buying a new computer.. any suggestions?

[Moltar]

I PLAN on getting this:
$2,107.85
Pentium 4 - 2GHz System.
System Memory: 512MB RDRAM (2x256MB)
Hard Drive: 60 Gig Hard Drive 7200 RPM
Motherboard: P4T For Pentium 4
Case: Mid Tower ATX Case
Video Card: GeForce 3
CD-Rom/DVD: 16X DVD Drive
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live
Modem: 56K V.90 PCI Modem
Operating System: XP Home
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural AT/PS2
Mouse: Microsoft Optical Intellimouse
Floppy Drive: 3.5 inch Floppy Drive
MS Works Suite 2001 $129.95
16x10x40 CD-RW Drive $99.95

Awesome, no?

anyway, anyone think this is bad?
Suitable for overclocking?
Any suggestions?

[Superman53142]

Hmmm, my personal opinion, but I'd go with an Athlon XP with 8KHA+. Or if you're willing to wait until January, an XP with an 8KHA2. The 8KHA2 looks like a sweet board. All the ocing features of the 8K7A+ combined with the vDimm and BIOS options of the 8KHA+. Coolness.

EDIT: I like the Geforce 3 though. I'm running a Ti200 and am VERY pleased with it. Quincinx anti-aliasing kicks butt. And I like the SB Live! too.

[minoukat]

I think I'd go with a ATI Radeon 8500, a little cheaper and some benchies have proven it to be slightly better than the GF 3.

My 0,02$$

BTW, I'd go with an XP too, but it's cuz I'm an AMD fan. the cpu is up to the buyer, so you still have the final choice (DUH !:beer: )

The rest seems pretty good ! :D :)

[Jeff Bolton]

an athlon xp1900 is cheaper and r0x the p4's s0x. probably more easily overclockable too. ram is cheaper too. otherwise nice setup.

jeff

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

Sounds like a good system to me...and yes it will allow some clocking.
I never used Asus boards though, so I can't tell you what the options are...but you could search for reviews on the ASUS P4T motherboard, and see what the resullts are.....sometimes you can look in the overclockers.com's cpu database and look at successfull overclocks for the P4, and see how many were done with that board. If there is a lot of entries with that board, then you know it's a winner:cool:

Also you want to make sure you get a power supply big enough to handle all that horse power...450watts should be good enough. anything less would add instability(imho)
Good Luck,
Doc

[Niloc]

I would also go with an athlon xp 1900 I just got one its great it out preforms the pentium 4 and is cheaper

[Mambo]

I would also have to recommend an AMD system, cheaper and faster

But if you do decide to go the P4 route you should really look into the motherboards that are using DDR and not the proprietary RDRAM

[funnyperson1]

the XP1900s arent too overclockable at all, i would prefer getting a 1600+ and ocing that, but the P4 2.0 has been known to get at about 2.2-2.5 GHZ...

[Shadow ÒÓ]

Hmm...as posted on Pricewatch:

Pentium 4 - 2GHz System. $408
System Memory: 512MB RDRAM (2x256MB) $108
Hard Drive: 60 Gig Hard Drive 7200 RPM $92
Motherboard: P4T For Pentium 4 $144
Case: Mid Tower ATX Case $30 local w/300w psu
Video Card: GeForce 3 $155
CD-Rom/DVD: 16X DVD Drive $41
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live $24
Modem: 56K V.90 PCI Modem $9
Operating System: XP Home $85
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural AT/PS2 $16
Mouse: Microsoft Optical Intellimouse $19
Floppy Drive: 3.5 inch Floppy Drive $4

That comes to $1,135.......saves you $972. My suggestion would be build your own.

[trey_w]

if you go with the P4, make sure you get the RDRAM, nott DDR

if your not going to use RDRAM, get an Athlon XP

[stompah]

Shadow you forgot MS Works and the CDR so add another $200+ to your tally



Also with that system you should definitely get a 24x CDRW. And make sure its a good quality model! No reason to build a fast system only to laden it with a middle of the road burner. If you stick with 16x make sure you have burn proof... and stay away from Yamaha's 8mb buffer, it doesnt work too well. And their 24x version has vibration problems too...


