Building new system for a friend in April. Any suggestions?**UPDATED**

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
B

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,946
0
0
I'll be building my friend a pc at the end of April. He will be using it primarily for gaming(like SimCity 4). But since he wants to see the specifications early, i wanted to ask your opinion on my choice of components. BTW, his budget is [EDIT:He has agreed to give me a higher budget]$850-$915. Do you think his budget is enough to fit these?

(AMD rig)
Case-Some cheap case with generic psu(he's not an overclocker and doesn't see a need to get a good psu)
[EDIT:Will be getting a quality PSU now)
Proc-An AMD Athlon 2400+(or maybe a Barton. I'm waiting for a price drop and then i'll get it, if not, i'll just get a 2100+ T-Bred B and overclock it)
Mobo-Prolly a Abit NF7-S(thanks KidChaos:))/ASUS A7N8X Deluxe or a KT400A board
RAM-512 mb PC2700(2 x 256 mb)[EDIT:Might get 1 GB(512MB PC2100 x 2-price difference between PC2100 and PC2700 512MB modules is around $25 here in Malaysia)]
Video-RV350 or NV31/34
Sound Card-Nforce 2 soundstorm
Hard Drive-Either a WD1200JB, Seagate Barracuda V, and now Maxtor included(around 80 GB)
CD-RW-Lite-On 52x24x52x
OS-Win XP Home
Monitor-A 17inch CRT or either a 15-inch LCD(Samsung)[EDIT:Now only 17-inch CRT,can't afford the 19-inch one]
 
K

KidChaos

Senior member
Jan 21, 2003
384
0
0
- Quality power supply is always a requirement that you may prevent trouble down the road.

- Abit NF7-S;)

- for a gaming computer, I would pick a 19" monitor, CRT

- the retail cooling of XP processors is barely sufficient. Get an OEM version, thermalright heatsink (SK-7 or SLK-800) and 80mm x 25mm fan.

You'll have to up your budget to get everything ya want. Looks to be quite the success!:)
 
B

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,946
0
0
You'll have to up your budget to get everything ya want. Looks to be quite the success!:)
Click to expand...
i know, but his parents say that he can't spend over that limit
 
D

Dacalo

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2000
8,778
4
76
if he is a gamer, especially FPS, i would stay away from the 15 in LCDs, unless you get the new planar with 16ms or the hitachi
 
B

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,946
0
0
Originally posted by: pillage2001
I would get a Maxtor HDD instead of the Seagate or WD.
Click to expand...

i'm buying the Barracuda V over the Maxtor for him as it should have SATA
btw, another question:
are all Barracuda V's SATA drives?
 
pillage2001

pillage2001

Lifer
Sep 18, 2000
14,038
1
81
Originally posted by: bgeh
Originally posted by: pillage2001
I would get a Maxtor HDD instead of the Seagate or WD.
Click to expand...

i'm buying the Baracuda V
btw, another question:
are all Barracuda V's SATA drives?
Click to expand...

Don't think so but consider the Maxtor. :)
 
K

KidChaos

Senior member
Jan 21, 2003
384
0
0
Originally posted by: bgeh
Originally posted by: pillage2001
I would get a Maxtor HDD instead of the Seagate or WD.
Click to expand...

i'm buying the Barracuda V over the Maxtor for him as it should have SATA
btw, another question:
are all Barracuda V's SATA drives?
Click to expand...
They have PATA Cuda Vs also.
 
B

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,946
0
0
Originally posted by: pillage2001
Originally posted by: bgeh
Originally posted by: pillage2001
I would get a Maxtor HDD instead of the Seagate or WD.
Click to expand...

i'm buying the Baracuda V
btw, another question:
are all Barracuda V's SATA drives?
Click to expand...

Don't think so but consider the Maxtor. :)
Click to expand...

ok, i'll add that to my list
 
B

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,946
0
0
Originally posted by: KidChaos
Originally posted by: bgeh
Originally posted by: pillage2001
I would get a Maxtor HDD instead of the Seagate or WD.
Click to expand...

i'm buying the Barracuda V over the Maxtor for him as it should have SATA
btw, another question:
are all Barracuda V's SATA drives?
Click to expand...
They have PATA Cuda Vs also.
Click to expand...

thanks KidChaos:)
 
M

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
10,973
14
76
uh...you mentioned simcity4...

if you go to the gameforum you'll find that peopel with 512megs of ram have slowdown problems in that game...and that you need 1 GIG of ram....
 
