Building My First PC

by EricZ May 23, 2005 10:30AM PDT

Hey gang, my old 1.1ghz is on its last legs so I though this would be a great time to build one myself that I could upgrade in the future. It will be running XP and used for only surfing, Excel, Word and storing my mp3 files.

I'm on tight budget so what I've come up with for my plan is a Thermaltake Tsunami case, Abit IG-80 board with Intel 915G chipset, Intel P4 520 cpu, Ultra CPU fan, 80gb SATA150 HD and 1gb memory. I'm carring over a new DVDDL/CD Burner and DVD rom from my old PC. My question is, is the Abit motherboard suitable for upgrading later on to a more powerful processor? My thinking is that a socket 775 should be the standard for some time so I should be abel to upgrade later to a 3.xghz (4.xghz???) processor later on and maybe add a graphics card.

I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Intel has stopped at the 3.8 GHz, there

by Ray Harinec May 23, 2005 10:41AM PDT

will be no 4 GHz P4. Even though they went to 90 nm dies, they dissipate too much heat, or consume too much power, however you prefer to say that they are tough to cool..

Their Dual Cores will require a different chipset thus mobo.

AMD's dual core will still use the socket 939.

You should really go to http://www.tomshardware.com and read the article about the tests on the two dual core units. You will not enjoy trying to cool the Intel units.

You can get a socket 939 mobo for not too much money. Longer upgrade path.

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Good Info

by EricZ May 23, 2005 10:56AM PDT

Thanks for all the posts. I hadn't thought about AMD but I guess this might be a good way to go. I'll be upgrading to Longhorn when it's available so it might be helpful to have a dual core cpu with that in mind.

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Just my opinion

by Steven Haninger May 23, 2005 10:44AM PDT

I would'nt try to shave a few bucks off the processor price now with the idea I might upgrade it later. I can't speak to that specific board but it will have specs to others like it as far as handling todays processors. Sometimes BIOS upgrades extend the processor speed possibilities later on. The problem you face is that, unless you have a use for the CPU you take off the board when you upgrade, you've lost what you paid for it. I'd say buy the best you can afford now and save your pennies for a new PC later on rather than collecting used parts from upgrades. Good luck with your project.

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BTW, please don't

by Ray Harinec May 23, 2005 10:49AM PDT

try to assemble the system completely before testing.

When you get the mobo into the case [you could do all of this with the mobo on a piece of cardboard], CPU/HSF on, one stick of memory, the front panel controls connected, power supply connected to the mobo only. No video card [unless it is built in], no keyboard, no mouse, no monitor. Hit the power button on the front panel and see if the power supply comes on and stays on. Don't worry about beeps. If the supply stays on, then connect a monitor and a keyboard so that you can get into the BIOS. If it doesn't stay on, it will NOT help one iota to add anything elase. Fix the problem.

You turn the PS off by holding the front power switch in, possibly for 4 to 5 seconds depending on the default BIOS settings.

Then drives get installed one at a time with testing of each before adding the next one.

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oh dual core...

by ozos May 23, 2005 12:05PM PDT

Intel's only need a new chipset due to their higher power drain
AMD's will work with a BIOS flash as they only take 4W more than Athlon64 FX

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um...

by EricZ May 23, 2005 12:09PM PDT

so I guess you're seconding the motion to go with a socket 939??

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Socket 939

by jimmycorp May 23, 2005 2:23PM PDT

Best Bang for your buck. They are easily overclocked and outperform similar pentium 4 systems
MY setup:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ oc'd @ 2.56 Ghz (233 x11)
thermaltake silent tower heatpipe cpu cooler w/ 2 90 mm silentcat fans
2 GB (1GBX2) gEIL PC3200 RAM W/ ALUMINUM HEATSPREADER
80 gb sata wd hd
256 mb ati radeon 9550
dual rosewill dvd burners
rosewill 19 in lcd flat panel
broadcom corp 600w power supply
aluminum case
2 80 mm case fans, 1 120mm case fan
PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OVERCLOCK WITHOUT THE PROPER COOLING!!!

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i agree with your OC'ing statment

by ozos May 24, 2005 8:27AM PDT

the issue Thermaltake often has posed against it is the weight
Thermalright (they are actually a higher end company) however produces equivalently good cooling solutions, that weigh less

so depdning on how much the system is going to be moved around for something like LAN Parties, the Thermalright might be the best idea

as to AMD's dual core
The price on those is insane
i'd expect it to drop by Dec. though

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Err....Dual Core........

by John Robie May 24, 2005 6:57AM PDT

yes, dual core will be in the socket 939, but do you want to pay the price.

Prices on the new dual core processors are currently high even for AMD.

Newegg doesn't have anything out yet for AMD, and the AMD 64 Dual Core Processing family is supposed to include models:

$1001 = 4800
$803 = 4600
$581 = 4400
$537 = 4200
respectively, in 1000 unit quantities

Intel:
Newegg doesn't have anything out yet for Intel, and the Intel Dual Core Processing family is supposed to be the Pentium D Processors. Intel currently has:

Pent D Processor 820, 2.8GHz (price unknown)
Pent D Processor 830, 3.0GHz (price unknown)

Pent D Processor 840, 3.2GHz
The Dual Core Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 3.2GHz, with motherboard, Intel D955X BKLKR, and 955X PCI-Express chipset with DDR2 is supposed to be $1050.

I would expect further in the Intel 8xx series to be released before long.

Have you looked at the discussions on the Gateway 508GE? It seems to be near what you are considering to build and would be hard to beat for $569 vs building, considering it comes with a warranty:
Specs:
http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/3724/4425sp4.shtml

Discussions:

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-7586-0.html?forumID=68&threadID=104860&messageID=1206208

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-7586-0.html?forumID=68&threadID=104856&messageID=1206153

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AMD's dual core isn't due until late

by Ray Harinec May 24, 2005 7:02AM PDT

3rd quarter, early fourth.

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