Building a new PC

[Rumple]

Hi guys im not too savy on the latest and greatest (been awhile since i even read up on the newer hardware) so i wanted to ask for your opinions.

I have around $1100 to spend and what i know i want is :

An AMD64 Skt 939 processor
A Western Digital 250gig Sata HD
Audigy 2 ZS
Geforce 6800GT PCI-Express (possibly only a 6800)
1 Gig of Corsair ram

Wondering what the best processor and motherboard combo to get would be mostly. Im not up to par on the 939's and any of the new motherboards out now.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Torsoboy]

For a motherboard, you might want to look at the ASUS A8V DELUXE (however, it is a tad pricey for a budget build). My friend bought it and it works great for him. Also, it has pretty nice onboard sound, so you might not want to bother with the Audigy Soundcard in a budget system, unless you have a very high quality speaker system.

 

[villageidiot111]

Does your budget include a monitor? I would reccomend getting a Samsung Syncmaster 997df, its not that pricey and works great.

That sound card might be a waste unless you have great speakers or mess around with sound stuff. Onboard sound today is great, many motherboards support 5.1 or 7.1.

Also, keep in mind that seagate hard drives have a 5 year warranty.

 

[Rumple]

No i dont need a monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers.

Really just want to know which core is supposed to be the best (ie clawhammer/venice etc...) And im not to savvy on 939 motherboards but i am partial to asus or msi normally.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

I'm not sure what you mean by "best core." "Venice" and "San Diego" chips are the latest, including among other things E3 stepping. So, technically speaking they would be best. "Winchester" is next on the list, and "Newcastle" after that. I forget where the Hammers come in.

However, the "Venice" chips yield only a 0-5% performance increase over their "Newcastle" counterparts, depending on the application. The performance gain over "Winchesters" is quite negligible, almost always close to 0%. The primary benefit of "Venice" chips are their overclocking potential, which is much greater than "Winchester" or "Newcastle" chips.

A price-performance comparison almost always favors socket-754 over socket-939, unless you factor in overclocking.

The moral of the story is this: If you don't want to overclock, get an inexpensive socket-754 board and a "Newcastle" or "Winchester" CPU. If, on the other hand, you do plan to overclock, get a feature-rich board and a "Venice" CPU.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Oh, one other thing...

If you need great audio, ditch the Audigy series. Echo and M-Audio make good sound cards if you need one. Creative overcharges and their products underperform.

 

[d2arcturus]

AMD64 3000+ Venice
Chaintech VNF4 Ultra
Corsair VS 1GB
Leadtek 6800GT
WD Caviar SE16 250GB
Antec Sonata II w/ 450W

That's $860 there. Oh I forgot burner, oh well, I know nothing about them anyway.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Originally posted by: d2arcturus
AMD64 3000+ Venice

Cool.

Chaintech VNF4 Ultra

A tad expensive, but still a decent choice.

Corsair VS 1GB

You can't beat trendy.

Leadtek 6800GT

I don't know... I mean, a graphics card is important, but is it really worth $324? I guess that's up to the user.

WD Caviar SE16 250GB

I hate Western Digital. I've owned & operated several of their drives, and all but one has failed miserably--by that I mean the internal mechanics broke down, rendering the drives inoperative and irrepairable. Maybe that's just my dumb luck, but I rather think it's their fault. Anyway, Samsung and Hitachi drives can be found for less money.

Antec Sonata II w/ 450W

I'm not a believer in pumping money into a PSU or case. Neither impacts performance, and the price dispairity between the two extremes is pretty large. If you absolutely must have an Antec, get their base model SLK1650B for $81 at Newegg.

 

[Shenkoa]

Or a Lian-Li