Whole new setup, advice needed?

youcancallmeal

Well after many weeks researching and adjusting and re-adjusting my selection i've finally come up with this as my whole new setup to replace my dangerously overheated laptop. My budget is 2k and i wont be updating for quite a while after this splurge. Anyways it will be used mainly for gaming and all the other usual stuff.


Antec Sonata Miditower, Black w/380W PSU
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz Socket 939, 512KB cache
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB Dual Pack Kit
Abit AV8 Mainboard for S939 KT800PRO,SATA,GbLAN,ATX,Dual-CH DDR
PowerColor Radeon X800PRO 256MB DDR3 AGP
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB S-ATA 16MB cache 7200RPM
Western Digital Raptor 74GB S-ATA 8MB cache 10000RPM
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS
Plextor DVD recorder PX-712SA SATA black 16x(DVD±R)

Monitor
Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 913N TCO99 Monitor, Silver, 8ms
or
BenQ 19" LCD FP937S+ TCO03 Monitor, Silver, 8ms


My main issue is the antec's power supply, i'm not sure if 380w will be enough. I was thinking of just getting some coolermaster case and a tagan psu seperately but this will push costs up. Also any recomendations for a monitor?

Any suggestions/input will be greatly appreciated and hopefully put my worrying mind at rest.

Cheers

Dr_MalPractice

your proccessor alone will be drawing 90w or maybe a bit more, and those X800's tend to be power hungery beasts too. If i were you i'd be aiming at getting a QUALITY 450w unit to make sure you have enough current getting through to your bits at stable voltages. Otherwise, you can end up with lots of hard to track down errors and mysterious shutdowns. :eek:

The PSU's included with most cases are their budget model, fine for an office type pc, but not really practical if you're gonna push your rig to any extent.

*haunted by the memories of his first system build*

dubdvd

why not try this when you change over into euro you might get a monitior aswell..but it will be your full 2k gone but a nice rig

http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated/review_apr05_matfirebladeplus.htm

youcancallmeal

Dr_MalPractice wrote:

your proccessor alone will be drawing 90w or maybe a bit more, and those X800's tend to be power hungery beasts too. If i were you i'd be aiming at getting a QUALITY 450w unit to make sure you have enough current getting through to your bits at stable voltages. Otherwise, you can end up with lots of hard to track down errors and mysterious shutdowns. :eek:

The PSU's included with most cases are their budget model, fine for an office type pc, but not really practical if you're gonna push your rig to any extent.

*haunted by the memories of his first system build*

Yea your making a lot of sense, better safe than sorry i suppose.
I found THIS handy site for calculating wattage needed and it has my system at 400w so it looks like no antec sonata for me

What happened on your first build that was so bad???

jozi

Sonata is a great case. Sell the included psu and put that money towards a good one.
Alot of people recomend the OCZ psu's and tagan. Look for a psu with dual 12v rail, apparentlly you need that specially if you goint to oc.
Why not get a 3200+ and oc it to 3500 speeds? Cheaper cpu, more money for a btter psu. Also dfi make good mobo's. (not guaranteed those speeds thats all)

Jozi

unklerosco

I agree with jozi, the antec is one of the best cases i've had... Why don't u use the psu in it at first then if there's any problems with power just sell it n upgrade. I had a 300w Zalman psu one of my old systems running allot more than what u have there n it never gave me any trouble...

MR DAZ

Just on the monitors lads....

Monitor
Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 913N TCO99 Monitor, Silver, 8ms
or
enQ 19" LCD FP937S+ TCO03 Monitor, Silver, 8ms


I'm thinking of purchasing one these shortly... i was going to go with the samsung...but the only concern i'd have...is the the fact that it doesnt have a dvi connector?

Would you lose quality by just using the vga ???

youcancallmeal

MR DAZ wrote:

Just on the monitors lads....

Monitor
Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 913N TCO99 Monitor, Silver, 8ms
or
enQ 19" LCD FP937S+ TCO03 Monitor, Silver, 8ms


I'm thinking of purchasing one these shortly... i was going to go with the samsung...but the only concern i'd have...is the the fact that it doesnt have a dvi connector?

Would you lose quality by just using the vga ???

Yea this was bothering me aswell, Samsung have a great reputation but some of there more expensive monitors have response times of 30ms!?

gline

Yeh i think it would be a good idea to start off with a decent psu so you wont need to buy a better one later on, ocz or antec etc are good and there are a few other good brands.