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Needing Info to build a new computer.
Trident
Ranger
in Zocalo v2.0
I've been out of it for quite some time, so my info on "good" equipment is very outdated.
What I need basically is just a case and the innards. Everything I have external is pretty well good for what I do. I'm mostly interested in getting the system for gaming, modding, CAD, digital photo editing, and web pages.
I just have a few questions to ask:
What is the best CPU for gaming within reason?
What's the best board to go for within reason?
I figured out memory, so that's no big deal.
Should I get EIDE or SATA hard drives?
I have an SB Audigy 2 Platium with the front panel and remote.. is that good enough or should I get something better?
What is the best combo dvd-r / cd-r / cd-rw within reasonable price? Or is it just cheaper to get both seperate?
I'd like to get a video capture card.. what would everyone suggest I get?
What would be a good reasonable video card for gaming?
What kind of power supply should I get to support this type of system? Size and weither it should be like a standard power supply or that new X-Connect I keep seeing.
Should I go with the board's lan connection or get a card? If a card, what kind?
What kind of card reader should I invest in? (I want to get into digital photography more.) I saw floppy drives that has them built in, is thoes worth it, or just get a seperate perperial?
And that brings up another question... What is a reasonable digital to get without having to spend a weeks worth of wages on? ($200 USD or less).
Should I go with Windows Home, Media Center, or Pro? (No I'm not interested in Linux or Linspire)
I need to send my AMD XP 1700+ to another room and really get myself into gaming again. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
What I need basically is just a case and the innards. Everything I have external is pretty well good for what I do. I'm mostly interested in getting the system for gaming, modding, CAD, digital photo editing, and web pages.
I just have a few questions to ask:
What is the best CPU for gaming within reason?
What's the best board to go for within reason?
I figured out memory, so that's no big deal.
Should I get EIDE or SATA hard drives?
I have an SB Audigy 2 Platium with the front panel and remote.. is that good enough or should I get something better?
What is the best combo dvd-r / cd-r / cd-rw within reasonable price? Or is it just cheaper to get both seperate?
I'd like to get a video capture card.. what would everyone suggest I get?
What would be a good reasonable video card for gaming?
What kind of power supply should I get to support this type of system? Size and weither it should be like a standard power supply or that new X-Connect I keep seeing.
Should I go with the board's lan connection or get a card? If a card, what kind?
What kind of card reader should I invest in? (I want to get into digital photography more.) I saw floppy drives that has them built in, is thoes worth it, or just get a seperate perperial?
And that brings up another question... What is a reasonable digital to get without having to spend a weeks worth of wages on? ($200 USD or less).
Should I go with Windows Home, Media Center, or Pro? (No I'm not interested in Linux or Linspire)
I need to send my AMD XP 1700+ to another room and really get myself into gaming again. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Comments
CPU and mobo: amd 64's are pretty sweet, and i much prefer them to intel, tho intel have some higher spec's at the moment. im only with intel for my dual sli mobo which was only supported by intel (not sure but i think amd are supported now, maybe someone else can set that straight) all depends on ur budget really
sound card: mine was £5 on ebay, so ur doing ok there i think:p
graphics card: im an nvidia convert so id say go with a 6800GT as a minimum
psu: as good as u can afford id say. always handy to have lots of power if u gonna uprgade or add any gizmo's.
ive got a 5in1 card reader on my external hd and it works fine, so id say its personal preference, same with lan cards (but i admit i dont know much about them, as long as they work)
ive got xp pro, but i got that from my uncle who's in IT, so price wasnt something i had to worry about. definitely better than home.
hope that at least didnt confuse you too much!
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Trident [/i]
[B]I've been out of it for quite some time, so my info on "good" equipment is very outdated.
What I need basically is just a case and the innards. Everything I have external is pretty well good for what I do. I'm mostly interested in getting the system for gaming, modding, CAD, digital photo editing, and web pages.
I just have a few questions to ask:
What is the best CPU for gaming within reason?
What's the best board to go for within reason?
I figured out memory, so that's no big deal.
Should I get EIDE or SATA hard drives?
I have an SB Audigy 2 Platium with the front panel and remote.. is that good enough or should I get something better?
What is the best combo dvd-r / cd-r / cd-rw within reasonable price? Or is it just cheaper to get both seperate?
I'd like to get a video capture card.. what would everyone suggest I get?
What would be a good reasonable video card for gaming?
What kind of power supply should I get to support this type of system? Size and weither it should be like a standard power supply or that new X-Connect I keep seeing.
Should I go with the board's lan connection or get a card? If a card, what kind?
What kind of card reader should I invest in? (I want to get into digital photography more.) I saw floppy drives that has them built in, is thoes worth it, or just get a seperate perperial?
