Semi newbie needs advice on building new pc

[daisyanne]

Thinking of getting the following and wondered if anyone could see any glaring incompatibilities with any of the components:- (Ive chosen the bits and will get hubby to put them together!!)

Intel Pentium 4 "Prescott" 3.0GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology
Asus P4P800S-E Deluxe (Socket 478) Motherboard
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB SATA 8MB Cache
CoolerMaster Praetorian PAC-T01-E1 - Silver (No PSU)
GeForce 6800 Extreme Gamers Edition 128MB DDR TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP)
(GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC
OR
(2 x GeIL 512MB PC3200 Golden Value CAS2.5 (GD3200-512V) -OUT OF STOCK
Antec TruePower 480W PSU
LiteOn SOHC-5232K 52x/52x/32x/16x CD-RW/DVD Combo)

Also wondering if dropping the ram to 512 and getting a 256mb graphics card (maybe ATI Radeon 9800pro) would be better than the above specs. I want to stay in the £700 area for the lot.

Thanks for any help.

 

[bobsmith1492]

The 6800 is a lot better than the 9800 pro regardless of the amount of ram.

Also, I'd suggest looking into an Athlon 64 processor instead... for the price of that prescott (or cheaper even?) you could get a lot faster AMD based system.

 

[dmw16]

If that Extreme Gamers Edition of the 6800 is the one made by Asus for like $375 then it is a bad choice. Spend another $25 and get the GT. Infact, newegg has the 6800gt for $385 today.

 

[DrMindbender]

No, I think new tech will do you better than old tech so keep the 6800. 1 gig or ram seems to be good for games and other intensive programs.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
The 6800 is a lot better than the 9800 pro regardless of the amount of ram.

Also, I'd suggest looking into an Athlon 64 processor instead... for the price of that prescott (or cheaper even?) you could get a lot faster AMD based system.

I would get a 6800GT, and an Athlon64 system, probably a 3200+ newcastle on a socket 754 board, and Mushkin level1 ram.

 

[nick1985]

i would get the athlon64 over than prescott

 

[daisyanne]

Thanks for the suggestions. Im in UK and the 6800GT is about $80(dollars) more and im already beyond budget. I want to play things like Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow, Thief III and maybe Doom3, so do u think the GT is that much better and therefore worth the overspend?

Thanks

Daisyanne

 

[DrMindbender]

If you can afford it, go for it. It'll be a bigger boost. But don't go up to an ultra, because you'll be a bit cpu-limted. But on the other hand if you do more strategy/roleplaying or third-person games and have maybe one fps that you like to play, it's not so vital.

 

[syconub]

Originally posted by: nick1985
i would get the athlon64 over than prescott

^^ trust him, he helped build my computer


-I have been using intel for all my computers, but this new one that was just build has amd, and it runs much better. AMD is a little cheaper too.

 

[Tea Bag]

Since you have some higher priced items as choices, perhaps forefitting the Prescott for a socket 939 solution would be another route to go also.

 

[RedShirt]

Originally posted by: Tea Bag
Since you have some higher priced items as choices, perhaps forefitting the Prescott for a socket 939 solution would be another route to go also.

Or going with a Socket 754 Solution would save more money.

 

[daisyanne]

Thanks all. I had an AMD and dont want one anymore. The deal i can get on the P4 is only a few pounds dearer.

Thanks for the advice on the card though. Ill definitely think about the GT now.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: daisyanne
Thanks all. I had an AMD and dont want one anymore. The deal i can get on the P4 is only a few pounds dearer.

Thanks for the advice on the card though. Ill definitely think about the GT now.

have fun getting something more expensive and slower :thumbsup:

 

[peter7921]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: daisyanne
Thanks all. I had an AMD and dont want one anymore. The deal i can get on the P4 is only a few pounds dearer.

Thanks for the advice on the card though. Ill definitely think about the GT now.

have fun getting something more expensive and slower :thumbsup:

And much hotter!

If you really want to go intel, atleast get the Northwood core which will serve you better at that clock speed.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
I would get a 6800GT, and an Athlon64 system, probably a 3200+ newcastle on a socket 754 board, and Mushkin level1 ram.

If saving money, why Mushkin level1 ram esp. on the A64 platform?

Not much of a difference in performance between value/basic and more expensive (tighter timings) ram.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Algere

Originally posted by: Markfw900
I would get a 6800GT, and an Athlon64 system, probably a 3200+ newcastle on a socket 754 board, and Mushkin level1 ram.

If saving money, why Mushkin level1 ram esp. on the A64 platform?

Not much of a difference in performance between value/basic and more expensive (tighter timings) ram.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: daisyanne
Thanks all. I had an AMD and dont want one anymore.

Care to elaborate? We could use some pro-intel stories around here

 

[daisyanne]

i suppose its because ive had a couple of incompatibility problems with my amd/mobo - web cam wont work but will on hubbys P4 laptop, things like that. also mainly because i would have to research what mobo to go with the athlon 64 and even more mainly (forgive the grammer!) because i need to order it later tonight for delivery on Friday otherwise have to wait another week and will probably get more and more confused.

have taken note of comments about the northwood, and will look into that. so thanks for that.

forgot to say that in overclockers uk the amd 64 is more expensive than the P4

 

[imported_alp]

that's because you have a VIA chipset. get an nforce 3 (for a64) and you might not have the same problems.

 

[Steg55]

Originally posted by: Algere

Originally posted by: Markfw900
I would get a 6800GT, and an Athlon64 system, probably a 3200+ newcastle on a socket 754 board, and Mushkin level1 ram.

If saving money, why Mushkin level1 ram esp. on the A64 platform?

Not much of a difference in performance between value/basic and more expensive (tighter timings) ram.

The A64 is perhaps the most sensite platform to Low-Latency/High quality ram. In comparion the P4 has stupidly high latencys so LL ram doesnt make a difference and AXPs have such low CPU<=>Northbridge bandwidth that its doesnt make a huge difference.

Just have a look at one of the many Anandtech articles on RAM - A64s deserve decent LL ram - it really does make a difference.

Steg

P.S. It is definatly worth spending the cash on the GT over the 6800GE - 4 more pipelines and an extra vertex shading unit really make the difference.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: alp
that's because you have a VIA chipset. get an nforce 3 (for a64) and you might not have the same problems.

you forgot the 1 ghz Tbird..

if money is tight an AXP mobile-based nf2 setup would be only a little off on real world performance ..but that's just me talking ..gl on whatever you assemble

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: Steg55

Originally posted by: Algere

Originally posted by: Markfw900
I would get a 6800GT, and an Athlon64 system, probably a 3200+ newcastle on a socket 754 board, and Mushkin level1 ram.

If saving money, why Mushkin level1 ram esp. on the A64 platform?

Not much of a difference in performance between value/basic and more expensive (tighter timings) ram.

The A64 is perhaps the most sensite platform to Low-Latency/High quality ram. In comparion the P4 has stupidly high latencys so LL ram doesnt make a difference and AXPs have such low CPU<=>Northbridge bandwidth that its doesnt make a huge difference.

Just have a look at one of the many Anandtech articles on RAM - A64s deserve decent LL ram - it really does make a difference.

Steg

P.S. It is definatly worth spending the cash on the GT over the 6800GE - 4 more pipelines and an extra vertex shading unit really make the difference.

Got a link to these AT articles comparing value/cheap ram to LL ram?

Cause all of these say different

AT GH Sticky
ExtremeTech
THG

&amp; with the money saved from going the value route over low latency ram. You could easily get better performance by investing the savings into a higher clocked CPU or video card.