Ok all you PC nerds help me out.

[Viking 0]

I'm slowly putting together a plan to build a new computer.

i'm currently running
PIII 1gig
Asus Tusl2-C mobo
512mb ram
Radeon 9200
36gig hd

I want a P4 system of atleast 3gig and a gig of ram. What i'm not sure about is which componets to get.

I only need the CPU,Mobo,RAM,Video card, and SATA hard drive

I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver
My God has a bigger dick than your god -George Carlin

[CrazyIvan 0]

Dude, you want to UPGRADE the current one or build a new one?

Your posting is not clear, at least to me.

__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[Viking 0]

good point i'm building a new one.

I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver
My God has a bigger dick than your god -George Carlin

[DTOXX 0]

I have personally given up on building my own machines. Yeah yeah in the past it was fun. I could get the latest and greatest (with respect to my budget) and had fun putting the machine together.

Now however the market changes so fast that you will NEVER be able to keep pace with the bleeding edge. Unless of course you have an extra room in your house where you can throw all of your 3 week "old" video cards, processors, ram strips... This coupled with the fact that prices will continue to decline makes spending excessively and option that is not for me.

Determine what you want the machine to do. (gaming, video production, whatever) and purchase the components that your system would get the most out of.

Example: a gaming machine would have wicked fast video, but not capture capability, and a fast processor. The size of the HD would not be an issue however. A video machine would have a HUGE HD, video input, and a fast processor.

Once you have the component(s) then go to a mainstream company and get a box that is slightly upgradable. Do NOT spend extra money on a box that is overtly upgradable because, as stated above, the technologies changes too fast and the prices fall even faster.

My last "upgrade" was with Dell. I ordered a machine with a processor I could live with and sufficent ram. I then took my video card out of the old machine and "upgraded" the Dell.

-------
D.T. Holder
SIMstudy

[Viking 0]

I'v had this current system for over 2 years. I don't care about the leading edge.

I just want a machine that will let me play the games that are out right now and for maybe another year or two.

I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver
My God has a bigger dick than your god -George Carlin

[wingnut 0]

i'd go with a msi or asus mother board with an athlon 2XXX+ processor with ~3-4 mhz ram speed, a 120 gb hard drive and either a nvidia or Radeon video card..... this is pretty much whati have and i'm really happy with it. it isn't the fastest but it lets me do anything i want with my computer. i'mnot big inot gaming and mainly use my computer to surf the web and edit skydiving video's.... not sure how my system would do for gaming but not really caring either.... let us know what you want to do with your machine and it will make it easier to recomend things...... i.e. if you are going to edit video you won't need all the fancy ge wiz video card stuff, but a good processsor is needed, while if it is gaming you'll need the video card that can render the most polygons the fastest for faster video and less process oor load..... all depends..... shouldn't take more than about 5-700 to get ya what ya need though... dependingon how fast you want to go.......

______________________________________
"i have no reader's digest version"

[ltdiver 3]

Quote

Now however the market changes so fast that you will NEVER be able to keep pace with the bleeding edge.

HA! Never heard it called a 'bleeding edge' before. However, I'm not a computer nerd either.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[DTOXX 0]

LOL the bleeding edge is just after the cutting edge.

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D.T. Holder
SIMstudy

[ltdiver 3]

Quote

LOL the bleeding edge is just after the cutting edge.

The Cutting Edge?! "Toe Pick!!"

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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I only need the CPU,Mobo,RAM,Video card, and SATA hard drive

Intel or AMD?
PCIx or AGP?

If you are looking for a midgrade I would settle for the Nvidia 6600GT PCIx, if you can afford the extra cash go with the 6800GT. I have the BFG6600GT OC and its the best video card I have ever used.
Read up on that entire BFG 6600 line here:
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzE2. The great thing about the OC BFG line is the lifetiem warranty - if it breaks, you RMA and they send you a new one.

