Budget System reccomendations?

[CDD]

Had a motherboard die last night in our old HP Pavilion 6460 POS (second one). I think that I'm gonna build this time. $$ is tight right now, so cost _is_ a factor. This machine will be used for general household stuff -- ofice, web browser, and some _basic_ games (mame and some stuff for my toddler -- nothing fancy). 3D graphics performance really isn't important to me, but good DVD playback and the ability to encode DV with tmpegenc in a reasonable amout of time is.

Could any of you kind folks give me an opinion (or some alternatives) to the following config?

Case -- evercase E4252WEF5 from newegg. $37 + shipping
mobo -- Asus A7N266-VM AA (AMD Assured Version) NVIDIA nFORCE 220 Chipset 266/200MHz FSB Motherboard Micro ATX- Retail . Not too sure about this. Has sound & video on board, so it saves me some $$.
processor -- AMD Athlon 1600+/266 FSB XP Processor CPU OEM
memory -- gonna try to get some cheap 256MB PC2100 DDR at compusa this weekend.

I'll reuse DVD drive, CD Burner, and hard drives (recently replaced, so they're 7200 RPM) from the old system. This config comes out to ~ $200 shipped, which is the proce point htat I was trying to hit. I plan to run win2K and redhat 8 (or mandrake).

I haven't built a machine from scratch, but I have been in the Pavillion quite a bitt. Any advice is appreciated.


TIA,

CDD

 

[CDD]

How about the ECS K7SEM B SiS730S for a budget mobo? Looks pretty attractive for the price & gets good comments at newegg. Will this allow me to temporarily use the two sticks of memory from the old celeron config (64 MB PC100 and 128 MB PC133)?

 

[Markfw]

Yes, you can reuse your memory. This MB is good IF you have a good PSU and don't want to overclock. The case you listed doesn't have a PSU included, so make sure you get a good one. 300 watt is fine if it is an Antec or Enermax or other highly rated PSU. The Antec 330 is pretty good, but I think you could get a better deal on the case+PSU together. Also, the XP2000 is really getting cheap ($85 OEM), but then you need an HSF, and I love the retail unit, but newegg doesn't list that for the 2000, just the 1800, which would still be much better than the 1600 these days.

 

[BentValve]

Hi , I am doing the same thing as you but I came up with the following:

I think the 1700+ retail is the better buy at $63

mobo, there are 3 decent ones , going by Neweggs reviews:

Sapphire A3-M275 ATI chipset $62--( $69 shipped)
ECS K7SEM $56-- ($60 shipped)
Asus A7N266-VM $72.99 shipped


I almost want to go for the ATI because they always have strong 2D performance.

 

[CDD]

Mark,

Thanks for the info. Actually, the case listing at newegg includes a 300W Power Supply: EVERCASE E4252WEF5, Intel P4 / AMD, 10-Bay, 300W P4, Truly Screwless ATX MID Tower Case. BEIGE. With 1 side Case Fan & 2 removeable HD cages.

With the ECS mobo, is there an advantage to going with a K7S5A instead of the K7SEM with a (cheap) AGP card. Any reccomendations for a basic video card for that config?

If I were to overclock, what would be a good basic board to use with the Athlon 1.6?

Thanks again...

 

[Markfw]

Sorry, I missed that, yes you want the 5A NOT the SEM, as it is the later chipset, and those are the ones I have two of (plus other MB's). You are also right on the PSU (darn similar numbers !!!), but that looks like a cheap generic PSU, as I have never heard of Enhance. Also, with the ESC, you couldn't overclock and would need a video card. The onboard video on that other board is not great for gaming. I think your first MBV choice is probably better. And I really like the fan on the 1800+ retail as compared to the 1700+. The 2000+ is my favorite, but I didn't see those on newegg for some reason. Anything is better than what you had though. Does it have a separate video card ? was it working for you ? If so, maybe the ECS would be the way to go, saving on memory, and no video card.

 

[BentValve]

Here is some more info on the chipset used on the Saphire board...
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/articles/headlines/Hardware/1595


I am going to buck the trend and give it a go.


Say Mark, what do you mean when you say you like the 1800+ and 2000+ fans better? I am not sure why one would chose a CPU based on what a fan looked like.

 

[CDD]

The Sapphire board sounds interesting, but I can't find a single review ouside of the three comments at newegg.


Mark, will I be able to re-use the old memory in the 5A (I assume so, since you were originally talking about that board anyway...)

I'd like to play with TV-out some (myth TV looks tool cool for words), so how about the following ($200 is the range that I'm shooting for).




Case: EVERCASE E4252WEF5 (as before)
mobo: ECS K7S5A SiS® 735 SOCKET A MOTHERBOARD - RETAIL
cpu: AMD Athlon XP 1700+/266 FSB Thorougbred Processor CPU 1700+/ 1.47GHz -Retail,
video: ATI OEM RADEON 7000 VE 32MB DDR W/TV (sapphire card)

HDD, DVD, CDRW, Modem (USR Courier ext), Memory (PC100 & PC133) from old system.

Total Shipped = $210

 

[Markfw]

Bentvalve, I only meant if you were going to choose between a 1800+ and a 2000+ and the price was very close, since the HSF is better (and the CPU is faster) on the 2000 for example, I would choose that for 2 reasons, not just because it was faster. On the other hand, I would never choose a 2200 becuase of the heat, I would go to a 2400 with the new core, or go down to 2000 (maybe 2100).

CDD, your latest config looks OK, but remember that the TV out just means that what you see on your screen can be displayed on a TV if you hook up a cable to the output jack, there is no TV tuner in that card. There are also restrictions on the resolution you can display when you do that. (usually 800x600 max)

CDD YES, sdram works fine (PC133). Make sure you have the latest bios for your MB when you get it, and either run Win2000 or XP. 98SE has a tendency to BSOD on me sometimes, but my 2k NEVER does on the same hardware, with a dual boot.

 

[CDD]

Thanks for all of the info. The final configuration is what I'll probably go with. Although, a guy in my office recently built a system using the Asus board on this thread and he's really happy with it.


I understand that I'll need a capture/tuner card to play with anything like myth. Ablity to output NTSC is a $5 nice-to-have should I decide to play with it later..


Thanks again...

CDD

 

[optimistic]

I think you'll get better enconding performance with the DDR system. But I think you'll get slightly better video performance from the ATI 7000 if you get the DDR version, being that is it has it's own dedicated 64MB of 64bit DDR memory.

So you want enconding performance? Or slightly better video performance?

 

[CDD]

Encoding performance is most important. However, I think that the last option allows me to stick with my existing memory to begin with and the switch to DDR memory when the budget loosens up a bit (and a good deal turns up un the Hot Deals forum). The 64MB DDR version of the ATI is somethink like a buck or two more at newegg, so switching to that should be no problem.

As mark mentioned earlier, _anything_ is going to be better than what I had (celery 400, 66mhz FSB, on-board video, and the abomination that is the Rockwell RipTide sound/modem combo)