any input for a new pc

[Felix The Assassin]

Originally posted by andrewas: Stick a top of the range AMD XP processor into an ASUS A7N8X motherboard. Well, any nforce2 motherboard will do, but I like the ASUS. Add PC-2700 RAM. I went for 1Gb. Sound is onboard. Graphics is a bit of a problem. The GeforceFX is about to be released, but some of the articles Ive read on it are worrying. An operating temperature (open case) of almost 70 degrees? Dosent sound good to me. Amd apparently its very loud as well, something I can well believe given the size of the cooler on it. Looking at that I cant see a GeforceFX being a good purchase. IMHO. So we're left with the old Geforce4 Ti, and the Radeon whateveritis. Either are good. I built that little lot for a shade over 500 quid, but I scavenged a lot of parts from my old machine. Like the HDD, peripherals, monitor.

Graphics, the current top dog is ATI Radeon 9700 pro.

HDD. I take it you do not run a Raid configuration. You are missing a whole lot of super performance in this area.

Look at the performance results on identical machines with and with out RAID. You will find at least a 1,000 point difference.

[andrewas]

RAID? It took me long enough to save up for what I bought. RAID can wait a few months yet. Besides, with 1Gb of DDR Dual Channel RAM in the box, Im not expecting much hard disk thrashing, and I can live with load up times for the present at least. Its not that slow of a drive anyway.

It would be nice if the bloody company had delivered the right mobo though. I crack out the ramchips, the processor, the mobo - they gave me a KT400. Maybe I should have ordered one of those and gotten the Nforce2 instead. 10 days to return it, if Im lucky.

[john]

Whoa, Thanks for all the advice I really appreciate it.I hope to get something in the next month or so.I would love to build my own but I do know my limitations and I may be able to build a room addition or a garage etc,but my hands don't work very well without a large hammer in it...So I'll save up and go for the Alien !!Thanks again all for the input..John

[/)eathKiller]

Gateway 700Xl is the fastest best home PC on the market, and it plays games better than the Alienware... I only recomend that to power gamers...

[Earthdog]

One rule of thumb when buying a PC:if its name brand--you dont get what you pay for.

Best thing to is build it yourself.

My personal recommendations:

Antec case with true 330 watt PSU and removable drive trays for easy drive swapping. (Window optional)

Asus A7N8X mainboard- (AMD processors) Dual Gigabit LAN onboard, also supports Serial ATA RAID and is optimised for Nvidia graphics cards. http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/...x_deluxe.shtml for a review. Supports up to AMD 2800 XP

Nvidia Geforce 4 ti4600 graphics card. Or...
Nividia Geforce FX (about to hit the market) with 500MHz Core Clock and 1GHz RAM clock (smokin) will be the most powerful GPU in the world. Game makers will be able to make games with Toy Story quality graphics. ATi Radeon 9700pro out performs it but is much more pricey.

Processor- AMD 2400 XP- great performance without paying Top of the Line price.
Volcano 9 Coolmod HSF if you have a case with a window. Very efficient and reasonably priced

Sound card- Creative Audigy Extacy- reputedly the best card on the market ande is external. Comes with USB and firewire.

Western Digital Caviar 120 gig hard disk drive. 8 meg of cache....
Seagate 80 or 120 gig serial ATA hard drives. If youre not into chancing the money on Serial ATA, go with the regular 7200rpm drives. Very good and very dependable. (screw Quantum, they suck)

Dollar for Dollar the 120 gig drives are now cheaper than 80 gig drives. That wasnt true 6 weeks ago.

(USB) optical mouse is a must. Wireless is cool but youll need two sets of rechargable batteries.

Corsair XMS3200 RAM. Sopposed to be the best and is great for overclocking.

If you dont like the Asus A7N8X look at the Asus A7V333 (RAID optional) Supports PC2700 and 333Mhz FSB.

If you would like to read reviews on various hardware go to www.hothardware.com and www.anandtech.com. Both are top quality sites.

Hope that helps. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Harkoliar]

originally posted by ED (earthdog) My personal recommendations:

you are recomending nearly a dream computer! except for the processor and motherboard which i think would be obsolete pretty soon since a new one with a new processor is coming out, your talking about top of the line with the top of the line price tags as well .. still if you have the spare money... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Sir Krustin]

The A7N8X is cutting edge, and handles 400Mhz FSBs for AMD (wich is just barely coming out now)

It's also the cats' a$$ when it comes to RAM, P4's don't currently have anything to compare to it, though I imagine that's coming.

[Earthdog]

Nah bud. Good yes. Top of the line price no. In the states the Asus A7N8X should be about $130, the A7V333 should be about $86. The AMD 2400XP shouldnt be more than $130.

ANTEC Performance PLUS Model PLUS1080AMG- with Antec Original TRUE 430W P4 Power Supply ATX12V Retail ---- a measely $129 and thats THE top of the line case.

ASUS V9280TD Geforce4 Ti4200 128MB 128 bit AGP 8X TV-OUT & DVI RETAIL: $147

Lets add it up. Thats only about $335 for the awesome case, mainboard, and processor. Throw in another $70 for a 40gig HDD and $40 for a cd-rw, $20 for a cd-rom, $10 for a floppy.

All up: $620

All prices are US Dollars and can be found at www.newegg.com (reportedly the best online retailer.I did round off to the nearest 10 when applicable.)

Granted, the 120gig HDDs are overkill for most users. 40 and 60 gig models will better suit most users budgets. They are much less expensive, and dont take near as long to defrag.

A very solid unit can be built for less than half of what it would have cost a year ago. For example a year ago you could get a 16x cd-rw for $100. Now you can get a 48x24x48 cd-rw for $40 USD.

Much better components and much lower prices make this a great time to build a PC.