what to do....plz help :(

enz660 · Dec 19, 2006

Im building a cpeah pc for a friend who tells me all he wants to do is burn/rip music, watch movies, brows the web, probably not do any gaming....he also doesnt have a lot of money. I would like to get him an e6300 and overclock it a bit, but thats A LOT more than if I got him some cheap single core a64. Im kinda building this so it will last a while for him, will a single core get him far enough for what he will be doing on it?

jivetrky · Dec 19, 2006

If that's all he'll be doing it won't really take much power. Only thing I could really think of would be watching HD movies (which requires a little muscle in the CPU department).

What's the budget and what all needs to be ordered? (like do you already have a case, monitor, keyboard, mouse, other components, etc...)

BigTree · Dec 19, 2006

If he is not gaming with it or anything super cpu-intensive like that I dont see any reason not to go with a single core A64 IMO.

enz660 · Dec 19, 2006

jivetrky said:
If that's all he'll be doing it won't really take much power. Only thing I could really think of would be watching HD movies (which requires a little muscle in the CPU department).

What's the budget and what all needs to be ordered? (like do you already have a case, monitor, keyboard, mouse, other components, etc...)

I have already chosen the monitor and the case + psu. I Will also be getting him an 80gig seagate barracuda and a liteon cd/dvd burner combo drive. I would like to overclock the conroe a bit so I got him this mobo. Im also getting him a stick of ram (1gig). The reason why im going with onyl one stick is so he can simply add another later if he wants, instead of swapping out more or having more than 2 sticks for slower timings.

hUMANbEATbOX · Dec 20, 2006

running one stick will put it in single channel. i would say it would be better to get 2x512. if he needs to down the line, he can add in another 2x512...really the timing wont take a huge hit, if any, especially since you aren't going to be OC'ing too hard.

it seems that you've pretty much got the computer planned...i guess i don't know what you want advice on?

splat · Dec 20, 2006

conroe is waaaaayyyyyyy overkill. I understand wanting to get that and overclock it from a computer junky point of view, but one of the key skills of a computer builder is fitting the computer to the user's needs. As much as you'd like to see him in a monster rig, the reality is that any old pc will do him just fine. I would go single core a64, socket 939, with 2x512mb ram. And any cheap mobo will work fine, as will the boxed cooler. Overclocking the chip in this case is sort of pointless as all it will do is create excess heat and use excess power. Maybe just bump it an extra 5% or something small, just to cure your own desires for max power.

hUMANbEATbOX · Dec 20, 2006

way overkill for today...maybe not in a year when his friend wants to move to vista (which he will probably get a free upgrade to with a purchase of XP).

a single core a64...its a little long in the tooth. i would say at LEAST a x2. for a future minded pc, i don't see anything wrong with a e6300 system, those cpus are fairly cheap, and the mobo he picked out is pretty cheap as well. if you gotta buy ram for a NEW system, you might as well buy DDR2. that is the type of system you can keep for a few years. with a single core cpu, maybe not so much

Trap05 · Dec 20, 2006

Agreed if the budget allows for a conroe why the hell not?

splat · Dec 20, 2006

believe it or not, old pc's can still run vista. vista ran on my amd64 4000+ w/ a nvidia 6200tc just fine. vista does not *require* a dual core processor, nor does browsing the internet nor watching dvd's. A computer that is not used for gaming or CAD can be very lightweight. This is what I'd do:

a64 3200+ retail - $59.50 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535
dfi nf4 infinity - $68.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136003
corsair 2x512mb ddr400 - $97.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440
asus 6200tc - $36.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121193

and then add in whatever else he wants. that system will last him until it dies or until he decides to start playing games. If he wants to spend more money, that is no problem. I still say it is overkill. Any system with over a 2ghz processor and a dx9 card will last more than 4 years.

