mid-range system question....xp vs. 64

[nny]

so i'm going to be building a mid-range system for my brother in a month. he's looking to spend about 1k on it, and will be using it to rip/play dvds and some minor gaming. I just built a system for myself (64 3000, asus k8vse, 9800pro) but i'm wondering if a 64 is overkill for him, or if its a good investment. would you still suggest a barton 2800/9600pro setup for someone who wont be playing the latest games, or is the performance/insurance difference on a 64 3000 that much better when 64 windows comes along?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Personally, I don't see a reason to buy anything other than AMD64 chips now.

But he could definitely save some money getting an Athlon XP.

 

[Runner20]

It all depends on the budget. If you want to save cash then get Athlon XP, otherwise get 64 2800. Those XP's are still fast today so you wont be making a bad choice if you went that route.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

I have an athlon xp oced to 2.4ghz. I play and rip and burn dvd's, and play games on my time off work, becoming less and less every week it seems. I am going to hold on to my system fro a few months yet. I am starting to see the age of it though. I build a couple computers a day and repair as many as I can get my hands on so I sede teh differences betwwen them. A64's are much faster, especially in burning and ripping dvd's. I am also going to suggest getting him windows xp, I have found through it's media optimizations it will ripo and burn and play faster than the less cpu streesful 2k.

 

[0roo0roo]

frys 2500+ and m/b combo for like 60bux. cost/perf ratio is unbeatable. put extra money into vid card.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

For $1000 I'd get an A64 3000 (EDIT: it looks like 2800 is more realistic for cost) and a 9800pro and 1GB of RAM and then try to squeeze the rest of the stuff in under budget. That setup should leave about $350-$400 for Case, PSU, HDD, MB, and CD/DVD. I'd drop down to a 2800 plus if I had to make some sacrifices.

Another option is a P4 2.8 or 3.0 Northwood. They run about the same price as the equivalent A64 but are not as good as games but better @ encoding (not sure if that is necessary for the DVD stuff, or if it is only MP3's).

Anyway does that $1000 include a monitor, or does he already have that?

If I were buying now I'd probably get:

Proc 2800+ = $190
RAM 1GB = $200
MB = $140
Case + PSU = $100
Video 9800pro = $210
DVD RW = $80
HDD 120 GB = $80

Total = $1100 (could probably find some better deals to get around $1000)

-D'oh!

 

[nny]

yah, its looking more and more like a 64 is the way to go in terms of lasting power. i'll probably get him a 3000 (so he gets a 2ghz), 512 of ram so he can upgrade it in a year or so. a couple of questions:

1. should i get him 3500 ram or just 3200, since he's not going to be overclocking. i was looking at mushkin lvl1 3500 for about 150$, but is there a better deal?

2. since he's not itching for doom3 or hl2 (he's still playing diablo2 believe it or not), is a 9600pro sufficient for all recent games? he'll probably get CoD, but he's not an avid gamer.

3. what mobo should i use? i know there was a recent generation of new ones, but do they offer significant advantages over, say, an asus k8vse?


thanks