Hello, I am a Newbie

[Serentius]

Hello, I am a newbie, My name is Zeke.
Now, I am hardly learning the lingo as it is, so if you want to help me please dont use slang for the terms that I already hardly understand.
I want to build a comp, and I really am just getting the basics down, first off, I know there are many opinions for and against P4 and/or Athlon, but Are pentium 4's worth more money, since you can go RD PC 800 for your ram? Or is DDR really just as good?

That will be the first question I guess, in long string.

I am glad I found this great site, I can hopefully get some useful tips on hardware!

¤§?Serentius?§¤

 

[bozo1]

Welcome aboard Serentius. I'm sure you will have many questions and that's fine. Keep in mind that we have different forums for different questions - motherboards, cases/cooling, CPU's, etc.

As far as your first question

<< but Are pentium 4's worth more money, since you can go RD PC 800 for your ram? Or is DDR really just as good? >>


I would say one thing - Intel has recently (this week) announced that they are dropping support for RDRAM. All of their new chipsets will be supporting DDR.
That should answer your first question!

 

[Sniper82]

Well I ain't a ram expert but IMO you won't see a huge difference between the 2 in speeds. Heard that RDram was faster though. Anyway if you plan on building a computer or get into computers I say don't be afraid to get into one and tear it down. I say try and find a cheap system that ain't worth much and practice taking it apart and putting back together. If you can configure a older pentium system you can configure anything. Nowdays everything is more user friendly.

You won't learn if you don't read and if you don't tear into one. Reading on these forums about ppls problems and reading the replys on solutions for them IMO will teach you more about computers than a single person can period.

just my 2 cents.

 

[FlippyBoy]

if you ask most of the guys around here, they'll tell you that amd currently offers the best price/performance ratio (i.e., the most bang for the buck). intel is finally starting to offer some competition with their northwood, but you will still pay a premium for it.

if you want some basic help getting started, read anandtech's faqs. they should offer a foundation you can build on here in the forums.

 

[Zlash]

<< I would say one thing - Intel has recently (this week) announced that they are dropping support for RDRAM. All of their new chipsets will be supporting DDR. >>



Not true at all, should read the whole article. They are only dropping Rambus on servers since it can't go over 3GB and most servers run 4GB + as is. Just using ddr instead of rambus on servers.

 

[Zlash]

Actually i messed that up, it's that rambus doesn't come in 1 gig modules so you could only get 2GB of memory in 4 slots as oppose to 4GB with DDR. And this is for Xeon chipsets, i'm sure once they are able to make 1 gig rambus modules they will switch back over.

 

[jeffrey]

"All of their new chipsets will be supporting DDR."

That should be changed to, All of their new SEVER chipsets will be supporting DDR. Intel is going to release a motherboard with PC1066 RDRAM support in the near future. This will bump the dual-channel PC800 RDRAM bandwith from 3.2gb/s to 4.2gb/s and this time around Rambus has developed the 4200 RIMM so that, if used, RDRAM won't even need to be installed in pairs.

 

[AGodspeed]

Hello Serentius and welcome to Anandtech!

I'll be giving you a basic overview of which computer you should buy, and how to build a computer all together.

Currently, there are several processors that you can choose from both AMD and Intel. Let me give you a chart:

Intel:

- Performance Desktop Processor: Pentium 4 "Northwood"
Speeds Available: 1.6GHz, 1.8GHz, 2.0GHz. 2.2GHz

- Value Desktop Processor: Celeron "Tualatin"
Speeds Available: 1.0GHz-1.3GHz

AMD:

- Performance Desktop Processor: Athlon XP "Palomino"
Speeds Available: 1.33GHz-1.73GHz

- Value Desktop Processor: Duron "Morgan"
Speeds Available: 1.0GHz-1.3GHz

Now since you're a newbie at building computers, you're probably not going to be overclocking (overclocking refers to raising a processor's stock clock speed higher than it's rated for (taking a 1.6GHz processor to 1.8GHz is an example of overclocking)).

Because you don't know a lot about overclocking, I recommend that you choose an AMD Athlon XP or AMD Duron processor. They offer the best price/performance ratio, the best "bang for the buck."

To learn how to build a computer you must first find someone who is skilled at building, and ask them for help. Experience is the easiest way to learn how to build a computer, and the most fun too.

It also doesn't hurt to read about how to build a computer, so I suggest you visit these forums frequently for tips, ideas, and help in general. Anandtech is a great resource when you use it correctly.

I would suggest reading this web site to help get the basics of building and installing computer parts.

Good luck!

P.S. You can send me a personal message if you have any questions about building or installing computer parts, where to buy computer parts, or any other technical information of that matter (click the orange lock located to the right of the "glasses" picture in this post to send me a personal message).