| Building a computer | |
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3th - Retired  |
hey guys, i need some good advice on putting together my own computer. this will be my first time building one, i figure i'm not a complete moron so i should be able to handle it (plus the main thing is i'm looking to save some cash.) i'd like to get a good system for less than $1,000 (USD) that i can crank up JA with and possibly enjoy HL2 when it comes out. i'm open to any and all suggestions on any aspect of building a computer. i guess i need suggestions on good combinations of hardware, like Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard, with althalon xp blah blah. (as well as cheap sturdy cases, reliable power supplies, etc.) i'm pretty open, as i don't really have a preference as far as AMD or Pentium for the processor. i've read a lot of good things about Asus for mobo's but the only thing that scares me there is the lack of documentation i see mentioned sometimes. thanks in advance for any advice/help/links. _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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JamesF1 - Student 
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Quote: Lite-On LTC4816H 48X24X48 CD-RW+16X DVD Combo Drive $47 Don't you dare get that......... Get the DVD and CD-RW drives SEPARATE. Combos are trouble. _______________ Website |
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3th - Retired 
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the latest specs i'm about to buy: AMD Athlon 2600 w/Abit NF7-S 2.0 Barebone $283.95 Western Digital 36GB Raptor Serial ATA 10K RPM 8MB$125 Asus ATI Radeon 9600XT 128MB DDR TV-Out DVI – Retail$168 2 xPC3200 256MB DDR400 Kingston Original Memory $126 Lite-On LTC4816H 48X24X48 CD-RW+16X DVD Combo Drive $47 _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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JamesF1 - Student
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From turn-on to seeing the desktop for the first time in WinXP with my machine, takes about 7 seconds. From seeing desktop to being fully loaded takes less than 3.  Compare that to pre-XP Winsod systems, and you get about 20 before seeing desktop, and a further minute-and-a-half until fully loaded  _______________ Website |
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3th - Retired
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i do have to say the idea of windows xp loading in 5 seconds flat sounds nice plus, like you said Koush, once i run two of these in parallel i'll get even more performance boost. the time is nigh! the purchase is inevitable! please, someone stop me! _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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koushka - Student 
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I am going to say yes on that question 3th because you can always add another drive later and make up for the loss of storage. Here is some info testing it on the mac but it should be about the same for the pc. these guys do a lot of testing of parts and stuff and they keep it fair as possible so take a look. At least it will give you an idea of how much faster it is than the other drives and take mune's advice and wait to get the better card at a cheaper price  I found the drive in question for like 115 at zipzoomfly.com _______________ Faithful Padawan of {SKX}Dark Blade My profile pic is luke skywalker
This comment was edited by koushka on May 14 2004 08:57am. |
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3th - Retired
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thanks for the assurance James. Mune, Koushka, thanks for the tips Koush, that Raptor just looks so sweet. amazing seek time! i could start off with just the 37 GB version for now since i'm lookin to not drop all my ca$h at once. that'd only bump me up $60 over where i am now. granted i'm losing some storage but is a seek time of 4.5 vs 9ms worth the $60 and 40 MB smaller storage? you tell me.... _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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Mune - Student 
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Actually, on the graphics card, if you can hold out a little while longer for the new cards (ATI's X800 and NVIDIA's 6800) you might be able to get a Radeon 9800 pro for cheap . Just something to consider.Nevertheless, you'll have fun anyway. _______________ Captain Barkeep. |
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koushka - Student 
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Western digital makes a nice SATA drive called the raptor spinning at 10k. It is extremely fast and comes in 36 and 74gb. Small tight and fast. Perhaps you could do the small one and then the drive you quoted earlier for cheap to get enough storage. I am not sure about the cache thing, sorry. The raptor beat out the 15k seagate cheetah in some tests on a mac anyway but i think it should be the same for a pc. It is just another thought for you. remember 3th if you need any help ask us cause we do like to help around here good luck and have fun with it. _______________ Faithful Padawan of {SKX}Dark Blade My profile pic is luke skywalker
This comment was edited by koushka on May 13 2004 06:40pm. |
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JamesF1 - Student
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Quote: adding the ATI Radeon 9600 XT Video Card: price grabber You won't be disappointed with that - I've got one, great card. Complete with authorised ATI overclocking tool built-in - able to boost its power quite a bit _______________ Website |
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3th - Retired
