Need help choosing components

[SIGG]

My buddy's computer is about 4 years old and he wants me to help him build him a new computer. He decided he wants the XP1800+ cpu. I built my current system about a year and a half ago so I'm out of touch with all the newer hardware that's out. What's the best motherboard for that cpu? Who makes a good harddrive 20-40GB? Also what video card would you reccommend, he doesn't need a top of the line video card the computer is just used for word processing and surfing the internet. Does he need 256 or 512mb of DDR-SDRAM? Whats the fastest bus speed thats out now?

Thanks for your help

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by SIGG on 10/13/02 05:59 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Rubberbband]

Check out My System as I'm happy with it:rock stable and 9300 3dmarks not overclocked. Maxtor has a good 40 Gb Ata 133 Hd. My Asus GF4 Ti4200 128Mb is great, no complaints. My mobo only supports Agp 4x (8x is out now) and the 2700XP Athlons are now 333Mhz FSB (vice 266 like I'm running). My mobo is a KT333 chiptset which means memory access is 333 Mhz (using 512Mb PC 2700 Ram). But the KT 400 chipset is out but is having problems with memory compatibility. Read some of Tom's articles on this...

The Men Behind the GUNS!

<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=327" target="_new"><b>MY SYSTEM</b></A>

 

[DaveP]

What kind of price you looking for? Everbody has a limit.

<font color=blue>GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.</font color=blue>

 

[Daikaiju]

I don't mean to sound rude, but if word processing and internet surfing is all this system is going to be used for then an AMD K6-2 500mhz, 128meg PC133 SDRAM and a Voodoo Banshee video card will be more than sufficient.

 

[SIGG]

He's looking to spend around $1000 for the system. I'm going to do a little research online this week and find a motherboard and video card.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[smitbret]

If he's just using it for word processing and surfing the net, but still wants something current, I'd set him up with an Athlon XP1600 (although on second thought, the price difference is negligible so maybe go with the 1800) and get a less expensive video card like a GeForce 4MX series. 256mb of RAM will be enough for this kind of activity unless he decides he wants to jump into some gaming and/or graphics work, in which case he could just grab another stick of 256mb. Maxtor's doing some nice things with Hard Drives right now and a 5400 rpm would suit him fine. Front side bus speeds are starting to climb pretty quickly right now and we're starting to see the introduction of Serial ATA hard drives, so I would just stay with something simple right now (like above) or wait until next spring/summer when nVidia has the GeForce 5's out and motherboards aren't changing as fast (or maybe they will be). You'll be able to get some good stuff at a great price then. For the most part, hardware is light years ahead of software. You can put together a system for about $700 that will suit his needs and then some.