building a new pc some advice as to spec please?

[russellwhite2007]

Hi,

I'm building a new pc and made up a list of what I want.

1x XBLADE CASE.
1x K9N2 SLI PLATINUM K9N2 ZILENT MSI MOTHERBOARD
1x AMD BLACK EDTION AMD PHENOM X4 2.5GHZ PROCESSOR
2x 2GB DDR2 DUAL 667/800/1066 RAM TOTAL = 4GB
1x 1000W POWER SUPPLY UNIT
1x 1TB WESTERN DIGITAL HARD DRIVE
1x 500GB WESTERN DIGITAL HARD DRIVE
2x ASUS DVDRW WITH LIGHTSCRIBE 20X
1x CARD READER
2x 9600 GT 512MB VIDEO CARD
1X VISTA ULT x64


I know I have 2 hdds one being 1TB and the other 500GB I seem to have so much installed on a 500GB it's almost full so thought I'd get a 1TB also the 500GB is for games as I only have a 160GB which is almost full.
The 2 9600GT will be sli'd altough for a £2 more I can get the 1GB ones not sure on that I'd think maybe the 1GB would be better?


Any help and advice?
Thanks in advance Rusty.

 

[AussieNightcrawler]

Instead of spending the money on the 2x 9600GT cards, just save yourself a little money and buy 1x 9800GTX+ for cheaper. Or you could spend a little extra and buy a GTX260, either way you will get better performance then running 2x 9600GT cards in SLi.

That's going by the prices I have here in AUS.

 

[winjmoore]

memory is either 667 800 or 1066
get the 1066 stuff and make sure it is working as such
your video card is well don't go there
and the 64 bit version of vista means no support for editing in content manager in 06 09 is fine
You may have downloaded something from auran. been told not to use MS products to do this. There is a 2 gig limit in many things including trainz
when your memory supports more than 2 gig and your memory feeds loads into trains it can break trains because trainz only knows how to access 2 gigs. MS is aware of the issue and say DX10 or up fixes the issue

 

[russellwhite2007]

thanks guys, the gtx cards I've read a few posts about them and if they really are better I'll go for that which one is the best and what ram size is best?

I was going for the 1066 ram anyway I just put all the m/b can take.

I have no problem editing in content manager in 06 under vista x64 so far everything runs smooth.

I have read about the 2gig limit but I do belive also I read that auran are looking into making trs09 use more ram.

 

[whitepass]

I would go with:
Intel or AMD PHENOM II not PHENOM I (has bug)
DDR2 800 you will never see speed deference in 1066 ram
800-850W PS
9600GTS+ try one and can add sli later (Trainz dose not like sli)

 

[robbiehanson]

I have read VERY good things about Radeon HD4870s--namely, that they're faster than even a 9800GTX. Cannot back that up for certain(can't find specific benchmarks at the moment), but that may be something to consider.

Also, you won't need a 1000W power supply. I'd probably use 700w, but that's allowing some leeway. I use a 550w now with pretty power-hungry hardware and I'm still only using half of it or so. 1000W is definitely overkill unless it's a very good deal.

I'll concur with Whitepass on the DDR2 800mhz--it's cheaper here($17 for a 2gb DDR2 800mhz, $23 for a 2gb DDR2 1066mhz) and you won't notice the speed difference. I've compared DDR2 533mhz and DDR2 800mhz and noticed almost no difference on even that.

 

[whitepass]

The Radon HD4870 is a lot faster than a 9800GTX+ it's competitor is a GTX280 but unless you have a monitor over 22" you will never use the all the power of ether card.

 

[Big_Boy4000UP]

I suppose what you want, warrants how deep is your pocket.

Randall

I'm running a new system which has 2x GTX295's in SLi and TRS2009 runs sweet as......

 

[meatloaf747]

Rusty,
If you asked ten different people/tec's, you'd probably get ten different answers like above. That's not to say any of those answers are wrong. They are just ten different views.
My sugestion; Go to Toms Hardware site and compare some of the latest benchmark tests results so that you can make a more informed decision...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Components,1/Graphics-Cards,4/
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/processors,6.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-cpu-charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,31.html

Your overall budget will play a major part. I agree with most of the above comments. (Try & avoid any cheap low spec component that might become a bottleneck). Your system will only be as good as it's weakest link..

Thought I'd thro my 2 cents worth into the hat. If your on a limited budget; 700+ watt P/S, 2X2=4 gigs of DDR2 1066, 260 GTX. Either the Intel E8400 Duo Core 3.00 Ghz, the E8500 or the E8600. (not that there is anything wrong with the latest AMD CPU's)...
Cheers, Mac...