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thank ya mr. scythe 250GB! that's so insanely huge though and about $50 more than the seagate. i could actually get a very capable HD for around $60. but that's without the cache. anyone have words of wisdom on performance improvment with a HD cache? edit: holy crap! at outpost.com it's $40 cheaper than any place listed on pricegrabber! *goes to shop for all his gear at outpost.com in hopes of finding better deals *more EDIT: now that i look at it some more wouldn't i get better performance out of a Serial ATA drive (SATA)? since the Abit NF7-S Motherboard has that onbaord raid? like this cheap little bad-boy, Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 80GB: price grabba _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! This comment was edited by 3th on May 13 2004 04:51pm. |
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Duoi - Student 
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3th I say get the 250 Gig hard drive from Outpost.com for $159.99 here is a link if you want it http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3700356/ i just hope You get this message in time. _______________ ask JP. I was the one that owned him. (Warlocks all the way) This comment was edited by Duoi on May 13 2004 02:56pm. |
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3th - Retired
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ok looks like i'm going with the following... the base system is an AMD Athlon XP 2500 + Abit NF7-S 2.0 Barebone System: ebay adding the ATI Radeon 9600 XT Video Card: price grabber adding 2 sticks of Kingston 256MB PC3200 DDR DIMM Memory: price grabber media drive is Memorex DUAL DRIVE: price grabber and a hard drive to top it off, Seagate Barracuda 160GB: price grabber (this is the main thing i'm not so sure on. i don't need that much storage but i like the cache. let me know if you have any suggestions )any and all advice/feedback is greatly appreciated. it's looking like it will come in under $800 which is nice _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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Fate - Student 
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Asus Socket A A7N8XDeluxe http://tomshardware.bizrate.com/marketplace/search/search__cat_id--419,prod_id--7626525,keyword--motherboards.html Nice mobo, slap a heat sink on the south bridge. Then get a processor like the AMD Athlon XP +3000, 1 gb of 333 mhz DDR RAM, a Radeon 9800, and whatever case grabs your fancy. As for a Hard drive, I think CompUSA or Seagate (off their website) had a 200 gig for $100 (best price I've ever seen). Um... spoodge'um... I want the compuetr I just described... _______________ I must not fear . Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear . I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. Gom gom gom gom gom! |
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Cossyc - Student 
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Umm, just something to add: The AMD Athlon XP CPUs built after the 40th week of last year are pretty probable to have multiplier lock on them. This destroys a high virtue of the AMD CPUs: their ability of tuning. This is bad news, but luckily my Barton is free of this, and being a 2500+ it runs at a speed of 3200+. Take care, GL shopping, Cossyc _______________ When Chuck Norris is late, time better slows the **** down. If you want to make God laugh... just tell Him about your plans. |
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3th - Retired 
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ty DS, don't want to be stuck to old technology _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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Stimpski - Student 
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aye... If you're going to get a GForce4, get a Ti. Steer clear of the MX!!! As for an GForce FX, 5200, or 5900 is a good choice. The Difference, you might ask? Besides different generation cards, the GF4s are made for DX8, as the FXs are made for DX9. _______________ Stimpski (formerly known as DeathScythe many, many moons ago.) JA Forum ID - 3988 <insert generic &/OR witty tagline here> |
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Bail Hope of Belouve - Student 
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yes, an Athlon XP processor is a must they rule My suggestion for videocards: Nvidia 4/FX (both great cards!) _______________ Visit the Belouve Family Website! Quote: I try to have fun with my friends and try to make a difference as best I can. What does making a difference mean? Well, it can be as simple as saying hello, answering a question that seems obvious or heck, just talking. -- Vladarion
Want to know Vladarion? Read the Article about his life here. |
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tarpman - The Tarped Avenger 
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actually, that's exactly what he's hoping for... _______________ Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time. |
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3th - Retired
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holy crap cossyc! with links and everything! uber cool! i should send some $ to you too just for the work that went into this post. thanks for the help _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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Cossyc - Student
