I'm building a gaming / poker PC, I need help!

[TBag]

Hey guys, I'm putting together a mid-upper performance PC. The effect I'm really trying to get here is good performance while not ludicrously expensive (no 1k processors). Also, I've only built one PC and that was about 2 years ago (hence the replacing now) and if you guys could lemme know if I forgot anything and/or some of the stuff I'm buying won't be compatible with other stuff, that'd be awesome. Anyways here's the specs -

Thermaltake Tsunami ATX Case
Two WD Raptor 74GB 10k RPM ATA150 hard drives. (which works with raid, right?)
Asus A8n-SLI 939 deluxe mobo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
XFX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB vid card
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1gb) 184-pin DDR 400 ram
Windows media edition

So yeah, that's what I have in my "wish list" I suppose. Those two raptor drives would work for RAID right? I don't really know anything about RAID or have ever used it, but I hear it's good for data transfer speeds which leads me to believe it'd be solid for my pokertracker database. Thoughts?

I'm also not sure on the video card, is getting 7800 GTX over a GT worth the price difference?

Also concerning the SLI mumbo jumbo - I hear that if you plan on dual monitoring, the SLI won't do any good. Is this true?

Thanks for looking guys.

[C-Dog]

Looks fine, but the RAID 0 thing is overrated. You wont notice much improvement in speed, and if one drive goes out, you lose it all.

For specific Parts:

Case is Fine, though I prefer some others, its all aesthetics.

HDs are very nice, forget about the RAID though, just buy 1 Raptor for your sys drive and one of the 7200RPM 400 Gig drives for storage.

Mobo is good

Processor is top of the line. You could go lower and still be able to game though, the 3800 is the sweet spot right now I think. Or at least it was last week.

Video Card is solid. You could go with the regular GT though. Also, I would recommend the BFG GTX since it's overclocked already.

RAM is good

OS is good.


You dont need the SLI, and it will work for Dual monitor I think. Though the gain is ~15-20% for SLI, for buying 2X the Vid Card.

And try pricing it at Monarch Computer I just had them build my Dual Opteron 250 for me.

C-Dog

[TBag]

Thanks for the input =P. Yeah, I know I'm not taking advantage of the SLI but I thought in the future if I ever want to upgrade again it'd be nice to have the option.

I really appreciate the advice on the raid drives, as I know very little about all of that. If I do decide to go for raid, what would be the performance boost? Is it that minimal? The thought that if one dies I lose everything is also very unattractive though. I'm gonna have to rethink getting those raids, I think I'm leaning toward what you recommended though.

Lastly, I had a question about the power supply too. I'm currently thinking about the Antec TruepowerII linky (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817103931). I hear it's a bad idea to skimp on the PSU, but although this one is comparatively cheap, it seems to have gotten really good reviews. However, the catch seems to be it's low watt count - it only has 550W. Is 550W enough power for this computer? Apparently it's SLI compatible if I ever chose to go that route but I'm not quite sure if it'll be strong enough. Would 600W or more be better?

Thanks again, all input is greatly appreciated.

[Meech]

I agree with everything C said.

500W is plenty.

RAID 0 is overrated. I'd much rather have a fat internal drive and use the money to buy an external USB drive for backups.

[TheMetetron]

Wow, this is only very slightly better than my computer, but I get the feeling you are going to be paying way more for it.

[C-Dog]

The Antec Power supply is fine, and the performance boost for RAID 0 is not that much. It is certainly not worth the cost, or the additional risk.

C-Dog

[TBag]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, this is only very slightly better than my computer, but I get the feeling you are going to be paying way more for it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey there. Would you mind listing specs of your machine and how much it costed you? I'm very open to suggestions that will significantly reduce cost with minimal hits to performance.

Edit, I have also removed RAID from my wishlist, thanks for the input guys =P

Get two hard drives (placing the swap file on a secondary disk is a huge performance boost alone), but skip the RAID array like everyon said. 1 GB of RAM is fine, but I have 2 GB and I definitely use 75% of it (I do a lot of multitasking, though). I suggest looking into a case that supports water-intercooling for your processor and video card(s) so you can easily support overclocking and have a quieter running case (no need for tons of exhaust fans).

