Ok, i've had enough of waiting for the damn PCI Express and BTX standard to come in, and i'm waiting no longer for a PC upgrade. I plan on buying a new PC in the next couple of months.

Here's a basic rundown on what i'm getting, and i'll be spending about $3000 on case and contents alone (give or take a couple hundred).

CPU - AMD Athlon64 3400+ Processor, 2.2GHz, 1MB Cache

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-K8NNXP nForce3 150 Socket 754 DDR400 Motherboard with Sound, S-ATA, RAID, Dual LAN & Firewire

Case - Antec P160 Aluminium Tower Case with Temperature Display and Windowed Side Panel with 550W TrueControl

RAM - 1GB PC3200 Dual DDR SDRAM (2 x 512), GEIL

HD - 2x Western Digital 120GB 7200rpm S-ATA150 Hard Drive with 8MB Cache (RAID)

Vid Card - nVidia GeForce FX5950 Ultra 256MB DDR Video Card with DVI and VIVO

Cooling - Gigabyte GH-PCU21-VG 3D Cooler Pro CPU Heatsink, Arctic Silver 3

Uhh, I think that's about it. Like I said it comes to apporx $3000.

Any comments or suggestions?

might wanna think about changing those hdd's to seagate ones because there's only ~$2 price difference and seagate ones have a lower failure rate, is that heatsink the turbo gt edition? also, maybe change the vic card to a 9800XT, you can get them for as low as $550 now! :D

Change the HDDs to Hitachi Desktars ;)

Also get a X800XT or Pro, they are coming out very soon. :)

Get Segate HD's
Get a Radeon 9800pro/9800XT or the news ones when they come out
Don't bother with the probably noisey as hell CPU cooling
Get a new PSU if you don't have a good one already, make it an ANTEC or Enermax 400W+

the 550w true control is an antec OC and the heatsink + fan is actually supposed to be near silent on it's lowest setting (and it still cools better than the stock fan)
:D

I've been corrected.

Like I said, it wont be a couple of months 'till i get it, but i'm trying to iron out the "bugs" in the system before I spend a shitload of cash on it.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

If you're getting it in a couple of months then there's no question that you should get a X800 PRO / XT (depending on your budget) instead of the 5950.

I still suggest waiting for BTX... Buying a system now is a waste of money, really.

I agree with Lordage. Also, buying an X800 when it comes out will cost heaps, but it would bring down the price of the current 9800s.

The longer you wait, the better. And there aren't many games being released in the next few months to warrant needing a new computer at this time.

You clearly didn't read the topic title :P

Ok, say I waited for BTX. I would have to at least wait till they come out...end of this year, early next year. Then I would have to wait and see if there are any bugs, and for them to refine the whole thing...another 6 months.

So realistically i'll be waiting another year to buy a PC to replace one that's already over 2 years old.

Like I said, i'm sick of waiting, and when it comes to PCs, you could be waiting forever, seeing as how new stuff comes out all the time.

So unless the time frame for BTX changes, i'm not waiting for it.

I believe the next generation (possibly last) of AGP card will be just ofer $700, quite good in comparison to the 9800's release price. From the benchmarks I've seen, I think it's well worth the money. At this stage you want to get the best AGP card you can because of it's small upgrade path inhead of it. Oh, and wait for the 939 slot motherboards, they'll be out soon.

What I don't understand is what exactly is replaced with BTX? Other than PCI Express, which can be found in ATX motherboards. Please explain?

New form factor, which means a new way the motherboard is designed, and how everything is layed out.

The main bonus is PCI-E, which isn't found on ATX mobo's.


Anyway, i'll be getting a cool $1500 tax return soonish, so that's going to pay for half of my beast. And no, i'm still not going BTX, as there are currently no benefits.

Are you 100% sure? I could have sworn I have seen an ATX mobo with a PCI Express graphics card, I'll have to look harder.

Anyway, good luck with getting the new PC, don't you just love that new smell?

People are still confusing ATX/BTX and PCI-E.

ATX/BTX are mobo form factors and are not related to PCI-Express which is just a new standard to replace the AGP port. The BTX mobo has a significantly redesigned layout over ATX, meaning that ALL parts in an ATX case will NOT be compatible with a BTX mobo (with the possible exception of the PSU - although even that is iffy at this stage).

The change in form factors is for a number of reasons, of which one is necessitate the central cooling of the system. The aim would then be to cool the majority of the parts (ie. CPU and graphics), with one main cooling unit and increase airflow throughout the case, requiring less fans, less power and thus producing less noise.

PCI-Express will take over from the AGP, and already there are new PCI-E video card models on the market. The current generation (X800 series and 6800 series) will most likely be the last generation of AGP cards. Expect all future cards to be PCI-E only.

All mobos are currently ATX, and there are now some that will incorporate both AGP and PCI-E slots, eventually resulting in the phasing out of the whole line of AGP-compatible boards. There should be a short while, where there are ATX/PCI-E only mobos, but expect that to be a shortlived affair. Once BTX mobos arrive, AGP will not be supported and PCI-E should fully take over.

