New System Critique

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Getting ready to build my latest system and looking for feedback on my
choices. This will be the first AMD system I am building so would be
interested in any specific feedback regard my choice of mobo/cpu
combination. Here is what I am thinking of getting:

MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR
Athlon XP 2700+ (retail)
2 sticks Crucial PC2700 CL=2.5 256MB
Apex mid-tower case w/350W PSU
Rosewill Ati Radeon 9200SE, 128MB (AGP)

I dual boot Windows XP Home and Mandrake Linux. I mostly use email and
home office apps but occasionally will create home movies and burn to
DVD. I am no video editing genius, I just load from the camera and let
Pinnacle do the work so I wouldn't characterize myself as needing a
"video editing" machine but I could be wrong. I rarely play games and
they are usually not the newest games when I do play.

I have had my current machine for 5 years, with minor upgrades here and
there. For reference purposes, I am running an Asus P2B with a Celeron
500 OC'd to 667. I plan to get a very big gain on the new build.
TIA for the feedback.

-Mike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Mac,
Good guess on the prices. Only one you missed was the case which is
$32 on newegg. I waffle on the case because I see some people saying
that if you aren't going to overclock or run high end games a generic
PSU should be fine while others are adamant that the PSU is key. My
experience has only been with generic case and power supplies. I will
look more into investing in a good case/PSU.

I have two hard drives, one 80Gb Maxtor 7200 and one 40Gb Seagate 7200.
Board has built in audio, LAN, and RAID controller. Already have a
DVD burner and DVD reader so not upgrading anything else at this
time...unless I am missing something?

-Mike
Mac Cool wrote:
> Akron Mike:
>
> > MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR
> > Athlon XP 2700+ (retail)
> > 2 sticks Crucial PC2700 CL=2.5 256MB
> > Apex mid-tower case w/350W PSU
> > Rosewill Ati Radeon 9200SE, 128MB (AGP)
>
> 60+103+82+64+42=351
>
> Not bad, I would spend a bit more on the case and get quality.
> Antec SLK3700-BQE or SLK3700AMB; Enermax has a number of nice cases,
many
> with PSU.
>
> hard drive??
> --
> Mac Cool

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Thanks for the advice. You are right that the only reason I was buying
two sticks was to get dual channel. I just read some timings the other
day that said dual channel doesn't give the real world boost it
claims. I will save the few bucks and go with one stick of
512...thanks!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Akron Mike:

> MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR
> Athlon XP 2700+ (retail)
> 2 sticks Crucial PC2700 CL=2.5 256MB
> Apex mid-tower case w/350W PSU
> Rosewill Ati Radeon 9200SE, 128MB (AGP)

60+103+82+64+42=351

Not bad, I would spend a bit more on the case and get quality.
Antec SLK3700-BQE or SLK3700AMB; Enermax has a number of nice cases, many
with PSU.

hard drive??
--
Mac Cool

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"Mac Cool" <Mac@2cool.com> wrote in message
news:Xns95E2A094AE897MacCool@130.133.1.4...
> Akron Mike:
>
>> MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR
>> Athlon XP 2700+ (retail)
>> 2 sticks Crucial PC2700 CL=2.5 256MB
>> Apex mid-tower case w/350W PSU
>> Rosewill Ati Radeon 9200SE, 128MB (AGP)
>
> 60+103+82+64+42=351
>
> Not bad, I would spend a bit more on the case and get quality.
> Antec SLK3700-BQE or SLK3700AMB; Enermax has a number of nice cases, many
> with PSU.
>
> hard drive??

The Apex case should be fine, but you need a better power supply. 350W
should be good, but not if it's a generic that comes with a generic case.
Antec and Enermax are good. Try Fortron/Sparkle, Thermaltake or Seasonic,
also. -Dave

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Akron Mike:

> I waffle on the case because I see some people saying
> that if you aren't going to overclock or run high end games a generic
> PSU should be fine while others are adamant that the PSU is key. My
> experience has only been with generic case and power supplies. I will
> look more into investing in a good case/PSU.

