new budget system....

[broar94]

hi my friend will be ordering for an new assembled computer and his budget will be around 800$ . i need your opinions whether this system would be okay

Athlon 64 2800+ or ( P4 2.8 what do you say ? )
2x256mb DDR400 ram
Asus mobo ( some good model )
maybe raid 40gb x 2 or single bland 80GB 7200rpm SATA drive
Powercolor 9800SE 128mb
400W PSU branded
17 inch samsung monitor
pioneer dvd writer dual layer ( maybe! )


thanks in advance

[nwo75200]

get a single stick of 512MB, 256 sticks are a waste. I would get a better card if you could add another 70 bucks for a 6600GT AGP. get a single 80 gig SATA, and then you or he could add another later for RAID.
Stick with AMD 64

[broar94]

i thik the asus boards will have dual channel configuration . so 2x256mb ram will be good for it right?

[ArcticFox]

Not to sound like a fanboy or anything, but yes the A64 is a pretty solid platform compared to the mess Intel created with their new socket (this is #3, after 423 and 478, except the new socket is fairly pointless and extremely fragile, use 478 or bust).

With the non-FX models I'd go with what NWO said and use a single 512MB stick for future expansion possibilities. No, the non-FX line does not use dual-channel RAM

That particular video card is rather lame, but I'm not in fantasy land over the 6600GT either. Would a 9800 Pro be possible?

What is the system going to be used for?

Also, a Seagate or a Maxtor (as in none of that WD stuff) 80GB SATA drive would probably be best. RAID 0 is what I'm assuming you'd be using, and for desktop use it doesn't offer a lot of increase in performance, and slows down random access times while driving up boot times considerably. You will also need a floppy drive I believe in order to install Windows onto the SATA drive.

[nwo75200]

Quote:

Originally Posted by broar94

i thik the asus boards will have dual channel configuration . so 2x256mb ram will be good for it right?

no, because s754 does not support dual channel RAM, and if it did, 256MB sticks would still be a waste. Let's say it has 4 slots, then the max amount of RAM you could have is ONLY a pathetic gig!!!

[JPMiller]

Yes, if t is not a big price difference then go for it... Its NOT worth it if there IS a decent price boost as it is USUALLY not a big performance boost...

[ArcticFox]

Read my above post...

[JPMiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nwo75200

then the max amount of RAM you could have is ONLY a pathetic gig!!!

????
were not talking bleeding edge and insane specs here... so even a "pathetic" 512 is MORE than enough in this setup... by the time he "needs" a more than a gig he will need to upgrade most everything anyway... future proofing and thinking too far ahead is a waste of time and money... IMO

[ArcticFox]

What is the system going to be used for, primarily?

[broar94]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArcticFox

Not to sound like a fanboy or anything, but yes the A64 is a pretty solid platform compared to the mess Intel created with their new socket (this is #3, after 423 and 478, except the new socket is fairly pointless and extremely fragile, use 478 or bust).

With the non-FX models I'd go with what NWO said and use a single 512MB stick for future expansion possibilities. No, the non-FX line does not use dual-channel RAM

That particular video card is rather lame, but I'm not in fantasy land over the 6600GT either. Would a 9800 Pro be possible?

What is the system going to be used for?

Also, a Seagate or a Maxtor (as in none of that WD stuff) 80GB SATA drive would probably be best. RAID 0 is what I'm assuming you'd be using, and for desktop use it doesn't offer a lot of increase in performance, and slows down random access times while driving up boot times considerably. You will also need a floppy drive I believe in order to install Windows onto the SATA drive.

not sure abt the graphics card .

this system will be used for gaming and just listening to music .

raid for performance .....