New Computer from Scratch

[DanHab2000]

I can't repost everything, so here's the link:
http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=30&t=1825

I heard you guys were great, so i decided to post here.

TIA
-Dan

 

[coolsquirtle]

AMD SETUP
Case- If you got the money Thermaltake Xaser 3s or the ANTEC sotanas are real nice

Case fans if required- if you get the Xaser 3 it comes with all 7 fans and don't worrie they're real quiet and if you are getting the sontana u can get another 120 mm fan

PSU to suit parts- if ur getting the sontana it comes with a TrueBlue 380 which is quite good but i'd recommand a TrueBlue 480 or a TruePower 480 (they're the same except TrueBlue has a Blue led in the P/S)

Motherboard- Asus A7N8x Dlx i have one and it's rock stable be sure to get Rev 2.0

CPU- If you have the money Athlon XP 3000+ or 3200+
if your don't need top of the line CPU Athlon XP 2500+ and then you can overclock to 3200+

Heatsink & Fan for CPU- try looking for the Aero7 from coolermaster other wise Volcano 7+ is quite good

Graphics- ATI-9800 Pro or 9600 pro
Nvidia- 5900 Ultra or 5600Ultra or Ti4800SE
Sound- Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ( well the sound storm on A7N8X is a bit better but if u want a sound card

Hard Drive(s)- Normal - WD special edition HDDs i'd recommand 120gb right now 7200 rpm 8mb cache
crazy- WD Raptor 36 GB and then RAID 0 with another SATA drive

Floppy Drive- Sony ones looks the best -_-"

CD-RW- if u just want to burn get Lite-on
if u want features get a Plextor or Yamaha F1 ( if you can find one)

DVD- Pioneer 16 DVD-ROM or toshiba but i think pioneer one are better

Cables to suit all (most likely get enough with drives & mobo)- if you want rounded IDE cables get VANTEC ones otherwise it all pretty much comes with the m/b

Monitor- if you have the money- SONY LCDs or Sony TFTs
otherwise- NEC and Sharp makes pretty good LCDs

Speakers- the new logitech ones looks real nice i think it is the Z680 but it's got a pricey tag

Mouse- Logitech MX700 (everything u'll need)
Keyboard- Logitech Elite keyboard (looks real nice)

and your forgotten RAM

RAM- Corsair Dual channel rams PC3200 CAS2 2x256 or 2x512 mb

INTEL SETUP

Case- If you got the money Thermaltake Xaser 3s or the ANTEC sotanas are real nice

Case fans if required- if you get the Xaser 3 it comes with all 7 fans and don't worrie they're real quiet and if you are getting the sontana u can get another 120 mm fan

PSU to suit parts- if ur getting the sontana it comes with a TrueBlue 380 which is quite good but i'd recommand a TrueBlue 480 or a TruePower 480 (they're the same except TrueBlue has a Blue led in the P/S)

Motherboard- Asus P4C800

CPU- If you have the money P4 3.0Ghz 800mhz FSB or 3.06 533mhz FSB
if your don't need top of the line CPU INTEL P4 2.8 800mhz FSB

Heatsink & Fan for CPU- the retail one are real nice already
Graphics- ATI-9800 Pro or 9600 pro
Nvidia- 5900 Ultra or 5600Ultra or Ti4800SE
Sound- Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (here is when you need a sound card )

Hard Drive(s)- Normal - WD special edition HDDs i'd recommand 120gb right now 7200 rpm 8mb cache
crazy- WD Raptor 36 GB and then RAID 0 with another SATA drive

Floppy Drive- Sony ones looks the best -_-"

CD-RW- if u just want to burn get Lite-on
if u want features get a Plextor or Yamaha F1 ( if you can find one)

DVD- Pioneer 16 DVD-ROM or toshiba but i think pioneer one are better

Cables to suit all (most likely get enough with drives & mobo)- if you want rounded IDE cables get VANTEC ones otherwise it all pretty much comes with the m/b

Monitor- if you have the money- SONY LCDs or Sony TFTs
otherwise- NEC and Sharp makes pretty good LCDs

Speakers- the new logitech ones looks real nice i think it is the Z680 but it's got a pricey tag

Mouse- Logitech MX700 (everything u'll need)
Keyboard- Logitech Elite keyboard (looks real nice)

and your forgotten RAM

RAM- Corsair Dual channel rams PC3200 CAS2 2x256 or 2x512 mb

 

[Crashman]

OK, I see this is for your Daddy, so I'll skip the kiddy cases and recommend one of the nice black Inwin or Enlight cases from Newegg. Cost: ~$60

The power supply with those cases is good enough, but if you want something better, you can go "overkill" with the Fortron - FSP400PFN 400W Power Supply. Cost: ~$60

Next, since I doubt he has a gigabit network, I'll recommend the Abit IC7 motherboard. Cost: ~$145

You'll want a couple 256MB Corsair XMS PC3200 modules. Cost: ~$120 for two

Now, you'll want decent video, even if the system only plays games once in a great many moons. The Radeon 9600 Pro is a good solution. Cost: ~$180

You need a DVD-ROM. The Light-On LTD-166S is good at both DVD playback and CD ripping. Available in Black. Cost: ~$40

You'll want to write CD's, you can find a great deal with the Lite-On LTR-52246, available in Black. Cost: ~$45

Of course you need a hard drive! The Western Digital WD1200JB offers great performance and a 3 year warranty. Cost: $125

Of course you'll need a processor for all of this! The "sweetspot" seems to be the Pentium 4 2.6GHz 400MHz (Retail Box). Cost: ~$200.