By the time BTX is standard, all current components are essentially obsolete, so that means you won't be able to upgrade and will need to purchase a new system.

Although I know that BTX and PCI-E don't necessarily come hand in hand, I was sure that they were waiting for the BTX standard to come out before releasing PCI-E motherboards.... just for consistency.

Either way, I still don't believe in this whole new form factor or PCI-E, but it does pose a problem for someone in my position who is about to spend a good deal of money on a pc.

Now, say I was to wait a few more months, and go the PCI-E and BTX standard. Now, in addition to buying the usual CPU, mobo, memory, video card upgrade options, i'd have to upgrade all my existing hardware too. My sound cards, my capture cards.. every other piece of hardware would need to be upgraded too, which would have me spending even more money.

Now say I was to go all out with the current standard (which I plan to do). Now everything would go together just fine, but say I wanted to get some new fandangled piece of hardware, which only came out with PCI-E...well I wouldn't be able to get it now.

Then there's the middle option, getting a mobo with both normal PCI and PCI-E slots......no way jose. This would ultimately see me being limited using any kind of card, as i'd only have 2 slots for each PCI type, and I don't trust these mix breed boards much anyway.

So what to do? Who knows, but while the company's are continually laughing all the way to the bank, we as consumers are getting screwed with tech, as new tech is constantly coming out, but no one can tell us when, or how it will really benefit us.

Thats true. I myself am planning to buy a computer soon, I was going to buy one at the beginning of the year, but this BTX crap started going around, so I thought, hey, I'll buy one later on in the year when I am more sure of whats going on, and I'll have more money to spend.

I know pretty much now whats happening, but no information about release or availability. I guess I'll just have to keep waiting.

I feel for you guys, because I'm in the same position too. I've been waiting for ages to get a new comp. I held off because of BTX and PCI-E, but now it looks like the benefits offered by a PCI-E card are only about 10% increase compared with the current range of AGP cards. And BTX looks like its shot to pieces at the moment. It keeps getting delayed, and I don't expect to see it until next year, as well as having PCI-E cards that are worth getting.

I think it's probably better to buy with the top of current generation (ie. ATX stuff) and just be happy with it for the next 1.5 - 2 years.

Which is what i'm going to do.

I'll be getting it within a couple of months, so i'll let you know what i'm getting and how it all goes.

I can't wait, it's been over 2 1/2 years since i bought my last pc.

Well apparently AMD motherboards won't be fully compatible with the BTX spec anyway cos of RAM placement issues.

The only benefit of PCI-E is with Nvidia's SLI architecture which allows two 6800s to work in tandem as they require the large bandwidth of the PCI-E bus that AGP does not allow. A single current graphics card will have a hard time maxing out the AGP bus otherwise which is why PCI-E shows no performance benefits.

If I was to wait I'd wait for a decent socket 939 motherboard rather than a socket 754.

Yeah, 939 is really the Athlon 64's future. Socket 754 will soon become XP's socket.

If you can't wait for BTX, atleast consider paying a bit more for a 939 CPU.

AMD ATHLON 64 3400+(754) -$467
AMD ATHLON 64 3500+(939) -539

You think that's bad. It's been about 4.5 years since our family has had ours. :cry:

Oh, there's no doubt that i'm getting a 939 solution, which is why my PC (case and contents) alone are going to cost me $3000.

That sounds too expensive for what you're getting. At that price, you should be getting at least one of the new generation of vidcards (ie. 6800 or X800). Even then shop around for prices, because I calculated the system I wanted, and the box and contents only went to around $2300-2500

......who said I wasn't getting the best card available.

Let me give you a run down on what i'm getting, and why it'll be so expensive.

Asus V9999 GeForce FX6800 Ultra 256MB DDR Video Card with Dual DVI, TV Out & Webcam - 1,010.00

550W Antec TruePower ATX Power Supply, Low Noise Technology - 205.00

1024MB DDRRAM PC3200 (400Mhz, 2 x 512MB Dual DDR Kit), Kingston ValueRAM - 335.00

Abit AV8 K8T800 Pro Socket 939 AMD64 Dual DDR400 Motherboard with Sound, Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID & Gbit LAN - 214.70

Seagate 160GB 7200rpm S-ATA150 Hard Drive with 8MB Cache (3 Year Warranty) + FREE Power Cable) x 2 - 376.00

Sony DRU700A 2x Dual Layer DVD+R, 8xDVD-R/RW, 8xDVD+R/RW, CDR/RW Writer, Retail Kit - 180.00

AMD Athlon 64 3500 Processor, Retail Box (Socket 939) - 600.00

Antec P160 Aluminium Tower Case with Temperature Display and Windowed Side Panel, NO PSU - 210.00

Give or take a couple of hundred.

Your only getting a gig of ram!?

Your first post.


