Crowbar July 3, 2004 Share Crowbar Member July 3, 2004 So I actually am going to spend some money and build a system. Not much money, mind you. There's a baby on the way, and house payments to make. But I'm growing really impatient for a computer. I'm going to bid on a few auctions and hope to snag a refurbished machine real cheap, but I may just end up building one. Here's what I've put together on Newegg: EPoX "EP-8RDA3I" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL DYNAPOWER Black ATX Mid-Tower Case with 430W Power Supply, Model "86B2" -RETAIL AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail SAMSUNG 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model SP1213C, OEM Drive Only $350.45 for all of that. I've got the video card, and the optical drives. is there anything I'm missing besides a sound card (which I'll buy later)? I also have a Thermaltek Volcano 10 copper heatsink and fan, though the retail cpu comes with a heatsink/fan setup. Input is welcomed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL July 3, 2004 Share dwEEziL Member July 3, 2004 Just little things I think. Don't forget Sh&Han. Thermal paste (arctic silver for me). Also, unless I am missing something, that mobo doesn't support SATA drives. Also, you don't have any SATA cables (OEM drives don't come with anything except the drive itself). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r July 3, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member July 3, 2004 for a few more fps in games you can get this ram.. I know money is tight but its only 20 more dollars, a cheap way to get a few extra frames per second. Also, save 10 on this 120gb 7200rpm IDE drive The hdd you linked to isn't compatible with that board, unless you purchase a seperate PCI sata raid card. If you wanna go Sata, heres a ABIT KV7 that should fit the bill for your linked harddrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar July 4, 2004 Author Share Crowbar Member July 4, 2004 hmmm, thought the board had sata on it. guess not. I've never used SATA drives, but from what I gather, they're the way to go. not sure about that ram...bit pricey, I'll see if I can fit it in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Mmmm]Homer July 4, 2004 Share [Mmmm]Homer Member July 4, 2004 SATA and IDE 7200rpm drives perform about the same, you'll never notice any difference. If you're on such a tight budget I wouldn't get too worked up over the RAM. A single stick now and another when you can afford it to go dual channel. The retail HSF's on Athons run fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar July 4, 2004 Author Share Crowbar Member July 4, 2004 yeah, planning on getting 1 stick of 512 pc-3200 now, and adding another in a couple months. right now there's a deal on newegg and a few other places, where if you get an Athlon 64 chip and a motherboard, you get a free copy of the Farcry DVD, so I'm trying to squeeze a 64 system into the budget. But we'll have to see. As I was trying to describe the different options to my wife, she surprised me twice, first by saying, you've got $600, get whatever you want, and second, why don't you just buy a whole new computer instead of building one. Well hell, that sounds great honey! So, I've got $600 to bid on some computers from here. or from e-bay, though I'd rather not use ebay, since the selection is too much to go through. If I get one off the compusa site, I'll try to only spend $400-500, so I have enough left over to get another stick of ram, since none of those systems come with more than 512 of pc 2700. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r July 4, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member July 4, 2004 oh man... with 600 dollars and you alreay have a 9800pro... build your own !!!! dont spend it on some pre-built ... you can have a kick-butt PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar July 4, 2004 Author Share Crowbar Member July 4, 2004 I'm just afraid one component isn't going to work and I won't know which one, since they're all new. I'm convinced that computers work great until you start tinkering with them. Mine was awsome, till I started hanging out in this hardware forum and learned all this stuff about the inside of that metal box. So I put my knowledge to the test, and now I have no computer. Ignorance really is bliss. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r July 4, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member July 4, 2004 LOL... ive prob bought 30 items from newegg in the last 2 years and only 1 has been defective. The chances are more then likely it will work what exactly did you do when you say tinkering inside ? i tinker all the time, never fried someting that i didn't know i was going to fry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar July 4, 2004 Author Share Crowbar Member July 4, 2004 hmmm, only 1 in 30 bad... that's encouraging. I guess despite not wanting to do it myself, I'm leaning in that direction, because, like you said, $600 on newegg is a great machine. not sure what I did to break it. it was working fine, I put in a new heatsink and fan, and all sorts of problems started happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zerodamage July 4, 2004 Share Guest zerodamage Guests July 4, 2004 If you are insisting on building a brand new Nforce-2 mobo, I would recommend the Abit AN7, it is a new revision with Soundstorm audio. That will save you 40+ with a sound card. I do recommend though that you squeeze in an Athlon 64 system. You will get a LOT more for the money for sure and it will be a little future proof. On New egg, this is what I priced for you for an Athlon 64 system. CPU-retail = $185 Motherboard ASRock, a part of Asus (If my memory serves me right). Sis chipset. Great performer for cost with all the extras. $84 Geil RAM, 512MB Stick PC3200 $82 Now you can get that Serial ATA Drive on your first post because this board has SATA. Also, if you get the Western Digital OEM drive which may only be 80Gb but it also has the Serial ATA cables with it. I really can not comment on your case and power supply. Cooling is very important and just as I