Building a $3,000 computer.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

MrEgo

Senior member
Jan 17, 2003
874
0
76
Yes, a friend of mine says he has a ton of money to blow and he would like to put together a new computer. He was telling me about an Alienware that he could buy for $4,000, but I told him I could put together a better one at a significantly lower price. I'm usually very confident in my hardware decisions, but I figure if I'm going to recommend him $3,000 worth of parts, that I'd make 100% sure I'm making the best decisions.

Price isn't really a problem (remember, he WOULD have spent $4,000), so this is what I have set up for him.

Processor: Athlon 64 FX-53 Socket 939 Retail
Motherboard: GIGABYTE "GA-K8NSNXP-939" Nforce 3
Memory: CORSAIR XMS 184 Pin 2GB(1GBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail
Video: CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256MB GDDR3 8X AGP
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive (x2 - going to set up in Raid)
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum PCI Sound Card
Case: Thermaltake Black Xaser III Skull Series with 420W Power Supply

Floppy, CD-RW, DVD-RW, Windows XP...blah blah blah =)

Does anyone have any recommendations? It's been awhile since I've kept myself well informed in the hardware industry.. probably a year or so. I couldn't find any Socket-939 motherboards that had PCI-Express.. and that leads me to another question - does PCI Express really make that much of a difference when compared to AGP 8X? Feel open to make any suggestions to any parts that could be improved on. This system is not going to be overclocked. Let me know if you think the power supply should be upgraded, because he will be using 5 USB devices. Thanks in advance!
 
P

pirred908

Senior member
Jul 1, 2004
629
0
0
I suggest a different case and PSU. Any case from Coolmaster would be a better choice IMO. I also suggest an OCZ or Antec PSU strongly.
 
I

iwantanewcomputer

Diamond Member
Apr 4, 2004
5,045
0
0
where do i start... depends on how soon you want to get the comp

1) might want to consider waiting until another 939 revision mobo comes out. the new 754 dfi lanparty is extremely impressive, and it can even overclock to give a better performing combo than 939 systems, check out the recent review. if you want top overclocks, the 939 selection seems kinder limited yet

2) another witing reason. 90 nm cpu's. probly not worth waiting for cause this is a high end system and there are no reports of anything over 3500 being shipped anytime soon. i don't think the fx 55 will be 90

3) 2 Gigs of ram...does he do anything with 2 gigs, the performance is slightly better if at all even in high memory using games like doom 3

4) is a storage drive in order?

5)i personally hate the xaser 3 cases. the thermaltake tsunami is much classier in my opinion

6)get a great display(or 2) this will be the slowest part to get outdated on a top-o-the-lone system
 
Demo24

Demo24

Diamond Member
Aug 5, 2004
8,356
9
81
Originally posted by: MrEgo
Yes, a friend of mine says he has a ton of money to blow and he would like to put together a new computer. He was telling me about an Alienware that he could buy for $4,000, but I told him I could put together a better one at a significantly lower price. I'm usually very confident in my hardware decisions, but I figure if I'm going to recommend him $3,000 worth of parts, that I'd make 100% sure I'm making the best decisions.

Price isn't really a problem (remember, he WOULD have spent $4,000), so this is what I have set up for him.

Processor: Athlon 64 FX-53 Socket 939 Retail
Motherboard: GIGABYTE "GA-K8NSNXP-939" Nforce 3 (I would get a MSI k8n neo2 plat but this will work
Memory: CORSAIR XMS 184 Pin 2GB(1GBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail (you probably wont need 2gb. Also I suggest Crucial Ballistix from www.crucial.com. they are really fast sticks)
Video: CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256MB GDDR3 8X AGP(gainward would be nicer)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive (x2 - going to set up in Raid)
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum PCI Sound Card
Case: Thermaltake Black Xaser III Skull Series with 420W Power Supply(would looks for something better

Floppy, CD-RW, DVD-RW, Windows XP...blah blah blah =)

Does anyone have any recommendations? It's been awhile since I've kept myself well informed in the hardware industry.. probably a year or so. I couldn't find any Socket-939 motherboards that had PCI-Express.. and that leads me to another question - does PCI Express really make that much of a difference when compared to AGP 8X? Feel open to make any suggestions to any parts that could be improved on. This system is not going to be overclocked. Let me know if you think the power supply should be upgraded, because he will be using 5 USB devices. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...


replys in your quote. as for PCI_e a)its only availabe in Intels as of rihgt now. b)It either performs worse or no difference at all in comparisons wiht the AGP slot. so not worth it going to Intel
 
M

MrEgo

Senior member
Jan 17, 2003
874
0
76
I thought I would get some flak for the Thermaltake Case =)
That was actually his recommendation because he says he likes how it looks. I was always under the impression that they didn't perform as well as they looked, but he sounded like he has his mind set. Perhaps this thread will convince him otherwise. I personally went for a Kingwin KT-424B about a year ago and it's such a nice case, but he thinks it looks too plain. =/

Also - about the 6800GT. Two reason I chose that. The Alienware also had the exact same card. Also, at the time that I searched for the card from websites that I shop from, they didn't have any Ultras in stock. This guy wants his computer very soon. I will see what he says about waiting the extra few days or weeks for the 6800 Ultra. Are ATI's offerings better than the 6800 Ultra? I'm talking about the cards that are currently out right now. We mostly play FFXI if that helps any.

