What Should I look for?

[p3psi]

eh, dont forget when you add everthing up, you're going to have a substatial shipping bill. Dont know whether or not getting all you parts from the same place will cut down that expense.

oh, tigerdirect.com is OK, not great. only thing that makes them worth while for your search are the constant rebates they offer.

also, pricewatch is what many people use, but there are a lot of shady vendors there, just go look at the reviews on thier site.
not too long ago i saved a few bucks getting a cheap drive, but died after a month, and the costumer service was so horrible, whether they give you the runaround or they put up so much bs you figure its not worth the trouble and just go down to best buy and pay retail.

much easier to return something to a physical place like best buy than some "no-name" vendor from pricewatch who's based out of some 3rd floor apartment and reuses old beer boxes and newspapers to ship out their merchandise.

newegg.com is a good site too. like homoboggings said

[Dopeskills]

Fortunately for me, newegg is based in the same town where i live, so I can just pick the stuff up.

[hobobaggins]

Originally Posted by p3psi

eh, dont forget when you add everthing up, you're going to have a substatial shipping bill. Dont know whether or not getting all you parts from the same place will cut down that expense.

oh, tigerdirect.com is OK, not great. only thing that makes them worth while for your search are the constant rebates they offer.

also, pricewatch is what many people use, but there are a lot of shady vendors there, just go look at the reviews on thier site.
not too long ago i saved a few bucks getting a cheap drive, but died after a month, and the costumer service was so horrible, whether they give you the runaround or they put up so much bs you figure its not worth the trouble and just go down to best buy and pay retail.

much easier to return something to a physical place like best buy than some "no-name" vendor from priceline who's based out of some 3rd floor apartment and reuses old beer boxes and newspapers to ship out their merchandise.

newegg.com is a good site too. like homoboggings said

dont feel special because you think you came up with that

and another thing- DONT GET CHEAP RAM.

never ever ever settle with cheap ram.

[SiL Eighty]

Originally Posted by hobobaggins

dont feel special because you think you came up with that

and another thing- DONT GET CHEAP RAM.

never ever ever settle with cheap ram.

How do i recognize cheep ram? What companies do i need to look out for?

[p3psi]

im sorry, must have been a freudian slip, I fixed it.
i meant pricewatch, not priceline.

anyways, like homosexualbaggins said, ram is important, but easy to upgrade to more latter.

[hobobaggins]

Originally Posted by p3psi

im sorry, must have been a freudian slip, I fixed it.
i meant pricewatch, not priceline.

anyways, like homosexualbaggins said, ram is important, but easy to upgrade to more latter.

homosexualbaggins. havent heard that before. now you really can be proud

you recognize cheap ram, when after you see it you yell "holy shit"

or buy it from a name brand

(www.crucial.com) for all your memory needs

[Mr_Paper]

Buget in US is $1000... so about $1330 in Canadian.
Monitors and Software(OS) costs excluded. Okay!

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.80E GHz 800FSB w/ 1MB Cache, Hyper-Threading
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000-G w/ DualDDR400, Audio, Gigabit Lan, SATA
Memory: Kingston 512MB PC3200 DDR CAS 3
Case: Antec Sonata w/ TruePower 380W
Case Fan: Panaflo 120mm Ultra Quiet Fan, Medium Flow
Hard Drive: Seagate 120GB Barracuda 7200.7 Serial ATA 8MB Cache
Optical Drive: LiteOn 4X DVD+/-RW Combo Drive, Black (OEM) w/ Software
Video Card: Matrox Millennium P650 64MB DDR PCI w/ DualHead (oem)
Keyboard: A4Tech Cordless Keyboard & Mouse combination

Total: $1335 Canadian - just a little over ^^:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ w/ 512K Cache (Retail Box )
Motherboard: MSI K8T Neo-FSR w/ Audio, Gigabyte Lan, SATA RAID
Memory: Kingston 512MB PC2700 DDR
Case: Antec Sonata w/ TruePower 380W
Hard Drive: Seagate 120GB Barracuda 7200.7 Serial ATA 8MB Cache
Optical Drive: LiteOn 4X DVD+/-RW Combo Drive, Black (OEM) w/ Software
Video Card: Matrox Millennium P650 64MB DDR OEM w/ DualHead-HF
Keyboard: A4Tech Cordless Keyboard & Mouse combination

Total: $1350 Canadian - A little bit further over budget.

Processors: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 512K Barton (Retail Box)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7VT600-P-L w/ Audio, Lan, Serial ATA
Memory: Kingston 512MB PC3200 DDR CAS 3
Case: Antec Sonata w/ TruePower 380W
Case Fan: Panaflo 120mm Ultra Quiet Fan, Medium Flow
Hard Drive: Seagate 120GB Barracuda 7200.7 Serial ATA 8MB Cache
Optical Drive: LiteOn 8x8 DVD+/-RW Dual Drive (OEM), Black w/ Software
Video Card: Matrox Millennium P650 64MB DDR OEM w/ DualHead-HF
Keyboard: A4Tech Cordless Keyboard & Mouse combination

Total: $1325 Canadian - Just right... a little under budget too!

The basic layout of each system is the same, only differences are really with processors and motherboards (the price difference between the DVD-RW/+RW drives is only about $10). All three systems support more than 2GB. If you're serious about hardcore gaming, you might want a different video card. I'm not heavy into gaming so the video card is more than enough to fill my needs. =P

Audio, USB and 100/10 LAN (one has 1000/100 LAN) is built into each motherboard. A decent Audigy2 card increases the price by about $100 Canadian.

[hobobaggins]

Case: Antec Sonata w/ TruePower 380W
Case Fan: Panaflo 120mm Ultra Quiet Fan, Medium Flow

why did you include the Case fan on the first but not the others?

i agree most with the first one

the changes i would make, would be to get a WDigital Hard drive (use Mail in rebates! they help!)

and i dont know how good the matrox Vid card is... ... so i would suggest definatly upgrade that to something faster (the new raedon x800 is coming out, so the 9800/9600 prices should drop soon)

i dont really know how the money will fluctuate up/down from there....

<--- firm supporter of WD/ATI so... ... yeah.

[wnkryo]

Here is the skinny on the Must have hardware that almost every one agrees you should get:

- Amd 64 bit processer (or pentium 4 3200+ if you want things cheaper)
- One 250gig harddrive (or two 120 gig hard drive, which is also cheaper)
- Radeon 9800 pro (nothing thing else beats this).
- DDR memory (the version of the DDR memory depends on your budget.)

[Lina Inverse]

Originally Posted by wnkryo

Here is the skinny on the Must have hardware that almost every one agrees you should get:

- Amd 64 bit processer (or pentium 4 3200+ if you want things cheaper)
- One 250gig harddrive (or two 120 gig hard drive, which is also cheaper)
- Radeon 9800 pro (nothing thing else beats this).
- DDR memory (the version of the DDR memory depends on your budget.)

That's Athlon XP 3200+, not Pentium 4!
For Ram, I would suggest Samsung PC400 ones, they are of good quality and don't cost an arm and a leg.

[durrem]

This is what I'd do:

Intel Pentium 4/ 2.8C GHz 800MHz FSB, 512K Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - Retail
$179.00

ABIT i865PE Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU, Model "AI7" -RETAIL
$99.00

1GB kit (512MBX2) PC-4200 533MHz Dual Channel DDR Hyperam
Make sure to select Adata brand from the dropdown menu.
$275

SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -RETAIL
$219.00

2x SAMSUNG 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model SP1213C, OEM Drive Only
$196.00

ANTEC ALUMINUM SERIES SUPER LAN BOY MINI TOWER CASE with Clear Side Acrylic Window and FREE Case Carrying Strap -RETAIL
$73.00

Antec 550 Watt Power Supply With 2 Fans 5.25 Control Panel, Model "TRUE CONTROL 550W" -RETAIL
$100.00

Teac 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model FD235HFC291, OEM
$9.00

Pioneer 8X DVD+RW/-RW Drive, Model DVR-107D, OEM
$114.00

Thermalright SP94 Kit w/Panaflo 92mm High-Speed RPM Sensing Fan
$50.00

Arctic Silver Ceramique, 3 gram
$3.00

Total: $1,317.00 plus shipping

Oops, sorry, the $1,000 cap was kind of arbitrary anyway.

A couple of notes. First, stay away from the C1 stepping Prescotts. They run way to hot. Supposedly the D0 stepping cores are coming out today, if you can track one down, but probably not. If you can, try to get a 2.8C that has 30 capacitors on the underside of the chip. Most P4s have 12, but the 30 capacitor models are suposedly EE chips that have been pushed out as regular P4s, iirc.

I've never used SATA, so take that part with a grain of salt.

Also, the double layer DVDRs are coming out next month (or later this month). You may want to wait on purchasing the cd drive until those come out, as it would let you burn on the 8.something GB disks.

You probably need some things like rounded drive cables or some other things that I'm forgetting...

With this system you should be able to do 3.4 Ghz easily at 1:1 memory and probably a little higher.

[Mr_Paper]

Originally Posted by hobobaggins

why did you include the Case fan on the first but not the others?

i agree most with the first one

the changes i would make, would be to get a WDigital Hard drive (use Mail in rebates! they help!)

and i dont know how good the matrox Vid card is... ... so i would suggest definatly upgrade that to something faster (the new raedon x800 is coming out, so the 9800/9600 prices should drop soon)

i dont really know how the money will fluctuate up/down from there....

<--- firm supporter of WD/ATI so... ... yeah.

The case fan isn't included in the second one because the AMD64 costs that much more. The fan isn't really needed, so in that one I removed it to offset the price difference between processors. On a side note, the case comes with a 'silent' high-speed 120mm fan, it's good but not the best at pulling air in from the front. The lower speed fan in the front creates a nice negative pressure ratio in the case and helps in preventing dust buildup... Of course, some fan filters will do the same thing. =P

The reason for my choice of Matrox over the Raedon 9800... the Raedon 9800 costs more than $500 Canadian by itself, while the Matrox video card only costs $220. I'm not about to blow a third of the budget on the video card alone.

[hobobaggins]

Originally Posted by Mr_Paper

The case fan isn't included in the second one because the AMD64 costs that much more. The fan isn't really needed, so in that one I removed it to offset the price difference between processors. On a side note, the case comes with a 'silent' high-speed 120mm fan, it's good but not the best at pulling air in from the front. The lower speed fan in the front creates a nice negative pressure ratio in the case and helps in preventing dust buildup... Of course, some fan filters will do the same thing. =P

The reason for my choice of Matrox over the Raedon 9800... the Raedon 9800 costs more than $500 Canadian by itself, while the Matrox video card only costs $220. I'm not about to blow a third of the budget on the video card alone.

mm~ depending on where you get it, the card can get as low as 250$. for an XT version.

you just have to know where to get it


as durrem has it posted, that 9800 only costs 220.

A couple of notes. First, stay away from the C1 stepping Prescotts. They run way to hot. Supposedly the D0 stepping cores are coming out today, if you can track one down, but probably not. If you can, try to get a 2.8C that has 30 capacitors on the underside of the chip. Most P4s have 12, but the 30 capacitor models are suposedly EE chips that have been pushed out as regular P4s, iirc.

it isnt really like you can go through stacks of chips to find one with 30 instead of 12 capacitors on it they just give it to you

[Wandering_Youth]

Sil, what are you planning to do with 5 usb ports? Are you planning on buying external hardware for your PC later on because that's a lot of ports. Anyways, don't buy Maxtor brand HD because they are noisy and for sound cards go for Creative brands.

[SiL Eighty]

Woo good info ^__^. Ya dont worry about the 1k cap its not really a cap anyway just throwing out a figure.

I did go to Fry's today and the shit there is hella expensive. Seagate 120g = $215 >__<

Im changing my mind about the hdd's. I want to get a 30g and a 250g. 30g for the OS and the 250 for everything else.

AMD 64bit processors. Im a lil warry about these now. Im not sure if I want to get the OS to match that processor power. I heard that they have a Windows 64 out for it and that Linux also has a kernel out for it. Not sure if i want to go thru all that just want to run my Windows XP Pro, but i dont want to buy a bomb ass processor and not be able to use it to its full potential its just a waste.

Video card...... The dual monitor thing.... What do I need to do to make it dual monitor in the 1st place? Im not sure what to look for here I need more info.

@ Wandering_Youth - well between my zip, flash memory drive *for didgi cam*, mouse and keyboard my USB ports are filled. Every now and than I use keys and I dont have a free USB port so I have to unplug something and I dont like to do that so might as well have extra it doesnt hurt ^__^

[IntegraTypeR]

You can pick up a 9600 XT for around $100 USD.... or even a 9800 Pro for $200 USD (Go ATi for dual mon support and a superior gpu)

U can pick up a P4 2.4C for around $200 USD

[durrem]

Originally Posted by hobobaggins

it isnt really like you can go through stacks of chips to find one with 30 instead of 12 capacitors on it they just give it to you

Originally Posted by hobobaggins

you just have to know where to get it

Heh, j/k. Yeah, you basically have to talk up the person with the chips to look for something like that. It won't help with most online ordering.

Originally Posted by SiL Eighty

I did go to Fry's today and the shit there is hella expensive. Seagate 120g = $215 >__<

"hella expensive" huh? You from the bay area? Anyway, frys is only good when they have a sale. Check out their newspaper ads.

Video card...... The dual monitor thing.... What do I need to do to make it dual monitor in the 1st place? Im not sure what to look for here I need more info.

