Thinking about a new comp

[Gilmo{MEOW}]

PROCESSOR AMD Phenom X4 9650 Quad-Core AM2+ Processor at 2.3GHz, 3600MHz FSB, 1MB X 4 Cache
RIG Vigor ALPHA FORCE Screwless Chassis w/TyphoonTM Air Ventilation System
RIG COLOR Black
RIG STYLE Metal Mesh Side Window for Improved Ventilation
RIG COOLING Vigor Whisper Cool Powered by Asus Cooling System
RIG POWER Cooler Master Real Power Pro nVidia-SLI Certified 1250Watt Power Supply
RIG DIMENSIONS 8.07" Width X 22.44" Depth X 20.47" Height.
MB CORE LOGIC Asus M3N-HT Deluxe nVidia nForce 780a SLI w/3 Gen 2 PCIE
MEMORY 2GB Kingston KVR800D2N5K2/2G DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 X 1024MB)
OPERATING HARD DRIVE 1 320GB S-ATA II 7200 RPM Hard Drive
OPERATING HARD DRIVE 2 320GB S-ATA II 7200 RPM Hard Drive
DATA DRIVES RAID SETTING RAID 0 Performance - Striped Drives (2 or More Identical Hard Drives Only)
DATA HARD DRIVE None.
HARD DRIVE COOLER Vigor iSurf II Hard Drive Cooler w/dual fans
3 WAY SLI REQUIREMENTS 9800 GTX Requires a Min. of 1000W and GTX 200 Family Requires a Min. of 1200W Power Supply
VIDEO CARD SLI SLOT 1 nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB DDR3 @738MHz, DVI and TV Out (ETA 8/1/2008)
VIDEO CARD SLI SLOT 2 None.
VIDEO CARD SLI SLOT 3 nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB DDR3 @738MHz, DVI and TV Out (ETA 8/1/2008)
OPTICAL DRIVE 1 SONY/NEC Internal SATA AD7200S 20X Dual Layer DVD+/- RW + CDRW Rewritable Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE 2 Plextor Internal SATA PX810SA 18X DVD+/- RW + CDRW Rewritable Drive
RECORDING SOFTWARE Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 Basic DVD/CD RW Software
SOUND Digital High Definition 3D 7.1 8-Channel Sound
NETWORK PORT Onboard Gigabit (10/100/1000Mbps) PCI Network Card
WIRELESS NETWORK PORT None.
I/O PORTS 1 Parallel, 1 Game/Midi, 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire and 6 to 10 USB ports (Varies by Motherboards)
MONITOR None.
SPEAKERS None.
KEYBOARD Standard Black Internet Multimedia Keyboard
MOUSE Standard Black Optical Wheel Mouse
FLOPPY DRIVE 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive
OPERATING SYSTEM Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2 w/Original Disc
SERVICE Standard 3 Year Limited Parts and Life-Time Labor Warranty
STORAGE MEDIA None.
SOFTWARE BUNDLE Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 V2
ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE None.
Price: $2156.00

would take my sounblaster Sfx extreme from old system and use the two 320 sata drives for data drive backups.  What do you think.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Asus M3N-HT Deluxe nVidia nForce 780a SLI w/3 Gen 2 PCIE

Same motherboard I'm looking at for my next upgrade.  Pricey, but looks solid.  Cannot go wrong with Asus.

Now is the time to upgrade for anyone looking to do so, everything is cheap.  Though I think you'd save several hundred bucks building it yourself.

That may be overkill on the power supply, I'd look into that and research it.

As for the CPU, it's not a bad choice, but the difference between a 9650 and a 9850 Black Edition (Black Edition means upwards unlocked multiplier in case you ever decide to overclock) is $6 on Newegg.  Personally I'd look at a 9850BE or 9950BE if you're looking at X4 Phenoms.  The 9850 runs at HTT (aka FSB) 4000Mhz opposed to 3600Mhz on the 9650.  What this means is faster communication between the CPU, vid card, ram, etc., less bottlenecking.  You can get better bang for your buck with a 9850BE in my opinion.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103249

Also, I noticed you have DDR2 800 ram listed there.  You should be able to run DDR2 1066 with that motherboard.  You'll probably create a bottleneck trying to run DDR2 800 on that system.  RAM is extremely cheap right now.

SLI, I'm really not sold on the price/performance ratio of that, but I guess that's personal preference.  Make sure you get quality manufacturers though like EVGA or BFG.  I think the 9800GTX+ is the card to get right now, price/performance should be very good.

[Gilmo{MEOW}]

Thanks, excellent advice.  I have never built a computer before so have no idea how.  I also really dont have a decent area in my house away from kids and dogs to build one or I would give it a shot.  I do intend to rebuild the old one later for my son to use. Huge power supply is for later additions/mods also I will be adding a nice sound card and two drives almost immediately.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Rediculously easy.  When I built this current one it took probably 6 hours taking it slow with 0 experience.  The toughest part is picking out the components and finding compatable stuff.

