Advice for new PC for niece

Jayavarman · Nov 11, 2004

All,

My niece will be turning 16 in a month. Her mom (my sister) asked me to build a new computer for her. I said I'd chip in $100. So in total we have $1500 to work with. My niece absolutely wants the Sims 2 and from what I know this game is rather demanding on the system. So I want to put together a fairly robust system. More importantly I want the computer to last a while. So here's what I'm going to order. What do you think about that 240 Watt PS that comes with the Soltek? Will it be enough for the 9800 Pro + the Athlon 64 and everything else in the system? And let me know if I miss anything. Thanks!

1 PowerColor ATI Radeon 9800PRO Video Card w/ Hitman Game, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, 8X AGP, Model "R98-PC3G" -BULK
$197.00

1 AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 939-Pin 64-bit Processor - OEM
$160.00

1 Mushkin Dual Pack 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail
$160.00

1 Western Digital 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD2000JD, OEM Drive Only
$115.00

1 Logitech Cordless Desktop Optical Keyboard & Mouse -OEM
$36.00

1 SONY SDM-S73/B 17" LCD Monitor ?RETAIL
$350.00

1 Sony Internal 16X DVD+/-RW / Double Layer Drive Black, Model DW-D22A-B2, OEM
$69.99

1 Creative I-Trigue 2.1 L3500 Speaker Black -RETAIL
$107.00

1 Soltek Barebone System for Socket 754 AMD Athlon64 CPU, Mirror Finish, Model EQ3801M-300
$299.00

Tax: $.00
Subtotal: $ 1,493.99
1 year extended warranty fee: $ .00
Shipping & Handling: $36.18
Grand Total: $ 1,530.17

onemorekornkid · Nov 11, 2004

Hell no.

Get a 100 dollar ABIT or Asus mobo and a 420 watt thermaltake psu just to be safe. Even that would be cheaper than your combo and more efficient.

Sysbuilder05 · Nov 11, 2004

Everything looks good but way,way to low on the PS Wattage. In this day and age, 300 is about minimum,350 to 400 much better.

You'll have plenty of CPU power,my daughters play the same game on a XP 2200. I've never heard them gripe about the speed yet.

imported_SLIM · Nov 11, 2004

You can't buy a 939 pin processor for a socket 754 motherboard (buy the 754 pin version of the 3000+ if your sure you want to use the soltek barebones). That barebones system comes with a 300 watt PS though, not a 240 so you should be fine there as long as no overclocking is planned for that tiny case. Another nice case you might consider is the antec sonata (whisper quiet with gorgeous piano black finish and also relatively small). If you bought a midtower case like the sonata you could save about $100 by buying an atx motherboard of your choice (socket 754 or 939). The pioneer 108d and nec3500a got much higher ratings than the sony in anand's last dvd roundup. Hope that helps some.

socket9851 · Nov 12, 2004

kogase · Nov 12, 2004

Agh. Quit recommending these awful, loud, inefficient, supuriously rated power supplies. Never buy any power supply from Thermaltake. Ever. Never ever. If you recommend a Thermaltake PS, you don't know what you're talking about. It would be best for all concerned if you just crawled in a hole and died. Slowly and painfully. You cause people to waste money and time. You suck. Thermaltake sucks. Stop recommending Thermaltake power supplies of any wattage. Just stop. A Seasonic 300 will outperform a Thermaltake 420, and generate less noise and less heat. Stop recommending Thermaltake power supplies. Stop.

Mik3y · Nov 12, 2004

Originally posted by: Sysbuilder05
Everything looks good but way,way to low on the PS Wattage. In this day and age, 300 is about minimum,350 to 400 much better.

BS. 300W is not way, way too low. a quality 240W psu can handle more then that. it doesnt hurt to get more power, but 300W is perfectly fine for that.

Jayavarman, i highly recommend you get the shuttle sn95g5 xpc. it's much better then that soltek barebone and is only $19 higher. as for the speakers, get it at newegg for MUCH cheaper.

Jayavarman · Nov 12, 2004

Thanks for your suggestions and advices. I totally overlooked that 939 CPU SLIM, that will not work on that 754 barebone, thanks for pointing that out. And yes, that Soltek does come with 300 watts PS, I was looking at the Shuttle and that one does come with a 240 watt, I got the 2 mixed up. One thing though, my niece will not want a tower case, nor even a midtower case for that matter. One of her friend has this "cute iMac" which she originally wanted. You know the one with the half sphere chasis from last year model. I talked her out of it because I personally don't like Macs (let's not get into that discussion please). I told her I will find something just as small and cute. So I need to stick with one of these toaster size boxes.