And that brings up another question... What is a reasonable digital to get without having to spend a weeks worth of wages on? ($200 USD or less).
Should I go with Windows Home, Media Center, or Pro? (No I'm not interested in Linux or Linspire)
I need to send my AMD XP 1700+ to another room and really get myself into gaming again. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. [/B][/QUOTE]
I'm in kind of the same boat, i've got an XP1800+ i want to upgrade,
the Intel Core 2 Duo's blow AMD out of the water, but with them being so new, they are pricey, i'm looking at about $1200 for new motherboard, processor, memory and video card (have to replace my FX5900 because its AGP, and all the new boards use PCI express 16
i've not owned an Intel processor (except in my laptop) for almost 6 years. and i'm about to go back, from AMD's own admission (i can't remember the site i saw their quote on) they wont have a processor to compete with the core 2 duo's until late 2007 or early 2008. they are combatting intel's new processors by dropping the price on theirs.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Entil'Zha [/i]
[B]I'm in kind of the same boat, i've got an XP1800+ i want to upgrade,
the Intel Core 2 Duo's ...[/B][/QUOTE]
Aside from the possible financed purchase of the Gateway convertable notebook I was discussing in another thread, my XP1800+ will probably still be my best machine for quite a while to go...
:D
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by JackN [/i]
[B]Aside from the possible financed purchase of the Gateway convertable notebook I was discussing in another thread, my XP1800+ will probably still be my best machine for quite a while to go...
:D [/B][/QUOTE]
I'm waffling about buing it, or waiting another month or so for the Nforce 500's to come out.
well that and not wanting to spent a boatload.
[B]And here we go again... Core 2 Duo E6600 (woohoo!), MSI P965 Neo-F (because it's cheap), 2x 1GB Corsair DDR2-800 CL5 (reasonably priced), Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 16MB (fast and 5yr guarantee), no you don't need a new audio card, BenQ DW1650/1655/1670 (just read the [url=http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=16050]review[/url]), Radeon X1900XT 512MB ViVo (any brand, and you can capture video with it), Seasonic S12 or M12 series PSU, board LAN (has more bandwidth), any sort of 3,5" reader (there's no big differences there) and finally MCE (because it's cheaper than Pro and has nearly all the same functionalities). [/B][/QUOTE]
i'd love a core 2 duo extreme 6900, but they cost too much.
Also those overclock nearly 50% quite easily for extra punch.
As for HD's definitely SATA...
Most of Conroe motherboards use i965 chipset which doesn't even have IDE/PATA natively on chipset.
For memory
[url]http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=94017[/url]
[url]http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90973[/url]
So in shorter form, memory with Micron D9xxx chips.
For PSU Fortron Epsilon/OCZ GameXstream are also very good choises.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Entil'Zha [/i]
[B]i'd love a core 2 duo extreme 6900, but they cost too much. [/B][/QUOTE]Then buy E6600 which is exactly same Conroe-chip (and already clearly wins AMD's most expensive processors) and overclock it to 2.93 from 2.4... or why not to go beyond 3 while at it? (apparently little over 3 is achievable even without Vcore increase)
[B]Then buy E6600 which is exactly same Conroe-chip (and already clearly wins AMD's most expensive processors) and overclock it to 2.93 from 2.4... or why not to go beyond 3 while at it? (apparently little over 3 is achievable even without Vcore increase) [/B][/QUOTE]
Do those overclock nicely? from what i read only the X6900 was an unlocked processor.
although, i woudln't NEED to overclock it, as it would be such an upgrade over what i have now,.
Oh and as for motherboards, i'm personally going to wait, the new Nforce 500 chipset motherboards are supposed to be out next month.
**spits pop on computer**
**gets shocked and flops onto desk**
Whoa... Just the board itself is like 3/4 of the price I was expecting to spend! I was planning to build something that's within "Reason" which means everything will run about 1000 total if not cheaper.
I looked up it, and what I came down to was this.
1: MBM-975X-E6600 :: Intel D975XBXLKR Intel Socket 775 ATX Motherboard and an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz OEM Processor
2: C13-3022 :: Corsair TWINX Dual Channel 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB)
3: TSD-320AS :: Seagate / 320GB / 7200 / 16MB / SATA-300 / OEM / Hard Drive
4: O261-2005 :: OCZ / GameXStream / 700-Watt / ATX / 120mm Fan / SATA Ready / SLI Ready / EPS / Active PFC / Power Supply
5: P450-8576 :: XFX GeForce 6800 Xtreme / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card
6: B145-8012 :: BenQ DW1655 / 16x8x16x DVD+RW / 16x6x16x DVD-RW / 8x DVD+R DL / 4x DVD-DL / 48x32x48x CD-RW / Black OEM / DVD Burner with LightScribe
7: ULT31793 :: Ultra Beige 3.5" Floppy Drive with Built-in 6-in-1 Flash Card Reader
8: G452-4000 :: Gigabyte 3D Aurora Silver Aluminum ATX Full-Tower Case with Front USB, FireWire and Audio Ports
9: M17-7502 :: Microsoft Windows XP Pro Edition OEM Version & Service Pack 2
Total... drumroll... with tax... drumroll... $1,515.40 USD....
