New computer

Hey guys I'm going to be building a new comp by february. Its mainly going to be for gaming but this is my first build by myself, I want to put a socket 939
AMD athlon 64 4000+ or the X2 64 in it. I'm probly going to go with water cooling for the processor. The video card I'm going to get is the ATI X1800XT 512MB GDDR3. The only thing is I dont know what mobo to get cause theres so many, I know it needs to support socket 939 and the X2 and have a PCI-E slot but alot of the boards I look at are SLI and nvidia supported and I was wondering what a good gaming ATI supported board would be. also I will only have $1600 to do this build witch should be enough. Also the price of that video card is 489.00$ if anyone was wondering. Also I almost forgot to mention
that the FSB on the mobo should be 1GHz. 

AMD X2 64 and an X1800?? Don't underestimate the other components you'll need - if you're gaming and you have an X1800 lined up, you have to consider the 1.5/2GB RAM you'll do yourself well getting. Also, ATI has Crossfire cards (X1800 is Crossfire compatible), which is basically ATI's answer to nVidia's SLI. Crossfire-specified boards are a plus. And you have to factor your PSU, cooling (water = $$$), extra amenities (buying a monitor out of that chunk of cash??) and the like. You may want to spend your free time on tigerdirect.com for the next few days...one does not simply build a gaming rig on speculation and no research!

well I did some price checking and I think i'll just go with a AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor $282.00, or a AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor for $334.00. and I will be putting 2GB of ram in it. The only thing with Crossfire boards is I've only been able to find TWO of them and they both got bad reveiws on how hard it is to configur the BIOS, but I will eventually get a CF board. I already know what PSU I'm getting and I have my case all ready picked out. The water cooling isnt going to cost very much ether. I already have all the basic stuff, monitor,mouse, keyboard. I will look at this tigerdirect.com. thanks

wow you know CPUs have really picked up some snazzy names. It's almost like buying a car.

Personally I wouldn't bother with Crossfire. by the time you feel the need to purchase and hook up another video card, you could just buy a new better video card. Not to mention that most people say Crossfire is even more of a joke tha nvidia's SLI.

Also, tigerdirect is shit. newegg.com will not let you down. if you really want to shop around though check out pricewatch.com for the specific components that you want. just be sure to try and go to a decently rated seller.

>>5

Yeah I looked at tigerdirect but I still found lower prices on newegg, I usually go to newegg anyway.

But I still dont know what motherboard to go with, any recommendations?

>>4
Ferrari laptop.
'nuff said.

>>6
Can't go wrong with Asus, Abit, or Gigabyte, plus an nForce 4 chipset.  Look for one that has the features and form factor you're looking for.

Don't get the 1800.. for the most bang for your buck go with the x1900 its around twice as good for only another 50-100 dollars

>>7

1. Waste your money to fund a F1 racing team money blackhole and a slow maker of disturbingly overpriced cars
2. ???
3. Profit... or is it?

>>1


 This may be a little late, but with the components you've listed, $1600 isn't going to be enough. Or maybe it might, just barely.

 An Radeon X1800 is going to be at least $400, a decent motherboard at least $150 (maybe, a little less), a monitor will run you at least $150 (and that's going cheap LCD, ok CRT), 2 gig of memory will be at least $100 (once again, going cheap), the processor is going tobe $200+. Alos, you've got to get a case to put it all in, a cooling system, a harddrive or two, speakers, input devices, maybe a sound card, a power source (if it didn't come with your case, or if the one that did isn't strong enough), and also a UPS or other battery backup (yes, this is worth adding to the cost. You're spending $1000+, consider this insurance)

 Now, $1600 can build you a decent rig, one capapable of modern gaming, so you don't have to get teh absolute "best" of everything. (Going "middle of the road" isn't a bad idea. Computers become dated within 2 years these days, so unless you're stupidly rich, don't always buy the most expensive parts) A screaming fast one will be $2000+.

>>11
Well as I said I already have all the basics, surge protecter,21inch CRT flat screen, speakers, disk drive. The harddrive will come from my current computer 160GB WD. All I need to buy is the computer parts: mobo, processor, video card, sound card, cooling system, case, ram, PSU. and thats about it I'll add up the prices of each and see what it comes too. I wont be building the computer until Feburary when my income tax check gets here, I have extra tax taken out of it each year so I get a big income tax check this one will be about 4000$ this year. I'll tell you guys what it adds up too after I buy the parts and I'll tell you how the build goes.