[Another] Pc thread...

Töpher

Heya, the time is almost here for me to purchase and assemble my new rig. T'would be my first build, so just posting up what I hoped to get (and the prices), so if ya think of something I missed out on, need/don't need, telling me would be much appreciated
I'm pretty much at my budget here, thanks to the x800XT (would that be overkill on such a system) I just need something new, that will ideally run HL2/CS:Source/DOOM3 etc quite well. Are there any more cables I need to think of?

KOMPLETT

2 * TwinMos 512MB RAM - 195
1 * W.Digital S-ATA 200GB HDD - 153
1 * AMD ATHLON XP3000+ - 130
1 * ABIT NF7-V2.0 MoBo - 75
1 * 50cm S-ATA Cable - 10
1 * Plextor PX-116A DVD-ROM - 42
1 * NEC CD recorder 48x/24x/48x IDE - 60
1 * AC Ryan Flat cable ATA133 Round, 45cm Yellow, with 2 contacts - 10

Shipping: 25
(TOTAL: 631)

ELARA

1 * ANTEC CASE w/400W ANTEC PSU - 130

Shipping: 10/OTIONAL
(Total: 130/140)

OVERCLOCKERS.CO.UK

1 * RADEON X800XT 256MB AGP - 555
1 * COOLERMASTER AERO 7+ - 30

Shipping: 30
(Total: 605)



TOTAL: €1350 roughly.

Thanks for any help lads

zoro

1 * AMD ATHLON XP3000+ - 130

I'd advise on A64. The 3200+ A64 is 274E, but you can save money by getting a different gfx card.

1 * ABIT NF7-V2.0 MoBo - 75

You'd need a Socket 754 MoBo for the A64 3200+, if you were to go for it

1 * Plextor PX-116A DVD-ROM - 42 ::::: 1 * NEC CD recorder 48x/24x/48x IDE - 60

Maybe dump both of these and grab a DVD +-RW drive, if you already have a DVD Rom in your current machine it'll be much better for you than a CDRW+DVDRom

1 * RADEON X800XT 256MB AGP - 555

I'd recommend the X800 Pro rather than the XT. This is purely because 555 is a f*ck load of money
@ roughly 420E you can pick up an X800 Pro, leaving you with the extra 100e or so that you can put towards the A64 CPU. Overall you'll see a MASSIVE improvement

TOTAL: €1350 roughly.

I'd say if you budget it for about 1500 you should be left with a bit of change for a cup of tea/coffee and a packet of choclate digestives.
You'll need them while building the rig

Of course, it's up to you, and I haven't actually built a machine yet, but I intend to, and I'll definitely be using an A64, but I don't really want to wait for the socket 939 Mobo's so 754 will suit me fine.

Good luck mate

zoro

Actually - something I noticed a few days ago ... http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=151_121&products_id=16104

Why not just grab that machine? (maybe ask them not to supply a gfx card and see if you can get a discount?) Then get your X800 Pro/XT separately and you'll have a very nice box then!

dogz

look at www.pchealth.ie. give the guy a ring and ull probably come to a deal.
I did (trader in a 1200 duron + mobo i had lying around and got a 3.2ghz p4 + mobo +512 mb ddr ram for 270) may be worth a try:cool:

Col_Loki

Definetly dont waste your money on an Xp3000+ .......... at worst get a 2500 and overclock it!! The Higher end XP's just dont compare to the AMD64's and P4's TBH.

Id go along with what Zoro said, makes total sence. The AMD64 3000+ performs very close to the 3200+ and runs at the same speed (cache is the difference). It would take a highly overclocked XP chip to compare to a stock AMD64.

Or mabye a P4 and overclock the nuts out of it? the XP is going to drag your system down and will show in the likes of HL2.......

Jammer

You'd need to get the NF7-S mobo if you wanted an s-ata hard drive.

