Another "This is my first time building what do you think of these parts" thread

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
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Been looking at computer parts and sites for the last couple of weeks and thought I join Anand as it looks like an excellent site

I've been getting away from big corp built computers for awhile now, started with a Dell 486 and P90 in college and went to a little shop built PIII 500 100FSB with 384MB ram, 32MB ATI Rage Fury, 10G WD HD, and both a DVD Rom, and CD-RW drives back in Jan 2000 which is still my current desktop. Needless to say its time to upgrade and I think I can do a better job putting together a computer than Dell or others. (ex my PIII blew a capacitor out of the PS)

I need a new machine for web surfing, e-mail, office stuff,image editing, the occasional game (when I'm not busy with my honey do list), and I liked to get into some video and multimedia stuff. I'm aiming for around $1000.00 of hardware.

So without further ado here's what I found at newegg and searching places like Anand, THG(don't shoot please :)), Hexus, Sharkey, and others:

Chip: Intel 2.8C HT 800 FSB
MoBo: ASUS P4P800 E Deluxe - finally found a review of this new board here
Case: CoolerMaster Praetorian Black PAC-T01-EK
Video: ASUS ATI Radeon 9600XT TVD (comes with VIVO)
PS: Coolmax 400W Black CX-400B Taurus Silent Power Supply
HD: WD 120GB SATA 7200RPM, 8mb Cache
Cooling: Stock Intel HSF / Arctic Silver 5 / Vantec Nexus NXP-201 Fan Controller
OS: WinXP Pro
Memory: 512mb (256mb x 2)Geil Golden Dragon PC3500/DDR433
OP Drive: Lite On Black 48x24x48x16 Combo Drive
Thats about $1000 on newegg minus the OS

I'm looking for some recomendations on the whole thing and also specifically the ram and optical drives.

I'd like 1GB or at least 512mb of decent high speed ram with good (not necessarily great timings) so I can do some small overclocks . If for budget reasons I only get 512 now, (256 x 2) can I get another 2 sticks for 1 GB latter and still do at least %10 overclock?

With the Optical drives I'd really like a cheap DVD ROM and decent 8x DVD burner with dual layer support but its probably not in the budget right now. I'll most likely get the combo drive and get the DVD burner later.



Your thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks,
Paratus
 

Shyatic

Platinum Member
Apr 5, 2004
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Change your power supply to an Antec TruePower 430w... they are quiet and have excellent build quality. Not an Intel fan here, so I'd tell you to go with the AMD64 3000+ with the MSI mobo reviewed on AT just recently. I'd change the hard drive brand to Seagate as they are a tad more quiet than the WDs. Quality on both is very high. You can also probably get 1GB of RAM without too much cost added. If you have a DVD burner, you don't need a DVD ROM -- the NEC dual layer burner is ~$90 so you might want to look into that.

Here's a quick rundown:

Mobo - MSI - $140
CPU - AMD64 3000+ - $220
Case - $100
Power Supply - $80
RAM - $180
DVDRW - $90
HD: $100
--------------------
$910 with shipping if you buy @ ZipZoomFly.com. You still have some money left to get a graphics card (I'd say get the 9800 Pro but that's just me) so tack on another $200 and you're at $1100 with shipping.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
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I looked at the A64s and I like them but I think if I was going the AMD route right now I would want a 939 board and those coupled with the chips are expensive If you can find them.

The problem with Antec is that for some reason it does not play well with the P4P800 E boards

Thanks for the tip on the NEC burner I may get that. Reason I want a DVD Rom as well is to back up my DVD collection (or mainly the ones my 2 year old son gets his hands on)
 

Illissius

Senior member
May 8, 2004
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I don't see much point in the '939 or bust' mentality. It's only very slightly faster than s754, which is still very significantly more so than the P4s. So...

Abit KV8 Pro - $115
Athlon 64 3000+ - $211 (or a 2700+ / 2800+ 35W mobile if you're feeling adventurous)
2x 512MB ADATA Vitesta PC4000 - 2x $108
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB - $209
Or if you need the VIVO, there's an AIW refurb for $207, as well as non-AIWs for $160 if you just want to save money.
Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu - $41
Or Thermalright SLK948U - $40 + fan $10

That comes out to around $800, + case, PSU, HDD, optical.
 

Runner20

Senior member
May 31, 2004
478
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If your going to overclock, then I suggest PC3500 ram, if not, then PC3200 is fine. Quality RAM makers include OCZ, Crucial, Corsair, Kingston, Mushkin and others.

As for optical drives, get a dvd-rom drive and a dvd-+rw drive. The reason why I recommend a dvd-rom drive is because its faster at reading cd's and dvd's than the burner. You can find one for under $40.

The new NEC 8X dvd burner is prettygood.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
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Thanks for the input. I've actually got some time to make up my mind, (you can read that as we just bought a new car so I'm waiting for the budget to recover). The Abit looks like a decent board, but I'm still leaning towards the P4 for the faster media encoding.

I' also noticed the A Data PC4000 last night. Thats an awesome price on some really fast ram, anyone have good or bad experiences with A Data?
 

KillaKilla

Senior member
Oct 22, 2003
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Originally posted by: Illissius
I don't see much point in the '939 or bust' mentality. It's only very slightly faster than s754, which is still very significantly more so than the P4s.

