Buying a new computer.

[duckbill]

Well, put short, i've been thinking of buying a new comp. At the moment i'm going for an Athlon (w/SB Live!), even though i've read about these instability issues. What do you guys think of this rig (mostly for playing games, writing stuff with word and netsurfing):

-"A" Motherboard (Need some real advice on this one)
-Athlon 1.4 GHz 266 Socket A T-Bird
-512 Mb PC-133 Sdram
-Geforce2 PRO 64 Mb AGP
-"A" harddrive (Need advice on this too, ATA100 or U-DMA 100?)
-SB Live! 1024
-Asus 50x CD-ROM
-A midtower w/300w power

Any suggestions?

I'd also like to know how would/should "DDR" be involved in this rig? And how about the Athlon@266 MHz and the memory @133 MHz? Do they match, or have in understood it all wrong in the first place? How about the Mobo, should it also have DDR capability or what? Oh hell with it, i'm all confused now, please provide me with some good advice.

Thanks in advance. -duckbill (and yes, i do seem to have the IQ of a duckbill when it comes to "detailed" computer stuff!)

-duckbill

 

[FUGGER]

Oh god, not another one.

Take a few minutes and read back on this forum.

Notice all the AMD based problems, ask yourself are you sure you want to buy problems? Ok, so you think you can install a HSF? so did grizley1 on more than one occasion destroying his processor. You want to spend hours chasing down drivers to fix wierd anomolies? You want to constantly monitor you processor temp in fear of overheating?

Your not going to save any money in the end. more like waste allot of time if you buy AMD. but then again if thats what you want go for it. dont take my word for it just read bak a few pages of horror stories. It doesnt matter which proccessr you buy over 1Ghz you most likely cannot tell the difference anyway 1~2 fps in a game or booting in 2.1 vs 2.2 seconds.

If you buy AMD rig, your still without SSE2 extensions. and there will be software you will want that is SSE2 optimized. games and applications.

Most importantly, notice the people who asked before buying and stil came back here after buying with problems. Common theme is AMD = problems. GL cause your prob gonna buy one anyway and your gonna have problems that are gonna suck hardcore.

I will laugh in your face and offer no support when you do come back here asking for help on why your machine crashes constantly and stuff doesnt work.

 

[duckbill]

HSF? Excuse me, but i do not understand comp slang too well so...please clarify.

I dont really care about the athlon issues, and most certainly wont come bragging about it (at least to you) here in case some difficulties do arise. What about the other components? The hard-drive, ata100 or udma100? graphics? anything? RAM? DDR?

-duckbill

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

I agree with Fugger. Wha-what?, you say....well, since your only going to use this rig for gaming, surfing and word processing, you definately do not need a 1.4ghz and 512mb of RAM. It seems like your getting this rig for bragging rights (which is stupid). You don't need DDR. Your graphics is good enough for gamming. HSF means HeatSink/Fan. You should just get a 1.0ghz or something, maybe less since you will <i>only</i> be using this rig for gaming, surfing and Word. Save yourself some money, or if your rich and don't care about money, buy a new motherboard for me.

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[duckbill]

Umm...actually the rig i'm considering right now isnt too expensive, actually it is pretty cheap (Partly due to the fact that I wont be needing a monitor, a mouse, a keyboard nor any other accessories). This cheapness is actually quite remarkable since I live in Finland where the prices tend to skyrocket. And no, i'm not rich, nor willling to buy you a new mobo.

Besides, wouldn't I be better preparing for the future if i bought a 1.4 athlon? Already today games like Max Payne require like a 1 GHz machine to run with full detail! If I bought a GHz rig now, tomorrow's games would choke it in no time!

But that has nothing to do with the original point of this thread. Can you guys please comment on the other components. Especially the HD and the graphics card? Thanks.

-duckbill

 

[duckbill]

Oh and about the amount of RAM. Well, I guess it is a bit of an overshoot but why not? RAM is very cheap here (512 Mb PC-133 for athlon systems only approx. 85 us dollars), so why settle for less? (note that this $85 is cheap in my eyes, partly because I do not know the prices there in the americas, or anywhere else in the world, for that matter).

