Building new computer - What would you do different?

kadeeu

Member
Jan 3, 2001
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I decided to build a mostly new computer rather than do the incremental upgrade. My goal was to build one minus the monitor for around $700 that will still be a very good game platform as well as a general purpose machine. I do have a DVD drive and CDRW to put in it so I'm saving some there. So tell me how you think I did.

MB/CPU
Microstar Pro II-A(UDMA 100) with AMD Thunderbird 900 MHZ(Retail) $300 shipped - compulus.com

Hard Drive
Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 45 GB 7200 RPM UDMA 100 $140 shipped - staples.com

Video Card
ELSA Gladiac GeoForce GTS 2, 32 MB DDR $127 shipped - buy.com

Sound Card
Soundblaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 $56 shipped - Staples.com

Memory
Kingston PC133 128 MB $52 shipped - Staples.com

Speakers
Monsoon MH-500 Flat Panel Spaeker system - Free (sort of) with MCI gift certificate - Amazon.com


That's around $675 so far. The only thing I need is a good case. Any suggestions for a good 300 watt case for under $75 shipped would be appreciated
 

Renob

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2000
7,596
1
81
Thats fine unless you want to overclock then get the t-bird 750 most of them overclock to a gig no problem
 

kadeeu

Member
Jan 3, 2001
66
0
0
Thanks for the input.

I'm not sure if the memory is CAS2. It doesn't say it at their site so I guess it's not.

I looked up microbarn.com and saw the same mb/cpu combo for $280 shipped but its the OEM cpu version w/o a fan or heatsink and only a 15-day warranty. The retail version comes with the fan/heatsink and I belive a 3-year warranty.

As for the video card deal there were recent threads showing this deal at buy.com using a $30 off $150 coupon. Although they recently raised the price from $157 to $186 and I don't think the $30 off $150 is valid anymore.
 

vancur

Member
Jan 2, 2001
27
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I highly suggest checking this out. Goto http://www.allstarshop.com While some of their prices are not the absolute lowest, ALL of their prices are low, as well as their shipping rates. It always turns out that I save the most money with them.
 

Kingofcomputer

Diamond Member
Apr 6, 2000
4,917
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I'd buy everything except memory from onvia, and use big purchase coupon.
Onvia gives you 30 days own price guarantee, easy to return.
And get memory from Crucial using first time 15% order discount.
 

LXi

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
7,987
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I would hold off a bit until Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 60 comes out, if they arent out already.
 

Shu8

Senior member
Nov 28, 2000
278
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0
spend 10 bucks more for the ibm 75gxp 45gb ata/100...maxtor's alright...but the ibm is quieter and more reliable.

also just buy the mobo and proc separately. get the mobo for about 120 or maybe less. get a 1.1ghz athlon for $230 [go look on pricewatch.com and use resellerratings.com (if you don't already) for the stores]. unless spend less than 200 bucks for the 1ghz. if you get the proc retail, you get a taisol cek733 w/ it. it's a pretty good heatsinc/fan...obviously not the best but it's quiet and it works. if you want another site that will help you look for prices checkout ibuyer.net and techbargains.pricegrabber.com.

also if you don't get 256mb of ram you will kick yourself in the a$$ when you see the price rise. the performace boost between 128 and 256 is not extremely noticable unless you do graphics [photoshop, 3dmax, etc.] or play games. anything above 256 will be unnoticable
 

Yerdy

Senior member
Mar 1, 2000
427
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0
Throw all that stuff in to the Enlight 7237 with 300W PS. If you want peace and quiet, get it from compucheap where he puts the enermax 351 whisper quiet PS in. Get the 750 T-bird combo and oc. Monarch computer has it for $228 with the Taisol CEK HS/fan and MSI K7T Pro 2A. Get Crucial or Mushkin RAM.

Good Luck and have fun!!
 

bluesky

Golden Member
Nov 13, 2000
1,325
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76
I'm not sure they still have it on stock, but Onvia used to ship Antec 830sx for around 84.00 with 300w ps and 2 case fans.
 

Castellan

Senior member
Nov 16, 1999
624
0
0
Hmm... I really want to tell you to get an Antec SX830 from onvia for 84 :p It's pretty much my standard case right now. Take a peek at onvia though, free shipping helps alot.

I also like This case from Multiwave (it's identical to some of the antec valueline cases.) The 300W PS version will run you close to 75 shipped. Or you could just find a local computer store and sabve yourself some trouble :)