New System Build - Want Opinions

Ok I am getting ready to build a new PC. First question is should I
build now or wait a bit more? I have to have the new PC built before
Labor Day.

Take a look at the system and options below and please give me some
feedback. Money is not a big deal but I don't wnat to waste it either.
So if you see anything that looks stupid let me know.

Primary things that will be done with the PC: Games, Databases, Image
Editing (flatbed and film scanners attached), web page creation, plus
all the normal web surfing and word processing type stuff. I am hoping
for no heavy number crunching at home, though I may need to do some FEA
or MATLAB work at some point.

I generally don't overclock and just buy new stuff when the old gets too
slow. Maybe retail instead of OEM CPUs?

Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia Ultra *
KB/Mouse: Logitech MX Duo *
Soundcard: SB Audigy 2 ZS *
SCSI Card: Adaptec AHA-2940AU * - For Film Scanner
Video Card: 6800GT (probably eVGA since they are available)
Hard Drive: WD Raptor 74 GB
Case: Antec P-160 w/window
Power Supply: Antec 480W True Blue
CD/DVD: NEC 2510A
Floppy: TEAC
Case Fan: Antec 120mm Blue LED
CPU Cooler: Thermalright SLK948U
CPU Fan: Vantec Stealth 92mm
Thermal Paste: Artic Silver 5
Memory: Corsair XMS PC3200 XLPT Twin Pack - 1 GB total

CPU/MB 939 Option
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ OEM
MB: Asus A8V Deluxe

CPU/MB 754 Option
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ OEM
MB: Asus K8V SE Deluxe

* - Existing / Stuff already bought for this PC but currently being used
on the old one

Existing stuff that will be hooked up: HP LaserJet 5L, Canon S9000,
CanoScan FS4000US, Epson Perfection 2450 Photo, Saitek 45, External Zip
Drive, APC BackUPS XS 1500

Suggestions on where to buy stuff would be appreciated as well. I have
been primarily looking at NewEgg for pricing.

Andrew Littlefield wrote:

I generally don't overclock and just buy new stuff when the old gets too
slow. Maybe retail instead of OEM CPUs?

The stock retail HSF should be fine unless your case has a cooling
problem. The OP of a previous thread (try groups.google.com) indicated
he had trouble with overheating in his P160.

Everything looks good exect a couple of things:

I generally don't overclock and just buy new stuff when the old gets too
slow. Maybe retail instead of OEM CPUs?


Get a retail, even if you dont plan on using the retail HSF you get a better
warantee. One of my friends just had a 2800+ go south even with a complete
retail setup.

Hard Drive: WD Raptor 74 GB

High failiure rate. Get another disk, i recommend a Maxtor, somewhere in the
region of 100-200Gb for backups and storage. I believe they have a 1 in 5
chance of failiure within the first year.

hamman

Well from the looks of it, you're building yourself one kick-ass system. If
you have to have it built by Labour Day I'd say there isn't any harm in
buying now as prices aren't likely to drop much in only a month and a half.
The only suggestions I could make are perhaps go with the 3500+ instead of
the 3800+, it'll save you money and you'll still get really good
performance. Or, if you want to save even more money, just go with the
Socket 754. You system would still be able to handle anything. Also if
you're planning on going top shelf with the graphics card I'd recommend
going with an ATI X800 Pro instead of nVidia as it performs just as well
(and better) and it's a lot less power hungry. That's really all I can
offer you, I don't know if I could help you out with pricing as I live in
Canada, you could try www.ncix.com and see if that does anything for you,
but they're Vancouver-based, so I don't know. Good luck with that.

"Andrew Littlefield" wrote in message
...
Ok I am getting ready to build a new PC. First question is should I
build now or wait a bit more? I have to have the new PC built before
Labor Day.

Take a look at the system and options below and please give me some
feedback. Money is not a big deal but I don't wnat to waste it either.
So if you see anything that looks stupid let me know.

Primary things that will be done with the PC: Games, Databases, Image
Editing (flatbed and film scanners attached), web page creation, plus
all the normal web surfing and word processing type stuff. I am hoping
for no heavy number crunching at home, though I may need to do some FEA
or MATLAB work at some point.

I generally don't overclock and just buy new stuff when the old gets too
slow. Maybe retail instead of OEM CPUs?

Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia Ultra *
KB/Mouse: Logitech MX Duo *
Soundcard: SB Audigy 2 ZS *
SCSI Card: Adaptec AHA-2940AU * - For Film Scanner
Video Card: 6800GT (probably eVGA since they are available)
Hard Drive: WD Raptor 74 GB
Case: Antec P-160 w/window
Power Supply: Antec 480W True Blue
CD/DVD: NEC 2510A
Floppy: TEAC
Case Fan: Antec 120mm Blue LED
CPU Cooler: Thermalright SLK948U
CPU Fan: Vantec Stealth 92mm
Thermal Paste: Artic Silver 5
Memory: Corsair XMS PC3200 XLPT Twin Pack - 1 GB total

CPU/MB 939 Option
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ OEM
MB: Asus A8V Deluxe

CPU/MB 754 Option
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ OEM
MB: Asus K8V SE Deluxe

* - Existing / Stuff already bought for this PC but currently being used
on the old one

Existing stuff that will be hooked up: HP LaserJet 5L, Canon S9000,
CanoScan FS4000US, Epson Perfection 2450 Photo, Saitek 45, External Zip
Drive, APC BackUPS XS 1500

Suggestions on where to buy stuff would be appreciated as well. I have
been primarily looking at NewEgg for pricing.