Again, this system will NOT be overclocked. If any problems happen to arise, he won't know what to do, and he won't be able to contact me quickly.

As for the 2GB - the original Alienware has 4GB. I told him that after 1GB, memory can become pretty redundant. He said "well...at least throw in 2GB. I don't plan on upgrading this system for a long time."

Does anyone else second the MSI K8N Neo2?
 
M

masshass81

Senior member
Sep 4, 2004
627
0
0
I agree with Demo24, I would also get the MSI Neo2 Platinum
Socket 939 Athlon 64 Gold Editors Choice

For memory, I would also get the Crucial Ballistix or OCZ's EB series as these two have proven to work very well on A64 boards
Ballistix
OCZ PC-3500 EB

Gfx Card, check out EVGA's 6800gt, its a bit cheaper AND you get Doom3 with it =)
EVGA 6800GT Retail w/ Doom3 $409 w/ free shipping

And the Thermaltake 420 psu isnt all that great, especially for such a high end system. I would think about getting an OCZ powerstream (check out the test systems in the reviews!) :D
PowerStream 420W review
Another PowerStream 420W Review

As with PCI-E, it doesnt have any noticeable speed advantages over AGP 8x since no card is fast enough to take advantage of PCI-E's bandwidth. So I don't think it would be worth it to wait for PCI-E, unless youre looking to get dual PCI-E. But I think it may be a while until A64 boards will get dual PCI-E. :( (Anyone know when?) Hope this helps.
 
M

masshass81

Senior member
Sep 4, 2004
627
0
0
Originally posted by: MrEgo
I thought I would get some flak for the Thermaltake Case =)
That was actually his recommendation because he says he likes how it looks. I was always under the impression that they didn't perform as well as they looked, but he sounded like he has his mind set. Perhaps this thread will convince him otherwise. I personally went for a Kingwin KT-424B about a year ago and it's such a nice case, but he thinks it looks too plain. =/

Also - about the 6800GT. Two reason I chose that. The Alienware also had the exact same card. Also, at the time that I searched for the card from websites that I shop from, they didn't have any Ultras in stock. This guy wants his computer very soon. I will see what he says about waiting the extra few days or weeks for the 6800 Ultra. Are ATI's offerings better than the 6800 Ultra? I'm talking about the cards that are currently out right now. We mostly play FFXI if that helps any.

Again, this system will NOT be overclocked. If any problems happen to arise, he won't know what to do, and he won't be able to contact me quickly.

As for the 2GB - the original Alienware has 4GB. I told him that after 1GB, memory can become pretty redundant. He said "well...at least throw in 2GB. I don't plan on upgrading this system for a long time."

Does anyone else second the MSI K8N Neo2?
Click to expand...

I think the 6800GT is a great choice, in my opinion, its a single slot solution and only requires one power connector. You will only be getting about at most ~20fps more for that extra $100.

And wow, 4GB or ram? whooa thats a bit too hardcore, for me at least :D. I dunno if he even needs 2Gb right now esp since anything over 1Gb costs so much and you wont see so much extra performance. He can always add another 1gb stick later (if he ever felt the need to) and they will be much cheaper in a year or two since DDR2 will become the norm.

Hey, from the money you can save him, you could get him a kick arse LCD and a really loud 5.1 sound system to go along with that Audigy ZS Plat :)
 
T

Tiamat

Lifer
Nov 25, 2003
14,068
5
71
Dual Dell 20" LCD would be sweet. Also, Klipsch Promedia Ultra 5.1s would add icing to the cake.
 
M

MrEgo

Senior member
Jan 17, 2003
874
0
76
Thanks guys, I appreciate all that you're helping me with. Very useful information.

Another question came into my head - can you run memory in dual channel mode if you have 4 sticks? Like... 2 pairs of memory running in dual-channel mode, assuming the sticks were exactly the same?
 
N

NewBlackDak

Senior member
Sep 16, 2003
530
0
0
Why not dual opteron?
Then when dual-core opterons are out, get a pair of those to dump in it.

That's what I'd do if I was able(read if my wife wouldn't flip)
 
J

jiffylube1024

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
7,430
0
71
Originally posted by: MrEgo
Yes, a friend of mine says he has a ton of money to blow and he would like to put together a new computer. He was telling me about an Alienware that he could buy for $4,000, but I told him I could put together a better one at a significantly lower price. I'm usually very confident in my hardware decisions, but I figure if I'm going to recommend him $3,000 worth of parts, that I'd make 100% sure I'm making the best decisions.

Price isn't really a problem (remember, he WOULD have spent $4,000), so this is what I have set up for him.

