**** New guy here! NEED YOUR HELP ASAP! ****

[ls1dude]

Hi guys. I'm building a pc for my little brother next week,and i've been out of the hardware seen for a long time. He needs 7 items of hardware, and money isn't of concern. What he needs is

CPU= Preferably a P4

M/b= ?

Ram = (p4's still rambus,or ddr?)

Vid card = New radeon for sale yet? if not geforce 4600? (best brand)

Any 400+ watt p.s.

Sound card

Ethernet card.

If any of you could fill this "form" out for me,i would greatly appreciate it! I don't have the time to research my hardware b/c of work, but all opinions are welcome! Thanks!





Lance

 

[wfbberzerker]

what kind of price range are you looking for?

 

[TD77077]

I'd go to newegg.com and start shopping. Great prices, including shipping, and gets there fast.

Any P4 as fast as you want to go.
Anandtech used the Asus P4S533 MB for their video tests; a good, reliable board.
Gainward, Leadtech or MSI for Nvidia video cards; get the "made by ATI" if you go ATI. Personally I think the drivers/compatibility is less of a problem with Nvidia.
Allied/Foxconn makes a very good & affordable 400W PS.
Sound cards are definitely up to personal discression - I won't suggest any because I generally don't use anything high-end.
Ethernet card - anything with a Realtek chip will be reliable (Linksys is perhaps best).

If you are going to overclock anything, you might have to be more choosy with MB and video card.

Good luck & have fun.

 

[Harvey]

CPU= Preferably a P4 -- Why? Not to start the same old argument, but either a P4/Celeron or Athon/Duron will do a great job. Except for some very specific applications, it's more a question of budget and how much crunch power your brother needs than anything else. Read the reviews and tech articles on the main site and others.

M/b= ? -- Depends on the chip. Again, see the reviews, here and elsewhere. Also, read the forums to see what problems others are encountering and how they have been resolved.

Ram = (p4's still rambus,or ddr?) -- Yes, you will need some.

Vid card = New radeon for sale yet? if not geforce 4600? (best brand) -- Same as above. Read the reviews. Check the forums for problems and solutions.

Any 400+ watt p.s.

Sound card -- Some motherboards have decent sound built in. If so, you may want to upgrade, later, but you can get the system running and add a better one after you've had time to check out your options.

Ethernet card. -- I got my Hawking NIC on sale at Frys for around $7.00. It works as well as any more expensive card I've seen. If you buy it locally from a reputable dealer, the worst that can happen with an inexpensive card is you'll have to exchange it.

If you live in a city with a number of good local dealers, it's worth a few extra bucks to buy from places where your recourse is a ten minute drive, instead of lost time on hold, and shipping charges don't exist. The same is true for various brands of similar parts, such as vid cards based on the same chipset. Unless you have a good reason, such as documented performance superiority, for one brand over another, the ability to exchange items locally can save a lot of hassles.

Sounds like your little brother has a great big brother.

 

[CrazySaint]

If money is truly of no concern, then:

CPU: P4 2.53GHz (2.6 and 2.8 will be out soon)

Motherboard: Asus P4B533-V

RAM: Samsung Original PC2700 (set the mem ratio in the BIOS at either 3:4 or 4:5

Video card: The new ATI card is out, but not the one you want (9000 is out,9700 isn't) So get the Gainward Ti4600 if you can't wait a few weeks for the Radeon 9700

PSU: Antec TruePower 400w

Sound card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz