(Newbie) Comments on Computer specs?

Dilbert135 · July 31st, 2003, 04:39 PM

Hey, I just stumbled across this forum and I've got to say it looks pretty nifty. What I was looking for was a good computer board to throw out what I'm thinking of building and get some feedback. Not sure how well you all react to new members but I'll give 'er a go anyway. Here's what I was thinking. I put it down in Microsoft Word so I'll just make it a link here. Just text.

http://www.ether-dreams.com/NewComputer.htm

wju425 · July 31st, 2003, 06:46 PM

Here's how we react to new members:

WELCOME to TechIMO!

The list looks good but $1220? Well, it's your money but you can build a killer machine for less. Depends on what you want to do with it.

\o/ Billy

xcrnrkyle · July 31st, 2003, 06:58 PM

Check out your local BestBuy. They had a 160gig 8mg cache MAxtor 7200 rpm hard drive for 100 but it had a 60 dollar mail in rebate so you'd have to put that up front and send the rebate in,

phlatline · July 31st, 2003, 07:03 PM

Welcome, dude!
Looks prety good, but I'd gone w/AMD, & DDR SDRAM.
Phlatline

Dilbert135 · July 31st, 2003, 08:56 PM

Thanks!

I'm just partial to the p4. I'm pretty sure I did use DDR Ram, its 3200. Wju425, any ideas on how to cut corners?

SimonTemplar · July 31st, 2003, 10:47 PM

Hi,

A few recommendations. First I'm not all that familiar with Enlight power supplies, but even though it is listed as 420 watts, I would still get an Enermax. Try the 465. I oc my systems alot and my 12 and 5 volt are always higher or dead on. Trust me on this newer systems need a good power supply. If you dont want the Enermax, get a PC power and cooling ps from their web site. The motherboard you chose was a safe bet, but if you ever want to play around with the bios settings or oc, i'd get an Abit IS7g. Excellent features. Also, get more than 1 stick of ram. get 2 double sided 256 or 512 sticks and run them in duel channel mode. 256 won't cut it with winxp. Don't skimp on the video card. The 9600 pro is nice, but for about 240 on newegg, you can get a 9800 non pro which has 8 pipelines instead of 4. More bandwidth=better performance. You can oc it to pro speeds easily anyway. The seagate looks good. Forget the crappy sound card. Get a turtle beach santa cruz oem from newegg. I think they are about 33 on sale right now. Also if money is tight, the Abit motherboards, IC7 IS7 have good 6 channel onboard sound and lan card. Good Luck and enjoy your new system..!!!!!!!

Dilbert135 · July 31st, 2003, 11:13 PM

Thanks for the advice Simon,

As far as the ps goes, I don't know anything about them. I just don't want to spend much more than 55 bucks on one. To clarify, I don't plan on oc my system at all because I'm not trained enough in that to be able to make sure everything stays hunky-dorey. I'd probably burn it all up. I looked up the Abit IS7g that you mentioned and it probably would be even better for me. I lose one EIDE but since I wanted to use RAID on my hard drives, the added SATA would be better. I was just listing, I'd planned on getting between 512 and a gig of ram. I chose the one I did because I read it balanced performance and price well. Any suggestions on that? As for the sound card, I don't care about it much at all but the one you mentioned I can assume is better. Video card, really I plan on doing video editing and I was going to get a seperate capture card and I don't know if I can spare the extra $80 for a better video card. It looks like the second set of SATA is PCI based, doesn't that hurt RAID? Not sure..

wju425 · July 31st, 2003, 11:39 PM

Keep watching this thread cause more advices will be coming in. Folks here have experiences with computer supplies and reseller sites so you'll find some great deals. Cut corners? Naw, don't need too.

\o/ Billy

SimonTemplar · July 31st, 2003, 11:55 PM

I was going to edit my original post about the ram but had to run for a while. Anyhow, I think what you picked out is ok, but these 865 and 875 chipsets are picky about the pc 3200 you use. I don't think that 5ns CAS 3 stuff would be very good. It kind of defeats the purpose of having the 800 fsb and and fast processor if the burst rate sucks. I'd rather have 512 of some fast Corsair XMS CAS 2 PC3200 than 1 gig of high latency (CAS 3) ram. If you can find it on newegg, get PC3500 low latency ram CAS 2. Like I said these boards are picky. Save some money too on the processor. Get the 2.4C for 170$. I doubt you'll notice that much of a difference. I barely noticed the difference from my old 1.33 Athlon to the 2.4C.With the extra $ you can get the better vid card. If you don't want to spend alot on the power supply don't get a 420 watt, but get a quality 350 or 380 Antec or Enermax. They are in that range, and the true power output is probably better than the 420 Enlight you have picked out. You also said that you were going to be doing alot of video work. The non pro 9800 would be perfect for this. like I said, more memory bandwidth. The Turtle Beach santa cruz pci sound card is great. I've always had Creative products in the past, but after buying a TBSC for my fathers system, there was no comparison. The sound was much richer and not tin sounding. Again, good luck, and ask away with the questions here. We all help each other out. Best Regards,
Simon

cyclist110 · August 1st, 2003, 12:12 AM

Save yourself $7, scrap the floppy drive! It's so last century!

Spend it on a quality power supply! Trust us on this one.

And welcome!

C.