Töpher

Thanks for the response guys, I may wait 4 or 5 weeks and go for a 64bit 3200+ with either 1 gig of 3500 or 4000 RAM.Then 9800pro as the gfx card. Would ye imagine HL2 running alright on that?

secret_squirrel

Did you mean 9800pro? or x800pro? The 9800 pro is going to far the other way in balancing out your cpu and gfx card tbh....

Theres not much point in getting that high spec ram if you're not going to overclock it. And if you are overclocking wait until the Nforce3 250 boards are available. None of the current generation of Nforce3 150 board have PCI/AGP locks so they limit your potential overclock quite severly. And if you are gonna wait then maybe wait until the socket 939 boards and chips are available. (Then again you could be waiting for ever )

BloodBath

Definately don't get the 3000xp. A complete waste of money.

Both intel and amd are switching to new sockets soon but these will be too pricey at first. Intels prescott at 3.7ghz with 2mb of L2 cache and 266mhz fsb leaving the mobos at 1066mhz fsb combined with ddr2 which will be at 533mhz and 600mhz at launch.

This is expected for Q4 of this year. Now I'd say definately get an A64 for gaming purposes. At lease the 3200 for the extra cache. It all depends if you intend on overclocking or not. A 2.8c is another good processor that will reach about 3.6ghz in most cases on air allowing you to run RAM past 500mhz.

I wouldn't sarcrifice the x800xt to go for the 9800 pro. Your performance will decrease more than half in gaming. You could always save 100 by getting the x800pro. Either come up with the extra cash or if you can't then get an athlon 2400 mobile 35w or 45w and overclock that. They both will go to 3400 levels and higher easily with standard cooling. They are also dirt cheap.

For your RAM i'd advise you to shop at www.shop4memory.co.uk

Best prices and free, fast delivery.

Your mobo will come with all the cables you need to connect your hard-drives and dvd, floppy ect.

Also instead of getting one 200gb hard-drive why not get two 120gb and set up RAID 0. I have it set up and my loading times are amazing. It effectively almost doubles your hard-drive speed.


BloodBath

Mutant_Fruit

If you really want to get the system named above, get a 2500+ and a great cooler, and i mean great. You want the best.

That will work out cheaper than the 3000+ and you should be able to overclock at least as far as 3200+ speeds, and more than likely better. And all for less than the price of the 3000+

Khannie

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
The Higher end XP's just dont compare to the AMD64's and P4's TBH.

WARNING: This is OT, but a valid question based on the above quote...

I have a 2800+ XP (@3200 speeds), 9800 pro (400MHz clock, 375MHz memory). My mate just got an A64 3200 with 9800 pro.

His 3dmark score (at stock on cpu and gfx card) was nearly 1.5x mine (OC'd). Does that seem reasonable?

(I got around 4100, he got around 5900).

I'm considering wiping my windits partition and starting from scratch to get somewhere near his value if mine is unusually low for my hardware. I could only see two others on the futuremark page that had anything like my score for similar hardware.

<edit>

I'm using the latest catalyst drivers.

</edit>

Giblet

Thats a pretty low score consider I get 4000 on a 2500+ barton @ stock, 2700 ram, and a 9600 pro @ 486/690

maxheadroom

Don't get rounded ATA cables - they're out of spec and could lead to data corruption. Get a ribbon cable and hide it along the right side of your antec case (if both panels are removeable)

Töpher

Thanks for the replies guys, certainly seems I need a bit of a re-think

Bloodbath, on that site, it doesn't give the speed of the RAM? Its all listed as STD, which, although sounds kinda worrying, I'm presuming is either pc2700 or pc3200? Any idea which? Thanks

Col_Loki

A 2.8c is another good processor that will reach about 3.6ghz in most cases on air allowing you to run RAM past 500mhz.

I wouldnt say in most cases. People with 3ghz and 3.2ghz chips mightent even get this high......

At lease the 3200 for the extra cache.

Extra cache doesent mean as much as you would thing. Not 200+ points extra anyway!! The 3000+ performs very well and not far off it.