-duckbill

 

[chaotictech]

It doesnt matter what you buy there will be issues to resolve,Intel or Amd, Factory or custom built. 512 is fine as cheap as the prices are right now. The 1.4 is about as good as you can get right now and if its cheap get it.the geforce is fine. I'm running one now and have no problems.

I've done so much,for so long,with so little,I'm now qualified to do anything,with nothing,forever!

 

[Boondock_Saint]

Wait wait wait wait.....you say he is ONLY using it for gaming and such, and won't need that much power? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Games need as much power as they can get. That seems like a bad ass setup to me.

Also, Pentium 4's = Slow as hell, no software support, needed specialized parts.

As for mainboards, the Asus A7M266 is the best for the 760 chipset. Best DDR preformance out there. Go with that and PC2400 DDR RAM. About as cheap as SD, but MUCH better preformance.

 

[Guest]

I am surprised that no one so far has accually answered your questions duckbill. I'll do the best that I can to recommend parts that I would use. For a motherboard, you sound like you may get DDR SDRAM later on.. the ASUS A7A266 should suit your needs well. It has slots for both sdram and ddr so later you can upgrade. For your needs ATA100 harddrive will do fine. Some of the best are IBM harddrives. Get one with 7200 rpm and get whatever size you want. Hope this helps alittle if at all.

_______________________________
<b> Slow cat makes fast food. </b> :tongue:
~Later

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

If you haven't noticed, CPU power becomes less and less of a factor when playing games at higher resolutions.
BTW-can you back up your claim of DDR being <i><b>MUCH</i></b> better than SD RAM????

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[Boondock_Saint]

Look at most of THG's reviews on DDR based systems. SiSoft Sandra memory usage reports about a 10-40% speed increase in memory functions when using DDR. I would say that is much. And by the way, to the contrary CPU power becomes more needy when running a game at higher resolutions. Ever tried running Unreal Tournament on a 700 Athlon with GeForce 3 compared to 1.3 GHz Athlon with GeForce 3? Keeping all specs the same I think you would notice a sizeable speed increase.

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

If your really looking for performance, you can buy a 1.0ghz 'B' CPU (I like Crashman's idea) and overclocking it to 1.4-1.5ghz. This will give you better performance since the FSB will be 140mhz-150mhz compared to only 133mhz on a stock 1.4ghz CPU.
With the rate of CPU speed is increasing, there's no such thing as being prepared for the future. In 6 months time when everyone has 2.0+ ghz CPU, that 1.4ghz will seem old and slow to you, but is it really???
I guess if you got the money, go ahead and get 512mb of RAM (note that in the US it can go for as cheap as $36 for generic RAM).
For a motherboard, you might consider the Asus A7A266 since it has support for both SD and DDRAM in case you want to go DDR later.

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[FatBurger]

If you never remember another thing you hear on these forums, remember this: <font color=red>ignore FUGGER</font color=red>.
All of us do now

-----------------------
Quarter pounder inside

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

Sisoft Sandra isn't that great. When playing games, I doubt you will notice any significant performance boost over SD-RAM. And you will NOT see ANY performance boost while surfing or word processing.

No, your wrong. Why don't you read TOM's review, or any other review for that matter--UT, Q3A, Mercedes Racing...all ran with about the same FPS when tested with a GF2 Ultra and CPUs ranging from 800mhz to 1.2ghz.
At lower resolutions, the CPU is the bottle neck...whereas in higher resolutions, the Graphics Card is the one that is stressed.

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[duckbill]

So let me get this straight...I-I-IGNORE....F-F-F-FUGGER? IGNORE FUGGER! Woohoo! I got it! And this is for you "FUGGER", one last time: I...LIKE...ATHLON...PROCESSOR...WHETHER...YOU...LIKE...IT..OR...NOT!

Oh, and thanks for the tips guys, I truly appreciate your input.

-duckbill