Except that Sct 939 is upgradeable, while 754 is not.
 

dudeman007

Diamond Member
Apr 6, 2004
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I think the p4 system is fine. The ONLY fault I see is the video card. I would go for a 9800 pro.
 

sisooktom

Senior member
Apr 9, 2004
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Originally posted by: KillaKilla
Except that Sct 939 is upgradeable, while 754 is not.

I dunno about that. They'll probably relaease a 3800+ for 754. Also, you're going to pay a huge premium for the 939 boards and chips at this point. I think that it's better to save your money now and just upgrade your board and proc later if you decide it's necessary.
 

Runner20

Senior member
May 31, 2004
478
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Originally posted by: KillaKilla
Originally posted by: Illissius
I don't see much point in the '939 or bust' mentality. It's only very slightly faster than s754, which is still very significantly more so than the P4s.

Except that Sct 939 is upgradeable, while 754 is not.


AMD will support the 754 motherboards and make processors for it. This will be the value side of AMD because of the coming of 939 motherboards. Remember the Duron?? It's like that but 100x faster.
 

Illissius

Senior member
May 8, 2004
246
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Originally posted by: KillaKilla
Originally posted by: Illissius
I don't see much point in the '939 or bust' mentality. It's only very slightly faster than s754, which is still very significantly more so than the P4s.

Except that Sct 939 is upgradeable, while 754 is not.

Yeah. And the entry level socket 939 processor is the 3500+ for $500. The money saved by getting a 754 instead will /more/ than cover the cost of the motherboard he'll have to buy to upgrade later on, not to mention that he'll probably want a new one anyways by that time.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
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Originally posted by: dudeman007
I think the p4 system is fine. The ONLY fault I see is the video card. I would go for a 9800 pro.

I knew I would be hearing that! :)

But for my budget I'll get more milage with the VIVO functions than with the extra 4 piplines. (Blasphemy I know) The Asus 9600XT TVD has a good overall package and the card should be able to play most games acceptably. Since unfortunately most games on it over its life are going to be played by my now 2 year son and on;y occasionally by me. There just aren't that many high end Direct X9 first person shooters with Barney or the Wiggles to spend another 20 bucks on a 9800 and another 50 on a video capture card. (Thats a pitty though ;))

Of course the nice thing I see about building my own is I can always upgrade later.
 

Illissius

Senior member
May 8, 2004
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Why not get the 9800 Pro AIW refurb I mentioned? Believe it or not, the 9600XT /will/ become "too slow" a good bit sooner than it.
Also: I've heard many complaints regarding the quality control or more precisely the lack of it on that particular Asus model you mentioned, so if you're dead set on a 9600XT with VIVO, you may want to find something else.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
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Do you know if the refurbs come with the entire retail package or is it just the card and a driver disk. Thats one of the things pointing me towards a retail card has opposed to a refurb.

Again the reason I'm reticent to spend more on a card is the last game I actually played was Return to Castle Wolfenstein and it was the demo only!:0. I also have a nice 19 in Planar LCD but its limited to 1280 by 1024 so I won't be playing at any crazy resolutions. (Although if I hooked it up to my HDTV......)

I agree that the 9800 is an awesome value for a budget gameing card. I'm just not sure I fall into the gaming group, however I'll take a look at the 9800 AIW because it would be a better solution if I can find a really good price.

Again I really appreciate the input. It's enough that I'm thinking about doing a price comparison between the P4 2.8C, Asus P4P800 E and 9600XT against an AMD A64 2800+ on an MSI Nvidia K8N Neo Platinum and 9800 AIW.

My main problem is I'm already stretching the budget I set for myself and the parts for the AMD system are more expensive than there Intel counter parts. And of course the 9800 AIW is more expensive as well.
 

Illissius

Senior member
May 8, 2004
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Personally, I think a 9600XT is a very bad place to be atm. It's a 4th of the speed of the newer cards and will become insufficient sooner rather than later, while at the same time being overkill for the limited amount of gaming you may or may not do, and not being very much cheaper than the nearly twice as powerful 9800 Pro. If you don't want to spend the money on the latter, which is understandable, then get something like this which should be perfectly adequate to game with as well as rather inexpensive. You can always get something faster later on if you want or need it (and at the moment it doesn't seem like you do).
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
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Interesting card -- good price too.

I'm still torn. One part of me really likes the entire Asus 9600XT VIVO package, another part wants to save the money. Another part wants to say screw the budget and get an Asus 9800XT 8).

At any rate I've got some time to decide, so I appreciate options.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
17,319
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Originally posted by: Illissius
Originally posted by: KillaKilla
Originally posted by: Illissius
I don't see much point in the '939 or bust' mentality. It's only very slightly faster than s754, which is still very significantly more so than the P4s.

Except that Sct 939 is upgradeable, while 754 is not.

Yeah. And the entry level socket 939 processor is the 3500+ for $500. The money saved by getting a 754 instead will /more/ than cover the cost of the motherboard he'll have to buy to upgrade later on, not to mention that he'll probably want a new one anyways by that time.

The MSI Nforce 3 board looks equivelent in features to the P4P800 E. Unfortunatly it combined with an A64 2800+ is another 40 of 50 bucks over the intel option. Makes it harder to upgrade to a better PS and video card. (I generally have the clear that kind of stuff with the budget dept, ie my wife)