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New Computer
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Posted by: Gunslinger
So, I'm going to start building a new computer. The problem is, I haven't followed any of the new hardware that's been coming out of the last two years. RAM capacities, PCI Express, processor clock speeds, etc. I just don't have a grasp on what I should be going for anymore. I would essentially be using it for gaming/other media and using my laptop for everything else (any kind of productivity).
Any suggestions/help/places to shop?
Posted by: pdnielsen
I'd suggest going to www.newegg.com for most parts. As for clockspeed, it's quietly going the way of the dodo. Soon what will be making a difference is the number of cores on a processor and not the clock speed. If you can give us an idea of how much you're willing to spend on a new rig we members of OTS will be able to give you suggestions.
I would suggest either a socket 939 or AM2 motherboard and CPU for starters.
Also, do you want a case that you can see the innards through or just an opaque on all sides one?
RAM capacity really depends on the OS since 32 bit ones only recognize about 3 gigabytes total. If you are planning on using a 64 bit OS on the other hand, I've seen as high as 32 gigabyte support on AM2 mobos and 64 bit Vista operating systems are supposed to be able to support up to 128 gigabytes - allowing room for plenty of expansion.
Are you looking for additional features on the board like Crossover or SLI support, optical and/or coaxial digital outs, and so on? Do you want to be able to make full use of SATA drives that are 300 MB/second or will 140 MB/second do and how many connectors for SATA and IDE do you want?
Also keep in mind the type of optical drive you want to use. CD-ROM drives are becoming hard to come by and are being phased out in favor of CD+-R/W drives and dual function drives that come with the ability to play DVDs but not burn to them. DVD RAM drives with Lightscribe are becoming a bargain too and can read or write to CD+-R/W, DVD+-R/W, DVD RAM discs and read from any of them. In between those 2 options are regular DVD burners that can read and burn any of those types of discs except for DVD RAM.
I spent over a year just doing research, research, research to build my first rig. Now I have my 4th build. It has a DVD RAM drive, 300 gigabyte SATA drive, etc. but I'm thinking of upgrading my socket 939 board and Athlon 3800+ X2. They're only 9 months old and already considered obsolete as much because of the 4 gigabyte limit and the 150 MB/sec support for SATA as because of the fact that I "only" have 2 cores in the CPU. So whatever you decide on will become yesterday's news before you can afford the cash to buy something new!
Posted by: Gunslinger
Well, in terms of the tech specs and requirements of everything, I'm no stranger to all that. I guess what I was really looking for was suggestions towards particular brands/manufacturers that OTS users know to be good buys i.e. good performance to cost ratio, not likely to be a dud, good drivers and suppoer, etc (it's been a while since I built a PC so I'm a little out of touch).
My budget isn't too restricted. I'm going to be buying parts over time instead of everything at once. A MB and a video card I've been looking hard at so far:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produ...N82E16813131025
http://www.newegg.com/product/produ...N82E16814121031
Posted by: goranpaa
The mobo is good.
And if youre not going to get a direct X10 videocard in the near future? Then, the X1950 Pro is a good choise.
But I think this brand is better than the Asus:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814161062
It's costs some bucks more. But HIS is good at making Radeon cards. And you get excellent stock cooling from this card. So you save the money, maybe having to buy a Zalman VGA cooler for the Asus card in the future. Also, the HIS card exhausts the hot air directly out of the case, instead of letting the case exhaust fan taking care of it.
I guess, you will need a case, Psu,, cpu, RAM, hdd and DVD combo too?
Here are some good stuff.
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16811119106
Psu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16817101520
This psu have enough wattage and Amperes on the + 12V rail to run a X1900. Or a Geforce DX 10 videocard, like the 8800GTS or GTX in a stable and good way.
You will be needing this converter cable for the motherboard, as the mobo is 24 pin main power connector. And the psu, is 20 + 4pin.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16812145002
Cpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819115005
Or: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819115004
RAM ( 2gig) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820134009
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16822144415
DVD combo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16827136108
If you feel you need a more efficient and silent cpu cooler than the stock dito? Then this is a good choise: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16835186134
Posted by: Gunslinger
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll look into them. 
I like that case.
Posted by: goranpaa
You're welcome.
Yeah, that new CoolerMaster Centurion case is nice. The Centurion series cases, have been around for a while. And always been a good choise for a case. But the Centurion 534, is the best looking soo far. It's good they have started to use 120mm fans, instead of noisy 80 and 92mm dito.
Very nice priced too.
Posted by: P0nix
I'm digging this mobo here and its pic http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI...oard+%2D+Retail
the item link is here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813130071
But that's going the other way, AMD Vs Intel. 4 Sata 3 gb connectors, SLI, 4 Memory slots, MSI builds fast boards. And you can throw the extra cash at a good athlon, dual core maybe? with a lot of cache.
Posted by: Gunslinger
One thing that is grinding my gears about this whole process is that I have to ****ing buy Windows. That alone will be one-third of the total cost of the system.