[TBag]

I was looking into watercooling stuff, but quite frankly that stuff looks very intimidating and risky considering I wouldn't know what I was doing with it. Is the extra cost + (seemingly, again, I'm clueless) hassle worth the benefits? I don't think I'll be overclocking anything because I'm very risk averse where it seems like one slip up could cost me my processor and vid card.

Also, what is the swap file you're talking about? Thanks /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Watercooling is quite safe since it's not a high-pressure system, however, if you are not comfortable with it, don't do it!

The swap file is a pagefile that is used for virtual memory when you run out of RAM or need to copy large files. It's basically the buffer for your computer. Placing it on a secondary hard drive will yield optimal performance.

[TBag]

Thanks for the swapfile tip, I just switched mine to my D: drive, I'll give you a trip report on that later.

About watercooling though. Is it relatively easy to do? How much does it cost and how much of an improvement is it over fans? Also, how much would it cost?

[oreogod]

how the heck do I get my swap file onto the other drive? Just give me a run down on how to do it.

Also, tbag, Corsair's water cooling kit has recieved some really good reviews. I belive it retails for 150 or something like that. Pretty easy to install to.

Here is a review and basic rundown of the corsair water kit.

Link (http://www.tech-mods.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&file=viewreview&op=newrev iew&id=66)

[oreogod]

Also whats the cost on your set up so far?

[C-Dog]

Dont go water cooling, it is really unnecesary.

Just buy good silent style fans from Thermaltake or something.

C-Dog

[TBag]

[ QUOTE ]
how the heck do I get my swap file onto the other drive? Just give me a run down on how to do it.


[/ QUOTE ]
Right click on my computer, go to properties - advanced - performance - advanced - change button.

Set it to your desired drive, make sure to hit "set" and it will require a reboot.

So far the set up is about 2k. If anyone has some input on maximizing some cost efficiency rather than telling me I suck at it, that'd be awfully keen.

So it would be best to put that "swap file thing" on a 10,000rpm Raptor? And then to have a 200-500 GB drive for storage?

I know nothing about this swap file...but I did know that when memory gets full, the computer uses your Hard Drive temporarily...
will this really noticably speed up performance/reduce any lag?

Thanks!

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
how the heck do I get my swap file onto the other drive? Just give me a run down on how to do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Getting the swapfile on another drive is described elsewhere in this thread but you might want to partition the D: drive so the swap file has it's own slightly larger partition. If this is the first partition on the drive it will also be accessed more quickly (the drive's R/W heads don't have to move so far). A dedicated partition on the second physical drive is also the best place to store a Norton Ghost image of your WinXP and Programs partition as described in this post (http://tinyurl.com/eybbg). The Radified link within also describes the swap file partition.

~ Rick

[obsidian]

Maybe a sound card? For normal use the onboard sound will be fine but for gaming you might want something more like Creative's X-fi. I think those harddrives are overrated. Just get some nice SATA drives. Both Seagate and Maxtor have some nice ones with 16MB cache atm. Although having two harddrives is nice. I mainly use them for backing up data I would be screwed without (like my PT db's), so maybe getting one raptor and one large drive would be a good idea. Raid 0 is overrated just for the mere fact that it doubles your risk to drive failure.

You may also want to get an aftermarket CPU cooler and some nice quiet fans for the case. Thermalright makes nice cpu coolers (both the XP-90 and XP-120 are great). I hate loud computers. It wasn't much of a problem when I was only gaming with headphones on but playing poker I would hate having a loud computer now. A good brand of fan when looking for something quiet is Nexus. Both Jab-Tech (http://www.jab-tech.com) and End PC Noise (http://www.endpcnoise.com/) sell them. Don't go by the dB specs most manufacturers give you though. They are almost always wrong or lies.