Help! building my OC gamign rig

[PreludeH22]

Hi, first post here.

IM a comp newbie and I rushed into buying some items without researching, I have several questions relating to building my comp which IM planning to OC.

So far I got:
19'' NEC LCD 8ms
Abit fatal1ty a8n
pci-e BFG 6800GT OC
1 gig stick of OCZ pc3200, ddr400 whatever its called ram at 3-3-3-8 ..whatever the hell that means.

My questions:

1. Did I just waste my money on this ram? I read everywhere how everyone has pairs. What should I do, just buy another 512x2 or get another OCZ 1 gig stick? also, that 3-3-3-8 ram I got sucks? Go for something higher than ddr400?

2. Im getting an AMD 64 4000+, go for the 90nm or 130nm?

3. How should I complete my set up for this OCing gaming rig. PSU? OCZ powerstream or enermax 600x? and how about HDD? I read how sata sucks for OCing.

Thanks everyone for any help. Im confused on what to buy. what should I BUY!!!!

[uscfan]

Get a venice chip, its a 90nm. The ram you got is not too great, you might want to return it and get 2x512 for dual channel. Dual channel is considerably faster and the timings you had on that ram (3-3-3-8) aren't too great. Since you are overclocking you want some ram that has tight timings (2-2-2-5) at PC3200. TCCD and UTT are the types of ram you would want.

The motherboard and gfx card are fine.

The LCD you got seems pretty sweet. Will work well for gaming because of its large size and low refresh time.

The Powerstream 520 will do well with your system, but so will the enermax, really it comes down to what your willing to pay. You definitely don't need 600w with one card.w

I hope some others reply so you can get some other opinions.

[PreludeH22]

Thanks, Ya I might return this ram. How about dual channel 2x1024? So far the OCZ powerstream seems like a good psu for me, only thing IM worried about is me setting the volage wrong.

[[XC] moddolicous]

In the extreme bandwith section, alot of people are saying the crucial ballistix are good for 2*1024. Like uscfan said, go for the venice. They usually overclock well on air. Alot of people use the OCZ 520 for SLI and stuff, so for one card it should work great. Both should. I never heard of SATA drives being horrible for overclocking, so get what u can.

[PreludeH22]

I got the info about SATA and OC not mixing from here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57148

which says this:

Why does running the PCI/AGP bus out of spec cause instability?
Running the PCI bus out of spec causes instability mainly because it forces components with very strict tolerances to run at a different frequency then they are intended to. The PCI spec is usually stated at 33mhz. Sometimes it is stated at 33.3mhz, which I believe is closer to the real spec. The main victim of high PCI speeds is the hard drive controller. Certain controller cards have a higher tolerance than others, and so are able to run at increased speeds without noticeable corruption. However, the onboard controllers on most motherboards (especially SATA controllers) are extremely sensitive to high PCI speeds, and can have corruption and data loss if the PCI bus is running at even 35mhz. Most are able to do 34mhz, as it is really less then 1mhz out of spec (depending on where the motherboard stops rounding to 34mhz... for example, most motherboards will probably report any FSB from 134mhz-137 as being a 34mhz PCI speed. The actual range is from 33.5mhz to 34.25mhz, and may vary even more based on variations in the clock frequency of the motherboard. At higher FSBs and higher dividers, the range can be even more). Audio and other integrated peripherals also suffer when the PCI bus is run out of spec. ATI video cards are a lot less tolerant to high AGP speeds (directly related to PCI speed) than nVidia cards. With that in mind, most Realtek lan cards (the PCI based ones that occupy an expansion slot) are rated for safe operation at anywhere from 30-40mhz.


Anways IM not really too worried about that, I most like most wont even OC that much, I just want to give it a try...then maybe later on when I know more OC the hell out of it. IM just trying to make an over all fast gaming machine for now...so does this sound good?

AMD 64 4000+ 90nm (San Diego right?)
Abit Fatal1ty AN8
1x1024 3-3-3-8 OCZ ram(not the best but good enough for now?)
74gig WD raptor
another bigger SATA HDD
BGF 6800GT OC
Lite On dual layer dvd burner
Lite On dvd rom
some form of liquid cooling...koolance cool?

About the suggested ram, I've heard good stuff about the ones mentioned tccd(samsung chips?), etc. Is it worth it just to buy another 3-3-3-8 of the same kind(OCZ) to go dual channel since I already have one, or does it suck so much that I should just completely ditch it.

Last question is, will Windows XP professional x64 work good with this set up and should I install the OS on the Raptor or a regular big SATA?

Thanks for all the suggestions, they really help a lot. I've been researching comp stuff for weeks and still confused on a lot of things.