G

Gibson12345

Member
Aug 31, 2002
191
0
0
A lot can change in a month and a half, but I would definately scale down your video card selection. Those are expensive cards, and your budget isn't exactly hefty.
 
B

Bovinicus

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2001
3,145
0
0
If he plans on playing SimCity4, beware of ATi cards. There is a well known issue that certain ATi cards (If not all) suffer with SimCity4. However, ATi does know about this problem. So, it is very likely it will be fixed by the time you purchase the system. If not, there is a good chance that it will be fixed shortly thereafter. It is up to you to decide what to do about that, but I thought you might like to know.

Case: This is one area that skimping isn't that bad. Just beware of sharp corners, and make sure it can hold at least one fan (Preferably two).

PSU: You can never skimp on the PSU. I don't care if he isn't overclocking. A friend of mine was having serious problems with his setup before I gave him my 300W Sparkle. Previously, he was using some generic 300W which created many stability problems.

Motherboard: I like the EPoX 8RDA+. It has everything the NF7-S has, but for less money. Since you seem to have a pretty strict budget, those $15 saved could be useful other places. If you want serial ATA, then the NF7-S would be a good choice.

Memory: Get Crucial, it's cheap and high quality. I don't recommend anything else unless the person is a hardcore overclocker with extra money for Corsair memory.

HDD: Go with Seagate if he wants a totally silent system. Go with Maxtor for more money but better performance (8MB version). Go with WD for near-Maxtor performance and slightly lower prices.

Monitor: You could probably get a decent 19" monitor for the price of a 15". NEC makes pretty good monitors for reasonable prices. Samsung also makes excellent monitors.

Everything else looks in order.
 
K

KidChaos

Senior member
Jan 21, 2003
384
0
0
Motherboard: I like the EPoX 8RDA+. It has everything the NF7-S has, but for less money. Since you seem to have a pretty strict budget, those $15 saved could be useful other places. If you want serial ATA, then the NF7-S would be a good choice.
Click to expand...
NF7-S advantage over 8RDA+: SATA (RAID), PATA-SATA converter (Hooking your PATA hard drive up to the SATA controller via PATA-SATA converter results in lower CPU utilization), Chipset voltage adjustments, meets all soundstorm requirements (both have nVidia audio, excellent sound!). But, I see your point, 8RDA+ is much cheaper (depending on where ya buy it). It is also a better overclocker. That is, until rev 1.2 Abit NF7-S boards begin to show up in stores.
 
B

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,946
0
0
Originally posted by: Bovinicus
If he plans on playing SimCity4, beware of ATi cards. There is a well known issue that certain ATi cards (If not all) suffer with SimCity4. However, ATi does know about this problem. So, it is very likely it will be fixed by the time you purchase the system. If not, there is a good chance that it will be fixed shortly thereafter. It is up to you to decide what to do about that, but I thought you might like to know.

Case: This is one area that skimping isn't that bad. Just beware of sharp corners, and make sure it can hold at least one fan (Preferably two).

PSU: You can never skimp on the PSU. I don't care if he isn't overclocking. A friend of mine was having serious problems with his setup before I gave him my 300W Sparkle. Previously, he was using some generic 300W which created many stability problems.

Motherboard: I like the EPoX 8RDA+. It has everything the NF7-S has, but for less money. Since you seem to have a pretty strict budget, those $15 saved could be useful other places. If you want serial ATA, then the NF7-S would be a good choice.

Memory: Get Crucial, it's cheap and high quality. I don't recommend anything else unless the person is a hardcore overclocker with extra money for Corsair memory.

HDD: Go with Seagate if he wants a totally silent system. Go with Maxtor for more money but better performance (8MB version). Go with WD for near-Maxtor performance and slightly lower prices.

Monitor: You could probably get a decent 19" monitor for the price of a 15". NEC makes pretty good monitors for reasonable prices. Samsung also makes excellent monitors.

Everything else looks in order.
Click to expand...

the problem is that his budget is too low to accomodate all of these stuff(and psu too)
i can't get crucial, corsair, EPOX 8RDA+ here in malaysia
in fact, i'm planning to get him a 17-inch CRT now due to his budget constraints
i'll try to convince him to up the budget to 1k
 
B

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,946
0
0
have made changes to the original configuration
any opinions about it?
 
K

KidChaos

Senior member
Jan 21, 2003
384
0
0
May be able to find a samsung 19" CRT monitor for less than $200 dollars. And for the sake of future upgradability, get at least DDR333 memory. 512MB is plenty for games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom