I'm new to this forum and I was hoping to get some advice on the PC I just put together. The hardware I have is as follows:

CPU: Intel Pentium D 805 2.6GHz Dual Core Socket 775

Motherboard: Asustek P5LD2 Deluxe i945P ATX

Graphics: Pixelview 7600GT DDR3 256MB 128Bit HDTV Dual DVI PCI-E Video Card

Memory: 2x1GB DDR2-667 240-Pin 64Mx8 CL5 16 Chips RAM

Hard Drive: 320GB Seagate Barracuda 16MB 7200.10 SATAII NCQ

CPU Cooler: Scythe - Ninja PLUS Heatpipe CPU Cooler with 120mm low-noise fan

The case is a thermaltake with a 430W power supply.


I'd like opinons on the state of this build, whether or not it can be improved for gaming, graphics software, etc, or how it can be optimized.

Thanks.

Well, as long as it does everything you need in a reasonable amount of time, and the cost was reasonable for you, then I'd say you have a decent system. Do you have a specific "optimization" question, like how to decrease video encoding time or something?

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

What I'm interested in is the processor and graphics card.

I know the 7600GT is a pretty standard model. What model if any, offers better performance for a good price?

Also, I've overclocked my CPU FSB from, 133mb to 166mb which gives me a CPU clock rate of 3.33GHZ and allows my ram to run ad 667mhz rather than 533mhz.

Right now, there's a pretty good improvement in speed(tomshardware rates it as a 25% increase) with mine overclocked without the need for increasing voltage(I checked out the tomshardware review as a guide to overclock it). However, the CPU temperature sits at a slightly unhealthy 72 degrees celsius.

I was looking at prices for the Pentium D 945 as an eventual upgrade for when my CPU will probably burn out from overclocking.

What I'd like is any ideas or opinions on how to optimize what I have for multitasking and gaming without overclocking any higher, and if there's a better graphics card out there for a reasonable price.

For multitasking, there's not much you can do besides adding more memory so you don't have to deal w/ swapping data in and out of your virtual memory. Barring that, you need to minimize the HD I/O bottleneck by either increasing the HD cache, reducing access time, or using a better protocol. Based on your current HD, I don't think any of those are necessary, so the only other benefit you might get is by setting up a RAID (0 or 5) and striping the data.

Gaming mostly depends on what games you play. RTS and role playing aren't terribly demanding so your current setup should be sufficient. FPS are more demanding; you can either get a new card or try to overclock your current one. If your mobo supports it, you can also try a dual or quad SLI setup though your performance boost isn't linear; for dual SLI the max boost is maybe 1.5x while average is roughly 1.2-1.3x. Though you're using PCIe, you should be aware that the interface doesn't matter. AGP 8x isn't even maxed out by current games, so spending more for a PCIe 16x card won't benefit you.

I don't keep track of the video card market very much anymore so I'd recommend looking at reviews like www.arstechnica.com, www.digital-daily.com/video/ ,and www.anandtech.com.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/...s_beginners_3/ has good info on how to compare the specs on different cards, e.g. is more memory better than faster memory, etc.

If you don't want to cook your CPU, you can always get a better heatsink or you can use liquid-cooled components. You might also consider adding more/bigger PC case fans so there is less hot air within the case.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

if you want better gaming there no reasonto upgrade from the processor you have. the pentium D you have is a very fast processor. really what you need to do is upgrade from the 7600 gt. its not that bad of a GPU but the laptop im typing on right now has the same GPU. you should look at the EVGA Geforce 7950 gt ko, not a bad price at $315. but if you willing to spend alittle more then you should check out the 7950 gx2 with 1GB, its priced around $539. Check out monarchcomputer.com you also may want to check out the ATI Fire GL graaphics cards, theyre more for proffesional uses but they are good GPU's.
good luck