building first computer... recommendations please!

[0123456789876543210]

hey everyone, i'm finally gonna build my own... it's gonna have an intel P4 2.4, and i was wondering what mobo to get. i have been looking at the ASUS ones, bc those are the only ones i know are good, what are other good brands? Can you recommend a good board that has usb 2, firewire, lan, APG 8x, and audio?

For video, i'm thinking of a 64mb or 128mb 8x card... any suggestions?

and finally, for a case and power supply... i saw the Enermax CS305ILS and thought it looked cool. is 350W gonna be enough? (i will have a dvd, cd-rw, eventually 2 HD's, eventually audigy soundcard, and that video card).


one more question actually... if i were to go with AMD, what is a comparable CPU to the P4 2.4? and a good mobo for that?

i know it's a lot of ?'s, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks a lot!!!

-Vince

 

[BigFatCow]

how much are you looking to spend on the video card?

 

[0123456789876543210]

umm, for video no more than $150? is there a big difference between 8x and 4x AGP cards?

 

[BigFatCow]

Originally posted by: 0123456789876543210
umm, for video no more than $150? is there a big difference between 8x and 4x AGP cards?

from what ive heard theres not much of a difference at all between 8x and 4x.


for video card, you should look at either a ATI radeon 9500 or a Nvidia GeForce 4 ti4200.

 

[Whitedog]

I recommend getting a handle that not so Dorkish...

<0123456789876543210>

 

[0123456789876543210]

you're just jealous, this handle rocks

and thanks to the people who replied. i'm pretty much just trying to choose between an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ with ASUS A7N8X.... or a P4 2.4G with ASUS P4S8X... what do y'all think will perform better and will be more stable?

- Vince

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Whitedog
I recommend getting a handle that not so Dorkish...

<0123456789876543210>

I agree...that handle makes you look fat :Q

As for P4 2400 vs. the XP 2400+, I don't think you could go wrong with either. IIRC they are about the same price currently and both OC very well. Other than that you may want to look into upgrade path and onboard features.

Chiz

 

[Bovinicus]

i'm pretty much just trying to choose between an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ with ASUS A7N8X.... or a P4 2.4G with ASUS P4S8X... what do y'all think will perform better and will be more stable?

I would go with AMD if you plan on overclocking. Having control over both the multiplier and the FSB is a great tool in achieving the overclock with the best performance. The Asus A7N8X is a good choice. It overclocks pretty well and has a lot of good features onboard. Both are very stable platforms and you can't go wrong with either one. Both should overclock to about the same level.

The Radeon 9500 (Non-Pro) should be a good choice for you. For just a smidgen over over $150 you can actually take advantage of some FSAA and anisotropic filtering action. The latest drivers give some nice boosts to the card too. The Radeon 9500 Pro is really nice if you can make yourself spend an extra $50; I know you said $150, but I have broken budgets before, it's really fun. =)

8x AGP makes essentially no difference unless you use professional 3D applications. 4x AGP is hardly a boost over 2x.

350W should be sufficient, especially since the PSU is made by Enermax. They make really good PSUs.

 

[Ilmater]

They should perform relatively close, so just worry about cost when it comes to which platform to go with. Remember to check RAM prices (damned RDRAM). They shouldn't be too far different, but they could be. Make sure that if you get an nForce 2 chipset that you buy memory in pairs. So, if you decide on 512MB of RAM, buy 2 sticks of 256MB, not one of 512. Otherwise it won't run dual-channel. As you know, the nForce2 boards have pretty good sound, so depending on what you decide there, that might be a factor.

As far as the graphics card goes, go with one of two things: either the cheapest GF4 Ti4200 64MB card you can find, or the Albatron 128MB Ti4200P Turbo (also called the Medusa). The first solution will run around $134, while the Albatron will run about $182 from Newegg. On a price/performance basis, they're still better than the ATI cards. With the Albatron, in order to truly make it worth your while, you have to overclock it. If you're unwilling, stop reading and get the cheap Ti4200. Otherwise, consider this: you can pretty easily overclock the Albatron to GF4 Ti4600 levels, which puts it well above teh performance of any $180 card. In fact, these particular Albatrons are clocked above the "stock" Ti4200 128MB levels. The card uses an 8-layer PCB and 3.3ns BGA RAM, the same as on the Ti4600. The thing is, this allows for cleaner current running through the card and higher memory speeds. It will at least OC close to 4600 levels.

For all you ATI fans that will protest, the only benefits that the Radeon 9500 has over the GF4 Ti4200 is DX9 compatibility and a slightly smaller performance hit when turning on really high graphics detail. In most games under most applications, the GF4 Ti4200 will perform on par with an equivalent 9500 at a lower price. Period.

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: Bovinicus
The Radeon 9500 (Non-Pro) should be a good choice for you. For just a smidgen over over $150 you can actually take advantage of some FSAA and anisotropic filtering action. The latest drivers give some nice boosts to the card too. The Radeon 9500 Pro is really nice if you can make yourself spend an extra $50; I know you said $150, but I have broken budgets before, it's really fun. =)

If FSAA and Aniso are turned on and the game is set to a high resolution, then yes, your performance will be better than with a GF4 Ti4200. However, if you're like me and you don't need resolutions higher than 1024x768 or FSAA/Aniso then stick with the GF4 and save yourself some money.

If you go with the Radeon 9500 (non-Pro), you'll only be a little over your budget, but you'll spend a lot more than what a Ti4200 would cost (almost $30) and won't see any performance difference at lower resolutions/details.