"Hamman" wrote ...

Hard Drive: WD Raptor 74 GB

High failiure rate. Get another disk, i recommend a Maxtor, somewhere in
the
region of 100-200Gb for backups and storage. I believe they have a 1 in 5
chance of failiure within the first year.

I have yet to hear of a Raptor 74 failure, and have heard plenty of Maxtor
failure stories. Where did you get your info?

The Newegg price for the retail 3800+ is over $700. Consider that you can
get an Opteron 248 for less than that (or a 244 or 246 for MUCH less), get a
dual-CPU MoBo, and add a second CPU when you feel the need later (good for
Photoshop!). The ASUS K8V you picked goes for $152, and an equivalent dual
940 MoBo would go for$260 (Tyan Tiger K8W 8151) to $380 (Arima HDAMB) to
$435 (Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF), depending on your needs, from
www.monarchcomputer.com.

BTW, I would go with the retail CPU unless you plan on something fancy like
water cooling.

John Weiss
Nuc Eng RPI 74

"Andrew Littlefield" wrote...
Ok I am getting ready to build a new PC. First question is should I
build now or wait a bit more? I have to have the new PC built before
Labor Day.

Primary things that will be done with the PC: Games, Databases, Image
Editing (flatbed and film scanners attached), web page creation, plus
all the normal web surfing and word processing type stuff. I am hoping
for no heavy number crunching at home, though I may need to do some FEA
or MATLAB work at some point.

I generally don't overclock and just buy new stuff when the old gets too
slow. Maybe retail instead of OEM CPUs?

Video Card: 6800GT (probably eVGA since they are available)
Hard Drive: WD Raptor 74 GB
Case: Antec P-160 w/window
Power Supply: Antec 480W True Blue
CD/DVD: NEC 2510A
Floppy: TEAC
Case Fan: Antec 120mm Blue LED
CPU Cooler: Thermalright SLK948U
CPU Fan: Vantec Stealth 92mm
Thermal Paste: Artic Silver 5
Memory: Corsair XMS PC3200 XLPT Twin Pack - 1 GB total

CPU/MB 939 Option
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ OEM
MB: Asus A8V Deluxe

CPU/MB 754 Option
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ OEM
MB: Asus K8V SE Deluxe

"John R Weiss" wrote in message
news:JTxKc.111862$%_6.36899@attbi_s01...
"Hamman" wrote ...

Hard Drive: WD Raptor 74 GB

High failiure rate. Get another disk, i recommend a Maxtor, somewhere in
the
region of 100-200Gb for backups and storage. I believe they have a 1 in
5
chance of failiure within the first year.

I have yet to hear of a Raptor 74 failure, and have heard plenty of Maxtor
failure stories. Where did you get your info?



Spending far too many hours on usenet.

hamman

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 16:50:49 GMT, "John R Weiss"
wrote:

"Hamman" wrote ...

Hard Drive: WD Raptor 74 GB

High failiure rate. Get another disk, i recommend a Maxtor, somewhere in
the
region of 100-200Gb for backups and storage. I believe they have a 1 in 5
chance of failiure within the first year.

I have yet to hear of a Raptor 74 failure, and have heard plenty of Maxtor
failure stories. Where did you get your info?



From what I've seen the Raptors fail about 2-3X as often.
Check some forums or places like Newegg's user ratings.

Bear in mind that at the moment the Socket 939 Athlon 64s are
disproportionately expensive when considering price to performance
ratio, because they represent the cutting edge.

A Socket 754 Athlon 64 system will offer extremely good performance
anyway, so that is the one I would go for. The only reason not to
choose Socket 754 is that processor upgrades may not be available,
because AMD will be transferring its Athlon 64 upgrade path to the
Socket 939. Whether it is worth paying so much today for Socket 939
is still questionable though.

Rgds

Accelerator

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

kony wrote in
:

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 16:50:49 GMT, "John R Weiss"
wrote:

"Hamman" wrote ...

Hard Drive: WD Raptor 74 GB

High failiure rate. Get another disk, i recommend a Maxtor,
somewhere in
the
region of 100-200Gb for backups and storage. I believe they have a 1
in 5 chance of failiure within the first year.

I have yet to hear of a Raptor 74 failure, and have heard plenty of
Maxtor failure stories. Where did you get your info?



From what I've seen the Raptors fail about 2-3X as often.
Check some forums or places like Newegg's user ratings.


Here are the Newegg customer reviews for this drive:

http://secure.newegg.com/app/Custrat...tem=22-144-160

It looks like about 5 reviewers out of 119 or so had drive failures.