I own a Athlon 64 2800+ myself that I oc to 2502 mhz. I do not plan to oc my niece PC. I'm just a little concern about power, even at 300 watts for an A64. My power supply is an Antec True430 and that is fine. I guess I will find out right?

Hey Socket9851, thanks for pricing that stuff out, I appreciate it. But I definitely need to go with a SFF box. Let me know what else I should look into with at least 300 watts PS for SFF.

Thanks again.

Jayavarman · Nov 12, 2004

Originally posted by: Mik3y

Originally posted by: Sysbuilder05
Everything looks good but way,way to low on the PS Wattage. In this day and age, 300 is about minimum,350 to 400 much better.

Click to expand...

BS. 300W is not way, way too low. a quality 240W psu can handle more then that. it doesnt hurt to get more power, but 300W is perfectly fine for that.

Jayavarman, i highly recommend you get the shuttle sn95g5 xpc. it's much better then that soltek barebone and is only $19 higher. as for the speakers, get it at newegg for MUCH cheaper.

Mik3y,
I was looking at the shuttle too, and I do like it more then the Solek. I know shuttle SFF boxes are very good, plus that one is a 939 socket too, which makes it even better. But 240 watts? I know the 9800 Pro requires an external power source from the PS, and the Athlon 64 is know for power hungry. What do you think?

o1die · Nov 12, 2004

Unless your space is limited, I would go for a separate case and mobo. The new soltek k8t-pro ($114 newegg with gigabyte lan and firewire) with an atop xblade gaming case ($69 newegg with free shipping). Young people love those fancy cases with clear sided panels. It comes with an L&C 450 watt power supply. I've had good luck with them. I built new systems for all my family members last year with the 350w version.

kogase · Nov 12, 2004

Originally posted by: o1die
Unless your space is limited, I would go for a separate case and mobo. The new soltek k8t-pro ($114 newegg with gigabyte lan and firewire) with an atop xblade gaming case ($69 newegg with free shipping). Young people love those fancy cases with clear sided panels. It comes with an L&C 450 watt power supply. I've had good luck with them. I built new systems for all my family members last year with the 350w version.

Notice he said "neice". Girls aren't affected (I don't think) by the small-dick syndrome that compels people to get a side-window (not to mention matching motherboard and video card PCB, etc.).

gobucks · Nov 12, 2004

You mentioned that you want the PC to last for a while, and that you have a little less than a month, right? In that case, I recommend the following:

Go for an nForce4 Ultra mobo. It should be out next week, hopefully under $150. It's got PCI-express along with everything else and the kitchen sink.
For the video, the 6600GT will be less than the 9800 Pro, and will perform better than a 9800XT. It's PCIe only, so that's one reason I like the nforce4.
Sony LCDs are a waste of money. They are way overpriced. Also, if she wants to play games like Sims 2, then you need to make sure the LCD has a low response time. Look for 16ms or 12ms, they don't have the blurring motion effect that the default 25ms ones have. Try some of the following:
http://www.newegg.com/app/view...=24-001-164&DEPA=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=24-005-027&depa=1

These monitors will be much better for games, especially the 12ms ones, and are still cheaper than the one you were looking at.
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=24-001-171&depa=1

Jayavarman · Nov 12, 2004

Originally posted by: gobucks
You mentioned that you want the PC to last for a while, and that you have a little less than a month, right? In that case, I recommend the following:

Go for an nForce4 Ultra mobo. It should be out next week, hopefully under $150. It's got PCI-express along with everything else and the kitchen sink.
For the video, the 6600GT will be less than the 9800 Pro, and will perform better than a 9800XT. It's PCIe only, so that's one reason I like the nforce4.
Sony LCDs are a waste of money. They are way overpriced. Also, if she wants to play games like Sims 2, then you need to make sure the LCD has a low response time. Look for 16ms or 12ms, they don't have the blurring motion effect that the default 25ms ones have. Try some of the following:
http://www.newegg.com/app/view...=24-001-164&DEPA=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=24-005-027&depa=1

These monitors will be much better for games, especially the 12ms ones, and are still cheaper than the one you were looking at.
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=24-001-171&depa=1

gobucks,
Well I did look at the 6600GT, but like you said they're PCI-Express only. Which means I need a full size mobo and case. Like I mentioned, it has to one of these SFF boxes, I showed her pictures of some and she seems to like them, somehow she still likes the half sphere iMac chasis better. And no, she doesn't care for the clear case with neons and stuff. But that's enough of that.

Thanks for that bit of info concerning LCD monitors. I know little about them and assume they're all the same, well similar. I probably will go with that Samsung 710N-2 then. Thanks!

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Advice for new PC for niece

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