Again with the vid card... get top of the line GF3 you are spending $ on computing power why not add the extra for a video card that compliments the processor?


What is the main use of system?

Also if you plan to oevrclock check into getting the pro version of WinXP. The home version may give you problems while overclocking? I am not sure of it but I have to split for work.


Good Luck. And stay with Intel. Let your first choice be your guidance. Having run both manufacturers of CPUs I prefer Intel over AMD. No flames on that please. If you do flame while I am at work I will do an ancient Intel VooDoo dance causing yor AMD to randomly crash then pull a Tom's Hardware Guide smoke show!

[Shadow ÒÓ]

Originally posted by stompah
Shadow you forgot MS Works and the CDR so add another $200+ to your tally

I'm not too sure about that...seems those are add on's to the base price of 2 grand? (or upgrades)

[The Dataman]

Buy an AMD processor. Much better VFM than a Pentium, leaves you a little more cash to spend on the rest of your goodies.

[Kryten]

I would also go the BYO route, that way you don't wind up paying for something you kinda want, and you know your own requirements best, so if you feel a certian area needs a hand you can build that in, i.e. high memmory progs just add more RAM

As for the AMD Vs Intel, AMD will always better better bang for your buck but just consider what you are trading for that speed.

[Maximus Nickus]

There also faster though!!!

Someone said about the 8KHA2???? It don't make sense, u said it had vdimm and overclocking options from 8KHA but the 8KHA+ has all those!!!!!

You probably mean the RAID verison.

[Moltar]

i don't really know how to put a computer together

is a video card and a video accelerator the same thing? do I need both? what's the geforce3 then?

I dunno!
Gimme info on how to put it together

[forgoten]

hehe, ur in for a huge suprise..... besides some bugs that you might have to stab at, building a computer is like putting legos together!!! swear!!! unbelievably easy!

A vid card is for your display: and if you want to play kick ass games buy the best ones, i believe the gf3 is the best, not sure.

A sound card: is for sound obviously, and if you want eax or a live drive or anything like that get the soundblaster audigy w/ livedrive

A motherboard: is like the roads of a computer

And the processor is like the shipping center: it is the balls of the computer.

The ram: is overlooked alot, but is very crutial in a computer. buy good ram, and buy DDR hell ya

Hard drive: i got 7200, its nice but there are faster ones. get a 20 gig if ur not guna be doing alot of downloading... but if you are go BIG BIG BIG

like i said the hardest part of building a comptuer is commin up with the money, even tho its cheaper than buying one prebuilt


and its better cuz you know what parts you go, nothing is intergrated (soldered together)

[forgoten]

THATS AN ALIEN WARE THAT UR LOOKIN AT AINT IT

[Chainsaw6]

How about this:
p4 1.9
asus PT-E with the retail package
512 pc800
ibm 40 gig 60gxp 7200 rmp hd
pioneer 16 dvd x40 cd rom
plextor 16x10x40
creative mp3 audigy
3com 3c905 10-100 ethernet card
v-90 contexant voice modem
lan li p60 al. case with 450 psu
vision tech ti 500 64 ddr ram with retail software
xp pro os
one year warranty with 3 yrs 7-24 tech support
Burnt in ready to fragg my brains out!:O)
delivered to my door
for the sum of 1952.00

I spent some time hopfully picking components that I can upgrade for a few years. I know that the xp's amd processors are cheaper and a little quicker but for a 150 more I like the stability of intel. Not only is this a gaming machine but tI run my bussines off my puters.

If your going to spend that amount of money, give me a shout and I'll let you know where I got this deal.

Bill


:)

[Maximus Nickus]

Now the Motherboard is the Nervous system, it connects everthing together, so make sure you get a very GOOD one as if you get a bad one then you won't be able to oc and it will intolerably slow and unreliable!