If you really want to get the system named above, get a 2500+ and a great cooler, and i mean great. You want the best

Yea you need a good cooler with em alrite. But if your going to get a very good cooler your talkin €30-50 , and then for a mobile Xp2500+ i think they were €100+ ........ thats not too far off an AMD64, and even a savage overclock with the XP wont compare to the AMD64 at stock (i should know ) - the 3000+/3200+ AMD64 is roughly the same as a 2.4~2.6ghz XP Barton chip and thats the AMD64 at stock.

(I got around 4100, he got around 5900).

The 3dmark2003 is more heavily based on the GFX card so thats pretty low score for you. You should both be looking for close to 5.5/6k.
Compare 3dmark2001 its based more on the whole system and not only GFX card!!
Also mabye aqua mark.

Töpher

Hmm... I am now looking at:::

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0 GHz Socket 754, 512 KB cache, BOXED
Asus K8V Mainboard Socket 754 K8T800, ATA/SATA, GbLAN, ATX, Raid
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB S-ATA 8MB cache 7200RPM
3* TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL2.5 Memory184-P (for DDR-PC400MHz)
Sapphire Radeon X800PRO Atlantis 256MB D AGP,ATI X800PRO,DVI-I,TV-Out, Full-Retail
Sony DVD Drive 16x/40x IDE Black OEM
MSI CD recorder 52x/32x/52x IDE black Retail
Chenbro Gaming Box Black/Metallic Silver 350W ATX12V SPI PSU, with PFC

which all works out at about 1450 inc shipping from komplett. Worth it?

Is TwinMOS RAM any good does anyone know? And will a 350W PSU be enough? Or should I opt for a different one (case and PSU seperately then?).

Thanks

zoro

AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Asus K8V Mainboard Socket 754 K8T800
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB S-ATA 8MB cache 7200RPM
3* TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB
Sapphire Radeon X800PRO Atlantis 256MB
Sony DVD Drive 16x/40x IDE Black OEM
MSI CD recorder 52x/32x/52x IDE black Retail
Chenbro Gaming Box Black/Metallic Silver 350W ATX12V SPI PSU, with PFC

None too shabby at all at all Ted
Personally I'd go for an A64-3200+, and a DVD Drive + DVD rewriter.
Also, I've never liked those cases, I'd be pushing towards http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=113839&cks=PRL instead - plus, you'd be saving 60c *edit* not to mention a 360W PSU

But all in all, I like it.

secret_squirrel

Hmm why 3*512mb of memory - afaik you want to pair DDR for best performance. So you want either 2 or 4 sticks. Much Much better off with pairs of memory.

My last 2 lots of memory have been Twinmos and have been problem free. Its not superoverclocking stuff but its better than noname stuff.

Bin the cd re-writer and dvd-rom and get a dvd-rewriter and cd-rom. Dvd rewriter will burn cd's just as well. Alternatively get a dvd-rom and a dvd rewriter. Cd-roms and rewriters are virtually obsolete. You can use the money you saved only getting 2*512mb of ram.

zoro

Originally posted by secret_squirrel

*waves flag*
hear hear

CivilServant

2 sticks of 512 will be enough. 1 gig of ram is plenty, no need to be wasting more money on an extra stick. Athlon 64 is bandwidth limited so going dual ddr won't have much of an impact at all, if any.

BloodBath

I wouldnt say in most cases. People with 3ghz and 3.2ghz chips mightent even get this high......

4/5 overclocks i've seen with 2.8's, 3.0's and 3.2's cap at around 3.6 with air cooling. It seems to be the most common cap of the chip.

Bloodbath, on that site, it doesn't give the speed of the RAM? Its all listed as STD, which, although sounds kinda worrying, I'm presuming is either pc2700 or pc3200? Any idea which? Thanks

The RAM is organised by speed category. There are headings at the top of each category showing the speed and links to jump to the speed you want. It really is the best site for RAM.


BloodBath

astrofool

3 sticks in a s754 system will also run at pc333 rather than pc400 speeds. You're better with 2 x 512.