Rate my first custom built rig!!!

[matt32241]

Im going to soon build my first PC. I want to use it to play CSS and battlefield 2. Could you please rate my system on a scale of 1 to 10 of the parts, how well you think I will be able to run BF2, and give me any suggestions. This is going to be a budget PC.

Processor- AMD athlon 64 3000+ VENICE

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537

Motherboard- Chaintech VNF4

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152053

Video Card- Sapphire Radeon X700 256mb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102536

RAM- 1 GIG of PC3200

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

How is this card?

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=321929

[DeathGiver]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

1.8 ghz? Thats kind of low dont you think? The x700 only has 8 pipelines where the X850 XT has 16. Id get another gig of ram just because BF2 is a resource hog. Just my 2 cents. Nice motherboard. Id go with a san diego processor its rated at 2.4ghz.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

That processor is fine as you will be able to overclock it well. 1.8 is perfectly fine for and AMD processor. Lose that video card though.

[DeathGiver]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

Yeah that mainboard has a pci express slot go for something higher other then a x700.

[BlindBat]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

X700 has been announced by ATI has end of life, discontinued.

You might want to look into the new x800GT ( which is based on the x850 XT GPU R480), that's if you are on a budget of course. x800XL might also be an option.

Processor wize, bear in mind 2 things (one which I will suggest in next). All AMD processors have a built in memory controller, some performing better then others. Clawhammer, NewCastle,edited: Winchester (various name for various revisions/version of the processors) perform very well with 2 x Double Sided memory Modules ( 512 MB Ram modules or 1 Meg Ram modules ). However, if you were to consider, purchasing 2 x 512 today for a total of 1 Gig of Ram, and down the road consider adding another 2 x 512, you might run into a serious challenge of having 4 x 512 MB memory module running. Most mobo manufacturer will explain this as NOT supported. It is not a modo problem it is the actual Clawhammer,NewCastle and Venice issue.

That being said, and considering that many around here running BF2 seem to suggest that there is a major performance improvement when the sytem is equipped with 2 Gig of ram, if you were to consider such memory size, I would stronlgly suggest that you look into purchasing a San Diego Amd processor, it has an improved memory controller supporting 4 x Double Sided memory module (officially supported by AMD it is not officialy supported on the other previous core I mentionned but with patience one can get it to work), a few bug fixes and SSE3 support.

Hope this helps.

PS: Hopefully this is not against this forum rules, you might want to join many of us here at www.bleedinedge.com if you require more info tips and help, (it is also the front door to OCZ Support forum). You will find me there as BB_One.

Edit : lil Norton, my bad I stand corrected my post should have read Winchester instead of Venice, for you are correct Revision E and forward is the key to supporting a mix and match of memory modules. Thank you for pointing out my error and I have edited this post.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

<snip> However, if you were to consider, purchasing 2 x 512 today for a total of 1 Gig of Ram, and down the road consider adding another 2 x 512, you might run into a serious challenge of having 4 x 512 MB memory module running. Most mobo manufacturer will explain this as NOT supported. It is not a modo problem it is the actual Clawhammer,NewCastle and Venice issue.

</snip>

Actually revision E processors (venice, etc) don't have this problems so much as the older ones (Winchester, etc) did.

What did the engineers focus on this time? Of course, they again made a few optimizations in order to improve the memory controller performance. The tests of Venice based processors showed that they were faster than their Winchester based counterparts. Besides, the compatibility got even better. AMD processors on E core revision can work normally in the system with memory modules of different capacity and organization, which makes further upgrades a much simpler task for the users. Also, the CPUs based on the new core can also work just fine with four double-sided DDR400 SDRAM DIMMs. Another interesting feature of the new E core revision based CPUs is the new memory frequency dividers they support. This way, new AMD processors have no problems with DDR SDRAM working at frequencies exceeding 400MHz.

taken from http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...64-e3-mem.html

[-[RU]-Thrawn]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

1 GB of RAM is fine, just up that processor and vid card. Try a 3400, and get a better vid card. I'm an Nvidia fanboy and i really like my 6800Gt, dunno if thats out of your price range though.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

They don't make a S939 3400+, it's only S754.

[Sniper_13]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

his CPU is medium now low or high. i mean it is a 64 bit. nice video card. i would say 8.5/10

[panic951]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

cool just remember to follow the instructions closely. And it will all go easy for you.

[Sir. S.A.S]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

1.8 ghz? Thats kind of low dont you think? The x700 only has 8 pipelines where the X850 XT has 16. Id get another gig of ram just because BF2 is a resource hog. Just my 2 cents. Nice motherboard. Id go with a san diego processor its rated at 2.4ghz.
__________________

you dont know what ur talking about, the x700 is a briliant card for a person on a budget.

And the venice is one of the best cores around trust me i should know i have 2!!!

[ChopperKill]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

Not bad. I'd overclock that 3000+ to 3800+ speeds straight away. Don't bother spending money on a faster one just overclock it. I'd also buy 1.5GB of RAM. 2GB is a little bit overkill but good if money doesn't matter. 1.5GB will deal with BF2 without stuttering and hitting the swap file even on high settings. It's not essential but will help smooth things out quite a bit.

But I'd definately try and get a better vid card. Most games upto BF2 will run ok on that but this is a rig you're building to last a while I presume? BF2 and upcoming games like FEAR, Prey and Unreal Engine 3 stuff early next year will eat that X700 alive. I suppose you could wait till the end of the year though and upgrade your card then. Personally I'd try and get a 6800GT. They should also fall in price now because of the 7800's. Try looking on ebay for a cheaper used one.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

Not bad. I'd overclock that 3000+ to 3800+ speeds straight away. Don't bother spending money on a faster one just overclock it. I'd also buy 1.5GB of RAM. 2GB is a little bit overkill but good if money doesn't matter. 1.5GB will deal with BF2 without stuttering and hitting the swap file even on high settings. It's not essential but will help smooth things out quite a bit.

Nooooooo! Don't get 1.5, he'll take a performance hit not running in dual channel.

[ChopperKill]

Re: Rate my first custom built rig!!!

Nooooooo! Don't get 1.5, he'll take a performance hit not running in dual channel.

No not really. Everyone keeps saying that like they keep saying about only buying RAM with really fast timings. The truth is dual channel gets you 5% at best over an identical non dual channel setup. And that's 5% at best. All benchmarks that have measured it show this and have done ever since dual channel came out. It's just not really noticable while playing. You'd get a much better performance boost from the extra 512MB RAM than you would from sticking to 1GB in dual channel especially with BF2.

Of course if you can run 2GB dual channel then do that. Take dual channel if you can as any performance boost is good even if it is only 5% but don't hold yourself back to 1GB over 1.5GB just because of dual channel. It's false economy.