Building A New System

[james_bond_rulez]

alright i've given this a lot of thought
I am building a new system for a friend

here's what i got:

motherboard: p4p800-deluxe: $176 Cad
Processor: P4 2.6C ghz HT 800 FSB: $295 Cad
Memory: 2 X 512M DDR-PC3200: 400mhz Spectek /Infineon : $200 Cad
Graphics: ATI Radeon 9600 Pro : $230 Cad
Case: Antec Sonata: $138 Cad
CDRW: lite-on black 52X24X52 : $55 Cad
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 80 GB 8MB Sata 7200rpm: $119 Cad

total: $1213 Canadian dollars

he's looking for equal mix of affordable price and performance

this is the best list i can come up with.

I'd like some positive and constructive comments on my selection thx.

[Lamsey]

Originally posted by james_bond_rulez@15 October 2003 - 11:34
Processor: P4 2.6C ghz HT 800 FSB: $295 Cad


he's looking for equal mix of affordable price and performance
"Affordable Price" and "Intel" don't belong in the same sentence ;)

If you want to get more out of your money, try an AMD Athlon XP. For example, the Barton-cored Athlon XP 2500+ isn't going to be appreciably slower than the Intel CPU you chose, but it only costs around CAN$140.

[james_bond_rulez]

nice, i'll take that into consideration

also what motherboard would you recommand to go with that amd 2500+ barton cpu?

dual channel ddr would be nice... :rolleyes:

[Lamsey]

Originally posted by james_bond_rulez@15 October 2003 - 11:53
nice, i'll take that into consideration

also what motherboard would you recommand to go with that amd 2500+ barton cpu?

dual channel ddr would be nice... :rolleyes:
Any board based on the nVidia nForce-2 Ultra 400 chipset.

The Asus A7N8X Deluxe and the MSI K7N2 Delta are good examples.

[james_bond_rulez]

what's the difference between A7N8X-VM and A7N8X-deluxe, they all have pretty simular features but one costs 135 Cad and the latter 170 Cad.

also what kind of memory do i need? is it faster the ram the better? or does the mobo has to support it?

or i choose the 333Mhz ram? cuz 2500+ barton only runs at 333 FBS also...

but the mobo supports dual channel 400 fsb though

kinda of confused <_<

[lynx]

Originally posted by james_bond_rulez@15 October 2003 - 12:18
what&#39;s the difference between A7N8X-VM and A7N8X-deluxe, they all have pretty simular features but one costs 135 Cad and the latter 170 Cad.

also what kind of memory do i need? is it faster the ram the better? or does the mobo has to support it?

or i choose the 333Mhz ram? cuz 2500+ barton only runs at 333 FBS also...

but the mobo supports dual channel 400 fsb though

kinda of confused <_<
The -VM has integrated GeForce4 MX graphics.

Both the boards Lamsey mentioned support DDR400 mem.

Personally, I would stick to DDR400 memory, possibly run it as DDR333 but tighten up on the chip timings. It also gives you some leeway if you decide to do a little overclocking.

[ilw]

deluxe has 2 network cards, some extra features (ports?) which you probably don&#39;t need and Serial ATA which imo is good to have even if you don&#39;t need it yet.

[kurtsl0an]

i don&#39;t even build my own anymore - i found a vendor who doesn&#39;t force u 2 purchase an os and their cases r coo - best part about them, they sell AMD - worst part, takes bout 3 weeks 2 get a system 2 ur house.

Cyberpower (http://www.cyberpowerinc.com)

oh yeah - ps - i bought myself a killa &#036;1000 dollar pc fer myself and recently a &#036;400 puter fer my brother - his was still an athlon 2400 w/512 and a burner - everything except monitor.

[johnboy27]

He is in Canada though.Your 500 bucks is more like 800 by the time it gets to him. He&#39;s better offto buy local.
PS-by the time he adds the Radeon 9600pro and the 2x512 mb DDR he is up 719 american which is more then 1000 canadian.

