Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (
More info?)
"roadster3043" <pls.see.addr@my.sig> wrote in message
news:Xns9582B7DB39B51plsseeaddrmysig@63.223.5.95...
" Is the following a decent setup? "
You're building a socket 478 system, but LGA775 or Athlon64 may well be
better choice. Instead of building a system with little upgrade potential,
you could build one for the same money with lots of upgrade potential.
Looking at your shopping list, it seems that your budget isn't going to get
you the best of everything. If this is to be a gaming system, maybe you'd
be better off building an Athlon64. Socket 754 has some upgradeability in
it, if you start with one of the following processors:
skt754 Athlon64 2800+
http://snipurl.com/6bf9 $141.00
skt754 Athlon64 3000+
http://snipurl.com/8x5h $164.00
skt754 Athlon64 3200+
http://snipurl.com/8x5p $204.00
Socket 939 will have much more upgradeability than skt754. Up until
recently, the cheapest CPU has been the Athlon64 3500+ at $339.00 (
http://snipurl.com/916t ), but now the skt939 Athlon64 3000+, 3200+ and
3400+ are available. The ratil boxed versions will be available soon, but
for now only the OEM versions are available:
skt939 Athlon64 3000+ OEM
http://snipurl.com/9rz9 $190.00
skt939 Athlon64 3200+ OEM
http://snipurl.com/9rza $235.00
skt939 Athlon64 3400+ OEM
http://snipurl.com/9rzb $291.00
The skt939 Nforce4 chipset is due to be unleashed on 19th October, and this
will bring PCI-Express to Athlon64 motherboards.
If you did feel it absolutely necessary to build a Pentium4, I would
recommend an LGA775 system with PCI-Express. You'll see how the CPU prices
compare with the older skt478 3.0E in your shopping list:
skt478 P4 3.0E Ghz
http://snipurl.com/70rk $189.00
LGA775 P4 520 2.8 Ghz
http://snipurl.com/9s3w $162.00
LGA775 P4 530 3.0 Ghz
http://snipurl.com/9s3x $185.00
LGA775 P4 540 3.2 Ghz
http://snipurl.com/9s3z $223.00
As for your RAM, you didn't state the specifics of it, and PNY aren't the
best brand anyway. If you are building a gaming system on an extremely
tight budget, I would recommend using just 1x 512MB to start with, and
putting more towards a better graphics card than an FX5200. You can get
some pretty good CL2.5 PC3200 modules from respected manufacturers that
don't cost much more than the cheapest stuff:
Mushkin 512MB
http://snipurl.com/9q2u $76.00
Corsair Value Select 512MB
http://snipurl.com/8xm3 $79.00
Geil Value Series 512MB
http://snipurl.com/9q2y $82.00
Kingmax 512MB
http://snipurl.com/8xm5 $85.00
OCZ Premier Series 512MB
http://snipurl.com/9q53 $90.00
The Athlon64 won't see DDR2 for a while yet, as its on-die memory controller
can still make good use of DDR. However, the LGA775 motherboards are
starting to use it, some of them exclusively. If you did opt for an LGA775
system, perhaps it would be best to get a motherboard supporting both DDR
and DDR2, for upgrade potential.
As for your graphics card, the 'normal' 128-bit FX5200 is a poor card, and
the 64-bit version is even worse. You can compare the gaming performance of
a number of cards in the following two articles:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/
PCI-Express graphics cards are now available, and compatible motherboards
offer much more upgrade potential than their AGP counterparts. I'd
recommend incorporating PCI-Express into any new build, as even
bottom-of-the-range cards are available. The Radeon X300SE can be had for
$69 (
http://snipurl.com/9s4l ), and the GeForce PCX5300 can be had for $92
(
http://snipurl.com/9s49 ). Both of these are around the same price range
as a 128-bit AGP FX5200.
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