The AMD64 FX53 939 is a great CPU and can easily hold its own against anything on the P4 HT level. For the ram make sure you go with the Cosair TwinX 1gig (2 sticks of 512) for a nice stable environment.

I would go with anything Asus or Abit that would hold that CPU. Here is a good article on that:
http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2128&p=19

As always, check out www.pricewatch.com for the best prices. And you can never go wrong with getting your components from www.newegg.com. I've built over six computers with parts from them and have yet to have a problem from shipping to quality. They are worth the extra couple of bucks you will spend on them.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[Zep 0]

Enlighten me, in the Ram department why go for Corsair twinx an not Kingston

personal choice or another reason

Gone fishing

[shropshire 0]

I've just put a new machine together and I'm really happy with it......
(1) Asus MoBo - A8N-SLI Deluxe (great board)
(2) AMD Athlon 64 (3500+)
(3) 1Gb DDR 400 (2 x 512s cuz a single stick is still expensive, over here at least)
(4) 200Gb SATA drive

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[sirenoremac 0]

For low-mid range PCs, Kingston value RAM works great, as long as you dont try to OC it. Corsair Twinx is however, great RAM for ultra high performance. I personally think Crucial Ballistix is better, even though it doesnt clock as well, because it has straight two timings. That will compensate for quite a bit of core speed, enough to make it better than XMS when clocked right. But you pay a premium for either of these, and its one of those things that 99% of users can do without. My recommendation for a fairly cheap system that will run any games out there?

First, AMD chip. MUCH cheaper than P4's and IMO better. I'd reccomend an XP 2500+ Barton. A little bit older... but it OCs 90% of the time to 3200+ with no problem. And it's only about $85.

Second MSI, ABIT, or Gigabyte Motherboard. I dont like ASUS. Good company with excellent service, but I have had more of their boards fail on me... ABIT or MSI are both good. Gigabyte is a little cheaper, and just as good, but the manuals are poorly translated, and you cannot get a hold of the company no matter how hard you try. Just get a mobo that fits a socket 462 chip and has the features you want (i.e. AGP slot, onboard SATA/RAID, etc)

Third: Video card. This one is a bit of a tough call and really depends on waht you are willing to spend. You could grab yourself a Radeon 9800 Pro or GeForce FX5900 for around $200, and run any game out right now pretty darned well. Or you could settle with something a little less zippy, but still DirectX 9 capable like the 9600 or 5700. These can both be found for ~$100. Do not get anything before the 9000 Radeon or 5000 GeForce, or it will not be DirectX 9 capable. Of course you could always go for the gusto and grab a GeForce 6800 Ultra or Radeon X850 XT but these'll run you close to $500.

RAM. Like I said, you probably wont be needing XMS or Ballistix or anything like that. Just get some DDR-3200 from a major company such as Crucial, Corsair, or Kingston. You will probably want to go with two 512 sticks, because it is frequently cheaper, and allows for some more room in later decisions, such as running dual channel. But a gig stick will give you more room to expand. Kep in mind that a lot of Motherboards cannot have a gig in each slot, but rather have a maximum that is less than 1 gig times the number of slots (i.e. 4 slots on the mobo, but can only have three gigs).

Hard Drive. Find something in the 120 to 200 GB range that is priced well. Be sure that it is 7200 RPM, and has at least an 8MB cache. If you plan to run only one drive, then SATA will not benefit you much, and can in fact be destructive. SATA cables are prone to higher error rates than IDE cables. Of course if you want some real performance, and for a fairly modest price, you can get two identical SATA drives and run them in a RAID 0, if your mobo has an onboard SATA/RAID controller (you can also get SATA/RAID conteoller cards). If you're going to splurge on one area, do this. You will prbably see a bigger general performance increase from this than anything else (games wont run faster, but they will load faster). Brands are not a huge deal here. I personally like Hitachi drives, but everyone has their own opinion. Most major brands are excellent and all have their pros and cons.

