So I'm building a new computer (Parts from Newegg)

[i8yourparents]

Hey, I am about 2 months away from having enough money for this setup, so tell me what you think:

Antec Life Style Series Black Case With 380W Power Supply, Model:Sonata.

Plextor 8X DVD-RW/+RW Drive, Model PX-708A/SW, Retail
Specifications:
Write Speed: 40X CD-R, 24X CD-RW, 8X DVD+R, 4X DVD-R, 4X DVD+RW, 2X DVD-RW
Read Speed: 40X CD-ROM/CD-R, 12X DVD-ROM
Interface: Internal IDE
Buffer: 2 MB

SONY MPF920 Beige 1.44MB 3.5INCH Floppy Disk Drive, OEM

Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model HDS722525VLSA80, OEM

Asus 875P Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU, Model "P4C800-E DELUXE" -RETAIL
Specifications:
Supported CPU: Socket 478 Pentium 4/Celeron Processors
Chipset: Intel 875P + ICH5R
FSB: 800/533/400MHz
RAM: 4x DIMM support Dual Channel DDR400/333/266 Max 4GB
IDE: 2x UltraDMA 100, 1x UltraDMA 133(RAID 0,1/0+1) up to 6 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X, 5x PCI

Intel Pentium 4/ 3.2C GHz 800MHz FSB, 512K Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - Retail

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI Sound Card -RETAIL

Asus RADEON 9800XT Video Card, 256MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/VIVO, 8X AGP, Model "9800XT/TVD" -RETAIL

and 2 "2x 512kb Corsair RAM"

All told:

TOTAL: $1996.98

Comments?

 

[Shuzer]

Looks good, except, for that price, I'd swap out the P4 3.2 for an Athlon 64 3200/3000 along with swapping mobos, obviously

That way you get a better processor, plus it's more future ready (especially when the 64bit Windows platform hits)

 

[Sgt.Igneri]

Comments, comments, comments.

Waaaay overkill on the CPU and GPU, bro. The 3.2 is way too much. The 9800XT is way too much. A 2.8, and a 9800 pro would suit it better.

Also, instead of getting one 250gb sata drive, get like 2-4 WD 36gb SATA raptors and put them in a raid array.

Anyway, forget about wasting all that money now. I know you said 2 months, but believe me in 2 months there will be a huge amount of new things and brand new techs out. Wait for BTX mobos, then upgrade.

 

[Asus]

Good solid setup. Few things.
Do you really need an 8x burner or want to spend the money on that?
Looking at the 9800XT and a P4 3.2ghz I guess you would. But there are no 8x discs out yet just so you know.

How much total RAM are you going to have?
If it is 2x512 = 1gb then great.
If it what you mean by 2 "2x 512mb corsair RAM" is 2 dual paged sticks of 512 to give you 2gb of ram then read this.

Overall it is a good solid setup but IMO it is a bit pricy for the performance and these parts (video card/ CPU mainly) are going to drop in price soon as there are going to be a lot of new things coming out. Don't want you to spend a ton of money and then a few weeks later wonder why it isnt the best anymore but rather almost average highend and the prices are lowered.

 

[i8yourparents]

Oh BTW I forgot to add that I was considering 1 or 2 74 raptors

But take a look at this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/200311141/index.html

This is my first computer I'm actually building from scratch...

Also, I'm kinda waiting out for the new pentiums 3.4's with a 1 MB cache and such

(AMD rapes my inner child, even with the 64)

And finally to Asus, thanks for the info about the RAM, what should I get instead if I want a ton of RAM? 2x 1GHz?

 

[i8yourparents]

AAARRGGG I had a good reply but it had a 404 when I submitted, and so now it is lost, but anyways here was the gist:

I forgot to add I was considering 1 or 2 74g raptors instead, but look at this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/200311141/index.html

I am also waitng somewhat for the new pentiums to come out

Traditionally I loathe AMD, because of many bad experiences, so I do not trust their processors.

And thanks ASUS for the info. What should I get instead?



EDIT: Hahaha I guess it DID submit...sorry for the double post :dozey:

 

[Asus]

2 1gb sticks should work instead.
That is 4 banks (each 1gb stick being 2 high density banks).
512mb sticks are also 2 banks so getting 4 of them would be too much and have the performance hit.

 

[i8yourparents]

Just curious, but what are the new technologies on the horizon in terms of GFX and Processors?

 

[ImJacksAmygdala]

New sockets, PCIexpess graphics cards, dual DDR2, new chipsets with PCIexpress. Look at AMD's San Diego chip and ATI's upcomming chipsets and PCIexpress graphics cards. If you have to buy now I think you could do a little better for the price you quoted...

I just made a system for my friend.

Intel 3.0C
Intel Canterwood board
1gig (2x512) DDR400 Coarsair Twinx1024c2 pro
9800pro128
Audigy2 ZS
Lite-On 52X CDRW
Antec Sonata case 380watt PS
150gig Seagate SATA
17" LCD 500:1 20ms
Logitech Z640 5.1 speakers

We shopped around alot and got all of that for about $1900!! Hes not an overclocker or an enthusiast gamer. He wanted the best performance for his money with the best stability and I think at the time that was the best system for him.

