Hello, last time I built a pc was 4 years ago so just want some input on what i'm getting. Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021 ASUS M4A79T Deluxe AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131363 SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801 XTRAC PADS Ripper Optical Mouse pad - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817114174 CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power ... - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGIBOX - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674 x2 mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996601 - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146777 x2 Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320 I'm going to run them in Raid 0. Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126009 ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236052 Logitech G5 7 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB Wired Laser Mouse - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104076 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders w/ Tech Guarantee - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116677 ZALMAN CNPS9900LED 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118046 Total cost is around $1650.00. I will be doing a little bit of everything with this rig. Thanks for your comments.
1.) Asus mainboards are very poor quality these days, most people here recomend DFI or Gigabyte. I have not dared go near one of their screens in years...Acer makes better screens at better prices anyway. 2.) graphics, memory, case, hard drives, keyboard, mousepad & mouse, OS, and cooler are all nice. 3.) AMD is not the value it used to be, you would probably be better off building a 2.66GHZ I7 system...it won't cost much more, it will be as powerfull (or more) than an AMD 3.2GHZ, and it will give you lots of headroom for future upgrades. 4.) Software based RAID-0 (onboard raid=software raid) does not give you much performance. It may appear to double speeds in initial speed tests, but after a bit of use (like the time it takes to install windows), it will typicaly be only a bit faster than a single drive. All is not lost, you can get one of these: http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/ad4sr5hpmus.asp for under $100. It will give you hardware RAID-0 without the need to spend $300 on a nice card (the nice cards are still worthwhile for RAID-5, as the addonics cards do not have any cacheing). 5.) REMEMBER: RAID-0 CAN HELP SPEED, BUT IT MORE THAN DOUBLES THE CHANCES OF DATA LOSS. BACKUP FREQUENTLY ON A RAID-0 CONFIGURATION.
Agreed on the Asus boards, but I would take an Asus screen over an Acer any day of the week. Asus may not produce very good quality products, but Acer/Benq are rock bottom. As it happens, for gaming there's not a great deal of difference between the 955BE and the i7 920. In my mind, the best value performance gaming setup is a Q9550 on 775. The motherboards are much cheaper, the CPUs use much less power and are just as fast for most games, and overclock almost as well as the i7s. The RAID controller you've listed is only partially hardware. It has an off-motherboard controller which does help, but it is not a hardware processing card, so it will still rely on the CPU for the processing. You will not find a genuine hardware RAID card for less than several hundred dollars. Overall build Case: 5/10 - old design, fraut with design flaws. Either buy a Nine Hundred Two/b] or an NZXT Tempest. Motherboard: 5/10 - see earlier discussion. A Gigabyte MA790FX board would be a better buy for an AMD. If you're going for an Intel build, go for an EP45-UD3R Graphics card: 10/10 Power supply: 8/10 - An excellent PSU, but massively over the top for this system. With either the AMD or Intel (Core 2) system, you could use the 650W version and have loads of upgrade potential. Even with the inefficient AMD CPU you're only going to be using about 250W. CPU: 8/10 - The best CPU AMD have to offer, but Intel offer more powerful CPUs if you're willing to pay more. A Q9550 would be my choice. RAM: 9/10 - Mushkin memory seems to get good reviews. Obviously bear in mind if you used the core 2 system you'd need DDR2 RAM instead. HDD: 8/10 - An excellent drive, but you'd be better off using a single 1TB drive - since you planned to use RAID, you're getting exactly the same thing, just with a slightly lower MB/s transfer rate. Keyboard: 7/10 - cumbersome, but well made. Monitor: 5/10 - 1920x1080 monitors aren't very good for gaming, they're designed for HD video only, which is why they're so cheap. This is the sort of 24" monitor you should be buying: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001331 Mouse: 6/10 - I used this mouse once when borrowing someone's PC. I can't stand it. The texturing on it just makes my hand slip off all the time. I'd go for a Razer gaming mouse: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826153027 OS: Make sure you get one with a windows 7 upgrade credit - Win7 will be far better than vista when released. CPU Cooler: 6/10 - another of Zalman's noisy, overpriced coolers. Get this instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608002
No, it is a true hardware raid controler. You plug it into a SATA port on the mainboard, then plug drives into it. The motherboard only sees one device...and it thinks it is a hard drive. It does not have any software components. I have not seen any stuck pixels on any Acer screen for a few years. In this respect, their quality is much higher than Sony, Asus, LG, or Hanns-G. I have four 22" widescreens that I use all the time (2 at home run about 8 hours a day and 2 at work run 24/7). These have been running like this for over 2 years (the home ones nearly three years). I supose that this is partialy luck of the draw, and I am sure that Acer screens break sometimes...I just have not seen it happen since the Pentium 2 was king. Mouse: This is a matter of personal preference, some people love the texture on the G5, others can't stand it, and others just don't like the shape. If you can, you should go to bestbuy/frys/etc and try out a few of the mice and keyboards to get an idea for what feels best to you. (I love the G5...so much that I bought a second one when they changed it to have the 7th button and the texture). The same may apply to the keyboard; the G11 is a rock-solid board, but it is heavy and large...so some may not like it.
I've not seen any stuck pixels on any monitor for years, only dead ones. Also, that's irrelevant as most manufacturers use the same panels. The only brand of the four you listed lower in quality perhaps than Acer is Hanns-G. LG make excellent screens. Most Acer/benq screens I can pull all the trim off with my fingernails. They're not built at all well. That does not necessarily mean they always break, but the comparative quality between the acer/benq screens my school bought for one classroom and the Relisys ones they bought for the other is remarkable.
My dad's 46" LG screen just died a few weeks ago...it had a whole line of green pixels from top to bottom. I'm not sure if this is the definition of "stuck pixels", but it is good reason to RMA. My experience with LG cell phone screens was even worse...horizontal black lines apeared after less than a week. LG has a great name and reputation, but they do not have the quality control to back it up. The same is true of asus's circuit boards (they may buy their panels, but they make their boards). BTW...if you have not seen any stuck pixels in years, then why do you think Acer makes bad screens?
Well there's several things wrong with using that as proof: firstly, as I explained before, faults like stuck pixels aren't the fault of the screen manufacturer, they're the fault of the panel manufacturer. I'm pretty sure LG don't make their own panels (though I could be wrong about this). Secondly, the panels used in TVs are unsurprisingly different to the ones used in monitors. Just because a 46" TV failed doesn't mean a 20" monitor will do the same. LG's phones aren't especially great, but once again, unrelated. You wouldn't be the first person I know to complain about LG's TVs, but I personally think, from new, they are among the best performers. I have had no trouble at all with some of LG's other products, in particular their DVD drives. I don't see stuck pixels on Acer screens - even if I did I wouldn't blame acer for it. It's the rest of the product that's terrible. Acer don't produce the panels but they do produce the power circuitry, the external case, buttons etc. and all of that lot is very poor quality. For a start it's usually obvious by appearance, and if not, a year or so's use and it soon will be. I see plenty of failed Acer screens for things like not turning on, or the backlight not working, etc. Lastly, it should be damn well obvious from the price - Acer screens are by far the cheapest out there, and there has to be a reason for that.
Hanns·G makes the cheapest screens around, and Asus only costs a few $ more than Acer. Price is a terrible way to judge quality. Perhapse my appreciation for Acer has something to do with the fact that I have never used one of their TVs or phones...just as my distain for LG comes from one of their TVs and one of their phones.
