Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > CPUs > Trying to build system focus on p/p ratio, help?

Trying to build system focus on p/p ratio, help?

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs - Trying to build system focus on p/p ratio, help?

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I'm fairly new at this "buy it and build it yourself" stuff. I know a lot about the guts of the computer (alot from reading the articles), and I know the best way to find answers is ask. I want to build a "kickass" system, who doesn't... but when I build this I want to focus on the price to performance ration. This is what I plan on getting based on the price/performance ratio, let me know if you have any suggestions

Asus motherboard (k7133 or something, $150, supports raid)
AMD Thunderbird 900mhz (or so, I plan on overclocking)
WHAT TYPE OF RAM SHOULD I GET? (keeping in mind p/p ratio)
WHAT TYPE OF VIDEO CARD? (I play quake 3, counter
strike,etc)
2-7200 RPM 40.0 Maxtor hard drives (Im going to stripe them
using the RAID0 array)

Those are the basic guts. Im not sure what is best by any means, but this is what I ahve been looking at...

thanks for your help

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If your fairly new to building computers than AMD is the wrong choice for you. Unless you wanna chase driver updates and flash bios and go thru all the trials that everyone on this site posts about on a daily basis.

Take a min and read back a few pages, notice all the AMD problems with thermal overheating, drivers, bios, incompatabilities, fragile cores craking, underrated power supplies, more incompatabilities, crappy chipset, crappy chipset incompatabilities, and so on...

If you build a Intel system, your pretty much guarenteed compatability with any part you buy since all mfg's build to Intel spec.

I see that your also planning on overclocking, DDR Ram is double current ram prices, you already lost the p/p ratio. calculate time spent on just asking each vendor if each part is AMD approved, and usually you gotta repeat that question for each item.

BTW, Intel CPU's are undisputed best choice for Quake3 =P

800E P3
Abit SA6R w/ RAID
PC133 SDRAM
Geforce2 MX or Pro depending on your budget

800E will overclock to nearly same Mhz as 900 Tbird.Edited by FUGGER on 02/06/01 02:19 PM.

Reply to FUGGER

my humble opinions:

RAM - PC133, CUSL3. Dirt cheap ($90-256MB), I've seen little performance increase from CUSL2 or PC150, given the price premium. For most applications, more memory is better than marginally faster memory. Also, don't buy the cheapest kind you see on Pricewatch that says it only works with certain motherboards. Most places won't let you return it if it doesn't work with yours.

Video Card - any 32MB GeForce 2 GTS (~$170). Neither the 64MB or the Ultra justify their excessive price.

Hard drives - get as big as you can. I think Maxtor has 61.4GB 7200rpm drives. IBM has something in that range too, I hear..and IBM's perform a bit better for a bit more money.

Hope this helps

~Crapple0

Reply to crapple0

dxkj simple answer NO!!!

-VIA sucks (get intel i815e Motherboard)

-AMD is ok (p3 800 will do the job)

-256mb pc133 should do

-GeForce2 gts 32mb -or- ATi radeon 32mb ddr (should do the job)

-Maxtor is ok but (Get (2)IBM 40gb 75gxp hardrives)

First person to get a topic banned. ABIT BP6 Lives FOREVER!!!

Reply to rcf84

The ASUS mobo will do fine with the T-bird 900.

256MB PC133 is the best value in memory right now.

The Radeon 32MB DDR is a great card and will complement the CPU well.

rcf84 is right on about the HDs...Maxtor drives are decent, but you'd be better off with 2 45GB IBM 75GXPs.

For price/performance, AMD processors are the way to go.

~Weav

Reply to Anonymous

This is response to all the threads above me,

FUGGER: Umm, yes, I want to go through all this crap that I keep hearing about... err wait, I don't keep hearing bad things, I hear many good things and many bad things. But I'm willing to go through some of the bad things for about half the price, and a bettter chip

Rest: Thanks for your input. I plan on sticking with the Thunderbird 800-900 (100-125 dollars) this is a great processor, and at a great price... the mother board is a bit more expensive than some, but I want the best in that case. The memory? Cas2 or Cas3? I know Cas2 is better, but for a 256MB stick it's 112, and for Cas3, I can get it for 67.... guess that's my judgement call.... I've heard that a Geforce 2 MX is one of the best values (80-100) with kickass perforamnce.

Reply to Anonymous

The GeForce MX card is decent...Radeon 32MB is just a little more expensive, with better picture quality.

~Weav

Reply to Anonymous

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