[Gilmo{MEOW}]

tweaked it a bit

SPECIAL PROMOTION Free Shipping
PROCESSOR AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition Quad-Core AM2+ Processor at 2.5GHz, 3600MHz FSB, 1MB X 4 Cache
RIG Vigor ALPHA FORCE Screwless Chassis w/TyphoonTM Air Ventilation System
RIG COLOR Black
RIG STYLE Metal Mesh Side Window for Improved Ventilation
RIG COOLING Vigor Whisper Cool Powered by Asus Cooling System
RIG POWER Tagan TG1100-U96 TurboJet nVidia-SLI Certified 1100Watt Power Supply
RIG DIMENSIONS 8.07" Width X 22.44" Depth X 20.47" Height.
MB CORE LOGIC Asus M3N-HT Deluxe nVidia nForce 780a SLI w/3 Gen 2 PCIE
MEMORY 2GB Kingston HyperX KHX9600D2K2/2G CL5 DDR2 1200MHz Memory (2 X 1024MB)
OPERATING HARD DRIVE 1 320GB S-ATA II 7200 RPM Hard Drive
OPERATING HARD DRIVE 2 320GB S-ATA II 7200 RPM Hard Drive
DATA DRIVES RAID SETTING RAID 0 Performance - Striped Drives (2 or More Identical Hard Drives Only)
DATA HARD DRIVE None.
HARD DRIVE COOLER None.
3 WAY SLI REQUIREMENTS 9800 GTX Requires a Min. of 1000W and GTX 200 Family Requires a Min. of 1200W Power Supply
VIDEO CARD SLI SLOT 1 nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB DDR3 @738MHz, DVI and TV Out (ETA 8/1/2008)
VIDEO CARD SLI SLOT 2 None.
VIDEO CARD SLI SLOT 3 nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB DDR3 @738MHz, DVI and TV Out (ETA 8/1/2008)
OPTICAL DRIVE 1 SONY/NEC Internal AD7200A 20X Dual Layer DVD+/- RW + CDRW Rewritable Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE 2 None.
RECORDING SOFTWARE Ahead Nero 6 OEM Suite DVD/CD RW Software
SOUND Digital High Definition 3D 7.1 8-Channel Sound
NETWORK PORT Onboard Gigabit (10/100/1000Mbps) PCI Network Card
WIRELESS NETWORK PORT None.
I/O PORTS 1 Parallel, 1 Game/Midi, 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire and 6 to 10 USB ports (Varies by Motherboards)
MONITOR None.
SPEAKERS None.
KEYBOARD Standard Black Internet Multimedia Keyboard
MOUSE Standard Black Optical Wheel Mouse
FLOPPY DRIVE 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive
OPERATING SYSTEM Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic 32-bit w/Original DVD
SERVICE Standard 3 Year Limited Parts and Life-Time Labor Warranty
STORAGE MEDIA None.
SOFTWARE BUNDLE None.
ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE None.
Price: $2009.00

I can always add bluray later when the price comes down and can steal a second dvd drive out of older comp. The other thing I like about this company is that the reps are all us based. Also decided to leave the Vista on as I can use the dual drives I have in the old comp as a second boot with winxp should I like

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

I think you still have the wrong ram selected.  You're looking for DDR2 1066 (PC-8500) 240 pin.

[Gilmo{MEOW}]

DoH! you're right.  Not paying attention.  Wife has given me the green light, it is just alot of dough to drop and I want 5 years out of the setup just like I got out of the old girl.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

9850BE's just got an $11 price cut on Newegg.

[Gilmo{MEOW}]

I saw.  I need to get off my butt and just take care of this.  Been really busy lately. 

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

I will probably be building mine pretty soon.  I'm currently looking at these parts:

Asus Crosshair II Formula
AMD Phenom 9850BE
Corsair Dominator 4gb (2x2) DDR2 1066 PC-8500
EVGA 9800GTX+
Zalman CNPS9700NT  (still debating on this cooler though due to size considerations, also looking at some Thermalright coolers which is a brand I've bought in the past.)
Vista 64 bit

Keeping this stuff from the previous build:

Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS Case
OCZ Powerstream 600W PSU
Seagate 7200.9 160GB HDD
Lite-On DVD-ROM
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Fan Controller
Sony Floppy Drive
External USB CD-RW
Western Digital USB HDD 80GB
BenQ FP93GX 19'' LCD
Lots of other USB controllers and stuff

I'll probably try to sell off the components I'm not keeping.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

9850be dropped another 10 bucks on Newegg, free shipping too.  I'd look into some of these combo deals Gilmo, they have some incredible deals going.  Also GTX+'s got a 20 buck rebate on them now.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Thinking of holding off on this.  AMD Deneb Phenoms should be out later this year.  They run on a 45nm die with 95W TDP and I've read some places that they use about half the wattage of the current 125W TDP 65nm Phenoms.  Witch means less heat, more overclocking headroom, less power requirements.  They will be socket AM3 and support DDR3 ram.  I wouldn't be putting an upgraded system to full use for a few months anyways when these new games hit.

[Gilmo{MEOW}]

Closing on a second home soon.  That is what is delaying my new comp so much.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

I'd give it maybe 2 or 3 months, at most within 4 months, if you can hold off Gilmo.  New sockets and chips from both Intel and AMD are coming.

AMD is planning to launch two 45 nm Phenom X4 CPUs (Deneb core) in 2008 with core frequencies of between 2.5-2.8 GHz and 2.4-2.7 GHz, with both adopting 6 MB L3 Cache and having a TDP rating of 95W, according to sources at motherboard makers. AMD will announce the final order date for its 125 watt Phenom X4 9750 by the end of the second quarter and the CPU will be replaced by a 95 watt version - which is available this quarter - while the 95 watt Phenom X4 9850 will appear before January of 2009.

http://www.fpslabs.com/news/latest/amds-45nm-deneb-has-promise

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3382

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Looks like Jan. 8th '09 for 45nm Denebs.  I'm hearing the initial chips will be socket AM2+ therefore DDR2 and not DDR3 right away.  Add to that time for motherboard manufacturers to get products out.  It's a tough call for sure, but you're probably looking at 5-6 months from now if you decide to stick it out for AM3.  Was really hoping AMD would get them out this year.  I'll probably give it another month and see what develops.  I know there are several of us looking at similar systems.