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I need advice on building a new Athlon system.

R

r1013a

Member
I need advice on building a new Athlon system.

PROCESSOR:
Athlon XP 1600 - 2000 depending on price when I buy it.

MOTHERBOARD??:
No Raid,
No Video Card- I am thinking about a GeForce 4 TI. Not sure which one yet?
No LAN- I already have a linksys 10/100 LAN
Maybe onboard Sound?- Any Suggestions if not?

MEMORY??:
DDR?- Brand? How Much? (512MB)?

I don't over clock and probably won't.
I plan to buy a retail Processor and use the fan and heatsink that comes with it.
I would like the mother board to support future processors as much as possible (upgradeable).
I Play a lot of the latest games, but I also use MS office prod, Photoshop.

Do I need extra case fans even if I don't plan to overclock?
Any other suggestions?

Thanks
 
I like the epox kt333 boards.
They're cheap and perform very well.

As far as memory... you need 512mb for games and photoshop. (Samsung is the best PC2700 ram out there. but Corsair is good too.)

you don't need extra fans if you don't O/C.


For your vid card...

TI4200 if you want a great value. (and if you get that one you can OC it to 4600 speeds in many cases)
TI4400 if you want to waste money. (read above)
TI4600 if you want the best Nvidia has to offer.

Radeon 9700 if you want THE KING! 😀
 
Budget:

Around $800.00 - $900.00. But I will be doing two computers at the same time. Mine and my wifes. So I'm willing to spend $400.00 - $450.00 per computer.

Thanks
 
I don't think $450 on a computer is enough to build a new system...

Are you saying you are willing to spend $400-450 on just Processor, Motherboard, and Memory? If that's the case, you have enough. 🙂

Processor:
AMD Athlon XP 1600+ is only $51.99 at newegg. It's OEM version, but you can get a nice heatsink for around $25 (I recommend Thermalright AX-7).

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-7VRXP is $103. Comes with OnBoard LAN, SoundCard, USB 2.0, Raid 0&1, Dual BIOS... I think it's probably the best KT333 motherboard if you don't plan on overclocking.
MSI KT333 Ultra is also really nice board. No problems whatsoever.

Memory:
Samsung PC2700 DDR333 or PC3200 DDR400 RAM. You can never go wrong with Samsung RAMs. 🙂

Good luck building a new computer my friend.
 
Yes. Thats what I ment. Processor/motherboard/memory/graphics card. Me and my wife both already have a CDRW, DVD, Antec 400W, case etc... We just need to upgrade the main stuff. We have the rest. I am willing to go 50 - 100 + more here or there. It just all depends. I would just like to keep it as close to my above mentioned price as possible. If I don't set something I'll blow$ blow$ blow$

Thanks again
 
For your motherboard, the Abit NV7-133R has onboard sound equivalent to or better than an Audigy, and the board itself is only around 90 bucks. 😉 Also has onboard network, USB 2.0, and RAID. I know you didn't want RAID, but you can also use it as extra HD ports. 😉

It's a strange thing to have a fully loaded system with no PCI slots in use, hehe.
 
Hi,

What I would suggest is go as high as possible with the processors. I would go with an OEM processor, and buy the heatsink fan separately. I would recommend the MSI KT3 Ultra. This board has onboard audio, and it is a great board for the price. If you are willing to pay more I would go with the MSI KT3 Ulra-ARU, this board has raid, and usb 2.0. The raid is helpful if you are going to connect more than four ide devices to your computer.

The best bang for the buck is the Radeon 8500LE, it is a great video card for the price.

I hope this helps!
 
So far the recommendations are epox kt333, GA-7VRXP, and Abit NV7-133R for an athlon sytem.

Two of the boards mentioned are raid which I said I wasn't planning to use:
GA-7VRXP, and Abit NV7-133R

Lets say I bought one because it was highly recommended, the price was right etc.. But I didn't plan to use raid.

Can I still use it just like it wasn't raid? Explain if so?

Like most people I just want something thats going to be as trouble free as possible. Of course there is a lemon with everything I know.. Boy do I know

Thanks for the response so far,
 
Hey

check out the KT333 motherboard review at www.tomshardware.com. GA-7VRXP supports RAID, but you don't HAVE to use it. 🙂 I'm not using it either. What kind of internet connection are you going to have? If you are planning to get a LAN card, go with GA-7VRXP. It's a great board.

Either GA-7VRXP or MSI KT333 Ultra. Can't go wrong with them.
 
I just finished reading about the KT333 boards over @ toms hardware a few mins ago and I come back here to find your post. Hum!. someones watching me! 🙂 Thanks for the link anyway. Yes the GA-7VRXP board sounds really nice and the price is right to. I've also read to make sure I get bios ver. 2.0 for the GA-7VRXP as well and I should have no probs.

Me and my wife are connected with a linksys network so I already have two network cards which are problem free. I hate to buy something I don't need but again the GA-7VRXP boards price sounds good. I guess theres no harm in having extra parts

Thanks again.
 
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