Posted by: goranpaa
Yeah, I know. But get a XP Home with Windows Vista upgrade ticket. Getting Vista now, is'nt worth it. Wait with Vista, until they solved some of the "child deceases". And the driver and third party software support are better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16832116169
Posted by: Gunslinger
I don't know. For all the headaches of Microsoft's new policy on OEM version of Windows, and the $50 cost just to use that upgrade coupon on the basic edition of Vista, I'm thinking I would rather just shell out for Vista (ends up being a similar price) and deal with the constant stream of ****-up fixes.
Posted by: Spider
vista sucks man, it corrupts my Warcraft install at least twice a week. They finally released a non-beta video driver. That helped a little, but everything is so incredibly new. Windows explorer itself crashes for no apparent reason every now and then. All the other processes randomly crash. Windows always restarts them and checks for fixes, but it's bothersome.
Also those vista upgrade tickets are only good for the 32bit version of the OS. My best mate just bought an alienware with xp pro and they will only give him a 32bit business edition.
I just built an incredible machine, but at least twice a day I wish I had stuck with xp and halved my ram to two gigs and waited for the first service pack.
Posted by: Gunslinger
Yeah, I've been thinking about that as well. I want to setup 4GB of RAM, but does that require a 64 bit operating system?
After further thought, I guess I'll just go with XP and get the upgrade coupon to use after SP1 is released and the drivers don't suck.
Posted by: goranpaa
We are pretty much in the same situation with Vista, as we where with XP in the beginning.
Bad drivers, lousy software support etc.
So yeah, you are doing a good move when waiting to get Vista for a while.
Posted by: Gunslinger
What do you think of this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813131568
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819103053
Newegg is running a combo deal on those two for just under $300.
Posted by: goranpaa
Yeah, that's nice stuff. But you cant compaire it to the Conroe stuff you talked about before.
A Conroe rig, will dance circles around the AMD rig.
The only way to justify the AMD slightly, is if you get 2 gig of good DDR PC 3200 RAM, like the Kingston Hyper X and a Geforce 8800GTS, + getting a Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 pro, cpu cooler. And overclock the X2 cpu, to 2.5 or 2.6GHz.
And if you're not into much multitasking work?
Then this will be just as good as the 4200+ X2 and slightly faster in games.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819103037
And for the difference in price, you can get the AC Freezer 64 Pro and some good thermal paste, like Arcic Silver Ceramique. And still saved some money, compaired to the 4200 X2.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16835185125
The dual core cpu wont give you the upper hand, compaired to a single core in games.
Just in a few games, that have "multitreading" support.
Posted by: Gunslinger
My problem is that the Conroe systems seem to be more expensive. Also, Intel doesn't seem to have nearly the OEM processor options that AMD does (at least on Newegg).
Essentially this will be a gaming rig. Everything else like email, web browsing, etc. I will offload to my notebook.
Thoughts?
Posted by: P0nix
/me dons his AMD T-shirt and matching hat
Posted by: goranpaa
 Quote:
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Originally Posted by Gunslinger
My problem is that the Conroe systems seem to be more expensive. Also, Intel doesn't seem to have nearly the OEM processor options that AMD does (at least on Newegg).
Essentially this will be a gaming rig. Everything else like email, web browsing, etc. I will offload to my notebook.
Thoughts?
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O.k.
If it's a financial matter? Then the AMD rig is a good choise.
And as it's going to be a gaming rig mainly. Then it's just a question of amount and latency of the DDR RAM. And what videocard you are going for?
My suggestions for RAM is this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820231047
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820134039
The price on RAM seems pretty low fo the moment.
Any of those AMD cpu's will do.
And as said before. A better and more silent cpu cooler. And som good thermal goo, will improve things.
Here are some good videocards for you to ponder over.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814131027
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814145142
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814125046
DX 10 card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814130082
Posted by: Gunslinger
Well, I'll clarify. I don't so much have a budget, but I am trying to minimize cost without sacrificing performance in the system. No reason to spend more money than I absolutely have to.
Posted by: goranpaa
O.k.
If you get the E Power psu, Centurion 534 Case, the Asus mobo s.939 you listed, 2 gig of the G.Skill RAM I listed. the Powercolor X1950Pro with AC Accelero X2 cooler included, the X2 4200 cpu, Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB hd, the LG DVD combo.
You end up at about 887 bucks.
And that's a very good price for a good gaming rig.
If you also get an Arctic cooling Freezer 64 Pro, cpu cooler wich is 19 bucks. And the Arctic Silver Ceramique paste, that is 5 bucks. You have all the stuff you need for a gaming rig.
If you on the other hand, get the AMD64 4000 + ?
You save 90 bucks.
And you add those 90 bucks to the cost for a X1950 Pro (Powercolor)
You are just a very few bucks away, from a eVGA 8800GTS 320mb.
So, then the rig will look like this instead:
COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 $49.99
ePOWER EP-520XP-C1B ATX12V 520Watts $72.99
iStarUSA 20 pin Power connector to 24 pin M/B ATX Converter Model ATC-20/24 $3.99
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 $148.99
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 2.4GHz OEM. $75.99
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro $18.99
Arctic Silver Ceramique Thermal Compound $4.99
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 $154.99
EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit $289.99
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb $52.99
LG DVD Burner, GSA-H42N-BK $28.99
Total of 903 bucks in round figures.
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