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A few weeks ago, I decided to build a new system
. It was going pretty well because I had a basic idea of what to get (A64 Venice/San Diego, 2 GB of high performance memory, nForce 3 board, my current video card, etc.) but there has been some changes recently. The same person who bought my Radeon 9500 Pro off of me is interested in buying my 6800 GT when I get a new system, which means I can jump straight to PCI-E.
That leads me to two problems: What motherboard and video card should I buy? I was looking at getting the DFI LAN Party NF4 Ultra-D motherboard but is there another one I should be considering? And as for the video card, I have no idea. Should I go with another 6800 GT or should I get a 7800 GTX or even go back to ATi? Should I wait and see what the R520 has to offer?
My focus with this computer is quiet power. My current computer is still pretty strong but unfortunately it makes quite a bit of noise, bothering other people in my house. Because of this, I'm ruling out getting a case that doesn't accept 120mm fans. I preferably want one in front of the case as well in the back, with a hard drive cage positioned in the path of the fan's air so it can cool whatever hard drives I stick in the computer. My current case allows me to do that and I've liked the cool temperatures it allows both of my hard drives to operate at. The case I've picked out fulfills all of those requirements, but is there another one I should look at that does those but is better/cheaper? I picked out the heatsink because it's done well in every test I've seen and hushypushy's said good things about his 7000B
. My friend recently got an A64+7000B and the only time you can hear any noise from the heatsink is when it's running at maximum speed, and even then it's almost silent. The 7700 should be either a little quieter or the same and perform even better.
I may mod the board later on and do SLi so I've picked a decently powerful power supply to compensate for this (I don't think I'll need 550+ watts
). I've added the mouse pad because my current one is getting worn and dirty and I wanted to get a nice one. As for the mouse, my current one (M$ Intellimouse Explorer 3, bought sometime around the end of 2002/beginning of 2003 I think) is starting to get worn out so I want to replace it with a nice gaming mouse. If I sell my current computer with all of the stuff in it, then I'll add an additional hard drive, DVD burner, and sound card but I won't know about that for a little while. If I end up keeping it, then I'll just take those parts out of it and stick it in the new computer.
Any advice, opinions, or constructive criticism on any part of the computer is welcomed
. I've added a picture of my current wish list. I plan on hitting at least 2.8 GHz with the CPU I've picked out, anything higher would be nice of course
.
That leads me to two problems: What motherboard and video card should I buy? I was looking at getting the DFI LAN Party NF4 Ultra-D motherboard but is there another one I should be considering? And as for the video card, I have no idea. Should I go with another 6800 GT or should I get a 7800 GTX or even go back to ATi? Should I wait and see what the R520 has to offer?
My focus with this computer is quiet power. My current computer is still pretty strong but unfortunately it makes quite a bit of noise, bothering other people in my house. Because of this, I'm ruling out getting a case that doesn't accept 120mm fans. I preferably want one in front of the case as well in the back, with a hard drive cage positioned in the path of the fan's air so it can cool whatever hard drives I stick in the computer. My current case allows me to do that and I've liked the cool temperatures it allows both of my hard drives to operate at. The case I've picked out fulfills all of those requirements, but is there another one I should look at that does those but is better/cheaper? I picked out the heatsink because it's done well in every test I've seen and hushypushy's said good things about his 7000B
I may mod the board later on and do SLi so I've picked a decently powerful power supply to compensate for this (I don't think I'll need 550+ watts
Any advice, opinions, or constructive criticism on any part of the computer is welcomed