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General discussion

Advice on building a new computer

Feb 11, 2005 10:27AM PST

I need to buy a new one and I'm planing on building it myself...........:\

i thinking about spending like 1300MAX

but lower would be goooooooood<like somting cheaper!

rightnow i have a 800mghz not even a gig processer and a weak 128 ram

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if you have any tip on what to buy as far as like motherboards, videocards, processer, fans, cases, etc. plz feel free to post!!!!

Discussion is locked

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since ur on a budget similar to me...
Feb 11, 2005 10:54AM PST

go to cyberpowersystems.com or ibuypower.com. They both help you build solid computers custom tailored to you. Whether u build one there or make ur own, the parts u should look at are:

CPU- AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (skt.939)
Mobo- Asus A8V VIA K8T800 Pro (skt.939)
Video Card- Nivdia Geforce 6600GT or ATi Radeon 9800Pro
Sounds Card- Creative Audigy 5.1
Harddrive- Seagate 120GB 7,200RPM 8MB cache

If u are gonna use this machine for gaming, go with a flat-screen CRT montitor (at leats 17")

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Read cv4stm's reply first
Feb 12, 2005 4:47AM PST

cv4stm is right regarding that site. But you can also consider having them configure what you need and then you can get the components from Newegg.com. The products they have are pretty good while the price is definitely most acceptable, and the shipping rate is unmatched.

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Advice on building a new computer
Feb 16, 2005 6:05AM PST
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Thank you very much! here is my computer "mabe"
Feb 16, 2005 10:50AM PST

i made a rough draft of what i might get<<NOT FINAL!!!!

Dream 2005

$1,487.00

Meter Display ( None )

Flash Media Reader/Writer ( None )

Case ( [New !!!] Cotytech ATX Mid-Tower Case w/420W

Power Supply Silver )

Power Supply ( Standard Case Power Supply )

Operation System ( MS Windows XP Home Edition )

Additional Software ( Norton 2004 Anti-Virus )

Case Lighting ( None )

Case Round Cable ( Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower )

Processor ( [Socket-775] Intel

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some thoughts...
Feb 19, 2005 5:13PM PST

if possible go with SATA connections. the cables are 4 times smaller than the standard IDE cables plus the transfer rate is better. this is imo especially true on hard drives. if you can go sata on the hd.

not sure how much the 9600xt goes for but check out the newer x600/x700 series. an x700 will run you about $250 or so and will get you 256 mb of DDR3. the GPU on mine runs around 475mhz with the ram well over 800mhz. bear in mind too that my card was more expensive because it was the new PCI-Express x-16 format and not AGP 8x. if you go with an AGP board that should knock off about $50 or so off the video card compared to an X-16 model of the same thing.

good choice with the dual channel ram; just be sure the processor and motherboard support it. no sense getting something that your board isnt going to be able to use.

sound card; guess you could go with the onboard one. i've got one built into my board but i didnt use it. figured getting 5 games with an audigy 2 gamer made up for the cost there.

couple other things to consider; upgraded PSU and extra cooling fans, plus maybe a fan controller. to give you an idea i spend just under $1700 and got an
AMD 3200+ (939)
MSI Nforce4 ultra board
Asus X700 pro
160 seagate SATA HD
1 gig corsair DC VS DDR400
rosewill case
antec SL450 PSU
nexus fan controller
plextor SATA dual layer dvd rw
iiyama 19' crt
win xp pro sp2 oem
Audigy 2 zs gamer
modem, keyboard, mouse

not cutting edge but i've got my foot in the door for most new technologies that i can upgrade as money becomes available to do so.

so if you're going to go almost $1500 as is, you can do some upgrading for not a whole lot more.

for amd systems at least NForce 4 ultra and SLI chipsets are the best. not sure about intel ones, but at least that's soemthing fo you to do some research on. anyhow, a fair amounnt of this is moot if you decide to have one built for you by the major brands...

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Thank you very much! here is my computer "mabe"
Feb 23, 2005 5:35AM PST

Looks good, a SATA drive would be an improvment. Try doing one with an AMD64 and now that the new P4 6xx are out you could try that also. Then look at them side by side and get the you like the most. John

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thank you i'm now gonna try again :\
Mar 26, 2005 6:17AM PST

i'm realy wanting the best possible system for the money so i'm gonna start out brand new and think about parts

does anyone have any ideas on what i should get for making a new computer

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omg...that is all i can say
Mar 26, 2005 11:45AM PST

omg, that you people are suggesting this stuff to him

ok
dude
please listen closely...very closely

A) AGP X700's are not avliable, PCIE mid-range cards are CHEAPER than AGP, a 6600GT for AGP is around $200, for PCIE it's closer to $160...

B) Stop making PCIE out to be so expensive

C) DO NOT BUY CHEAP PSU'S!!!! which you are all doing, you need a good PSU or your risking your own components, and i can gurantee if you get a "dream machine" using a cheap PSU cuz it saves money, in less than 9 months you will be posting "help my PC won't turn on" or "my PSU died, now what do I do?"


alright
aside from that
working on a $1300 budget the first things you need to do are:

A) scrap SATA atm, you can re-work the budget later, but ATA-133 is completly capable of competing, and the difference between a 5400RPM ATA-100 HDD to a 7200RPM SATA-150 HDD is neglible (now to a 10k RPM Raptor, or a SATA2 disk with NCQ, yeah, it's noticeable, but not compared to having a 6800nU over a 6600GT)

B) scrap Intel, they will give you less performance
an Athlon64 is far better for gaming, which is what it seems you want to do...and Athlon64's are MUCH BETTER, easily faster than Pentium IV Socket 478, Socket T 5xx and Socket T 6xx (the 660, which is supposed to be "uber P4" get's it's head kicked in by the Athlon64 3800's, and iirc the 660 is around $500+, the 3800 is $350, the 3800 is competitive with Intel's new 3.73EE which will cost over $1000...)

C) you don't need DDR2, so don't go there with that

D) don't have a company build it for you, you will pay more than what it's worth (even if it is ibuypower, imo their a scam, their trustable, but their a scam imo)


I would suggest something like the following, btw, I am intentionally going to make this a rough guide, that probably won't fit your budget, but I am going to use exact parts...


CPU:
Athlon64 3800+ for Socket 939

GPU:
ATi Radeon X800XL PCIE

Memory:
1GB PC 3200DDR (this is the one exception, get TwinMOS or Patriot, they are $105 and $109 on newegg (ask me if your unsure) you don't need $150 Corsair or Kingston to have good RAM)

HDD:
120GB - 250GB ATA-133 (in other words, Maxtor) HDD

Case:
at least 2 cooling fans should be present, beyond that, it's your choice

PSU:
Antec NeoPower 480W (do not skimp here, the NeoPower is ideal, make it work in your budget, if you have to downgrade to a 3500 to make it fit, do it, also, don't cut your RAM back just to make this fit, cut the gfx and CPU back first, as their both at very high levels right now)

Motherboard:
DFI LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-136-152&depa=1


here are links for everything (sans mobo):
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-465&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-164-041&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-006&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-324&depa=0
(SATA ^^)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-139&depa=0
(ATA-133 ^^)
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-924&depa=0


also
if the budget allows, get a Thermalright XP-90 and a good 92MM fan (don't get the 120, it has compatability issues with many motherboards)