need advice on a new system please

[wuzza]

need advice on a new system please
hi, i'm buying a new system this week, and have been out of the game for too long.

On a budget and just wondering out of the following choices, which should I take, and also what elements can you afford to go cheap on, and which ones should you definitely not...?
i've been offered a system for a good price, and it is fairly set though allows some changing around as you can see below.

I realise it's a lot of questions, so I appreciate anyone answering some or all of them. Opinions and hearsay are just as welcome as fact. Thanks guys.

CPU Pentium 4 2.4 or Athlon 2400XP? Please don't say neither as i have no other choice atm. Athlon is cheaper, but not by much.

CDRW is standard, but I want a DVD player. Should I get a combo of both, or is it better to buy a dedicated drive for DVD-ing? Are DVD-R's worth getting into yet, or should i wait?

Nvidia GeForce MX 440 64mb or ATI Radeon 9000 or avoid both?
same price.

i'm not mad into gaming, but do like it on occasion. I would really like a TFT monitor but is it really that bad for gaming? I'm willing to splash extra cash on a monitor as I do a lot of photoshop and illustrating, and tend to look at it for a very long time.
i'm in korea and TFT's are probably cheaper here than anywhere else.

Skate Barracuda 80GB HDD. yay or nay?

Is there significant difference between PC2700 and PC3200 RAM?

Motherboard is a Unitech KT 400 Pro. it has built in sound so should i save on buying PCI soundcard, or pay an extra 10 dollars for a Yamaha? (the only one on offer)

 

[wuzza]

anything at all would help

 

[Corporate Thug]

ok, the 2400+ is MUCH cheaper than the 2.4C. i personally would get the barton 2500+ and use the money that i save to upgrade the video card to somewhere along the lines of a 9500pro/9600pro. as for the DVD-r, since you are on a budjet, you can hold off on that, instead of the barracuda, i would get the western digital SE 80 GB from newegg or jump on one of the many hot deals goin around on the hotdeals thread. there is a siginificant difference between pc2700 and pc3200, get 3200 is you plan on overclocking, otherwise stick to 2700. if you can, go with a nforce2 board, the 8rda+ are a steal @ $85 @newegg. hope i helped some

 

[fumbduck]

in korea huh?

I would say, P4 for stability. I used to always go AMD, but once i switched to P4 i never want to go back. However, that motherboard you have, Unitech KT400, is AMD only, so go with a 2400XP if thats what you have.

I would get seperate drives for CDRW and DVD. I bought my 40x burner here on anandtech for 20$, and my 16x dvd for 30$. Not bad.


Video card, a GeForce 3 will out perform both of those cards listed, and is probably cheaper. However, i dont think GF3's had DVI connection for LCD's, and you want to get a TFT LCD. It will still work, just not perfect.

If SKATE is actually seagate, then yes, that is a great harddrive. The barracuda IV or V line is very good and quiet and stable. Excellent choice.

As for ram, you will only notice the difference if you overclock, PC2700 will be fine for a 2400xp.

 

[Kartajan]

CPU Pentium 4 2.4C
DVD/CDRW combo. I would wait on DVD-R until you decide that you actually need it.
ATI Radeon 9000 - Assuming relatively low amounts/ intensity of gaming
I would get the highest quality LCD that you can afford. Monitors are the longest kept items in most people's systems, so be POSITIVE that it is as close to perfect as you can get.
Seagate Barracuda 80GB HDD. fine.
Is there significant difference between PC2700 and PC3200 RAM? yes. get 2700 if you get P4 2.4B, 3200 if a P42.4C

Motherboard :Unitech KT 400 Pro? never heard of them. I would get a Asus P4P800 (deluxe if onboard 1394 in a MUST, plain if not)

If you go AMD, look into NForce2 boards. Memory on them runs best synchronously, so get 2700 for 333 (166) FSB, and 3200 for 400 (200) FSB. (PC2100 for 266(133) FSB)

 

[Corporate Thug]

i think the big question mark is how much the seagate actually costs...