Now you said that you wanted a P4 system, and I listed an Athlon based system. I genuinely believe that the Athlon is a better processor than the P4. Intel does a great job at giving themselves an image of immense superiority. One of the ways they do this is by chargin more for their processors. For example, an Athlon 64 3400+ costs about $220. A Pentium 4 3.4 (E) costs about $300. The Athlon is a 64 bit chip, which means forwards compatibility, and is a better performer for almost everything, especially gaming. So please, dont fall victim to Intels marketing. Think about your processor choice, and make an informed decision. Then buy an Athlon .



Also, definitely buy from Newegg.com It is far and away the best place to get computer parts. Excellent site, excellent service, excellent warranties, and above all, excellent prices. It's hard to beat them on any front.

Good luck building your machine. If you want any more help feel free to PM me.

Eric Cameron

[Viking 0]

I read This review and saw the charts for performance of the AMD chips. I'm converted!! thats a HUGE difference!! And i play games all the freacking time.

Right now i'm thinking about this setup.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+(it outdose the top P4!!)
Mobo: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
Ram: 1gig Corsair Value Select
Video Card: Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Hard drive: Western Digital Raptor 36gb 10k rpm
Power: DYNAPOWER 500W

get all that from newegg for just $880ish not back for a further two years of gaming fun!

I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver
My God has a bigger dick than your god -George Carlin

[Sinkster 0]

Quote

I read This review and saw the charts for performance of the AMD chips. I'm converted!! thats a HUGE difference!! And i play games all the freacking time.

Right now i'm thinking about this setup.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+(it outdose the top P4!!)
Mobo: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
Ram: 1gig Corsair Value Select
Video Card: Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Hard drive: Western Digital Raptor 36gb 10k rpm
Power: DYNAPOWER 500W

get all that from newegg for just $880ish not back for a further two years of gaming fun!

Good call Viking, was about to recommend that myself. I have a K8N Neo2 Plat and AMD 3500+ and a raptor, but the 70gig one which I highly recommend saving for if you are going for a 10k drive. (36 is just too small in my opinion)


But in any case, what you have detailed is an awesome system!

[mnealtx 0]

Sounds like good choices - here's what I built about 6 months ago and I've had no problems with any of the games I play:

Mobo: ASUS K8V Deluxe
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ retail
Vid: Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128
Mem: Corsair Value Select Dual Pack (2x512mb) PC3200
HD: WD 120Gb 7200rpm SATA
DVD: Sony DWU14A DVD+/-RW Recorder drive
Case: Antec Sonata
Cables: Rounded floppy/IDE cables, one each

Good luck!

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[Zep 0]

Thanks for a great answer.

I agree fully on your comments about Pentium, I go for AMD every time
My son is still using my old Duron with the bridges rejoined it must be 4 years an still going strong
One thing you didn't mention was that if you go with AMD make shure you buy the best heatsink an vent
your pocket can afford as they do tend to run hotter, especially clocked

Gone fishing

[sirenoremac 0]

Yeah, absolutely get some good cooling. That looks like a nice system. The only thing I would reccomend, and I say this again, is to run a RAID with your SATAs. The Raptor will already be pretty fast, but if you RAID two of them, Windows will take about 2 seconds to boot. Of course, it's pricy. Also, the statement about 36 gigs not being enough is very true, but if I were you, I'd go for two 36 Raptors for a RAID and a big IDE for mass storage if you think you're going to need it. You can always add a bigger HDD later of course. That Motherboard is a greeat choice, and an excellent value. However... It's a socket 939. The Athlon 64 3400+ only comes in a socket 754. The 3500+ is socket 939. So either go with the 3500+, or find a different mobo. I would suggest the former, as that motherboard is just about to sexy to pass up. Good luck!


Eric Cameron

[bunge 0]

still luv that movie

BUNGE

I don't hate them, I just like us better.

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

Enlighten me, in the Ram department why go for Corsair twinx an not Kingston

personal choice or another reason

Kingston is a good memory, but I personally have found that Corsair is the most reliable memory out there. I've yet to build a system that had any memory issues while using Corsair. I would put OCZ and Kingston in the same category, but if you are going to do any gaming, Corsair seems to be the best bet.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

I read This review and saw the charts for performance of the AMD chips. I'm converted!! thats a HUGE difference!! And i play games all the freacking time.

Right now i'm thinking about this setup.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+(it outdose the top P4!!)
Mobo: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
Ram: 1gig Corsair Value Select
Video Card: Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Hard drive: Western Digital Raptor 36gb 10k rpm
Power: DYNAPOWER 500W

get all that from newegg for just $880ish not back for a further two years of gaming fun!

Good call on all parts! But i don't think the AMD 64 3400+ works on that mobo. You will have to use the 939 with it. So, either change the mobo or CPU. (edit: ha, just saw you got the same advice already)

I would add one more thing to that - a SATA drive for storage only. Use the Raptor for your OS and vital stuff, but you do not want to store your data and install your games on the same drive.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[Sinkster 0]

Quote

Quote

Enlighten me, in the Ram department why go for Corsair twinx an not Kingston

personal choice or another reason

Kingston is a good memory, but I personally have found that Corsair is the most reliable memory out there. I've yet to build a system that had any memory issues while using Corsair. I would put OCZ and Kingston in the same category, but if you are going to do any gaming, Corsair seems to be the best bet.

I'd say if you have money to throw away get the Corsair, but Kingston is best for price to performance ratio. The more expensive RAM yields dramatically diminishing returns once you hit enough VOLUME (say, 1 GB total for most things) to keep all the running processes in memory.

Case in point:
My system scored an average of 4873 in 3d Mark 2005 with two 512 MB PC2100 Kingston DIMMs running single channel.

Then, I put two 1 GB Corsair XMS Series PC3200 DIMMs running DUAL CHANNEL in the exact same system my avg score only went up to 4929.

That's a 1% difference.

HOLY SH1T I SPENT 600 BUX to increase performance 1%!!!! (in 3d mark 2005)
You get the idea.

Furthermore, not only did I go from Kingston to Corsair. I also went from PC2100 to PC3200, from 1 GB to 2 GB, and from running single channel to dual channel!!! OMG, you'd think I'd see a bigger difference, but I didn't!! (for that application)

RAM speed does not seem like a bottle neck provided you have enough VOLUME to prevent processes from swapping to disk! <-- This is my anecdotal opinion from observation and experience.

Same the money for something else (like a better video card) unless you have nothing else to spend it on.

[PhreeZone 20]

RAID is touchy. I would NEVER reccommend running Raid 0 to anyone. Sure the speeds are fast, but you have 0 tolerance for failure in the data. Raid 1 and you have a mirror so if one drive crashes, you have a second drive ready to go.

Arthur you need to look and see if you are going to be doing photo editing on the machine also. If so Storage reliability is more important then speed.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Sinkster 0]

Quote

RAID is touchy. I would NEVER reccommend running Raid 0 to anyone. Sure the speeds are fast, but you have 0 tolerance for failure in the data. Raid 1 and you have a mirror so if one drive crashes, you have a second drive ready to go.

Arthur you need to look and see if you are going to be doing photo editing on the machine also. If so Storage reliability is more important then speed.

I agree. Plus, for games at least, as long as you have enough ram you're only going to load from disk at new levels, zones, etc. So the extra speed doesn't matter so much beside load times.

(and never use partition magic for funky data manipulation (lost 250 GB when the program crashed while moving partitions around) )

[Dougjumper 0]

One thing I hear is all the talk about different types of memory. I have built a few systems myself and build about 2-3 a week. Something to remember is not all types of Memory and speeds are Compatible with just any Motherboard. I have run into Conflicts at different Occasions using different Memory etc. I would suggest checking with the Motherboard Manufacturer to see if a particular Memory Speed/Size is Compatible.
Most Good Quality Corsair and some Kingston are. Just better to be safe than Sorry.