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For a complete computer, here's my choice: You can build an AMD-based or a Intel-based computer. Intel: - Abit IC-7 Max3-G w/ Prescott support - Intel Pentium IV 2,6 GHz /800 MHz FSB with Hyperthreading - GlacialTech Igloo4200 CPU-cooler (you can buy a Zalman too but thats helluva expensive) - Corsair or TwinMOS or OCZ or original Samsung(since some g4y ppl are making fakes of these, I dont really recommend them) or Kingston ValueRAM/HyperX RAM PC3200(400 MHz) 2x256 or 2x512 Mbytes for Dual Channel - I think you should choose an ATi RadeOn 9600 or 9800 video card. Best manufacturers are Club3d(pretty good webby), Gigabyte and Sapphire. Pros are slightly faster, SE's worth a heap of warm donkey crap, XT's are good too. - Sound card... uuhmm.... Well I'd use a Creative SoundBlaster Live!/Audigy2. They say it's the best. - at least a 120 Gigs 7200 rpm Seagate Barracuda HDD (no way Maxtor, they're loud, get heated pretty quickly, and two of them crashed my comp so I hate Maxtor. ), if you can afford it, do it with 8 Mbytes of cache to make it faster.- a Coolink or Thermaltake or Chieftec or Enermax (the last costs the most) PSU 360/400 Watts - AOpen case AMD: - Abit NF-7S (rev 2.0) --> this card has an integrated sound chip, which has been tested and performed a bit worse than Audigy2 so I didn't mind buying a separate soundcard. - AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (use this link to grab prices tho... to the AMDs page, click here) (Barton core) The rest are quite the same. Something to add. I use AMD because of the same reason DJ mentioned. Cheaper and still well-performing. But there's something more. Using a Barton-cored CPU, an Abit NF-7S, and a good CPU-cooler (Spire Falconrock works just fine), you can tune up your computer. (I wouldn't suggest it if you dont feel pretty sure about your knowledge about it, because it has many hazards). My CPU, a 2500+ XP (which real speed is 1833 MHz) can run at 3200+ (around 2,4 GHz). Stable, and cheap solution, but a tuned-up CPU eats more, and may smoke away if something goes wrong. So careful and good luck. Oh, OS. If you haven't used Linux before, get loads of patience, before installing it. Maybe it's just me, but I had some problems with it, then i turned to my good old buddy, and got a stolen copy of XP to myself. pretty easy and cheap way. And of course you can give the finger to M$ too. Cossyc _______________ When Chuck Norris is late, time better slows the **** down. If you want to make God laugh... just tell Him about your plans. This comment was edited by Cossyc on Jan 29 2004 11:41pm. |
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3th - Retired
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thanks a lot DJ, great stuff. i don't need to worry about a monitor or OS really, thank goodness. a flat panel would be nice though. thanks for the tips guys. _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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_cmad_ - Ex-Student 
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Something tells me I'm d/ling mdk K since you can spend $1000 don't buy Windows. Either get copy of it (*cough* piracy *cough* i don't care since it's M$) or get Linux. You do the 2nd.As for the others... Get at LEAST 512 MB DDR RAM ( got that) and er... get an ATI RADEON gfx card or a nVidia GeForce. CPU get at least 2.0 GHz and... LCD screen Maybe that's kinda expensive. I don't think it's more than $1000 though _______________ Your friends of today, are your enemies of tomorrow. |
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DJ Sith - Jedi Council 
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Asus and Abit both make great motherboards. Go with an Athlon XP processor. You get more bang for the buck with those. It'll be cheaper to get an nForce 2 based motherboard. If you have the bucks go for nForce 3 chipsets. I've used Antec and Enermax PSU's w/o any trouble. Antec makes a pretty swift little case too. Try to get a processor that's based on the Barton core. You'll get better performance. Expect to spend a good portion of your moolah on your video card. Go with a GeForce FX 5600 or Radeon 9600 if you're looking for cheap, or go with a 5950 or 9800 XT if you want super fancies. _______________ My car is made of Nerf. |
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3th - Retired
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thanks for the tips javaguy. i don't know if i'm ready to jump into linux just yet though. but i'll consider it i suppose. or most likely i'll just chicken out and use one of the copys of win2000 that we're not using around here since i know it a lot better. anyone else have any suggestions on any hardware stuff? any great or bad experiences with anything? _______________ this is the internet, be serious damn it! |
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JavaGuy - Student 
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Trying to get tech support from Asus is hell. They have a tech support number, but it's just a guy who will take your name and number and promise that someone will call you back within 24 hours. Believe me: Nobody will call you back. Ever. I left a message every day for a week begging to have someone call me back. Three weeks later I began surfing the tech support forums and discovered a guy who said he'd been waiting four years for a callback. Strangely enough, I do recommend an Asus motherboard. Just have a backup plan if you need support, because you're not going to get it from the manufacturer. I recommend Mandrake Linux for your operating system. You'll need to download WineX to run Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. Get yourself a DVD/CD burner, or you'll wish you had. Do not buy an Iomagic-anything--they are another tech support nightmare, and their stuff is buggy as hell. _______________ My signature is only one line. You're welcome. |
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