Now, you'll probably want a floppy. It really doesn't matter what you do there. I'd pick up a used one for $5 in your situation (I get mine for free), but if you want a new one: Cost: $20

As for monitor/printer/keyboard/mouse, you should pick those out after trying some at a store.
Add those up for me and see what a bargain you get, in a top quality system!


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

 

[DanHab2000]

OK. Thanks a lot.

Concerning the mobo's, what do you guys think of the

Intel
Asus P4C800 Deluxe / Abit IC7-G (i875P)
Intel Pentium 4 3.00 GHz (800MHz FSB, HT)?


for the NIC, we are already taken care of.

Here's a list of what is already done/what we don't need:
Modem or NIC
DVD-R
Printer
Scanner
Digital Camera
Webcam

Thanks so much!
-Dan

P.S - We decided we wanted INTEL (so choose from there).

EDIT - Oh ya, Price limit is <3000<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by DanHab2000 on 05/16/03 02:10 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[shadus]

Motherboard - ABIT IC7 -=- 143.00
Processor - Intel Pentium 4 3.06 HT 800FSB -=- 454.97
Ram 1 - 512MB 433MHZ CORSAIR CMX512-3500C2 -=- 135.00
Ram 2 - 512MB 433MHZ CORSAIR CMX512-3500C2 -=- 135.00
Hard Disk 1 - WD EIDE 200.0GB 7200 RPM 8MB CACHE -=- 199.00
Hard Disk 2 - WD EIDE 200.0GB 7200 RPM 8MB CACHE -=- 199.00
Video Card - ATI Rad 9800 Pro -=- 398.00
Sound Card - Creative Audigy2 Platinum -=- 163.70
CD-RW - Lite On 52x24x52x CD-RW -=- 46.00
DVD-ROM - Lite On 16x DVD, 48x CD-ROM -=- 34.50
Speakers - Creative MegaWorks THX 6.1 650 -=- 349.00
Floppy - Teac 1.44 Floppy Drive -=- 12.00
Keyboard/Mouse - Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop -=- 50.47
Case - Antec Lanboy w/350w PS -=- 95.00
Monitor - Mitsubishi/NEC Diamond Pro 22" 2070SB -=- 577.84

Total: $2992.48
Prices are off pricewatch/newegg/pricegrabber.

Since the driver update both the nv5800ultra and ati9800pro are excellent performers, although I'd like to see how the 9800 (128) and the 5800 (128) perform with the newest revision of drivers on both in doom3.

Edit: Ack my title changed to member in this post! eep! I'm spending to much time here.

Edit2: Make that an IC7, which is what the price was for...

Edit3: Personally, I'd stick with the default cooling on the P4 3.0C, unless you are going to do some significant overclocking it's pretty fair. Might wanna snag some artic silver for it though.

Edit4: Changed prices around to match added 3K price limit.

Edit5: Prices INCLUDE shipping.

Shadus<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Shadus on 05/16/03 04:09 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Prof133]

* Pick from among the "C" variant pentium4s (2.4C, 2.6C, 2.8C, 3.0C). All feature the new 800Mhz FSB and Hyperthreading. 3.0C fits into your budget well so no problem with choosing it.

* Already have NIC so ditto to the Abit IC7 (non -G version) recommendation.

* For sound card, the fellow at <b>btvillarin</b> made a great recommendation with Terratec DMX 6FIRE 24/96.

* For memory, two Corsair XMS 512MB PC3500 C2 memory modules was a great suggestion. So, ditto to that.

* I believe you mentioned that "cooler" is important. Because of the large budget, I would opt for the Thermalright SLK-900(U) heatsink and a quiet 92mm fan. That would keep you cool and quiet. SLK-900 is compatible with both IC7 and IC7-G.

 

[shadus]

Bumping since edits.

Shadus

 

[Crashman]

Well, the only things the IC7-G give you over the IC7 is a network controller and a second SATA RAID controller. Since you don't NEED two SATA RAID controllers (1 is probably more than enough), and you don't NEED a gigabit lan connection, the IC7 is a better solution based on price (not paying for things you won't use). That -G adds those two items plus $70 in price!

Another guy suggested the 3.06, but the 3.0 is a better performer. Having said that, the 2.8 (800 bus) is probably 90% of the performance for 60% the price. But if you really want to spend the extra money, get the 3.0. BTW, the 2.8-800 is hard to find right now, but will be in full production in a week.

In fact, you could get 90% the performance of the computer the last guy suggested for ~$2k. And that's a BIG difference! Things like-no RAID using 1 WD 120GB JB drive, a 2.8C instead of 3.0C, 9700 Pro instead of 9800 Pro, wired instead of wireless keyboard/mouse, 19" instead of 22" monitor, etc.

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