guys have a lot of years in the computer industry and we have enough knowledge to hang ourselves.

But I wouldn't want to give someone new the advice to go ahead and buy all your components to only find out six months down the road that the MB had an issue. Then to find out the MB company (usually based outside the US) is giving you an issue becasue your past the warranty.

Just as an example I purchased a Intel P4 MB for my Dad's PC. It was fine for about a year when my Dad complained that the PC wouldn't shut down. After talking with Intel for about a month via email they determined that the power management chip on the MB was going. Which is when they directed me to the returns department. Where I found out the motherboard model was discontinued and all they could do was offer a 25% rebate on a new MB.

If I had used Cyberpower or even Dell they would have shipped a new motherboard the next day..

Posted: **Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:36 pm**

oh, now i understand, it sounds like a good idea to me, but I also think it would be fun to build it myself, but hey if I know it won't give me trouble doing it through cyberpowerinc then thats the safest bet

Also one more thing, whats the big difference between an AMD computer build and an Intel computer build?

Posted: **Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:08 pm**

Price mostly.
Way back when AMD was the "follower", every time Intel came out with a new processor AMD reverse engineered it and made what some considered a cheaper (in price) knock off. AMD's market share grew and became the cheaper alternative to Intel. Then AMD changed their strategy and specifically started targeting the gaming community with competitve alternatives to Intel. Now its really all about price point and personal preference.

If I'm buying a number of systems for "business" clients for use in an office environment I usually go Intel with a name brand system Dell, Gateway, HP etc. That way I get the support from a large computer distributer. And thier support systems work real well if you have a small business account so you don't have to deal with boneheads who answer their home user helpdesk.

For personal systems for a single client or friend, who is non-technical and a non-gamer. I would recommend a name brand home system with an Intel chip. But if they were looking to get a FAT gaming system with a lower price point then the top of the line Intel system, its AMD all the way.

Sad part is my fastest system right now is an Intel 2.0 Gig, with a gig of ram, and a BFG 6800 and a BFG 5500.. I am so due a new PC its not even funny.

But I need a new driveway first..

Posted: **Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:17 pm**

I have to say one thing, the big boys are realizing that their is alot of money to be made in Gaming PC's. And Dell, Gateway, etc.. all have their own line of systems.

But Cyberpower is one of the few places that is actually offering the new
NEW!!! NVIDIA Geforce 7950 GX2 1GB 16X PCI Express Video Card(NEW!!! NVIDIA Geforce 7950 GX2 1GB 16X PCI Express Video Card)

Yes thats the card Dell displayed at E3 with their new gaming PC.. Andit had two cards in the system.

Oh man imagine two of those puppies in your system working together.. The rendering would be unreal..

www.NJLanParty.com

So I'm making my first build soon... revised

So I'm making my first build soon... revised

Viva's Build

www.NJLanParty.com

So I'm making my first build soon... *revised*

So I'm making my first build soon... *revised*

Viva's Build

So I'm making my first build soon... revised

So I'm making my first build soon... revised