Immortal_Hero · Dec 20, 2006

splat said:
believe it or not, old pc's can still run vista. vista ran on my amd64 4000+ w/ a nvidia 6200tc just fine. vista does not *require* a dual core processor, nor does browsing the internet nor watching dvd's. A computer that is not used for gaming or CAD can be very lightweight. This is what I'd do:

a64 3200+ retail - $59.50 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535
dfi nf4 infinity - $68.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136003
corsair 2x512mb ddr400 - $97.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440
asus 6200tc - $36.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121193

and then add in whatever else he wants. that system will last him until it dies or until he decides to start playing games. If he wants to spend more money, that is no problem. I still say it is overkill. Any system with over a 2ghz processor and a dx9 card will last more than 4 years.

Yep Yep Yep. If all he is doing is watching movies and music... this in fact is way over kill. Heck my laptop tears through stuff like this and it is a 1.4GHz Celeron M. I would say sempy if the A64's wern't so cheap.

Immortal_Hero · Dec 20, 2006

Trap05 said:
Agreed if the budget allows for a conroe why the hell not?

Why spend more than you have to. I wish all the ppl that have the "go conroe or go home" mentality would go home.

hUMANbEATbOX · Dec 20, 2006

Immortal_Hero said:
Why spend more than you have to. I wish all the ppl that have the "go conroe or go home" mentality would go home.

he didn't say "go conroe or go home"...he said "if the budget allows for it, why not?". chill out.

Agentorange88 · Dec 20, 2006

Is it just me or does anyone else think that the power supply might be a bad choice?

splat · Dec 20, 2006

well, depends if he really is going to overclock or not. you *might* be able to get away with using that on the a64, but definitely not on a conroe. As always, the regular "never use a generic psu to overclock" warnings apply.

Agentorange88 · Dec 20, 2006

Well even if he wasn't to overclock it I wouldn't trust it. I wouldn't want my friend calling me a month after I built it saying "I saw some smoke and sparks fly out the back and now my computer doesn't work." Just me two cents

enz660 · Dec 20, 2006

alright! NICE! Looks like I will probably go with a single core am2 system with 2x 512mb of ram. He can switch a better cpu in later, as well as more ram. Thx for the help, I just needed to know if a conroe was overkill or no.

Frosty18 · Dec 21, 2006

Build him a Pentium D setup with a gig of DDR2 and a 7600gt.

You should be able to do that entire setup for $500. It would even play games if he needed and as long as you buy PC 6400 he can upgrade to C2d later if he wants.

greenmaji · Dec 22, 2006

I would build around DDR2.. cheap DDR2 is cheaper then cheap DDR1

now.. I would try to get him a cheap dual core CPU personaly.
Cheapest AM2, or 805D
mobo that will except a upgrade in CPU (this is were I would begin to want to lean twoard Intel, the mobo's that support C2D will run a 805D)
GFX.. lol.. something cheap
PSU.. something reliable, enhance 80+ PSU's are cheap, reliable and effecent (ewiz has them :thup:

)

Btw Splat.. a stock A64 & Stock C2D need about the same amount of power (actually the C2D only uses ~65watts stock so thats an understament they just scale too well overclocked and can eat up some Watts in the process of overclocking)

splat · Dec 22, 2006

greenmaji said:
Btw Splat.. a stock A64 & Stock C2D need about the same amount of power (actually the C2D only uses ~65watts stock so thats an understament they just scale too well overclocked and can eat up some Watts in the process of overclocking)

which is why dual core intel's require a single 12v rail with over 30a on it to overclock safely, while a64 systems can generally be overclocked using a psu that has split 12v rails that aren't as beefy.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=458204 said:
As many Intel P4's require more +12V amperage than AMD A64's &
this thirst for power increases greatly with OC'ing, many are finding their OC's limited by their PSU's.

Under the ATX12V 2.xx specs for dual +12V rail PSU's,
+12V rail #2 which supplies the CPU is usually limited to 14A to 18A, this is often not enough.

Therefor I recommend single rail PSU's for P4 OC'ing.

greenmaji · Dec 22, 2006

Core2Duo's are not Pentium4's nor dual core neburst chips.

Yes a split rail 18Amps each PSU is going to hold back how hard you can clock a 805D, but for the tasks listed, the overclock wouldn't need to be all that great and the next chip in for an upgrade would do fine on the PSU I mentioned.

what to do....plz help :(

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