[Pitbul]

Originally posted by Lamsey+15 October 2003 - 04:47--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Lamsey @ 15 October 2003 - 04:47)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-james_bond_rulez@15 October 2003 - 11:34
Processor: P4 2.6C ghz HT 800 FSB: &#036;295 Cad


he&#39;s looking for equal mix of affordable price and performance
"Affordable Price" and "Intel" don&#39;t belong in the same sentence ;)

If you want to get more out of your money, try an AMD Athlon XP. For example, the Barton-cored Athlon XP 2500+ isn&#39;t going to be appreciably slower than the Intel CPU you chose, but it only costs around CAN&#036;140. [/b][/quote]
thats the "Performance" part of that word he was talking about cause you know how bad AMD&#39;s FBS can be. amd finaly came out with something that could beat Intel and now Intel will release their next CPU thats 64-bit but reaching 5GHz and releaseing with Windows Elements

[Lamsey]

Originally posted by Pitbul@15 October 2003 - 16:26
thats the "Performance" part of that word he was talking about cause you know how bad AMD&#39;s FBS can be. amd finaly came out with something that could beat Intel and now Intel will release their next CPU thats 64-bit but reaching 5GHz and releaseing with Windows Elements
Sorry, I don&#39;t have a clue what you&#39;re talking about. Do you?

[clocker]

James Bond,

Were I you ( or your friend), I would bag the CD burner and get a combo CD/DVD burner and maybe a CD reader.
You could accomodate the price difference by switching from Intel to AMD.

That is how I&#39;m setting up my new PC...instead of having hundreds of backup CDs, I&#39;ll end up with tens of backup DVDs.

[DarthInsinuate]

IMO opinion dual channel doesn&#39;t give you enough of a speed boost to warrant paying extra for it

also SATA doesn&#39;t really give you much extra speed unless you got a 10,000rpm hard-drive, even then its still not much

[james_bond_rulez]

wow some very nice feedbacks from all of you

right now i am struggling with which one to go... amd or intel... i&#39;ll have to consult my friend on that. i am sure he doens&#39;t mind spending a few hundred bucks on intel&#39;s kick ass cpu performace and the hyperthreading technology coupled with winxp (i&#39;ll rip it for him of couse :D)

as for dual channel ddr it&#39;s a must for him :lol:

so for the cpu + mobo combo he&#39;s willing to spend a little more but still on the economic side of things.

for the mobo he wants sata, since the hdd i am buying for him does require sata and he *might* upgrade to SCSI in the future so i&#39;ll leave taht up to him. but i&#39;ll have to buy a mobo that supports everything.

thx kurts on the suggestion but john is right i&#39;ll have to pay for s&h plus canadian customs plus tax, which i am gonna blow my budget on. lol

as for the cdrw dvd combo the store i am looking at doesn&#39;t have black to match the quality antec sonata case, plus my friends doesn&#39;t watch dvd taht much, he uses kazaa if you know what i mean. ;)

clocker could you tell me what a cd reader is? isn&#39;t that called a cd rom? lol

oh yeah intel still leads when it comes to performace with its kickass fsb and HT technology. even though all the computers i own is amd cpu but i am willing to give intel&#39;s HT cpus a try ;) (that&#39;s why i got the killer ass babe on my sig ;) _

thx guys keep it coming

[james_bond_rulez]

oh yes one more thing...

which ram do you guys recommand: Infineon or kingston?

kingston ram is pricey but is that good for overclocking? cuz it&#39;s better quality?

and infieon ram is lower in quality?

[clocker]

Originally posted by james_bond_rulez@15 October 2003 - 14:40


as for the cdrw dvd combo the store i am looking at doesn&#39;t have black to match the quality antec sonata case, plus my friends doesn&#39;t watch dvd taht much, he uses kazaa if you know what i mean. ;)

clocker could you tell me what a cd reader is? isn&#39;t that called a cd rom? lol


Not having black seems like a rather thin reason not to get it.
Could they perhaps order it in for you?
If your friend "uses" (nudge,nudge, wink,wink) Kazaa very much, then being able to backup his "data"(nudge, nudge,wink,wink) onto a DVD instead of a CD will pay off in the end.

Yes, a "CD reader=CD-ROM".
I&#39;m not as teknickle as some...

[Virtualbody1234]

Originally posted by james_bond_rulez@15 October 2003 - 16:46
oh yes one more thing...

which ram do you guys recommand: Infineon or kingston?

kingston ram is pricey but is that good for overclocking? cuz it&#39;s better quality?

and infieon ram is lower in quality?
I prefer the Infineon. But that&#39;s just my opinion.