Building a new PC, need a little advice.

[smurph98gt]

Ok, well I'm trying to keep this under $600, but not end up with garbage pieces.

Right now Fry's has an OEM AthlonXP 2400+ w/ ECS K7S5A Pro for $120.. pretty good deal, but I'm not quite sure how quality it is, the K7S5A seems to have not so good reviews over at NewEgg.. so its scaring me off some. Theres also the OEM AthlonXP 2500+ Barton w/ ECS L7VTA, that seems like another good deal, but again, the motherboard is kinda scaring me off. They also have some no-name pc2700 for $55.

Thats one option.. the other is to not cheap out on these, get the Retail box 2400+ from NewEgg for $110, and the EPoX EP-8RDA+ for $94. Or maybe take another step up and get the 2500+ Barton. as far as RAM goes I'd like to run 512MB of pc2700, I dont know if the Kingston for $63, or the Corsair for $83. Its more expensive to go this way, but I'd end up with quality parts, most with full warranties.

Video Card, I have no ideas.

Basically I use my PC to surf the net, do SOME 3D graphics, dick around with photoshop alot, and to play video games. I realize I dont need the most blazing machine out there to do all that, but I'd like to have something that can take all that now, last me maybe 2 years, and still be able to handle the newer stuff then.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

-Ronald

 

[Harvey]

ECS motherboards are very uneven in their performance. Spend a little more for a good one, such as one with an nForce2 chipset. If you need to save a few bucks, you won't miss much with a slightly slower CPU, such as an XP 2200+, but you'll make up the a lot of the difference with stability and overall performance.

If saving money is important, check out Hot Deals. You can usually find decent deals on hard drives, CD-RW's, etc. I didn't see any killer deals for CD-RW's this past week, but I've been finding 52x burners made by Lite-On for around $20 after rebates. The new weekend flyers for Office Depot, Office Max, Best Buy, Staples, etc. are out, tomorrow, so you won't have to wait very long for a new round of deals.

 

[smurph98gt]

Thanks Harvey.. I've been pondering getting the A7N8X Deluxe with the nForce chipset.. its only $135.. my only qualms are that it seems to not work with any of the semi-decent quality RAM out there, like the Kingston or Crucial, it seems it needs the Corsair stuff which is also more cash. But if I can step down maybe on the chip then it might be cool..

Any recomendations as far as Video cards? I dont know whats good and not anymore.. ( I have a 3 year old GeForce2 MX if that tells you anything )

Thanks!

 

[Harvey]

I just helped a friend put a system together with an A7N8X (not DeLuxe) with 512 MB of Kingston PC 2700. No problems. When I put new systems together, I always check the motherboard maker's website for the latest BIOS. Here's the link to the latest BIOS for the A7N8X. The info in the More... tab says:

Enhance system compatibility with Transcend DDR333 (MOSEL chips) memory modules.

 

[smurph98gt]

Cool.. thanks again Harvey.. looks like I'll be ordering some stuff tonite.

That Transcend RAM (what few places carry it) is ridiculously expensive!! I might just take my chances with the Kingston stuff.. we shall see..

Anyone got any good video card suggestions, that aren't gonna break the bank?

 

[Zepper]

Check out AOpen Kt400 based mobo and for video SiS Xabre 400- based card, perhaps Chaintec.
.bh.

 

[smurph98gt]

The last computre I built for someone had an MSI KT400 VL motherboard in there.. very nice mobo, and simple to use. I just didnt know how good of a motherboard it is for one, and if its up to the perfromance that I'm after..

I'll look around at Video cards and see what I can find..

Thanks guys... any more recomendations are welcome

 

[smurph98gt]

Anyone have any opinions on the EPoX EP-8RDA+ ?? From what I'm reading it looks like a good board, and its 40 bucks less than the Asus A7N8X Deluxe.

I'm really only looking for out of the box performance, I dont need to overclock anything, I might.. but most likely things will continue to run stock.

Thanks guys!!

 

[yhelothar]

8rda+ is ok.. you can spend like $20 more and get the abit nf7-s...

and all the AMD chips are underclocked by a lot..
if you get the 2100+, it can probably easily hit 2600+ without any voltage adjustments...

i had good luck with hardcorecooling.us ram. The 512MB PC3200 Cas2 ram only costs $79 there... mine hits 217MHz 2.0-6-3-3 with no problems @ 2.8V

 

[smurph98gt]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0i had good luck with hardcorecooling.us ram. The 512MB PC3200 Cas2 ram only costs $79 there... mine hits 217MHz 2.0-6-3-3 with no problems @ 2.8V

Can you explain that? I've been seeing that all around and can't figure out what the hell it means..

 

[Tavoc]

The Epox 8RDA+ is a great Mobo. Just helped a friend build a system based off of it with a Barton 2500+ and 1GB (2x512) of Kingston Hyper X PC2700. Overclocking is easy and it runs stable and relatively cool with the stock HS right out of the box.

 

[smurph98gt]

Just wanted to bring this back ttt to see if I could get any more responses as far as video cards go..

thanks!

 

[stultus]

Originally posted by: smurph98gt

Originally posted by: virtualgames0i had good luck with hardcorecooling.us ram. The 512MB PC3200 Cas2 ram only costs $79 there... mine hits 217MHz 2.0-6-3-3 with no problems @ 2.8V

Can you explain that? I've been seeing that all around and can't figure out what the hell it means..

Well, the FSB is self-evident (I think). The other numbers are the CAS latency (link), Row Active Delay, RAS Precharge Time, and RAS to CAS Delay. As far as I understand it, tt's just memory timings that control how fast the memory waits between shuffling bits that's independent of the bus speed. Maybe someone more hardcore can explain all the intracacies. The 2.8V bit is just saying that he's overvolting his memory (DDR default is 2.5V, OCers run it at 2.7V generally or push it a bit higher to make their ram run better - either higher speeds or tighter timings - and generally stay less than 2.9V).

Go for a 9500 Pro.