The CPU(Or Processor) is the Heart of the PC, the faster the better. However to make things complicated Intel's CPU's are not very efficient therefore an AMD cpu of a much lower speed can out-perform it. Ie: The 1900+ beats the 2ghz P4 in all tests even though its only running at 1.6Ghz, there also very cheap and have great reliability.
Also P4's are harder to oc as they can only be oc'ed via the FSB, this puts a great strain on QDR ram, AMD's however can be oc'ed by FSB and multiplier, however you have to unlock them first (Intels can't) to oc via the multiplier. (Look for guides.)

The memory is short term memory like what you ate for the past hour etc, SDR memory really bottlenecks the 1Ghz+ cpu's and is not worth even thinking about, whereas DDR doesn't. QDR mem (P4 Rambus) is the very quickest mem out there, (SDR=133Mhz/DDR=266Mhz/QDR=400Mhz) and is the only reason why P4's are so fast. For gaming purposes and heavy app's I would get 512MB, although more is better so you don't need to upgrade in the future.

Graphics Card/Vid Accelerator is fast becoming the most important part of the system, I would reccomend getting a TOP of the range card, Ati's 8500 will be the best in the future however the Geforce 3 Ti500 (Regular G3's and Ti200's are slower) will beat the 8500 (at the moment) and are compatible with all games, the Ati Radeon 8500 however is cheaper ($100 less) and beats it in some tests however there are questions with support for games. (Hopefully future drivers will solve this.)

The Sound Card is also important to get Digital quality sound, I would get a Sound Blaster Audigy, or even the Platinum Gamer one ($300) which has a plate at the front for plugging in Guitars etc. (Theres also a even higher version of the Platinum which is black)

Thats bascially it, consider before you buy and good luck, there are obviously other components like HDD's etc but these are the most important ones that you seemed confused on!

Good Luck!

P.S. Don't forget to buy a Heatsink and Fan for your CPU!!!!


Nick C-W :cool:

[Maximus Nickus]

Oh build it yourself!

You will save up to $800!!!!

I saved £800 building my own! Don't get any warranty either if your going to be oc'ing it or opening it as this will VOID it!!!

(If you do make sure that they let you open the case to say fit extra's in the future without Voiding the warranty...don't mention oc'ing!!!!)


Good Luck:cool:

[Moltar]

ok, get the basic parts.. but what about combinations?

what i mean is what motherboard would I get for a p4, and what motherboard would I get with a amd??
remember, we are talking at the 2 ghz p4 or and 1900 amd
whichever is cheapest (probably amd) i'll get

and what about memory?
what's the difference between pc2100 DDR mem and pc1600 DDR mem? and some one said taht RDRAM was better than the DDR memory.... what's up with that?

i've been visiting pricewatch, and looking at prices
I know it's vain, but I wanna cool(as in "hey, cool", not frigid) case
what's the coolest (and cheap) case I can get? I heard somebody has an alienware case....those are cool right?

thanks for all the answers thus far

[Moltar]

what about the serial ports and USB ports and mouse ports and stuff?

does all that come with the motherboard or is that separate?

[Maximus Nickus]

Originally posted by Moltar
ok, get the basic parts.. but what about combinations?

what i mean is what motherboard would I get for a p4, and what motherboard would I get with a amd??
remember, we are talking at the 2 ghz p4 or and 1900 amd
whichever is cheapest (probably amd) i'll get

and what about memory?
what's the difference between pc2100 DDR mem and pc1600 DDR mem? and some one said taht RDRAM was better than the DDR memory.... what's up with that?

i've been visiting pricewatch, and looking at prices
I know it's vain, but I wanna cool(as in "hey, cool", not frigid) case
what's the coolest (and cheap) case I can get? I heard somebody has an alienware case....those are cool right?

thanks for all the answers thus far


and...
what about the serial ports and USB ports and mouse ports and stuff?

does all that come with the motherboard or is that separate?


OK,

First the Serial Ports and USB ports, Printer Port, Keyboard/Mouse all come built in with any motherboard so you don't need to worry, the only difference is some companys offer say 4 USB ports instead of two, although its easy to buy more and you won't need many so thats irrelevant.

Boards, if you choose AMD then go for a board with the KT266A chipset, (not the KT266) my personal opinion is to get the Epox 8KHA+ (make sure its the + version) is incredibly stable, can oc to insane speeds, and has a phlorea of options, to top it off its the fastest AMD board out there, I mean you should see the memory benchmarks! It also comes with 4 USB ports, and its only £100, cons it doesn't have RAID (if your using it) and the manual is a bit weary, however a RAID version is coming out (all it is, is using multiply HDD's as one HDD so its faster) and you can find all the info you need thats not in the manual off this forum!
I don't know about Intel boards but AMD are faster and cheaper, and you can fit those HUGE 80MM HSF's on them instead of crummy 60MM ones or having Watercooling (leaks....). as Intel board don't have the correct mountings.
Another cool thing with the Epox board is its built in LED, which tells you the boot status Ie: 26 = Overclocking error.

Now memory, P4's use RD-Ram (Rambus) which is much faster than DDR because its QDR (Quadruple Data Rate = 400Mhz), this is the only reason why Intel can compete with AMD when the Intel DDR boards are out then we can see how it stacks up!
There are four types of DDR, PC 1600/2100/2400/2700 thats 100Mhz/133Mhz/150Mhz/166Mhz respectively, I would go with Crucial, its rated as PC2100 but in most cases will often exceed even PC2700 ram if you up the memory voltage a bit, I would get about 512MB for heavy gaming and so-on, although 768MB only cost me £69!

The 1900+ is only £225 from www.ebuyer.com and beats the 2Ghz P4 in all applications with that Epox board, with all that money you save as well you could make other components better, like the Speakers, More memory etc.


I would get a BIG case, mines HUGE but it cools great (never goes above ambient) and looks the business, and in the front intake i've put a red light thing (forgot the name!!!) so the red glows through the gaps.... cool!!!

Heres a pic, and the link for it, hope this helps. I'd be happy in helping you more if you need it.

P.S. You will need a 400Watt or higher PSU with this system! I would also get some good case cooling!


http://www.overclock.co.uk/formproducts.php?producttype=Chieftec-Cases

[Moltar]

how much do u think i could get for my current computer?
keep in mind i'm keeping my monitor and speakers

it's a:

400mhz p2
asus motherboard(i dunno which)
voodoo2
sound blaster 64
diamond 4000 video card
128 meg of memory
40 gig (4800) and a 8 gig(7200)= 48 gig
50x cd rom
4x burner
egg cam (broken...oops...camera's fuzzy)
basic modem

that's all i can think of

[Maximus Nickus]

My mate sold a 450Mhz P2 with 128MB Ram,
Keyboard, Mouse, New Monitor (15") for £450!

You could get a lot for that system as theres loads of space and lots of extra's!!!

Unless you decide to keep some of it, network them together to play multiplayer games etc.

[Moltar]

hey, how'd u get it to glow red
with that black case that'd be cool as hell

also, i'm in america.. if i got that case from UK the shipping would eat me up, right?

is there an american distributor?

[Maximus Nickus]

Well the front of the case has a big vent under the door, I just stuck a big RED light thing (long tube) and the light glows through it as well as out the vent holes in the side, like Nightrider really!

There are also Silver versions, it also takes 6x80MM fans!!!!

Great cooling, shipping shouldn't cost to much, I ordered something from America the other day and the shipping was $12!!!

However it is a big case.... There called Chieftec cases over here but they have a different US name, if they don't ship to the US then look on the manufacturers website, good luck!

[Arkaine23]

Welcome to Forums.

Building your own computer is definitely less expensive. You also get to pick ALL of your parts. It'll take a little research, but the people here can be very helpful. I just built my 1st computer last week and overclocked it by 104 MHz! And I'm just learning about all this stuff, but it's actually been a lot of fun. Addicting too!

As for AMD vs. Intel... I think AMD offers better value and in a lot of real world tests, better performance. It's also easier to OC since you can do a little surgery to unlock the CPU multiplier.

If you're interested in spending several hours online shopping and researching, and willing to spend a few hours building a computer, you'll save a bundle and get a completely upgradeable high performance machine. There are great guides here and the forums are invaluable.

My $.02- Powersupply 400w-450w Antec or Enermax
CPU Athlon XP 1600+ or higher, MoBo 266a chipset DDR (do your own research here, this is the most vital part), PC2100 crucial or PC2400-2700 DDR Ram, GF3 video card, cooling (for OC'ing I use A quality HSF {$25+), ramsinks, and a video card hsf, plus 2 to 4 case fans. Don't skimp on your monitor, or you won't get the most from your video card! Use pricewatch.com to get good prices for parts. Newegg.com has alot of good deals and cheap shipping.

And yes, my computer does hover when I turn it on.

[Maximus Nickus]

Moltar is spending a lot on this new beast!
He doesn't have to skimp on anything!

I replied to your PM Moltar on this thread but certainly PM me again if you need any assistance.

Nick

[Moltar]

nah, actually i'd like to spend as little as possible
i just don't want to buy something that is a piece of crap

where can i go to find cheap computer parts?
of name brand... i've heard that the el-cheapo no name parts don't run as well

[Maximus Nickus]

There aren't really many rules,

www.pricewatch.com

is a good place to find stuff cheap but its best to read reviews of everthing before you buy, I did this and because I spend about a WEEK searching through every vendor I could find I saved about £200, enough for me to get a Flash Case, 60Gig ATA 133 Maxtor HDD, not bad for a little bit of searching eh?

Oh and if you go AMD I would wait to January / Early February as they are releasing the 2000+(1.66Ghz) and the 2100+(1.73Ghz) and maybe even a 2200+! which has a core speed of 1.8Ghz!!!!!

If you got a 2100+ or up you would be assured to hit 2Ghz!!! as in my experience with the correct setup any CPU should get a 20% oc...even my (missing half the Core....) T-Bird got a 38% oc!!!

[Maximus Nickus]

SO have you decided to go Intel or AMD?

And the other big Decision is for your Graphics Card, what have you choose for that? (I would look for info on the ATi Radeon 8500 as its a $230 card that beats the Geforce3's, although it does have some stability problems although they seem to have been sorted now.) If your looking to save $.

Good Luck

Nick

[jw50]

From a little different perspective, I am not an overclocker or gamer, but I just upgraded my puter so I could give my wife my Athlon 600. After looking at alot of reviews and opinions I got an ASUS A7V266-E motherboard, Athlon XP 1600+ processor, two 512meg Kingston PC2100 Value Ram, Enlight 7237 Case with an extra case fan, and CoolerMaster DP5-6I11A heatsink/fan. I ordered some items from places off Pricewatch and bought others locally at a computer store.

The motherboard and processor were $314 (all prices included UPS ground shipping)

Memory $104 each from two different places (prices jumped right after I ordered)

Case, extra fan, and heatsink/fan $114 (local computer store)

From my older system I kept my ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon video card and 2 Maxtor 40gig 7200rpm hard drives.

I put everything together and it runs great under Windows XP Pro.

The ASUS A7V266-E is one of the more expensive motherboards but it got great reviews and should last a pretty good while. Also it has good 6-channel audio on board so you do not have to get a separate sound card. If you do want a separate sound card you can just disable the on-board audio if you decide its not good enough for your purposes.

I got the 1600+ processor because thats where the biggest price break was, I can always upgrade the processor later since the motherboard will handle the 1900+ (and probably more than that).

I only ended up with 2 memory modules because of an ordering problem but you cant have too much memory :), and Crucial did not have 512 modules when I was ordering (which btw are available now but are $162).

My point is that you should look at what you intend to do with your system before you order the stuff, and one advantage of building it yourself is that you can generally upgrade it easier in the future than you can if you buy one from Dell or Gateway. And its not that hard to build it yourself, I'm a 52 year old non-geek and at least the stuff I bought had pretty good documentation with it if you bother to read it before you try to put everything together:)

Now if you want to get into overclocking please ignore what I have said since the other guys here are the overclocking experts. Likewise if you want the system for heavy gaming then take the advise of the true gamers. Just remember that everybody has their own bias about what is best.

[Maximus Nickus]

Like me, cancelled the 1900+ order so I can get a 2200+ when they come out early Feb (1.8Ghz)...