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Building PC, Need Facts/Opinions
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Posted by: RaXoR
Alright, I'm building a computer geared toward next-generation gaming, but not with top of the line equipment...just the next "common" step under. I've compiled a list of parts that seem to fit this description, but I just need third-party opinions so I'm sure I'm saving money while getting good brands.
Internal:
- Processor/CPU - AMD Athlon XP 3000 - 400MHz CPU FSB Socket A Processor
- Motherboard - Asus A7V600 VIA KT600/VT8237, 400FSB ,DDR,1xAGP 8X,6xPCI,2x UltraDMA133/100,4xUSB 2.0,Audio,LAN, ATX
- RAM - 512MB PC3200 DDR Memory - 184 Pin DIMM - Intel & AMD
- Video Card - ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR AGP 8X TV & DVI-Out
- Sound Card - Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy ES PCI Sound Card
- Heatsink/Fan - Cooler Master Aero 7+ Copper Heatsink/Fan with Blower supports AMD Athlon XP up to 3000+
- Power Supply - Antec SL400 Smart Power P4 400Watt Power Supply
- Hard Disk Drive - Western Digital 120GB SATA WD1200JD 7,200 RPM 8MB Hard Drive OEM
- CD-ROM Drive - Liteon 52x CD-ROM ATAPI
- Floppy Drive - Floppy Drive 1.44MB 3.5 Sony Internal
- Cable Modem - ??? (Need to know some popular brand names)
- Thermal Paste - Thermal paste /Grease for Pentium III Pentium 4 socket 423, 478, AMD Athlon XP CPU Socket A / 462
External:
- Mouse - ???
- Case - Black/Silver ATX Mid-Tower Computer CaseW/400W AMD & P4 UL
- Speakers - ???
- Monitor - MV900 19inch CRT MONITOR 0.26MM 1600x1280
Subwoofer - ???
Keyboard - ???
Anything that provides very near the same quality, but cheaper than the part on the list? Tell me!
~RaX
Posted by: danglier
In answer to your question, we all would love to be able to buy a system like that on the cheap........£150 P4 2.4c 800fsb processer; £88 81pe1000pro mobo by gigsbyte, 865pe/800fsb, 5xpci, 4xdim slot, 5.1 onboard; £60 2x crucial/kingston 256 3200, 2x 512 would of course be better; hard drive is fine, anything cheaper, read a magazine on them; cdrw..............cd rom?????????samsung do one for £38, dont remember model number, got 5/5, for quality though; mouse, who knows, advent do a nifty little one where you have no ball, it uses light instead to detect motion????????very accurate as well, nice feel in the hand; power supply, any thing over 350 watt is good enough, makes, really dont know; thats the sort of system i would go for, AMD, no way, intel any time, 800fsb, amd can't touch it.
Posted by: SwizzleStick
So Rax finally registers on OTS. Some things you can get pretty cheap if you look for sales and you probably won't even have to buy a cable modem Rax, because you get one free when you sign up to most providers and I know you aren't signed up yet.
Posted by: redwench
pretty good list. although i would suggest the A7N8X deluxe, the chipset is a very good one, and it comes with an integrated sound card thats equivalent to an audigy. plenty of pci slots if you want a new sound card later.
Heatsink/fan: good one, but the stock might be able to do the job. hold off on the seperate unit until you see if the stock parts can handle the load.
power supply: larger size since youve indicated youre planning on heavy loads. 400W is pretty much the bare min for a current gaming machine, upgrading could be tricky. try a 450, 550 if you want to keep the power supply for the next rig. the model and manufacturer are great there.
CD-rw, or a dvd+cdrw. will give you more flexibility and the prices arent horrendous now.
Thermal paste: arctic silver products, either an aluminum like AS2, or a ceramic one
Hard drive: excellent drive, but check out larger ones on sale. you can find them actually priced cheaper per gig sometimes. if your budget allows, consider the WD raptor drive for your OS and highly used programs. but its rather pricey.
Mouse/keyboard: wireless or wired, microsoft or logitech.
Speakers: klipsch is still the gold standard if budget permits
Case: youre going to have cooling problems with a midtower. full tower or server case with plenty o fans would be a better idea.
Your proposed build will probably work out fine however. Try to buy major brands on sale, rather than house brands generally. esp ram. a generic floppy or case is fine.
