Grade my new Computer selections!

[alnorth]

Goal: dual-core for multitasking, and a good *stable* overclock.

Everything has already been bought but the Graphics Card

Case: A server case (and the case fans I would need) that ended up being a lot larger in person than on the computer screen. (oh well, thats fine. More room to work with, probably better air flow)

Power Supply: The 520W OCZ Powerstream. This is one part that I never cut corners on, and I wanted one of the best power supplies out there. (Jesus, this effin thing is heavy!)

CPU Heatsink: Thermalright XP-120. (and a 120mm fan to put on it)

Motherboard: Epox EP-9NPA. Unofficially I heard it was the "second best overclocker" behind the more complex and supposedly less stable DFI Lanparty board.

CPU: AMD Opteron 170. The stepping for my new Opty is CCBWE 0543TPMW. Was that particular version known for producing good overclockers, or were the AMD techs all asleep when this one was made?

Memory: 2GB (2 x 1GB) Crucial Ballistix DDR. I assume this will work fine with the board and CPU?

Video: (desired, not bought yet) I want an nVidia 7800GTX 512MB. I'm in no screaming hurry, I'll wait till February when this card becomes more readily available at (hopefully) lower prices. This is the most expensive part and most likely to become cheaper, so I saved it for last.

System HD: 74GB WD Raptor. I decided against buying a 2nd Raptor for Raid 0, the miniscule performance gain for what I'll be doing didnt justify the cost.

Storage HD: 250GB Seagate Barracuda

[AeroSquid]

Ok i'll grade your stuff but i'm brutally honest

Case: cheapo and fugly to boot. CM Stacker >you

PSU: hope you at least got the SLI. I would have gone with the 600w

HSF: SI-120 is compatible with more mobo's

MOBO: ugh. The Asus A8n32-sli is the second best overclocking board after the DFI Ultra-D. That Epox is not even in the same category, a true budget board to the extreme. You will have problems with it.

CPU: That's a fine cpu, when i go dual core (after socket M2 next month) i'll probably replace my 148 with that one.

RAM: ram is fine if you're partial to Crucial. I prefer Geil but to each his own

HD: WD just came out with Raptor X, a 150gb raptor (with a window in it lol)

storage drive is fine, Seagate is awesome.

Love that video card, good luck finding one.

The above is mostly my opinion, for what it's worth.

[penguinz]

Raptors are a waste of money for a home system. They are SATA150. You can get Seagate SATA II drives for much cheaper and get equal if not better performance.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by AeroSquid

Ok i'll grade your stuff but i'm brutally honest

Case: cheapo and fugly to boot. CM Stacker >you

PSU: hope you at least got the SLI. I would have gone with the 600w

HSF: SI-120 is compatible with more mobo's

MOBO: ugh. The Asus A8n32-sli is the second best overclocking board after the DFI Ultra-D. That Epox is not even in the same category, a true budget board to the extreme. You will have problems with it.

CPU: That's a fine cpu, when i go dual core (after socket M2 next month) i'll probably replace my 148 with that one.

RAM: ram is fine if you're partial to Crucial. I prefer Geil but to each his own

HD: WD just came out with Raptor X, a 150gb raptor (with a window in it lol)

storage drive is fine, Seagate is awesome.

Love that video card, good luck finding one.

The above is mostly my opinion, for what it's worth.

Thanks for the reply and the time you took for your comments, some things I agree with, and some I do not. The moment of truth will come sometime in February when I can finally get the video card.

Case: agree, its a nice case, but I dont think its the best I could have gotten.

PSU: This PSU is supposed to be able to handle SLI, but I dont plan on using SLI. This could change in the future, I suppose.

Mobo: We part ways here, though Asus is a fine company. First, the Epox 9NPA is not really a "budget" board when looking at the price. You may not have particularly heard of Epox yourself, but the overclocking community certainly has. I easily could have gotten the Asus board as well though, its definitely in the top-3 conversation with some people putting Asus or Epox #2. DFI may overclock the "best", but it rarely provides a stable overclock, in which case its useless. Dont remember why I ultimately went against Asus, probably a few complaints I read somewhere combined with the many people saying that Epox was one of the most stable of the overclockers, it was a close call.

RAM: You said its fine, but I have recently become extremely concerned with the Crucial Ballistix. The newest reviews indicate that the sticks I selected will run incredibly hot when overclocking, with stories of multiple RMA's being common. I plan on buying active cooling for my RAM before firing it up, because it apparently does provide some of the best 2GB overclocking around when it doesnt torch itself. If this memory does die, I'll probably go with someone else.

HD: Wow... I may upgrade sometime this summer.

Video Card: looking around, it appears I may need that luck! I'm still not in a hurry, if I can find one at a reasonable price mid-to-end of February, thats fine.

[ChiefsLV]

You lost me at Epox. I committed the unholy sin of installing one of these in a budget PC for my brother a few years back. The thing eventually crapped out and the replacement they sent me nearly caught fire on bootup. White smoke started filling up the room... Not sure if they've gotten any better, but I always go with trusted Mobo companies like ASUS, Abit, etc.

[QuikSsurfer]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Goal: dual-core for multitasking, and a good *stable* overclock.

Everything has already been bought but the Graphics Card

Case: A server case (and the case fans I would need) that ended up being a lot larger in person than on the computer screen. (oh well, thats fine. More room to work with, probably better air flow)

Power Supply: The 520W OCZ Powerstream. This is one part that I never cut corners on, and I wanted one of the best power supplies out there. (Jesus, this effin thing is heavy!)

CPU Heatsink: Thermalright XP-120. (and a 120mm fan to put on it)

Motherboard: Epox EP-9NPA. Unofficially I heard it was the "second best overclocker" behind the more complex and supposedly less stable DFI Lanparty board.

CPU: AMD Opteron 170. The stepping for my new Opty is CCBWE 0543TPMW. Was that particular version known for producing good overclockers, or were the AMD techs all asleep when this one was made?

Memory: 2GB (2 x 1GB) Crucial Ballistix DDR. I assume this will work fine with the board and CPU?

Video: (desired, not bought yet) I want an nVidia 7800GTX 512MB. I'm in no screaming hurry, I'll wait till February when this card becomes more readily available at (hopefully) lower prices. This is the most expensive part and most likely to become cheaper, so I saved it for last.

System HD: 74GB WD Raptor. I decided against buying a 2nd Raptor for Raid 0, the miniscule performance gain for what I'll be doing didnt justify the cost.

Storage HD: 250GB Seagate Barracuda

I'm an apple user but good choice on an AMD