My first home built...

[schafer1986]

I am pretty new at this computer stuff, but really want to build one on my own. I want a good mother board, good chip set and some memory...not a big gamer, just want some nice speed and storage, eventually some cd/dvd burners etc.
Any thoughts on how to go about this??
Thanks
Guy

 

[okietex]

I've built them but will be interested in how the guys who build all the time answer. I built a few on 865/875 when it first came out but none since Or keep going on 865/875 chipset and use the ones that support Prescott CPU. So, I've been out of it ...

However, I'm curious if people will guide you to the new LGA775 chipset by Intel or maybe over to AMD/A64 ...

I'm interested too in if building a new system, where do people start and if $800-$1200 is a budget w/o monitor.
Sorry, I'm not trying to hijack this thread either, Schafer!
HTH some.

 

[Flinx]

You've come to the right place.

Typically for advice you should provide three things:
1) Purpose of the computer
2) Your budget
3) What components you need.

You;ve kind of said that it doesn't have to be a big gamer machine.

How much do you have to spend or want to spend?

Also do you intend to salvage anything from your present system? Do you need/want a new screen, keyboard, mouse, etc. Maybe your hard drives/cdrom/floppy drive can be salvaged from ur present system?

The loving are the daring!

 

[Crashman]

Prescott is a dead end, Intel decided to stop at 3.8GHz because they simply run too hot. They don't perform that great either.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[tweebel]

Intel 4Ghz available soon at $ 2000,-

Ships with nitrogen cooling and refrigerator-case. Can also be used for melting polar ice and baking eggs.

Warning: Use sunglasses with this CPU. It emits more light than your casual LCD-projector.

 

[okietex]

Crash...

so, are you saying just stick with the 865/875 boards and don't move forward to these LGA775 boards?

Or, are you thinking just moving to AMD/64s until something better comes out on the Intel side?

Curious what you would build for a new system right now for mobo/cpu - in that $800-$1200 range (w/o monitor etc) - just sys.

-- edit -- and that it will be a STABLE system... as STABILITY and SPEED would be most important but STABILITY wins.

tia

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by okietex on 12/27/04 08:30 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

I'd go with an A64 on an nForce4 chipset to get PCIe.

But if you really thought you needed a P4, you can get 915P chipset boards in S478 to support PCIe and Northwoods, which run much cooler than Prescotts and outperform them.

A64 offers even more performance with even less heat.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[okietex]

Thanks!

So, I'm guessing with the PCIe - that is the way to go now and looking for mobos that support those slots.

I guess the other main reason for the PCIe would be the video card support - and use PCIe instead of AGP now??

Again, thanks!

 

[schafer1986]

LOL....you guys(and I mean that in a good way) totally made me laugh. This is what I love about the internet and THGC more specifically, I ask a question and I get awesome information. Most of the information you guys gave me was over my head...I recognized words and terms like, "chip" and "heating" and "speed" but that was about it (just kidding--sort of).
But I want to say thank you for the info, it really amazes me how a guy like me can get information like this so fast and thus help me make better decisions on my little project.
Here's some more information for you.
I don't need monitor and I will buy cd/dvd drives/burners as well as build the system, mobo and chip set. Can I do this for around $500 - $700 bucks? Or is that way off base??
What would I be looking at price wise to get a nice strong/stable system that is both fast and fun to use? Or maybe I should word it this way, "Can I build something good for $500 - $700???
Thanks again
I mean sincerely thankful for the knowledge you share...
Guy

Living on the Rock!

 

[tweebel]

Yes you can.
-For mainboard, get something like the Gigabyte GA-K8NS.
-512 MB of brand DDR-400 RAM, if you can maybe 1024.
-Any socket 754 CPU that you like (I suggest Athlonxp64 2800+ or Sempron 3000+)
-decent case with decent power supply
-160 GB SATA harddrive (Samsungs are silent and cold, I don't like Maxtor cause Ive had 3 crashing with 2 only 1 month old)
-Mouse and keyboard
-need a floppy disk drive just once for installing Windows
-Choose the videocard you need: if its cheap (less than $175), it wont perform well in new games. With the mainboard I suggest you have to use an AGP card.
-Get a $60 DVD-burner, it will burn and read all.

I think this should do a good and stable job for less than $700, if its more, cut some money on harddisk size or videocard (of course not if you're into playing newest games). Don't buy less than 512 MB RAM and dont go cheap on the power supply.

 

[okietex]

Ok, maybe this is close to what would be a good system for under $1000 -- and this includes WinXP Home OS ($90 bucks).

Total w/o S/H -- $945.10

So, is this a pretty good system using the AMD CPU?
For AMD, I don't know too much about them so the rest of the system I feel fairly comfortable with except video card and I would buy a better video card (and maybe Powercooler Radeon isn't that good but probably good enough unless there's some other out there better for close to same money) if this system was for me but it's not ... friend and relative.

Comments??

This help you schafer1986??

THX. -OT

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EDITED ...
-- I wanted to add that if going to an INTEL based MOBO & CPU then something like this would/could increase the costs just a bit --

Like going with ...
IS7 mobo -- $90 ($4 diff lower than AMD based)
INTEL P4 -- $188 ($58 diff HIGHER than AMD based)

BUT, if going to a "higher" clocked cpu, you're looking at quite a bit more:
Intel Pentium 4 3.40E GHz 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache
w/ Hyper Threading Technology - Retail @ $307.00
-- right around $170 BUCKS higher than the AMD cpu and $130 higher on the Intel CPU.

Also -- I didn't put a SOUND CARD in there on the original system -- both these boards have them ONBOARD so that might be fine. Otherwise, figure about $70 bucks or so to add one in there... (like for an Audigy2).

HTH.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by okietex on 12/28/04 02:41 PM.</EM></FONT></P>