Processor: Athlon 64 FX-53 Socket 939 Retail
Motherboard: GIGABYTE "GA-K8NSNXP-939" Nforce 3
Memory: CORSAIR XMS 184 Pin 2GB(1GBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail
Video: CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256MB GDDR3 8X AGP
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive (x2 - going to set up in Raid)
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum PCI Sound Card
Case: Thermaltake Black Xaser III Skull Series with 420W Power Supply

Floppy, CD-RW, DVD-RW, Windows XP...blah blah blah =)

Does anyone have any recommendations? It's been awhile since I've kept myself well informed in the hardware industry.. probably a year or so. I couldn't find any Socket-939 motherboards that had PCI-Express.. and that leads me to another question - does PCI Express really make that much of a difference when compared to AGP 8X? Feel open to make any suggestions to any parts that could be improved on. This system is not going to be overclocked. Let me know if you think the power supply should be upgraded, because he will be using 5 USB devices. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...


Price/performance is still a plus, even at $3000.

If he's getting (or already has) a 21" Sony CRT, I'd recommend a good 20" LCD as the perfect complement (same viewable size), such as the aforementioned 2001FP. He'll love you just for the increse in productivity alone.

I think the selection of a GF 6800GT is fine; you don't need to get the marginal improvement in performance.

As for the PSU, why not go better? 475/550W Enermax/Antec would be ideal.

Despite running dual Raptors, I'd probably recommend another HD just as a storage partition.

Also, does he really need RAID?? If he's not doing heavy rendering/photoshop/etc on his system, then a single Raptor could do a great job on it's own, with better reliability (I've heard of several Raptor RAID arrays crapping out in <1 year).

I'd probably recommend 1.5-2 GB of memory, but usually 1GB sticks are substantially more than 512MB sticks. If so, go for 4 X 512MB. The "reduction in upgradeability" will not be an issue ;) .

I'm not very familiar with Athlon XP/Opteron/etc nomenclature, but anything ~3700+ (equivalent) speed or above should be super.
 
A

Aries64

Golden Member
Jul 30, 2004
1,030
0
0
MrEgo,

If I'm not too late I second the MSI Neo2 Platimum Edition. (MSI calls it the Platinum Edition because it is one of the "Platinum Series" of motherboards from MSI). I don't think the Neo2 comes in a "nonplatinum" edition, if you care.

Yes - you CAN run 4 sticks of ram in the MSI Neo2 in dual-channel. That is precisely what I was doing a few weeks ago. HOWEVER, be advised that when you do this the memory timing COMMAND RATE will default to 2T EVEN WITH VERY FAST RAM such as OCZ Platinum or Mushkin PC3500 Level II. I had two 1GB Dualpacks (512MBx4) of the Mushkin PC3500 Level II in my system (see sig below) and it did just that. BTW, my timing with 2GBs' was 2-2-2-5-2T. My 1GB configuration is is 2-2-2-5-1T.

If you read the Anandtech "Socket 939 Roundup" of the MSI Neo2 the Anandtech guys had the same problem with the Command Rate defaulting to 2T when running 2GBs'. When other socket 939 boards could run 2GBs' they also had the same issue. See the link below for the roundup.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2128

Anyway, if you do install 2GB and then go into the BIOS and manually change/set the Command Rate to 1T your system will NOT POST after you save the BIOS changes and re-boot. You will have to reset the CMOS using a jumper and go back in and recheck all your settings. When you do you will see that the timing defaulted to "2T".

Also, The 6800GT is supposed to smoke - and I'm sure the 6800 Ultras' are blindingly fast. I had a tough time deciding what card to get but in the end it was the (Artic Cooling) cooler on the HIS Excalibur IceQ II X800 XT Platinum Edition that sold me. The Excaliburs' are thw only video card line that comes with a FACTORY-INSTALLED thermal solution that actually vents the hot air from your video card to the outside of the case. Besides - there really aren't many games that support Direct-X 9c yet (as I understand all 6800s' support Pixel Shader 3.0 while currently NO ATI cards offer said support).

I really only play PC Halo which play extremely well on my system so I am very pleased with my HIS card. I know I may get flamed for saying so - if it makes Nvidia owners happy they can flame-away. All that matters is that I like it, right? (With everything turned on and/or set at "High", including "EAX" I get: 112.286 fps @ 800x600, 103.575 fps @ 1024x768, and 84.115 fps @ 1280x1024). My Samsung 172T maxes-out at 1280x1024 so I cannot provide the fps performance at higher resolution.

Third, get your friend a good power supply! Electronic components run more efficiently and last longer when they are supplied with clean, consistent voltage within proper operating voltage specs. Good power supplies are very often overlooked. I chose a PC Power &amp; Cooling 510 ATX Deluxe. Expensive, but worth it. When you build a computer the power supply is not where you want to cheap-out. Inferior quality is foolish economy. A good UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) such as an APC Smart UPS is also a good investment.

Lastly, IMHO the Xaser Skull case is weak. I do like the Tsunami Dream and some of the Lian Lis' are nice. Why build with a mediocre case? If you looked at my system specs you may have noticed I used a CoolerMaster WaveMaster case. Strong, well-built, lightweight, tool-less, clean design. Basta! Then again, it is your friend's money and his own taste he is seeking to satisfy.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom