System Spec Reccommendations

Bah · 04-09-2004 04:21PM #1

Any comments recoommendations on a new system I'm building? Here's what I'm about to buy:

Abit IC7-G - €151
Sapphire Radeon 9600XT Atlantis - €144
Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Prescott - €181
Corsair TWINX1024-3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB - €229

That's along with a Samsung 160GB SATA HDD, NEC 2500A DVD-Rewriter... and that's about it really. The onyl thing I'm not really sure about is the memory. It wont really have a specific use... some graphics work, lots of word processing and internet browsing. Playing DVDs and MP3s aswell. Price is a major issue... so i'd like to keep the motherboard, processor, graphics card and memory under th €750 mark. Might do a bit of overclocking in the future, but wont be using it for much gaming.

Is the heatsink that comes with the Prescott up to scratch? I was looking at
the Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu from JES. Noise is also an issue as well as cost... using an Antec Sonata case, so I'd like to keep everything fairly quiet.

I'm planning on buying all the stuff from Komplett, although I need a copy of XP, so I may end up going with JES, since Komplett don't stock it. But I'd rather just buy everything from one place to save on hassle/postage costs. Any recommendations?

po0k · 04-09-2004 04:28PM

Get an Athlon64 platform.

grimloch · 04-09-2004 04:29PM

well maybe some faster RAM?

the heatsink/fan that comes with will be fine, provided you dont want to use it to overclock, ive heard the prescotts get awful hot so it would be best to get a good heatsink/fan before things go foobar IMO

BloodBath · 04-09-2004 05:08PM

If you don't play games you probably don't need that 9600xt. A 9200 would be more than sufficient for what you've listed. If your playing any newer titles though stick with the 9600xt.

If you plan on overclocking which I think you should then get a 2.8e instead of of the 3.0 and use the money you save to get pc3700 or pc4000 RAM so you can overclock to 3.4-3.6ghz at 1:1. The processor will reach these speeds no problem but you might want a better cooler than stock. The zalman is good. Get some artic silver 5 thermal compound as well. Do not use the muck they give you with the processor. It's only 6 euro for a tube that will give you about 10 applications and will cool 5-8c better than the compount provided with the processor.

BloodBath

Bah · 05-09-2004 01:26AM

BloodBath wrote:

If you plan on overclocking which I think you should then get a 2.8e instead of of the 3.0 and use the money you save to get pc3700 or pc4000 RAM so you can overclock to 3.4-3.6ghz at 1:1.

Komplett and JES don't do the 2.8, and now that I look again, they dont even have the 3.0 in stock, and probably wont have it for a few weeks either. I was thinking about the Athlon 64 platform too, can anybody recommend a motherboard/RAM/processor combination that would give similar/better performance/features as the IC7-G/Twinmos/P4 3.0 would?

Thanks in advance.

BloodBath · 05-09-2004 01:39AM

Why not go socket 775. The lga processor is only like 10 euro more.

Have a look at this mobo to go with it.

http://www.jes-computer.de/product_info.php?pID=17484

Has pci-e and agp and offers more upgrade options in the future than socket 478.

Otherwise go A64.

BloodBath

Jammer · 05-09-2004 03:17AM

Mobo - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=300050&cks=PRL - 122
CPU - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=300493&cks=PRL - 215
RAM - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=302393&cks=PRL - 245
GFX - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=122901&cks=PRL - 209

Thats an Athlon64 3200+, MSI Neo Platinum, 1gig Cosair CMX and a 9800Pro.

Comes to 791. Slightly over budget....you'd probably get it cheaper on jes. Thats a DOOM III machine too, should play any game on high detail. The motehrboard has BgLan, 4 S-ATA, RAID, C 'n' Q.

It'd be the way i'd go (the way i went actually). It its too much, you could put it back to the 2800+...still a very good chip. Or put the GLX card back to 9600XT and save 80 quid.

Azza · 05-09-2004 10:05AM

Yeah I second Jammers system recommendation.

grimloch · 05-09-2004 10:29AM

Jammer wrote:

Mobo - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=300050&cks=PRL - 122
CPU - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=300493&cks=PRL - 215
RAM - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=302393&cks=PRL - 245
GFX - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=122901&cks=PRL - 209

Thats an Athlon64 3200+, MSI Neo Platinum, 1gig Cosair CMX and a 9800Pro.

Comes to 791. Slightly over budget....you'd probably get it cheaper on jes. Thats a DOOM III machine too, should play any game on high detail. The motehrboard has BgLan, 4 S-ATA, RAID, C 'n' Q.

It'd be the way i'd go (the way i went actually). It its too much, you could put it back to the 2800+...still a very good chip. Or put the GLX card back to 9600XT and save 80 quid.

a great system but he says he wont be using it much for gaming so that 9800pro be surplus to requirements, id save that 80 euro myself and put it towards a 3400 clawhammer

Bah · 05-09-2004 10:54AM

BloodBath wrote:

Has pci-e and agp and offers more upgrade options in the future than socket 478.

I was considering Socket 775, but last time I checked it was €70-€80 more than 478... That motherboard doesn't have any AGP btw - "kein AGP-Port". Is the stock heatsink with the socket 775 any better than the 478?

Here are the two options so far:
CPU Intel P4 S775 BOX 3000 MHZ Prescott 184.99 EUR
128MB Sapphire RX600pro PCIe Lite-Retail 127.90 EUR
MB ATX S775 Abit AG8 Third Eye 139.90 EUR
DDR PC400 1GB Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2 239.99 EUR
(Graphics card is a bit crap... just picked one that was roughly the same price as a 9600xt but on PCI-E)

Or:

CPU AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 512kB Tray 199.99 EUR
MB ATX S754 MSI MS-7030 K8N Neo Platinum 119.99 EUR
128MB Sapphire 9600 XT Fireblade FullRTL 147.99 EUR
DDR PC400 1GB Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2 239.99 EUR

The Intel option is €692.78 and the AMD is €707.96. Add in the cost of a copy of windows XP (€99), and both are above budget but roughly the same price.

Any more recommendations (Especially about the graphics card on the 775 setup)?

Ciaran500 · 05-09-2004 11:02AM

Save some money and get cheaper ram, unless your planning on overclocking.

EDIT: I've just looked at a review of a X600XT and its the same spec as the 9600XT. So the X600pro will be slightly lower than the XT in the AMD machine.

Bah · 05-09-2004 12:11PM

Ciaran500 wrote:

EDIT: I've just looked at a review of a X600XT and its the same spec as the 9600XT. So the X600pro will be slightly lower than the XT in the AMD machine.

I probably won't need anything much better than an 9600xt equivalent though, so the X600pro should do me. It's about €20 cheaper too, which can't hurt.

I think I'm going to probably go with:

CPU Intel P4 S775 BOX 3000 MHZ Prescott 184.99 EUR
128MB Sapphire RX600pro PCIe Lite-Retail 127.90 EUR
MB ATX S775 Abit AG8 Third Eye 139.90 EUR
DDR PC400 1GB Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2 239.99 EUR
OEM MS Windows XP Home Englisch 99.00 EUR

Should I bother with getting a different heatsink?

astrofool · 05-09-2004 03:57PM

PCI-E boards with an AGP slot have the AGP slot working at PCI bus speeds

Ciaran500 · 05-09-2004 04:05PM

You gonna be overclocking?

Bah · 05-09-2004 04:45PM

Ciaran500 wrote:

You gonna be overclocking?

Not right now, no. Maybe in a few months, if I get bored during the Easter/Summer? I don't think there's much point in spending huge amounts on superfast memory or amazingly efficient heat sinks right now, when I wont actually be getting any use from them. I'm looking more for decent, mid-range kinda stuff.

Jammer · 05-09-2004 05:03PM

get good RAM then...no point in speding 180euro for ram now, selling it for 90 when u wanna overlcok and shelling out 230 for ram down the road...ur losing money that way

BloodBath · 05-09-2004 06:19PM

Ok then get the 2.8ghz s775 p4 for 167.95 EUR

If you look on www.shop4memory.co.uk they are having a special offer on 1Gb kit DDR PC3700 HyperX Dual Channel - Kingston for only 250 euro inc free delivery.

Now that still works out a bit cheaper. I find that the 2.8's, 3.0's and 3.2's all overclock to the same level on average, usually 3.5-3.8 on air depending on what stepping you get. Hopefully the newer d0 stepping.

Buy a 6 euro tube of artic silver 5 thermal compound and even with the stock cooler you should be able to get at least 3.2-3.6.

Tempertures only go up in overclocking when you raise the voltage. It should reach 3.2 without any voltage increase as they are all the same chip. Just with different multi's. Providing your temps are ok which they should be with the as5 you should be able to get to 3.4-3.6 with minor voltage increases.

BloodBath

Bah · 06-09-2004 12:24PM

Ok, so here it is then:

CPU Intel P4 S775 BOX 2800 MHZ Prescott 167.95 EUR
128MB Sapphire RX600pro PCIe Lite-Retail 127.90 EUR
MB ATX S775 Abit AG8 Third Eye 139.90 EUR
1Gb kit DDR PC3700 HyperX Dual Channel - Kingston 250 EUR
OEM MS Windows XP Home Englisch 99.00 EUR
Arctic Silver 5 3,5g = 4.99 EUR

That comes to €809.46 incl. delivery. Slightly over budget, but eh. Only problem now is that the graphics card is backordered...

Thanks for the advice.

System Spec Reccommendations

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