Well, the ATI 9800 Pro comes with dual monitor support right out of the box, at least for one analogue and one dvi monitor, or two analogue monitors with the adapter that comes with it. This is true for most higher end ATI cards, and probably NVidia cards as well, but don't quote me on the NVidia part. Sapphire is the company that makes the "Built by ATI" brand retail ATI cards, so they are exactly the same as the ATI cards physically.

Picture of the 9800 Pro (from Newegg):



Picture of the junk that comes with the 9800 Pro. You can see the adapter for two analogue monitors in dual mode there:

@ Wandering_Youth - well between my zip, flash memory drive *for didgi cam*, mouse and keyboard my USB ports are filled. Every now and than I use keys and I dont have a free USB port so I have to unplug something and I dont like to do that so might as well have extra it doesnt hurt ^__^

Why don't you just get a small USB hub and put it on your desktop? You won't have to reach behind your computer to change the cables around all the time.

(Sorry, no spell check on this computer...)

[SiL Eighty]

Ok been looking at Seagate and WesternDigital HD's. WD seems to be a bit cheeper than Seagate HD's, but they seem to be slower too.

Ok parts that Ive really looked into so far

-WD Raptor 36.7gb 10k Rpm a.s.t. 5.2ms $116
-WD 250gb 7200 Rpm a.s.t. 8.9ms $195

-Seagate 200gb 7200 Rpm a.s.t. 8.5ms $135.25
-Seagate 36.7gb 10k Rpm a.s.t. 4.7ms $149
"and if i wanted over kill"
-Seagate 37gb 15k Rpm a.s.t. 3.6ms $267

a.s.t. = Average Seek Time

The small fast ones I want for my OS. The 200gb Seagates seem to be a good value. I believe that that 200gb one is a Barracuda, but its not listed as one on newegg.com.

*question* Whats the difference between SATA, IDE, and SCSI? I have no clue what that stands for.

Still havent decided on what processor chip to use. Once i figure that out than Ill look up Mother Boards.

Video card. Eek3 those M-Fer's are expensive. Oh well . I found this one Crucial RADEON 9800 Pro 128mb. You guys said these things got cheeper right? What the hell were they before if they are $300 now, am i looking at a real good one, or is this site over priced?

[Wandering_Youth]

Originally Posted by SiL Eighty

@ Wandering_Youth - well between my zip, flash memory drive *for didgi cam*, mouse and keyboard my USB ports are filled. Every now and than I use keys and I dont have a free USB port so I have to unplug something and I dont like to do that so might as well have extra it doesnt hurt ^__^

Hmm, that is a lot of stuff your planning on plugging into your computer but why zip drive? You should get a data stick aka jump drive because those are more versatile than zips.

Originally Posted by SiL Eighty

Video card...... The dual monitor thing.... What do I need to do to make it dual monitor in the 1st place? Im not sure what to look for here I need more info.

Just look in the back of the box of any video card and it should tell you if it supports dual monitors or not. When you bought and installed your vid card you have to config the driver settings so it display dual monitor mode.

The settings will look something like this (this is my nvidia GFX 5600 not ATI Raedon):

Spoiler:

Can anyone post a screenshot of how the ATI 9800 Raedon's settings look like?

[hobobaggins]

Originally Posted by SiL Eighty

AMD 64bit processors. Im a lil warry about these now. Im not sure if I want to get the OS to match that processor power. I heard that they have a Windows 64 out for it and that Linux also has a kernel out for it. Not sure if i want to go thru all that just want to run my Windows XP Pro, but i dont want to buy a bomb ass processor and not be able to use it to its full potential its just a waste.

my feelings exactly.

Woo good info ^__^. Ya dont worry about the 1k cap its not really a cap anyway just throwing out a figure.

I did go to Fry's today and the shit there is hella expensive. Seagate 120g = $215 >__<

Im changing my mind about the hdd's. I want to get a 30g and a 250g. 30g for the OS and the 250 for everything else.

HOLY SHIT! 125 for a 120 gig hard drive? the only reason that price could be justified is if it was a 10k rpm drive.

WD's have a great warranty, and last a very long time ( had a few for 6+years)(retired recently.)(well. i think it is 6 years)

you need too look at the fry's ad paper. wait till the drive you are looking for goes on sale (you will however never see a 10k rpm drive go on sale in the paper). i have seen 250 gig drives go as low as 148! (with 70+40 mail in rebates, and 80 instant)

buying direct or from Ebay i dont like to do.

another thing: there have been many reports of 120 gig drive purchasers getting the wrong drives... like 200gig drives.

i would like to have the liberty of having a seperate drive just for the OS... but i dont. so i just make do with my 3x120 rig.