How does this look?

[Smith]

AMD Athlon64 939 X2 4200+/2.2GHz Dual Core CPU
GIGA-BYTE K8NPRO-SLI S939,NF4 SLI,PCIE,1394b
1 GB ( 2 X 512 MB ) KINGSTON DDR 400 VALUE RAM
BLACK SAMSUNG 1.44
WD WD2500KS 250 GB SATA II - 16 MB
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1600PRO PCI-E 256MB DDR2 TV-Out DVI-I
GIGA-BYTE WIRELESS b/g PCI CARD
BLACK LG 16 X DVD-WRITER + SOFTWARE
Windows XP Home OEM
ANTEC SLK3800B BLK MID-TOWER -400W
TWO ( 2 ) YRS WARRANTY & LABOUR COST


Weird, my dad is tired of his current buisness computer, and wants mine. In return I think he is buying me a new system.

What do you guys think? And how is Sapphire? Oh and keep it in mind, it dosnt matter if its a good price or not, its my dads money, and hes fixed on getting it from the guy who gave us this quote (I know its overpriced)

[Seedler]

You can save some money by getting rid of that SLI board...oh wait, money's not a problem, so go with it.

The vid card's gotta go tho. Get a 7600GT or 7800GT if you can afford it, the X1600pro can't even keep up with X800s.

You could also do with a little more power. Nvidia cards and that dual-core cpu are gonna demand a better psu.

Oh and the RAM is terrible, it's going to be the bottleneck of your system, provided that you change your vid card.

[Smith]

What I ment is that the current price is not a problem, I cant go over anymore lol..

[Smith]

So I'm looking around, I'm trying to find some sort of comparison for 200$ video cards. IS the x1600 pro that bad?

And whats wrong with the ram? Is there something I could swich too that would be better for the same price? One last edit, would the x1600 XT be any better?

[ApacNTS]

heh i got scolded so many times and from diffrent people about "value" ram. but hey this patriot ram is awesome. cost like $80 for the gig tho.

[crazy11]

i would go for the geforce 7600gt as a video card. Fits right in with your budget.

[Smith]

I was looking at some comparison charts and the card that seedler has (X800 GTO 256mb) is the best card I can see for the price. It beats out the 6600GT, x1600, but I think I would like the GTO2 because it has the ability to use all 16 pipelines...

Did I mention its the same price?

[clocker]

I don't see any prices listed...am I to look them up myself (not gonna happen) or am I missing something?

Why the floppy?
Can you switch to XP Pro or, even better, 64 bit Pro instead of Home?

You could save some bucks and replace the dual core CPU with a single too.
You won't notice the difference and that would free up some cash for RAM that doesn't suck so hard.

[Smith]

Whats a good 1gb dual channel kit?

edit: How is the X2 3800 compared to a higher AMD64?


This any good:

OCZ4001024PDC-K 2x512M DDR400 Premier Dual (2.5-3-3-7,lifetime warranty) or

[Seedler]

Whats a good 1gb dual channel kit?

edit: How is the X2 3800 compared to a higher AMD64?


This any good:

OCZ4001024PDC-K 2x512M DDR400 Premier Dual (2.5-3-3-7,lifetime warranty) or

If you plan to do some major gaming, ditch the dual-core and go for a higher clocked single core CPU.

The 4000+ San Diego pwns the X3800 in gaming benchmarks. It's 2.4ghz vs 1.8ghz really. 0.6 amd ghz is a huge diff.

[Smith]

Im most likely going to have to go with the 3700+, because the 4000+ is a little more than the x2 4200...I think. I'm waiting for a reply from the computer guy..Oh, btw, this is all costing around 1300$ before tax. I dont know why hes so expensive when I can get the same system for 1100$ before tax, but my dad knows and trusts him, so dosnt really care about the over pricing.

[clocker]

I dont know why hes so expensive when I can get the same system for 1100$ before tax, but my dad knows and trusts him...
Maybe because the "computer guy" has to make a living too.

Experience and trust are worth something as well.
I've seen many PCs built by enthusiastic amateurs and friends "who know a lot about computers" that cost more than $200 to straighten out and get running properly.

[Smith]

I dont know why hes so expensive when I can get the same system for 1100$ before tax, but my dad knows and trusts him...
Maybe because the "computer guy" has to make a living too.

Experience and trust are worth something as well.
I've seen many PCs built by enthusiastic amateurs and friends "who know a lot about computers" that cost more than $200 to straighten out and get running properly.

Thats true, this guy has been doing this for years, and has made emergency house calls for my dad sence he got his first computer (p1 133, 16mb of ram).


Anyways, did I make a god choice going with the OCZ ram, and the 64 processer?

[clocker]

Where are you buying this stuff?
I'd like to see what's available to you before making any recommendations.

In general though, the real beauty of the 90nm a64 AMDs is the on-board memory controller and how well it handles RAM with tight timing. The OCZ stuff you've picked has very loose (almost Intel spec) timings and consequently you're not exploiting the CPUs strength.
I think you could do better for the same price.

[Seedler]

clocker why do you hate OCZ ram so much?

I wish I could get patriot ram, but you can't get them here.

[clocker]

I don't hate OCZ at all...I've never even tried it.
It's the loose timings that bother me.

[Smith]

I think I will stay with it for now...but for future refrence, what type of ram would you go with?

[thecreator89]

So I'm looking around, I'm trying to find some sort of comparison for 200$ video cards. IS the x1600 pro that bad?

And whats wrong with the ram? Is there something I could swich too that would be better for the same price? One last edit, would the x1600 XT be any better?

i just bought by xfx 7600gt XXX 256MB Grphics card for 179.99 on new egg.
Tom's hardware, anandtech, some other sites are great for comarison. Do a google for the card you want, and you should be able to find benchmarks. 7600GT will play anything you throw at it, until DX10 comes out. THat's why I recommend you get a "reletively" cheaper card than the 7800GT, bc it will be late investment.

btw, when direct x ten comes out, if you get a direct x ten vidcard, you need a direct x ten compatible mobo, too....:dry:

[Smith]

So I'm looking around, I'm trying to find some sort of comparison for 200$ video cards. IS the x1600 pro that bad?

And whats wrong with the ram? Is there something I could swich too that would be better for the same price? One last edit, would the x1600 XT be any better?

i just bought by xfx 7600gt XXX 256MB Grphics card for 179.99 on new egg.
Tom's hardware, anandtech, some other sites are great for comarison. Do a google for the card you want, and you should be able to find benchmarks. 7600GT will play anything you throw at it, until DX10 comes out. THat's why I recommend you get a "reletively" cheaper card than the 7800GT, bc it will be late investment.

btw, when direct x ten comes out, if you get a direct x ten vidcard, you need a direct x ten compatible mobo, too....:dry:

Is my mobo DX10 compatable?

[Seedler]

i just bought by xfx 7600gt XXX 256MB Grphics card for 179.99 on new egg.
Tom's hardware, anandtech, some other sites are great for comarison. Do a google for the card you want, and you should be able to find benchmarks. 7600GT will play anything you throw at it, until DX10 comes out. THat's why I recommend you get a "reletively" cheaper card than the 7800GT, bc it will be late investment.

btw, when direct x ten comes out, if you get a direct x ten vidcard, you need a direct x ten compatible mobo, too....:dry:

Is my mobo DX10 compatable?

most likely not.

[Smith]

If I were to go with the 3700+, and get a much better mobo, what one should I pick?