Posted by: Ocean
definately consider the a7n8x for a gaming machine. nforce 2 chipset, and dual channel ddr (get 2 matching sticks then). has 2 firewire ports. onboard raid and serial ata and 2 lan. ($122 at newegg.com)
if you get the mobo, skimp on the sound card and get another stick of 512 ram to use in a dual channel config. expect to spend at least $85 on 512 of 3200 ram. definately buy name brand.
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consider finding a vid card that will last your gaming style till spring, when half life 2 comes out, new cards come out, and all the current cards drop in price. you might not need the high end perfomance yet to play the games you want to play.
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if you want a wireless mouse, only consider this one (or buy a kb mouse combo that has it). the previous generations arent good enough for intensive gaming. and get a non black mouse pad. 
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klipch are the top speakers, avoid cyber acoustics unless you wanna be real cheap. logitech are fine and wont break your bank.
Posted by: Whifflebat
 Quote:
Originally posted by Ocean
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if you want a wireless mouse, only consider this one (or buy a kb mouse combo that has it). the previous generations arent good enough for intensive gaming. and get a non black mouse pad.
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Gotta disagree w/ ya there, the generation right before the MX's were fine for gaming. I use one on enemy territory all the time, only thing thats bad is it isn't rechargable like the new ones, but it still works just fine.
other than that, I agree
oh wait...NO...i have a black mouse pad too...but its not shiny, its kind of a weaved woven looking thing
Posted by: Ocean
i have the mx, and i had the generation b4 the mx, and it blinked too often to conserve power. try moving back and forth about 40 times. and watch how the light turns off, when that light blinks off it sends no information. try to keep your cursor near the middle of the screen why you wobble back and forth and hold buttons down. they are good for general use, and most people wont notice the hickups, but i do. they also really really sucked for moving one pixel at a time (at certain battery levels).
and you have to love: no more batteries dying in the middle of a four hour long game
i upgraded for the noticably better precision performance and no battery hastle.
the old generation acceptable for gaming and preferable to a ball. but the mx is much much better.
Posted by: Maverick
Quote:
Originally posted by redwench
pretty good list. although i would suggest the A7N8X deluxe, the chipset is a very good one, and it comes with an integrated sound card thats equivalent to an audigy. plenty of pci slots if you want a new sound card later.
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Yea, I would definately say go with the A7N8X Deluxe as well. That is the exact mobo I have and I am extremely pleased with it.  
Posted by: RaXoR
Thanks for the feedback. Some more more questions:
Quote:
Originally posted by Ocean
... expect to spend at least $85 on 512 of 3200 ram. definately buy name brand. ...
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I only want 512 megs of ddr, no more no less. When I go to an online site, I see three choices of the specified ram... something to the effect of: Broker Grade, Standard Grade, and Premium Grade (Kingston, or another brand name.) I should definitely go for the Premium?
Quote:
Originally posted by Ocean
... consider finding a vid card that will last your gaming style till spring, when half life 2 comes out, new cards come out, and all the current cards drop in price. you might not need the high end perfomance yet to play the games you want to play. ...
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Say I want to only play the games that are Half-Life/TFC/Natural Selection/BF1942 and probably Half-Life 2 par. Is there a lower level of a Radeon card that I could get where I wouldn't really notice a difference from the 9800 Pro in the above games?
Quote:
Originally posted by redwench
... Heatsink/fan: good one, but the stock might be able to do the job. hold off on the seperate unit until you see if the stock parts can handle the load. ...
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Stock parts??? Are you referring to a heatsink/fan that comes with the processor?
Quote:
Originally posted by redwench
... CD-rw, or a dvd+cdrw. will give you more flexibility and the prices arent horrendous now. ...
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Is Lite-On still good for the hybrid drives? And, what speed is ideal?
Quote:
Originally posted by redwench
... Mouse/keyboard: wireless or wired, microsoft or logitech. ...
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What are some good wired mice from Logitech?
Quote:
Originally posted by redwench
... Case: youre going to have cooling problems with a midtower. full tower or server case with plenty o fans would be a better idea. ...
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Plenty of fans? The only fans I thought I needed are the heatsink and power supply fans.
Also, keyboard brands, anyone?
~RaX
Posted by: taco_fox
Quote:
Originally posted by RaXoR
Say I want to only play the games that are Half-Life/TFC/Natural Selection/BF1942 and probably Half-Life 2 par. Is there a lower level of a Radeon card that I could get where I wouldn't really notice a difference from the 9800 Pro in the above games?
