New Computer

[busia12]

Hello,

I'm sure this board receives a lot of these threads, but I just have to ask the professionals.

I'm buying a new machine. I have the monitor and all the peripherals already. I'm ordering the parts and assembling myself, and trying to stick to about a 1000-1200 dollar budget. I have student status at Georgia Tech, so don't include the price of the OS and software. Can anyone answer any of the questions below??

1) Vista? XP? I'm considering partitioning my hard drive and running them both. I like that idea because I'll have a solid base to play on while the Microsoft folks work out the remaining kinks in their new OS. Agree??

2) Since I'm strongly considering Vista, I know I'll be needing some serious RAM. I'm thinking at least 2g from what I've read....is 4g worth the price hike? What is the price difference between the 2 and 4gig options??

3) Graphics card.... whats the most "VALUABLE" card on the market? I don't need the biggest baddest card out there.....just the one with the most practical bang to buck ratio.

Any help you have to offer would be appreciated. I've never built my own system before, though this will be my 5th custom built machine. I'll be building under the guidance of a professional, however. I'll probably update this post with more questions if it turns out this is a good place to get them answered. Thanks.

 

[busia12]

bump

 

[busia12]

please anyone? say something!

 

[lxskllr]

1) If you already have XP, why not? That's what I'm doing. If you don't, just use Vista. It works well enough and you shouldn't have any problems.

2) ram's very cheap now. I'd go ahead and get 4gb. I'm going to pick up 2 more sticks shortly.

3) don't know. I haven't been following gfx lately. I'm using a 7900gs, but I think you could get a better bang for the buck card, especially since you're getting Vista. Get something DX10, I prefer Nvidia.

 

[busia12]

I'm definitely looking at Nvidia myself.....Thanks for the input.

 

[moonsite]

Nvidia just came out with the new 8600 and 8500 series. It supported DX10 and has onboard video decoder. If you're not into serious gaming, check them out.

 

[igloo15]

1.) I am sticking with XP pro for a while til vista gets alittle more driver support or dx10 games come out.
2.) 4gb is so cheap that there is no reason not to. You can get very good ddr-800 ram in 4gb for like 250 or less.
3.) The new ATI card is supposedly going to be a really good bang for your buck. Right now the 8800gts series seem to be best bang for your buck though.

 

[jkresh]

if you care about gaming (and depending on the display you have) either an 8800gts or depending on price the 2900xt (amd's answer) would be your best bang for your buck, since the 2900xt suppsoedly as hdmi sound built in that will likely give you better then on board sound and save the price of an xfi... Since you can get the OS from your school I suggest you get vista and dual boot (I am dual booting but haven't gone back to xp for 6+ weeks). 4gigs of ram only makes sense if you are running vista 64 (or xp 64) the 32 bit versions don't make use of it and vista makes much better use of ram in general then xp does.

 

[busia12]

Okay, thanks for you're input....

Whats the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit ??

 

[Eirgorn]

Go Jackets!!!

<--- IE '04

64 bit will allow your system to "see" more RAM - 32 bit only sees up to 4G and some of that may be shared with your GPU and other items (but 4G is usually still more than enough for most peoples needs).

 

[Noema]

1) Vista? XP? I'm considering partitioning my hard drive and running them both. I like that idea because I'll have a solid base to play on while the Microsoft folks work out the remaining kinks in their new OS. Agree??

I agree with waiting for Microsoft to work out the kinks on Vista...but I also suggest forgoing Vista altogether until the end of the year and using XP. If you dual boot you are going to stick to one OS or the other, and dual booting is usually not worth the trouble. I say wait until SP1 is released, specially if you are planning on gaming on that PC. That's what I'm doing anyway. I like Vista and I look forward to it, but I think it's still a tad green.

2) Since I'm strongly considering Vista, I know I'll be needing some serious RAM. I'm thinking at least 2g from what I've read....is 4g worth the price hike?

Not in XP. Plus you won't be able to use all 4 Gigs unless you go with a 64-bit Windows. I suggest you stick with 2Gigs, and then get two more at the end of the year, along with Vista x64. That's what I'll do, anyway. Vista can really, really take advantage of those 4Gigs with Superfetch, but XP32 won't be able to see them, let alone make use of them. It'll just sit there. 2Gigs is enough for now.

3) Graphics card.... whats the most "VALUABLE" card on the market? I don't need the biggest baddest card out there.....just the one with the most practical bang to buck ratio.

Probably the 7900GS, or the X1950Pro if you prefer AMD/ATI.

 

[lxskllr]

I definitely wouldn't buy 2 O/Ss. If you don't have XP just go with Vista. Noema made a valid point about not really using dual boot much. I haven't been in XP for over 1 month. Vista's been working great for me. If you go with Vista you could have some small problems(as can be expected being an early adopter) but they should be minimal (I've had almost 0 problems). Vista is the future though. You'll get it at some point. I don't think it's worth wasting money on XP just to use it for a year or so. If you already have a copy of XP you can use, then go ahead and dual boot. It's nice knowing it's there if I need it, and disk space is cheap.

With ram prices as low as they are now I'd go for 4gb. With Vista 32bit(XP as well) you'll only be able to use 3.2-3.5gb of the ram. That would still be useful in Vista for Superfetch though. Then if you end up getting 64bit in the future you'll be set. I have the 64bit media, but I doubt I'll use it until my next major upgrade or O/S reinstall.