Ok... where is the best place to sell healthy kidney's at?
[B]
Total... drumroll... with tax... drumroll... $1,515.40 USD....
Ok... where is the best place to sell healthy kidney's at? [/B][/QUOTE]
and if you are goign to spend that much, for just a couple hundred more, you could ghet a prebuilt alienware, with a whole lot more thrown in (plus a kickin monitor) and a warrenty.
which makes the choice even thougher for me.
but, i paid $2900 for my 8088, $2400 for my 486.. so $1500-$1700 isn't bad in the grand scheme of things.
MSI P965 Neo-F $109.99
Core 2 Duo E6300 (Allendale) $203.00
Sapphire X1800XT 512MB Vivo $199.99
OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model OCZ2G8002GK - Retail $198.99 [b](sale ends tomorrow)[/b]
Seagate 7200.10 320GB SATA2 16MB $99.99
BenQ DW1650 $30.25
Antec P150 $139.99 (with NeoHE 430W PSU, you just don't need a 700W PSU any time soon)
WinXP MCE 2005 SP2 OEM $109.99
= $1092.19 plus delivery expenses
[B]From [url=http://www.newegg.com]Newegg[/url]:
Core 2 Duo E6300 (Allendale) $203.00
= $1092.19 plus delivery expenses [/B][/QUOTE]
A couple things
Spend the extra $50 to get an E6400 Conroe rather than the Allendale IMHO.
and also IMHO, avoid the Benq drives like the plague, i bought a bunch of them for work, and they are crap, they work much better in their current roll then they ever did in the computers, they currently act as paperweights on my desk to keep papers from flying around,
i got the NEC drives instead and they work brilliantly
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058[/url]
last i checked, tigerdriect has much better prices on OEM copies of windows, i know a friend of mine just got an OEM of XP Home for around $70-$75 i'm too lazy to go check the cost of MCE
[B]A couple things
Spend the extra $50 to get an E6400 Conroe rather than the Allendale IMHO.[/B][/QUOTE]
Wtf are you talking about? Every single C2D processor with 2MB L2 cache is [i]Allendale[/i] regardless of what some uninformed summer trainee has written on the pages. Only the early engineering samples of E6300 and E6400 were dispatched with 4MB L2 cache.
Of course a cheaper-than-E6600 Conroe model is a possibility, but I doubt they will ship such processors in the near future.
[QUOTE][B]and also IMHO, avoid the Benq drives like the plague, i bought a bunch of them for work, and they are crap, they work much better in their current roll then they ever did in the computers, they currently act as paperweights on my desk to keep papers from flying around,
i got the NEC drives instead and they work brilliantly[/B][/QUOTE]NEC is good, but exactly how old versions were those BenQ drives you purchased? The model you just presented as trustworthy is just about one year old.
seems like they are alienware but not as overpriced, I haven't done a comparison yet however.
But a dual chip video card sounds cool to show off to people.
2449.00 is like a mortgage payment
Jimmy Dean Wowzer!!!! ouch;;(babbles uncomprehensibly)
$2449.00
(before all applicable rebates)
CASE: CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Mid-Tower Case W/ Side-panel Window
CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6300 CPU @ 1.86GHz 1066FSB 2x1MB L2 Cache
MOTHERBOARD: Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe nForce4 SLI Chipset LGA775 Supports Core 2 Duo CPU FSB1066 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE1394&7.1Audio
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NEW!!! NVIDIA Geforce 7950 GX2 1GB 16X PCI
LCD Monitor: Gaming LCD ViewSonic VX922 19" (2ms White-Black-White Typ) SXGA LCD Display Monitor
HARD DRIVE: Gaming Hard Drive (10, 000RPM SATA150) (SATA150 - Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10, 000RPM 8MB Cache WD740GD)
Hard Drive 2: Gaming Hard Drive (10, 000RPM SATA150) (SATA150 - Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10, 000RPM 8MB Cache WD740GD)
Hard Drive 3: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive -- Recommended
Optical Drive: (Special Price) 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM (BLACK COLOR)
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION
Thanks for the input guys.
Well I started looking... and tell me what you think of this setup for $1,046.63.