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Depends on how much you want to spend. If you want to spend under $200, I recommend the new 9600XT. If you want to spend a little more, then go for the 9800 Non Pro.
Posted by: Null Actor
Avoid VIA chipsets like the plague.
Posted by: redwench
512 ram will most likely not be enough, and with only 3 ram slots, youd have to go to 2x512 to get ddr performance. but if thats all you think youll use, unlikely as that is on a gaming rig, its not going to kill you. The big name brands will carry 2-3 separate lines with different pricing. if youre not overclocking, the value line, or whatever that manufacturer calls it, will do fine. The premiums are usually for overclockers or heavy users. just buy 2 of the same size, either seperately or in a "dual channel kit". Only difference is in price, no other items are in the kits.
yes, i was refering to the stock heatsink and fan that comes with the retail processor.
You will need case fans.
Liteon is probably ok for a hybrid drive, read reviews for that. assuming a particular product has no major problems, the higher speeds are better.
there is already at least one game that maxes a 9800pro. HL2 will probably be getting there. youll need a 9700 or 9800 pro if you want to run games coming up without problems, unfortunately.
microsoft and logitech both make keyboards and mice designed to be paired. hard to recommend a specific model to someone, since one persons perfect mouse is shaped wrong for someone else. go to a large electronics store like best buy, theyll have open displays you can fiddle with to see whats comfortable.
Posted by: RaXoR
Thanks again for the wonderful feedback. Some more questions:
What are some good/common monitor brands/specs for a 19"? Again, not looking for top of the line, but the next significant step under.
What's a good set of Klipsch speakers/sub for nothing more than 2.1? I'm not going to be needing the 5.1 features so I was wondering if there was something that was more meant for a 2.1 environment without sacrificing quality.
And last but not least, a case. Mid or full tower... for an Antec 450w power supply?
~RaXoR
Posted by: redwench
nothing less than a full tower for a current athlon rig. you can easily buy the power supply seperately from the case, thats not a big deal. antec offers very nice cases, with good prospects for cooling. as do many other manufacturers. just dont buy on looks, make sure whatever case you get has good ventilation and space for several fans/blowers. better to have an ugly beige tower at 30, than an overheating uberleet case.
for 2.1 speakers, you might just want to get the cheapest you can find by a major manufacturer. it really doesnt much matter for that setup.
Posted by: uh...ok
Samsung and Viewsonic make great 19" monitors - both for great prices.
When it comes to monitors, IMO you get what you pay for. If you go for a cheap one, chances are that their quality's gonna be not as good and they're not gonna last as long. But that may be a naive way of thinking it. But no matter how naive that is, Samsung and Viewsonic are both very solid companies.
I personally own a Samsung 900NF. Sadly, NewEgg no longer holds those. The DynaFlats are a cheap alternative to the Natural Flats though.
Posted by: RaXoR
The questions seem neverending...
1.) What would an ideal dpi (dot pitch) on the monitor be?
2.) I'm going to try and go with a mid-tower at first to see if it works out. I'm not overclocking or anything so it seems like it will work. I can't find an Antec mid-tower case without a power supply included, and I couldn't find one that included the power supply that I want. What are some other good case brand names and how can I be sure they will fit with the power supply [Antec SL450 (450w)]?
Posted by: RaXoR
Any suggestions for a network card?
Posted by: uh...ok
Generic.
3COM.
Cheapest.
Most expensive.
Whatever you want, pretty much. Just make sure it's 10/100.
Posted by: Mk7srule
That sounds excellent, i use the A7N8X Deluxe and its great, that intel crap is locked anyway so the AMD is the preferred choice for me.
Posted by: onanism
just a couple contributions:
definately go for 1 gig of ram using two sticks of 512 if your going for a gaming rig... new games will be able to take advatage of that since they are much larger in size, this way you can help prevent using page filing(which is slower) unless you disable it.
as for dot pitch .21 is the ultimate, but anything under .24 will do. Also, shell out the extra bucks for a flat screen crt moniter if you can, it makes a decent sized difference.
cases: antec SX1040BII-UK, PLUS 1080AMG-UK, or PLUSVIEW1000AMG-UK are all good cases (without any fancy-smancy stuff). All new cases should fit any of today's power supplies.
and just so you have one more confirmation, go with the asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo and skip out on buying a sound card (like said before, you can always get one later if you are unhappy)
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