 

[wuzza]

Wow, thanks for all the advice.

I've settled for AMD, because I read in a review on this site that it outperforms Pentiums on 3D Max which I use a lot. Is the barton 2500 a better performer than the 2600 and 2700 that aren't Barton?

Also, i 'm kinda limited for parts as i'm in Korea. Most American companies won't (or can't?) ship here, even most sellers on e-bay won't either. So when I say the AMD is not much cheaper than the Pentium believe me. i know it should be, but it aint. If anyone can recommend a company that deals worldwide, then i'll be glad to hear from them.

The Seagate hard drive costs around 85/90 dollars which i think is very reasonable.

I found one nforce main board here, it's the A7N8X and sells for under 100 dollars, or deluxe for 150. What is the main thing to look for when looking at motherboard specs?

i've found a Samsung cdrw dvd player for just under 100 dollars so am going with that. DVD-R can wait.

Also with LCD, I presume there are more important things than size, what is the single most important?

thanks again for all the help. I thought i was fairly computer savvy 'till I came here.

 

[thraxes]

Important LCD figures:

Contrast ratio (higher is better)
Redraw rates in ms (lower is better - but best to check in a store for yourself)

As I always recommend with monitors, go look in a store and get a good first look at the monitor before you buy!

 

[wuzza]

thanks for the info. I was just going to buy off the internet, as there is no real computer parts store near me, but I've decide that you're right, the monitor is too important to take a chance on, after all it's what we use most in a computer....

 

[wuzza]

just to clarify; I'm leaning towards the 2500 or 2700 Barton. Should the NForce2 A7N8X board do the job? And does this mean I should also get the PC3200 RAM? Thanks for all the help so far

 

[x3m]

Originally posted by: wuzza
Nvidia GeForce MX 440 64mb or ATI Radeon 9000 or avoid both?
same price.

i'm not mad into gaming, but do like it on occasion. I would really like a TFT monitor but is it really that bad for gaming? I'm willing to splash extra cash on a monitor as I do a lot of photoshop and illustrating, and tend to look at it for a very long time.
i'm in korea and TFT's are probably cheaper here than anywhere else.

None of those.

Buy a Radeon 9100 if you want a really cheap card (better than both MX440 and R9000, compareble with Geforce3). If you can pay a little more I would recommend you a FX5200, or a Ti4200 (ti4200 is little more expensive but a lot better).

Playing with TFT is no problem. In fact, TFT really gives you a awsome picture. (why not take a look a the TFT reviews here at anand?). Samsung 172T (17") is my choice. Or a 191T if you want 19", but both uses the 1280*1024 resolution.

/Jonas a.k.a x3m

 

[Kartajan]

if you get a barton 2500 or 2700 (I didn't know they had a 2700, but I know there is a 2800), you need PC-2700 memory. 3200 will work, but unless you are overclocking, it isn't nessessary. (Nor would I recommend it.)

If you get a LCD, I would make sure both the monitor and the video card have a DVI connection. It works and looks better than a VGA type connection (native vs. converted)


** edit- the top end barton (3200 I beleive) is the one that is a 400 MHz FSB, and the only one that I would run PC3200 Memory on)

 

[wuzza]

Well thanks guys. Parts have been paid for and delivered today. A local pc repairman is going to build the system for me. Altogether, including delivery and labor, it came in at just a shade under $999, which i think is brilliant.
thanks again for all the advice; this is the final configuration I decided on;

Athlon 2500 Barton
Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo
Samsung PC 2700 RAM 1GB
SEagate Barracuda 80GB (not SATA)
Suma (korean company) FX5200 128MB Graphics Card (demonstration was awesome)
Samsung DVD Drive. Will use my other LG CDR/W as second drive
IMRI (korean again) 19" Flat screen CRT monitor

All in all, I think a very good deal. Thanks in advance for all the questions I've got once it's up and running 🙂