My first custom system

[Lonely]

This is my first, so don't be too harsh. I'm very open for any suggestions or corrections if I'm choosing something stupid.
AMD Athlon64 3400+
1gig PC3200 RAM
80GB Western Digital 7200rpm HD
Chaintech Nforce3 754sock MoBo
Lite-on 52x32x52 CD-RW
Windows 2k
Floppy drive
Antec SOHO 400w case
nVidia Geforce FX5900XT (maybe 6800GT depening on money i get)

Also, I have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to use. Am I missing anything else? I use cable internet will I need an Ethernet card, Modem, or both? Thanks.

EDIT: I am aware of the fact I'll need Speakers/Headphones. I'm not worried about it yet though.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Lonely on 11/12/04 05:08 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[RichPLS]

Get Ballistix RAM.

<font color=red><pre>_____________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[Lonely]

Ballistix? I'm not familiar with it. Could you give me a link to where I can find some?

 

[RichPLS]

<A HREF="http://www.crucial.com/ballistix/store/listmodule.asp" target="_new"> Ballistix </A>
Works equally well at low timings in AMD and Intel systems.

<font color=red><pre>_____________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[RichPLS]

My second choice would be Corsair TwinX low latency, but Ballistix is a tad less expensive.

See, crash, I'm learning.

<font color=red><pre>_____________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[SidVicious]

Keep in mind that Socket 754 is getting phased out in favor of the Dual-Channel Socket 939, that mean more upgrade options when the time comes.

Try to get a Athlon64 3000+ for Socket 939 instead of a 3400+, it will allow you some amazing overclocking headroom when you are ready for it, the 1.8GHz 90nm Winchester core can hit 2.6GHz on stock cooling and voltage, a good copper Heat Sink will let you reach even higher frequencies.



Mobile Barton 2500+ @ 2.5GHz (217MHz x 11.5)
Abit NF7-S V2.0
2x 512MB of Samsung TCC4
Sapphire Radeon 9700 128MB @ 360/310
2x Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM RAID-0

 

[RichPLS]

<A HREF="http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=241440" target="_new"> Use this board </A>
for free, and build around it, best price/performance you can get.

<font color=red><pre>_____________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[Cybercraig]

OK, let's look at this logically!

1. Socket 754? Bad choice. Socket 939 better. Get a 3200 CPU in this flavor. 3400 in 754? Nope.

2. Windows 2000. Nope. XP or don't bother

3. Cheap WD drive? Nope. Samsung or Seagate.

4. 5900? LOL! 6800 and nothing less!


Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[RichPLS]

WD makes good drives, RAPTOR!

<font color=red><pre>_____________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[Lonely]

1. Okay, now that I think about it a 939 does seem more practical. Could you recommend a MoBo to go with the CPU? They all see to up my price a lot, and the free one with the rebate looks to be out of stock and out of date.

2. From what I've heard and seen, W2k is a lot like XP but without all the extra garbage. Also, I've read that W2k can perform at 30-40% faster speeds. Why should I go with XP?

3. All right, I'll take your word for it on the drives. *switches to Seagate*

4. The 6800 is so pricey it makes me sick. I don't need my comp to do anything too fancy, but I guess it's better to pay now than to buy something out dated...

 

[RichPLS]

I still don't trust seagate since they went out of biz, then came back as a privately held company. Plus their drives are don't bench as fast as others. And I still have a pair of Seagate Barracuda 7200 SCSI drives.
Maxtor and WD are tops in my book.

That soyo board can be bought anywhere, the rebates I have printed are good till Nov 21, and are direct from Soyo.
That is a $80 coupon plus a bonus $80 coupon on top of that. I can send you the links for your printing if needed.
That is a Intel 875 chipset board, couple that with a processor, beats any AMD deal.

<font color=red><pre>_____________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[mozzartusm]

Double check the fine print on the rebate forms I bought this board about two weeks ago and it had a rebate very similiar to this one. It was also direct with SOYO, however in the fine print it did say that the rebate was only offered on boards that were purchased from ZipZoomFly. Just wanted to point that out. This one may be different. Also Office Depot has a rebate running on Maxtor HD's 60GB that ends up costing a total of around $26.00 Im not sure how that stacks up, but its something else to consider.

 

[Lonely]

I'll check out the Office Depot deal and also the Soyo board, although I am a bit sceptical. Especially since I'd really really prefer an AMD CPU. Also, why do you suggest Ballistix? How much of a difference is there between that and, say Kingston or this
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?DEPA=0&description=20-220-006&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch&ATT=System+Memory
Because the former is quite a bit more expensive it seems.

 

[RichPLS]

That is a newcomer, and specs look great along with the price.
Crucial Ballistix and Corsair (and Kingston) make excellent quality RAM, and have long track records with performance and compatablity.
Your on the right track.

That Soyo board for free would sure make me consider it, but otherwise, AMD rules the crown.

<font color=red><pre>_____________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[mozzartusm]

Im not up to date on all of the newer computer harware, until recently I had been using an old slot P3 550Mhz. So as far as technical advice, I wouldnt be much help. Having said that, it seems to me that before you even get to the decsion of which brand (AMD or INTEL) you need to think more in terms of what your limits are going to be. For instance; how much your budget will allow! After you come up with a comfortable price range then you apply simple economics to your situation. Alot of people will suggest one or the other (AMD or INTEL). Thats fine, as long as your budget allows this much flexibility. Unfotunately many people don't have deep pockets. In this case, you should choose the best overall setup that you can afford. If you can start out with a MOBO that probably has more features than you will ever use for free then you have that much more money to invest in other parts of the system that are going to be very critical to the overall performance. In this case, unless you can find a MOBO deal this good that will support an AMD "Or at least close" you are going to either have to spend more money than your budget is comfortable with, or sacrifce on another part or parts of the system. The hardest thing for me was getting it through my head that one piece of hardware, no matter how great it may be means very little if you surround it with bottlenecks.