1: MBM-P5ND2-524 :: Asus P5ND2-SLI NVIDIA Socket 775 ATX Motherboard and an Intel Pentium 4 524 3.06GHz OEM Processor
2: M17-7502 :: Microsoft Windows XP Pro Edition OEM Version & Service Pack 2
3: K24-5846 :: Kingston 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB)
4: TSD-120AS3 :: Seagate / 120GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-300 / OEM / Hard Drive
5: TC3J-2147 :: Ultra Silver Aluminus ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side, Front USB, Firewire and Audio Ports And Ultra X2 550-Watt Power Supply
6: P450-8576 :: XFX GeForce 6800 Xtreme / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card
7: L12-1090 :: Lite-on Super Allwrite SHM-165H6S / 16x8x16x DVD+RW / 16x6x16x DVD-RW / 5x DVD-RAM / 8x DVD+R DL / 4x DVD-R DL / 48x24x48x CD-RW / Black/Beige Faceplates / Internal / DVD Writer with LightScribe
8: ULT31793 :: Ultra Beige 3.5" Floppy Drive with Built-in 6-in-1 Flash Card Reader
9: A107-1044 WHITE :: Aspire Multimedia Keyboard and Optical Mouse Combo (White)
10: T925-2106 :: ThermalTake Golden Orb II / Socket 939/754/775 / Copper Core / CPU Cooling Fan
11: O261-8004 :: OCZ Ultra 5+ Silver Thermal Compound
12: ULT31880 :: Ultra 120mm Sleeve Bearing Case Fan (5-Pack)
What you think of that for an average system for all I want to do with it?
[B]
NEC is good, but exactly how old versions were those BenQ drives you purchased? The model you just presented as trustworthy is just about one year old. [/B][/QUOTE]
The BenQ drives were from earlier this summer with the most recent firmware, Roxio refuses to recognize that they exist. and nero tended to burn coasters with them (3 different drives, 3 different machines, so i'm pretty sure it wasn't the machines)
the 3 NEC drives i replaced them with (and the one i have at home) work much better.
My mistake on the Conroe/Allendale, however, IMHO, it still worth the extra $100 for the E6600 over the E6400, or the $150 over the E6200,
Granted its a chunk of change, but when you are spending that much on a system anyway, get the most bang you can i always say..
[B]The BenQ drives were from earlier this summer with the most recent firmware, Roxio refuses to recognize that they exist. and nero tended to burn coasters with them (3 different drives, 3 different machines, so i'm pretty sure it wasn't the machines)[/B][/QUOTE]
Most recent firmware ain't always the most stable one, you should know that by now. Those BenQ drives could have been in perfect shape, but because you neglected to try older firmware versions, you just threw them away? :rolleyes:
[B]Most recent firmware ain't always the most stable one, you should know that by now. Those BenQ drives could have been in perfect shape, but because you neglected to try older firmware versions, you just threw them away? :rolleyes: [/B][/QUOTE]
Uhh no, i tried newer firmware when the drives did not work. i tried several revisions of firmware, the drives continued to suck, i tried them in other machines, the drives continued to suck, i tried them in other operating systems, the drives continued to suck, i tried them as paperweights, the drives no longer sucked...
Believe me, i was thorough in my testing as i was not going to replace them and waste the money unless they did indeed truly suck.
But hey, its your dime, you want to buy them, go for it, i'm just giving you my experience with them, if it had been one single drive, in one single computer, i'd chalk it up to a bad drive, but it was 3 drives, tried in 10 different computers, using 3 different operating systems (mandriva linux, windows XP and FreeBSD 6.x). same results. while the NEC drives, which cost me less money, (about $4/each cheaper) worked out of the box.
Again, its your dime, i was just issuing a word of caution about the BenQ's, i wasn't expecting the spanish inquisition.
Well, I guess you've had some experience then. First time I've heard anything negative about BenQ drives, though.
[B][img]http://www.kryptonitekollectibles.com/images/prod/spanish_inquisition_tshirt.jpg[/img]
Well, I guess you've had some experience then. First time I've heard anything negative about BenQ drives, though. [/B][/QUOTE]
I'm so glad you got the quote, after i typed i realised that if you weren't familliar with Monty Python that it could have sounded kinda snippy.
Maybe it was just a bad batch of drives, i just had a really tough time with them. \
funny thing, i just went and looked at the drives, they all have the same serial number.. heh
And how on earth could someone (properly educated person) not be familiar with MP?
[B]Bootleg... actually wouldn't be a surprise after the recent uncovering of a whole fake NEC factory in China. :D
And how on earth could someone (properly educated person) not be familiar with MP? [/B][/QUOTE]
It was the BenQ drives that all had the same serial number, i'm tempted to call newegg and ask them whatup with that. even OEM drives should have different serial numbers.
As for MP, you'd be amazed h ow many people i run into who dont get the Spanish Inquisition quote. or who have no idea about the Dead Parrot Sketch.. bloody heathens.