Your Antec PSU sells for $170 at CPL in Melbourne. And your HDD sounds a bit expensive. Also ALL Seagate drives now have a 5 yr warranty. Otherwise the rest looks pretty good. When are you gonna get it?

My first post was posted 2 months ago :P

Yeah, the Antec PSU I got from the site, had some special server connector on it, thus it being expensive, and I couldn't be bothered looking somewhere else for a proper price. Overpricing is way better than underpricing.

Also, My HDD, there are two of them, thus the "x 2".

320gigs? :nooo:

You sure you aren't compensating for something? :P

Yeah why not go for 4x 250GB drives in a RAID 0 array. ONE TERABYTE of storage baby! Plus 4 drives would easily consume the full 150MB/s bandwidth of SATA 1.0.

Technically it's not a real TB of storage because of the way HD manufacturers count bytes.

Yeah, I would....but the $$$$ is another issue :P

And yes, I am compensating for something....space to fit all my pr0n.

My problem is, being 15 I can't buy a new computer every three years so I don't have a choice but wait. :o

Well I don't really want to...but what can I do :P

Alrighty!!

Going to pick up the rest of my components tonight (having been mailed the vid card last week).

In the words of that fat guy on good morning australia (not bert): I'M EXCITED!!!

Isn't that Big Kev?

Oh, and lucky you getting your new comp now.

Yes it is, which is why I said "not bert". ;)

I'll be busy frying components tonight... i'm just a little anxious about screwing my components up :unsure:

Well, it took me too many hours to even mention, but it's finally running.

I'll give a breakdown and benchies when it's not 1:30am :P

Ok, now is the right time me thinks.

First, i'll give you a rundown on the components I actually got:

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (socket 939)

Vid Card - Gigabyte Geforce 6800 Ultra

RAM - 1024MB Kingston DDR400 RAM (dual)

Mobo - MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

HD - Seagate SATA 160GB, with NCQ

Case - Antec P160 with windowed side panel

PSU - 480W Antec NeoPower

DVD-R - Pioneer AO8XLA Black Dual Layer

Now, I started putting it together at about 6:30pm last Thursday. I took the case out of its packaging, alot of metaly bits and pieces. Took the motherboard tray out, and mounted the motherboard.... until I realised that it was slightly wonky when it was screwed in. I then realised I used the wrong screws, but the problem was, I couldn't unscrew the thing, as the raised screws that they were screwed into would turn with them. In short, I basically ripped the damn thing off the mobo tray, and needed the screwdriver and a wrench just to unscrew the damn things. First screwup complete, I put it in again with the right screws, and moved on.

Now it was time to plug in the CPU... which was very easy. Simple process of lifting the lever and dropping it in. The heatsink wasn't so bad, and although it took me a minute or so to figure out how to clip the damn thing on, it went without a real hitch. Although, there was no thermal paste already on the cpu, as I was led to believe. Instead, there was this sticky semi-solid substance on the bottom of the heatsink, which I assumed would melt once the CPU is turned on. In hindsight, I should've used thermal paste, as my CPU is running at an idle 55C.

That complete, I put the tray back into the case, and went about connecting the front panel display on my case... this is where the problems started. Now, on the top front of my case, there are slots for USB ports, Firewire ports, temp display, pwr LEDs, pwr buttons and sound connections. Now most of it wasn't too difficult, but the problem was, that the USB and Firewire cables you connect to the motherboard looked exactly the same, and had no labeling whatsoever to differentiate between them, so it was practically impossible to figure it out, and due to the different voltages of the connections, plugging in the wrong cable meant death for my motherboard. After an hour of trying this and that, I gave up and went to bed. It was 10:30pm. (I was also watching "there's something about Mary" at the time, so that didn't help with the speed of it all)

Next day, I did some research and was still at square one, except for knowing that USB have a red cable going to ground. I went home, fiddled some more, and just went for it, and tried the cable which I thought suited it best...

Next was the install of the Hard Drive... seamless.

Then it was time to put in my DVD drives. After attaching the little clips on the side to allow the drive to lock into the case, I went to push it into the slot, only to find out that the friggen thing was too wide with the clips to fit into the slot. Perplexed, I tried pushing it in from the back... didn't work. I tried it every which way imaginable, until (about an hour later) figuring out that you need to rip the entire front off the case to plug a drive in. This was no easy task, but another 30 minutes later, it was all done.

Then time came to install all my PCI devices, and then finish off with my beasty 6800 ultra. Installation was a breeze, but I noticed that the end of the card sits over the chipset fan on the motherboard... that had me a little worried.

Then came cable cleaning time, and then the addition of power.

Windows was installed, and it's up and running.

A good estimate of 10 hours later, and it's all done. I sure wish I had just paid the extra $100 for them to put it together initially.

Haven't completely finished tweaking it here and there, but I got a nice score of 12112 Marks on 3d Mark 03 with stock settings.

I didn't understand much of that, but I sure can't wait to see it. ;)