I think this would be a good time to take my nerve medicine! My ego is probably going to need some help!

 

[Lonely]

All right. I re-looked into my stuff and have decided on this slightly different set up.
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-502&depa=0" target="_new">CPU</A>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-019&depa=1" target="_new">Hard Drive</A>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-480&depa=0" target="_new">RAM</A>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-263&depa=1" target="_new">Motherboard</A>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-120&depa=0" target="_new">Case</A>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-121-177&depa=0" target="_new">Video Card</A>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-942&depa=0" target="_new">CD-RW</A>

How is this setup and how does it compare to my previous one? Also, if I were to eventually want to over-clock this setup how well would it work if at all?

 

[endyen]

The old setup wasn't bad, but this new one looks great.

 

[Cybercraig]

You're cookin' with gas now! One thing though, if you can wait a couple of weeks you can get a Gigabyte KN8XP-9 w/ dual PCI-E graphics slots and a 6600GT PCI Express card for less money than you were going to spend. Need more gas? Get a second 6600GT later and run light-speed graphics! XPpro over 2000 anytime. 2000 will go away in the next two years.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[dobster99]

when planning a budget and making a list of products and their total cost, rebates saving should not be included. Rebates are eventual savings and dont impact the total amount of funds you have to dish out. If you could build a system for 1 dollars where 99% of the savings come from rebates then you still have to dish out hundreds of dollars to acquire the pc components. It will take 8 weeks or longer to recover the savings, but the dollars to acquire all the necessary will required at the time of purchase.

All of this is somewhat invalidated with the use of credit cards and paying them back over time. Then your budget is simply your credit limit or whatever percentage of you credit limit you choose to devote towards your new pc. However, in this shady world of rebates, savings aren't gauranteed. Furthermore, you have to take account of credit card interest that will accumulate over time. There are plenty of people that spent 1200 dollars on a 900 dollar system simply because they took a large amount time repaying their credit cards.

This is why i promote setting a budget, acquiring the necessary funds first and then buying the pc components. There is nothing better in terms of saving then using cash.

 

[Lonely]

Hmm... That MoBo sounds great. Any idea on what the initial cost will be? If it's too much I'll say forget it. Otherwise I'll wait a few weeks to get it. As for the rebate thing... I'm not too worried about it. I'm willing to spend on what I want rather than settle for something with a rebate.

 

[endyen]

Asus has also started shipping a sli mobo. I would guess that initial prices are going to be +$200.

 

[mozzartusm]

That is based on quite a few assumptions! Most people do need to consider the fact that the rebate comes later, I wont disagree with you on that. The problem with your statement is that it doesnt apply to everyone. I consider the rebate up front because I know how to manage my money. I almost lost everything years ago due to my excessive spending. I learned the hard way that lots of good credit can be a bad thing if not managed properly. I know people that have always been good money managers. In either instance, the decsion of how someone considers a rebate into the equation is up to the individual. I don't buy anything that I dont have the cash to pay for. Again, this is my preference and it works for me. In my case rebates are a very improtant factor that lead me to my descions. There is nothing wrong or backwards about factoring it in on the front. If I would have managed my money 10 years ago as well as I manage it today, I doubt that I would have to work another day in my life.

 

[SidVicious]

Good picks but I would suggest going for the 3000+ for Socket 939 instead, you would save somewhere close to 70$, clearing enough funds to purchase a good full copper heatsink, RAM with even tighter timings and a few case fans.

Those 90nm Winchester core A64 overclock like crazy, it would be a shame not to !



Mobile Barton 2500+ @ 2.5GHz (217MHz x 11.5)
Abit NF7-S V2.0
2x 512MB of Samsung TCC4
Sapphire Radeon 9700 128MB @ 360/310
2x Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM RAID-0

 

[Lonely]

I could settle for the 3000+ as long as I have good enough stuff to OC. I don't know much about buying heatsinks and fans, any suggestions? And the RAM, how much tigher we talking? I don't wanna spend a bunch on it, but wanna be able to OC. And also, is that MoBo I have chosen good enough to OC a lot?

 

[dobster99]

Personally, i don't see how calculating a rebate in your upfront cost is considered good money management (no offense to you).

A rebate is a gimmick to make you believe you somehow spent less money than you actually have on a product. Look at the premise of a rebate. You purchase something from a company for a set price and then that company sends you a check. A rebate doesn't make sense unless its something shady behind it. The company is relying on you not to send in for the rebate and/or make it difficult for you to acquire a rebate. This is accomplished by making it very vague on what needs to be sent in to qualify for a rebate. They purposely delay the process and inconvience you by forcing you to push the rebate through thier long process by phone or emails. Hoping you give up.

A rebate isn't a saving its an unsecured loan that you give to a company for purchasing their product.

That sentence alone makes it difficult to stomach a rebate as some type of savings. The shadiness of a rebate and no real garuantee that you will get it back. Makes it impossible in what i consider good business sense to earmark a rebate as a saving until I have a rebate check in hand.