Ok, the last time I built a PC for myself was a few years back, Had myself a cheap ass no brand case, MSI Neo-Fis2r 875p, Intel P4 2.6c, 2x256mb Corsair XMS pc-3200 (non matched pair), ATI 9700 Pro, WD 120gb caviar...not too shabby at the time, but a little dated now.
I need some suggestions on what to go for these days, I'm thinking I want an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice but other than that I'm open to anything. I'm half inclined to go with an non SLI nForce4 board, probably the DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D (are there any advantages to the SLI board if I never intend to buy two video cards?..I'm thinking no).
Video card will be an nVidia 6800 Ultra but what brand I have no clue, Gigabyte seems to be the cheapest, or I might go for the BFG OC, I'm not inclined to buy something for their software package so are there really any significant benefits between each company?..other than the fact BFG's are slightly over clocked of course.
For memory I was looking at OCZ's 1gb (2x512mb) Enhanced Latency PC3200 dual channel gold matched pair, the market for matched pair DDR memory has come a long way, there's just too many choices for me.
I'll probably slap in a 250gb Segate Barracuda S-ATA and an LG-4163B DVD Writer to finish it off, but what's really bugging me is the case, I have a list of wants rather than needs when it comes to this one. I would like 120mm front intake and rear exhuast fans, maybe a top blow hole and a side window (nothing extravigant, maybe mesh rather than a window) with another intake situated over the CPU's position. I would like something at least partially tool-less, removable motherboard tray and internal 3.5" cage...but I can't find anything offering all this, I think the Thermaltake Xaser III offers most of what I want, even though a part of me can't stand the astetics of Thermaltake cases.
One last thing, I don't plan on overclocking what so ever, so stock speeds and performance of components are what I'm really interested in. I'm into gaming for the most part, but I can't afford to replace any hardware down the line trying to get those extra 10 frames per second.
Anywho, that's probably longer than I wanted this post to be, I know most of you will quit reading about half a mile back, but I would apreciate any recommendations, even if it's finished off with a nag about the post size.
Thanks in advance.
I need some suggestions on what to go for these days, I'm thinking I want an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice but other than that I'm open to anything. I'm half inclined to go with an non SLI nForce4 board, probably the DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D (are there any advantages to the SLI board if I never intend to buy two video cards?..I'm thinking no).
Video card will be an nVidia 6800 Ultra but what brand I have no clue, Gigabyte seems to be the cheapest, or I might go for the BFG OC, I'm not inclined to buy something for their software package so are there really any significant benefits between each company?..other than the fact BFG's are slightly over clocked of course.
For memory I was looking at OCZ's 1gb (2x512mb) Enhanced Latency PC3200 dual channel gold matched pair, the market for matched pair DDR memory has come a long way, there's just too many choices for me.
I'll probably slap in a 250gb Segate Barracuda S-ATA and an LG-4163B DVD Writer to finish it off, but what's really bugging me is the case, I have a list of wants rather than needs when it comes to this one. I would like 120mm front intake and rear exhuast fans, maybe a top blow hole and a side window (nothing extravigant, maybe mesh rather than a window) with another intake situated over the CPU's position. I would like something at least partially tool-less, removable motherboard tray and internal 3.5" cage...but I can't find anything offering all this, I think the Thermaltake Xaser III offers most of what I want, even though a part of me can't stand the astetics of Thermaltake cases.
One last thing, I don't plan on overclocking what so ever, so stock speeds and performance of components are what I'm really interested in. I'm into gaming for the most part, but I can't afford to replace any hardware down the line trying to get those extra 10 frames per second.
Anywho, that's probably longer than I wanted this post to be, I know most of you will quit reading about half a mile back, but I would apreciate any recommendations, even if it's finished off with a nag about the post size.
Thanks in advance.