Personally I'd check out Monarch Computers and see what they have to offer as far as complete custom systems, custom barebones systems, and motherboard bundles. Depending on how you want to shop you could get the barebones and pick the rest up on Ebay as long as its retail stuff from a trusted seller. Or go to sites like sickdeals.net and see what deals are out there.

I'm waiting.... It should be out by MAY 2004 untill the new stuff I mentioned is out.

 

[Asus]

Monarch Computers is a good place. They are different in a way than newegg.
They sell a lot of server parts along with all the standard stuff with pretty good prices. We have ordered from them when buying parts/upgrades for our (LSclan) game server. We needed an extra stick of ECC Ram and we emailed them and they shipped it out next day air for us since we requested it as a buisness server emergency. hehe

 

[TrueWeltall]

Yesterday I got my computer parts from newegg, greatest place ever. I got over night shipping and nothing was damage. They put tons of peanuts into the boxes I just got a p4 2.4ghz C, 1gig corsair xms 3200, abit ic7-g, radeon 9600xt, 120gig hd, audigy 2 zs

 

[i8yourparents]

New sockets, PCIexpess graphics cards, dual DDR2, new chipsets with PCIexpress. Look at AMD's San Diego chip and ATI's upcomming chipsets and PCIexpress graphics cards. If you have to buy now I think you could do a little better for the price you quoted...

I just made a system for my friend.

Intel 3.0C
Intel Canterwood board
1gig (2x512) DDR400 Coarsair Twinx1024c2 pro
9800pro128
Audigy2 ZS
Lite-On 52X CDRW
Antec Sonata case 380watt PS
150gig Seagate SATA
17" LCD 500:1 20ms
Logitech Z640 5.1 speakers

We shopped around alot and got all of that for about $1900!! Hes not an overclocker or an enthusiast gamer. He wanted the best performance for his money with the best stability and I think at the time that was the best system for him.

Personally I'd check out Monarch Computers and see what they have to offer as far as complete custom systems, custom barebones systems, and motherboard bundles. Depending on how you want to shop you could get the barebones and pick the rest up on Ebay as long as its retail stuff from a trusted seller. Or go to sites like sickdeals.net and see what deals are out there.

I'm waiting.... It should be out by MAY 2004 untill the new stuff I mentioned is out.

Quite interesting, I don't HAVE to buy now, but now is the time i actually have enough monsey to make a purchase like this. Don't like rushing in and wasting money. Also take another look at the price I posted... Same/better hardware than what you have there for less than 100 more

 

[Asus]

He listed a 17" LCD which would take off ~400$ give or take.

 

[ImJacksAmygdala]

He listed a 17" LCD which would take off ~400$ give or take.

The LCD monitor was $525.00. We did ALOT of shopping around. My buddy told me what he wanted to do with his PC which was to run DX9.0 games at an average of 50fps, have 5.1 channel sound, have a flat LCD, and have stability over performance. I had to meet all of those requirements for less than $2000. I really think I accomplished that and I am waiting for him to benchmark the system with Aquamark. If you subtract the monitor I think you can better realize just how good of a bargain he got for that system. He purchased a barebones system and filled it in with retail components carefully chosen on Ebay. In hindsight I could have saved him an additional 80-100 dollars using rebates and sales found on sickdeals.net that I didn't know about untill after he made the purchase. I think you could do much better if you shop around some more.

You have some good components but please allow me to throw my 2 sense in.

Antec Sonata 380watt
P4 2.6C or 2.8C
Asus P4C800-E
1gig (2x512mb) DDR500 Corsair TwinX1024C2 Pro
Plextor 8X DVD-RW/+RW Drive, Model PX-708A/SW, Retail
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI Sound Card -RETAIL
Ati Radeon 9800pro 128mb
SONY MPF920 Beige 1.44MB 3.5INCH Floppy Disk Drive, OEM
Seagate SATA 120gig or get 2 WD Raptor 36gig drives in Raid 0
I even suggest getting the Radeon 9800pro AIW card

That system should run between $1800-$2100 depending where you shop.

I don't recommend the P4 3.2 or the 9800XT because you can get almost the same performance out of a 2.6C using DDR500 and increasing the FSB in the BIOS from 200mhz to 250mhz at stock CPU voltage using the retail CPU heatsink. You can easily OC that 9800pro to perform almost as good as that 9800XT too.

At this point I can't even recommend the Canterwood now that the 3400+ has entered the market. Whatever you do you want to go 64bit if you want to focus on gaming performance for this system. Wait for a 64bit chipset that supports the new socket. PCIexpress, DDR2, SATA, and dual DDR. Should be sometime in March, but I advise waiting untill May when the second revisions of the motherboards hit the shelves.

Its still all speculation, but I have put alot of effort into researching this information so I would take it with a grain of salt, but understand it is based on a educated guess from a variety of sources. I tried to stick to press releases and not rumors to determine the near future of Intels, AMD's, VIA's, and ATI's roadmaps for processors, chipsets, and graphics cards. (ATI's plans for motherboard chipsets too).