I was the same way for years... built all my systems with generic supplies
and could never understand why my systems were not as stable as others.
Once I finally figured out to stop using generic memory and generic ram,
it really, really did make a difference. There is also big convenience
factor from buying a quality case.

The good news is that quality doesn't mean expensive, it just means you
spend a little extra and save a lot of frustration.
Good reading:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=792566
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-09-21-2004.ars/2
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200411.ars/2

--
Mac Cool

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Akron Mike wrote:
> Getting ready to build my latest system and looking for feedback on my
> choices. This will be the first AMD system I am building so would be
> interested in any specific feedback regard my choice of mobo/cpu
> combination. Here is what I am thinking of getting:
>
> MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR
> Athlon XP 2700+ (retail)
> 2 sticks Crucial PC2700 CL=2.5 256MB

Get PC3200 memory - it should be about the same price and will give you
more upgrade room in future.

> Apex mid-tower case w/350W PSU
> Rosewill Ati Radeon 9200SE, 128MB (AGP)
>
> I dual boot Windows XP Home and Mandrake Linux. I mostly use email and
> home office apps but occasionally will create home movies and burn to
> DVD. I am no video editing genius, I just load from the camera and let
> Pinnacle do the work so I wouldn't characterize myself as needing a
> "video editing" machine but I could be wrong. I rarely play games and
> they are usually not the newest games when I do play.
>
> I have had my current machine for 5 years, with minor upgrades here and
> there. For reference purposes, I am running an Asus P2B with a Celeron
> 500 OC'd to 667. I plan to get a very big gain on the new build.
> TIA for the feedback.
>
> -Mike
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

OK...you all talked me into it. I ordered the 2650 from Best Buy. It
actually ends up being cheaper than the Newegg case because I don't
have to pay delivery. I still have to order the other parts but at
least I have my "foundation".

Thanks!

-Mike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

The only reason I was going with the PC2700 was that it had a CL of 2.5
versus the PC3200 which had a CL of 3. Should I care? I have been
talked out of buying two sticks because dual channel is not all it is
cracked up to be...should I care about CAS latency or is the difference
in CAS made up by the increase in speed?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Akron Mike wrote:
> The only reason I was going with the PC2700 was that it had a CL of 2.5
> versus the PC3200 which had a CL of 3. Should I care? I have been
> talked out of buying two sticks because dual channel is not all it is
> cracked up to be...should I care about CAS latency or is the difference
> in CAS made up by the increase in speed?
>

Honestly, you probably won't notice the performance difference of 2.5 vs
3 CL. What you will notice is the cost of buying another 1Gb of RAM when
you upgrade to an AMD64 processor if you don't buy PC3200 now.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Thank you to everyone for your input. Here is what I decided on:
Antec Solution Series case w/350W PSU
MSI K7N2-Delta 2-LSR
Athlon XP 2700+ Retail
512MB Crucial PC3200
8X AGP 128MB Geforce FX5200

All for $340 delivered...not bad. This should serve me nicely for a
couple years. I will put it all together with my 2 DVD drives, an 80
and 40 GB 7200RPM hard drive, and dual boot Win XP / Mandrake Linux.

Any last minute advice before I put it all together? Should I format
my Windows partition and do a complete OS reinstall? Hate to lose all
my installed apps but it may be worth the effort to reinstall if it
gives XP the best chance of running perfect.

Thanks again!!

Akron Mike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Roughly about $30. It would be a MB with similar features but not the
same. Not necessarily better or worse. I usually try to stay just a
step below the top of the price point but in this case I think I got
too close. The problem is that I paid $103 for an Athlon XP2700+ and
for about $120 I could have had an AMD64 2800. An equivalent MSI board
could be had for about $75. You know what happened? I started out
thinking I just needed a basic board and CPU but kept finding that for
a few dollars more I could get ____ (fill in the blank). I have been
shopping for so long that as the prices came down, I found that I could
get more but I was stuck in the Athlon XP mindset. I basically just
bought the high end of an extinct product line so I will have to
updgrade both the MB and CPU next time. I am not too happy now.
Should still be a nice upgrade from where I am but I just saved $30
short term but cost myself another $150 in two years. Oh well...anyone
looking for a nice MSI / 2700 XP combo?