Tom's Hardware > Forum > Old Man/Woman's Club > Other > Need help building new PC
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Jukaxx   08-25-2003 at 05:27:58 AM

Hi folks, first time poster here. I'm buying a new PC for the first time in 6 years; my old P2 333MHz finally gave up the ghost on me. I've sort of kept up with the times, but I really don't know the technical things that I should be looking for, and I thought that you folks were the perfect people to ask. Please keep in mind that I'm a college student and that my budget is limited to around $1500-1800 Canadian (including tax and shipping). I want the best value for my dollar so I chose to go with AMD. Here's what I've got so far:

AMD 2800 XP Barton 333 MHz Core - Retail box - $279.99
ThermalTake Volcano 7+ Variable Fan Speed Copper - $59.99
Asus A7N8X Deluxe - NForce2-8x AGP DDR-400 Serial ATA - $189.99
512 MB DDR PC-3200 (400 MHz) Lifetime warranty - $139.99
Seagate 120 GB Barracuda V 7200 RPM Serial ATA 8 MB - $224.99
MSI GeForce 4 Ti4600 128 MB DDR - Retail Box - $425.99

I already have a mid tower with a 400W power supply and a floppy disk that I can use as well as a LG 48x24x48 speed CD/RW and a Sony DVD-ROM that I bought a year or so ago and put into my old computer, so I can save some money that way. I've also got copies of WinXP and all the software I need, so no further expenses will be occurred there.

Some questions that I have that I can't find the answers to on the net: is it worth pay the extra $20-30 for dual channel RAM? What does dual channel RAM do? Is it worth going for 1 GB of RAM? This machine will mainly be used for schoolwork - I'm a biophysics major and do some pretty heavy statistics and physics courses and use Maple5 and similar programs quite a lot, so computing power is nice to have. Also, I enjoy gaming - Is the Ti4600 a good card that will last me a while? I like Unreal Tournament, EverQuest, and plan on playing Worlds of Warcraft when it's released.

Any input / opinions / suggestions would be highly appreciated!

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silverpig   08-25-2003 at 05:57:13 AM
- 0 +

<A HREF="http://www.ncix.com" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com</A> is in Vancouver. I've dealt with them before; they're really good, and even do pricematching for you.

________________________________________________________________
AMD ATHLON XP 2500+ 512K 333FSB SOCKET A BARTON RETAIL BOX
$143.07

ASUS A7N8X DELUXE SOCKETA NFORCE2 AGP8X FIREWIRE USB2 SERIAL ATA AUDIO LAN
$194.36

2x OCZ 512MB PC3200 DDR400 CAS2 184PIN W/ COPPER HEAT SPREADER
$173.87 x2 = $347.74

SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 128MB DDR AGP8X VGA DVI-I TV OUT OEM
$369.60

WD CAVIAR 80GB INT ATA/100 HD 3.5LP 9MS 8MB 7200RPM OEM
$131.10

YOUR TOTAL

Shipping and final tax calculation will be calculated at checkout
ALL PRICES QUOTED IN CANADIAN FUNDS

$1,185.87
_________________________________________________________________

This is before, tax and you also have some headroom to upgrade to whatever else you want. The video card I have picked is the 9800 non-PRO, and for ~$150 more you can get the pro version. Don't get the Ti 4600 though, especially not for that price. The 9700 Pro beats it and is cheaper, and the 9800 non-pro is about the same as the 9700 pro.

That WD 800JB 80 gig 8 MB cache drive I picked is awesome. I have one and it rocks. You can go with the 120 GB version if you want too, although I'd probably get one of the WD 36 gig 10k rpm raptor drives in addition and use it as my boot/windows/programs drive, while using the 80/120 gig drive as a slave for other stuff.

Oh yeah, and the 2500+ is much cheaper, and oc/s very well. :)

Some day I'll be rich and famous for inventing a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

Reply to silverpig
starbucksaddict   08-25-2003 at 06:14:13 AM
- 0 +

OK, in order.

1) Check ALL your local stores. If there is a local Computer Paper, great. The prices you gave are all high.
2)Since you are on a budget, forget dual channel.
3)It basically interleaves the memory to give twice the memory throughput.
4)For heavy number crunching, yes get the 1GB of RAM.
5)For $425 you can do much better than a 4600.
(Vancouver prices)
MSI Ti4600 128MB $338
ATI 9600PRO 128MB $275
ATI 9700PRO 128MB $435
ASUS V9900/TD 5800 128MB $399


The Pen is mightier than the Sword, but the Sword is better if you need back up.

Reply to starbucksaddict
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