If you can, wait for the chipset I explained above in May. If it doesn't exist by then, stop waiting and buy whats on the market only if your current system will not run the DX9.0 games that are on the market at that time. If your current system will run them then you should wait till the chipset described does finally come out. Don't buy based on whats the latest on the market, but rather how your current system handles the applications you want to use. The only exception is really right now because the new standards are a couple months away offering new connectivity and technology. The performance increases will be much greater than the normal incremental increases of the last 2 years. Thats the best advice I can give you.

 

[i8yourparents]

I don't recommend the P4 3.2 or the 9800XT because you can get almost the same performance out of a 2.6C using DDR500 and increasing the FSB in the BIOS from 200mhz to 250mhz at stock CPU voltage using the retail CPU heatsink. You can easily OC that 9800pro to perform almost as good as that 9800XT too.

At this point I can't even recommend the Canterwood now that the 3400+ has entered the market. Whatever you do you want to go 64bit if you want to focus on gaming performance for this system. Wait for a 64bit chipset that supports the new socket. PCIexpress, DDR2, SATA, and dual DDR. Should be sometime in March, but I advise waiting untill May when the second revisions of the motherboards hit the shelves.

Its still all speculation, but I have put alot of effort into researching this information so I would take it with a grain of salt, but understand it is based on a educated guess from a variety of sources. I tried to stick to press releases and not rumors to determine the near future of Intels, AMD's, VIA's, and ATI's roadmaps for processors, chipsets, and graphics cards. (ATI's plans for motherboard chipsets too).

If you can, wait for the chipset I explained above in May. If it doesn't exist by then, stop waiting and buy whats on the market only if your current system will not run the DX9.0 games that are on the market at that time. If your current system will run them then you should wait till the chipset described does finally come out. Don't buy based on whats the latest on the market, but rather how your current system handles the applications you want to use. The only exception is really right now because the new standards are a couple months away offering new connectivity and technology. The performance increases will be much greater than the normal incremental increases of the last 2 years. Thats the best advice I can give you.

Wow...thanks fo the info. I'm still not very well informed about the capabilities of certain hardware, so this was quite a helpful read.

The thing is, I have reservations about AMD (long story), so I am kind of looking for an intel, as they have always been stable for me. While the 64bit bandwagon is something I would like to jump on, again, AMD is not for me :/. Also, I traditionally don't like to overclock things just to be able to catch up to the higher-tier products in a line.

Also, the PC i have now, the one I am typing this with is a Intel 1.4 GHz; nvidia geforce2 Mx 400, 40 gb hard drive, and a slow-ass cd burner. 3 years old comp

I thought around now is a reasonably good time to buy as I have the money, and to upgrade my base computer would cost the same as just getting parts for an entirely new system.

Also, one of my main caveats is that my computer now has awful storage capacity, and I am looking for a fast hard drive (raptors) for game access and maybe a much larger, slower one for mass data storage. The thing is, I really do need a TON of storage, as I often work with large video files (1-2+ gigs), and to say it lightly, my harddrive is cramped. Then again, I am an avid gamer and really like to have top performance.

Western digital recently released a 74 gig version of their raptors, right? How much would a raid 0 of those set me back?

 

[Asus]

260$ for a 74gb Raptor (USD) so about 520$ for 148gb of RAID 0 harddrive space. lol
122$ for a 36.7gb Raptor. 'Bout 244$ for almost 74gb in RAID.

 

[TheOtherDude]

Even the Intel platform should get a nice boost in the relatively near future (they have to keep up with AMD, you know, and with their deep pockets I'm sure they will). There are all sorts of reasons to wait to get a new Mobo/CPU combo. Short term (early February), you have Prescott. Unfortunately, it won't give you much of a boost over current offerings with the exception of SSE3 (which won't help at all short term, but could potentially pay off big in the long term, if you're planning on keeping the CPU for 1.5-2 years.) If you wait a bit longer (late March), you could get an Alderwood chipset which will support DDR2, PCI Express, and the Socket 775 Prescott (though the 775 Prescott won't come until later). Realistically, none of these new technologies will provide much of a performance boost, but instead they will make your system much more upgradable. If you wait even longer (Summer), you could get a Socket 775 Prescott. I'm not too sure of the details on this processor, but it is possible that it could have 64 bit capabilities enabled (I consider it very likely to have 64 bit built in, but they might not be enabled or even compatable with the AMD64 technology that the software companies have adopted, rendering it useless).

 

[Gossoon]

Everything above is pretty good advice, although i lean towards Amd for the price/value ratio. Also, i recommend getting a second optical drive, even if it's just a cheap cd-rom. You can pick them up for $20, probably less, and they make life a lot easier when installing multidisc programs and cd copying.

 

[TrueWeltall]

Dont bother with 64bit processors until 64 bit programs come out. Waste of money. You'll be fine with anything 2.4 ghz and up, my 9600xt can run everything full detail with 16x af on. (halo, ofp, ofp:r, rvs, gr, hl duhhh, sw:ja) If you want to go low budget get an amd but dont expect the performence. (3200<)