Building a PC, my first.

[vsafin]

You have probably heard this so much. Now I am thinking about the case and the motherboard. If you have a great case idea, post the link here, but it can't cost over $100 unless it's like the best thing ever. I have read the reviews of the 9 motherboards and I did not get all of it. So I am still undecided, Soyo KT400 Dragon Ultra or the A7N8X (deluxe worth it? Probably NOT). Or maybe I should just buy a generic motherboard already bundled with the CPU, easier and possibly cheaper. Especially since you say that DDR333 > or = DDR400 But I do want a very good motherboard that is highly upgradeable for years to come (or at least months).
The cpu I want now is the AMD 2400+ or maybe 2200+ since I plan to upgrade in half a year? If you'd like you can comment on the SATA (but its probably too much for me) or the regular harddrive (Im thinking 80gb) what brand and how important is cache? Also would you say Athlon is about = Pentium (XP and P4), because I notice the FSB and clock speeds differ greatly. That's about it, thanks.

 

[brendini]

Here's what I'd do:

Case: Antec LanBoy with 350watt PSU - $90
Mobo: Abit NF7-S (Nforce2, with all the goodies) - $125
Processor: Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton Core) - $175
OR
Athlon XP 1700+ (thoroughbred) - $50 and overclock it with a good heatsink and fan
RAM: 2x 256MB Corsair 2700 (DDR 333Mhz) CL2 - $120
Hard Drive: 80GB with 8MB cache - $100

Max Cost= $600

Hope this helps.

<Brendini>

 

[vsafin]

Hmmm my friend who knows a bit about PC's told me to never get Abit. And I don't wanna overclock, I don't trust myself since I am new to pc hardware. Thanks.

 

[jihiggs]

your freind doesnt know all that much. abit is not much different from most others, asus, msi, soyo (soyo since the dragon + anyway.)

my computer is so fast, it completes an endless loop in less than 4 seconds!

 

[vsafin]

does that mean you say that I should get the abit also? How important is the motherboard? because in Fry's Electronics I can get a mobo + 2200+ Ath XP for like $130

 

[vsafin]

Hi, this is Malakai/NiGHTS, im the friend who "knows a bit about PC's". I cant register since I only have a Yahoo! email address.

Anyway.

Abit's, IMHO, have not been the best choice in motherboards. I have had 2 die (personally), the first from bad capacitors, and the second from mysterious causes. After the second, I now refuse to ever buy another one from Abit.

I also know one other person who has had trouble of his own (his caps turned into leaky brown pieces of [-peep-]).

I dont feel like getting into ANOTHER flamewar today, so let me end by saying that I do know a bit myself about how a computer works.

(Oh, and in response to vsafin's question, yes, the motherboard is pretty important. Its not like choosing between different brand floppy drives.)

 

[LumberJack]

Ic... well I don't think you can blame bad caps on a mobo manufacturer. Some times dialectrics just die out. You can't controll that... Abit is not that bad besides the fact that they like to push the legacy solution boards which I don't like.

I say your original sescision of Asus or Soyo is good. I say go for the Asus board for dual ddr.

To err is human... to really screw things up you need a computer!

 

[jwhytsel]

I've got the A7N8X Deluxe. Great board, but one of the more expensive. Check out the MSI boards with the NForce2 chipsets. A bit cheaper than the ASUS, but word is they post better benchmarks, and are a little more stable in overclocking. The biggest defference in NForce2 boards, is the chipset itself. There are two types of Northbrige chips. IGP and SPP. IGP includes onboard graphics by way of NVidia's GeForce4 MX. Not the best of graphics. The SPP (A7N8X Deluxe for example), does not have this feature. The big difference being if you get a board with the IGP Northbridge (Graphics on board), you loose a little performance. If you'd prefer to use a seperate video card (reccommended), get a board with the SPP Northbridge.

Ignorance is bliss, and i'm a happy guy!

 

[Crashman]

I wouldn't buy anything from Soyo, they don't honor their warranties (speaking from experience).

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Mephistopheles]

If you want excellent upgradability, it´ll be an Intel platform, not an AMD platform. By the end of the year, there´ll be no upgrade path left for AMD platforms. If you get a Canterwood/Springdale-based motherboard (will be out in April) it´ll support the current Northwood-P4s with 533Mhz FSB, the Northwoods with 800Mhz FSB and the Prescott, which´ll scale to 4Ghz+ in 2004. And Canterwood is supposed to be a very good mobo (dual channel DDR400, 800Mhz FSB, onboard Serial ATA support, AGP 8x, intel´s PAT - enhancements to memory controller, and so on). Intel is relying on Canterwood/Springdale, so they should be top performers.

The problem with AMD right now, if you want the upgradability you mentioned, is that they´re hard at work (and not easily succeeding, mind you) at getting Hammer out the door. The x86-64 technologies won´t be a possible upgrade for your mobo, of course, because they´ll be packaged differently (and work differently, and everything...). They should be introduced in September.

I´m actually somewhat surprised to see that noone here mentioned Canterwood in terms of upgradability... It fits your mobo description very well (just read it: <i>very good motherboard that is highly upgradeable for years to come</i>). There <i>is</i> a problem, however: Canterwood will most likely be somewhat expensive. Springdale, a less robust version of canterwood, (same features, except PAT) will probably be cheaper, but it´ll likely still be over $100, i´d say.

And Canterwood/Springdale is just right for you, judging by what you said. You could get it with a cheaper 3.06Ghz P4 HT (Canterwood will be released with a 3.2Ghz, 800Mhz Northwood and that´ll lower the prices for 3.06Ghz considerably!). Sure, you wouldn´t be using your mobo´s full capability, but you´d have <i>one hell</i> of an upgradability!!!

What do you guys say about that? And you, vsafin? Already made up your mind to go with AMD or is this still something for you?

 

[vsafin]

Unfortunately, the money is tight (like always) so I decided that AMD is the best way to go value wise. Thanks for your input though. I actually decided that in a year I will actually have some money and technology will change a lot, so I will just build a new one? I guess? I am not sure. I should probably stick to reality. Sorry about throwing you off with the "upgrade-ability" thing, I kind of decided that it isn't the best way to go for me right now. Anyways, here's my question now. Fry's Electronics has a cpu/mobo combo. How is this?
$300
AMD Athlon Xp 2500+ Barton Bare CPU Processor and Soyo SY-KT-400 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition.
Is this mobo nforce2? Also, what does bare cpu mean? I need to buy a heatsink? Would you say I should buy them apart, or buy the asus a7n8x instead?

 

[vsafin]

It's not nforce2, but the KT400 chipset sounds good. I think. Does it support dual ddr 400? or any dual ddr?

 

[vsafin]

so I paid $540 today for the barton 2500+ and A7N8X Deluxe, 2 x 256mb 2700 kingston ram and Radeon 7500 AIW, so I was ready to take this home and was all excited and they said they'd install the processor for me. So I am thinking, cool. They try it out and it doesn't work, try it again and same non-working results. Yep the asus was busted. I could have gone witht he msi for the same price...hmm. I don't know anymore. Should I go with MSI instead? It practically has some features except dual lan, and i dont need that like at all.

 

[tombance]

Yeah I would go for the MSI, have you noticed how many problem threads there are on the A7N8X and how few there are on the MSI board? Also, why are you getting a Radeon 7500, that has about the same performance as a GF2. If you are gaming, get atleast a Radeon 9500 Pro nowadays.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5467618 " target="_new">Almost Breaking 12k!!</A>

 

[vsafin]

AAH its just so expensive. I guess I'll go for the MSI and stick with the intergrated video for a couple of months. Thanks

 

[vsafin]

GAH. Got it, I went for the 2000+. ANyways I got it all finished except there is like no place to plug in the case fan. And i was thinking of getting 2, but this mobo can't even allow one??? it's MSI K7N2G-ILSR btw, if you can help...please do!