recommended to Madbean, you will want to add some fans. www.xoxide.com is probably the best site I've ever seen for custom stuff. I would recommend you pick up the Artict Silver Ceramique there as well. I prefer that over the Artict silver 5 for a few reasons, one it is cheaper, another is that it doens't turn into a glue like AS5 is known to do, also it isn't conductive and is easy to clean up. You will see little to no temperature difference for the cost. My main concern is your skimping on the Power Supply. The best system means nothing if your PSU can not power it. You will want a 450Watt for an A64 processor. Do not let Aspire PSU's fool you with their cost. Their quality is top notch and their 12-volt Rail is actually high quality. Antec skimps on their 12-volt rails with low Amperage, around 14 Amps where Anermax is 32 -amps and the aspire's are at 34. Enermax is the best in my opinion but Aspire is also a great low cost alternative. I hope some of this helps with your decision. To buy a Athlon XP 32-bit now would be silly due to performance difference of them compared to A64. With the A64, you are getting better gaming plus the performance when doing video encoding and etc is very good. PM or e-mail me if you have any questions. Lee(at)archercomputers.us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar July 4, 2004 Author Share Crowbar Member July 4, 2004 Thanks for the info ZD. Anyone know how well that A64 2800+ compares to the other 64s? I'm all but positive that I'll go with the A64, but I've kind of thought maybe it's not worth it to get less than the 3000+. Also, what are people's thoughts on this CHAINTECH "VNF3-250" nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard? That board and the retail A64 3000+ together are $311. A bit pricey, but it seems that will last me for a good couple years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r July 4, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member July 4, 2004 socket 754, 2800+ and 3000+ are both newcastle cores with 512k L2. If you want a 3000+ you may as well save a few bucks and go for the 2800+, they will oc the same and performance is the same. 3200+ is either a clawhammer core, has double the L2 cache size and clocked 2.0ghz. Or you can get a newcastle with 512k L2 clocked at 2.2ghz. I personally would go for the clawhammer. you can still easily make your budget with it. The board you linked is good. a gig of corsair ram for $170 You shouldnt have a problem finding a case/psu special coming together with a psu of 430w+. Anything over 400w will serve just fine. If you can manage it, Fortron makes some good cheap psu's that would fit the bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zerodamage July 4, 2004 Share Guest zerodamage Guests July 4, 2004 Well I am recommending you not use the Nforce-3 chipset for Athlon 64. The Via chipset performs better actually and is more stable. I've seen lots of performance problems with the few Nforce-3 boards I used when building A64. The Via chipsets are cheaper and perform better and seem to be more stable. Do not discount the SIS-755 chipset. It is a great set for A64. People see "SIS" and think the worst thoughts. You shouldn't. =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar July 4, 2004 Author Share Crowbar Member July 4, 2004 I had an SiS board on the last comp I used...not real excited to get another one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar July 4, 2004 Author Share Crowbar Member July 4, 2004 Well, I think I may go with this setup: ANTEC Performance Plus Case with 430W Power Supply MSI "K8T NEO-FSR" K8T800 Chipset Athlon 64 2800+ -Retail 1 gig Corsair Value Select (thanks All Killer) rings up at a little over $550 without shipping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r July 4, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member July 4, 2004 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar July 4, 2004 Author Share Crowbar Member July 4, 2004 I want to be in that 64 bit ring, but the processor isn't a big part of gaming, so I think the 2800+ is the way to go. That'll save me enough to beef up my RAM to 1 gig, which I think is important. I'm having the biggest problem right now with deciding on a case, and motherboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zerodamage July 5, 2004 Share Guest zerodamage Guests July 5, 2004 Getting that case would be a good way to go due to Antec having a good psu already in it. Ones that come with cases are never great but better than the other generics out there. Corsair RAM is really good, but the ones you have there have no Heat Spreader and most RAM now days has that. You may wonna spend a bit more and get either heat spreader for those or buy some that has a heat spreader. I would say pay another 16 dollars and get the Geil with heat spreaders. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-144-310&depa=1 The CAS latency on the Corsair is terrible at a 3 where the Geil is 2.5. That is a gaming difference there in a few fps. The CPU is a massive part of gaming. THe newer video cards are CPU dependant . Anything under a 2500 Barton suffers greatly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Mmmm]Homer July 5, 2004 Share [Mmmm]Homer Member July 5, 2004 $50 Black Knight case w/120mm cooling. $38 420w Thermaltake PSU. If it doesn't make your computer go faster, then don't spend alot of money on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zerodamage July 5, 2004 Share Guest zerodamage Guests July 5, 2004 (edited) I've seen computers fried because of cheap PSU's. I've seen one that caught a house on fire when sparks flew out of the back of it onto a wall. I've seen entire systems, mobo, cpu, ram, drives, all fried due to a cheap psu overloading and sending a surge into everything before dying. I've seen this A LOT. I've seen cheap 450 Watt PSU's that weigh less than my old Antec 300Watt. If it has high wattage and is light, then that means it is either not putting out 450 watts or the internal cooling is junk and it will not last long, or both. A high Quality PSU is important and if there isn't any heatsinks in it to cool it, it is junk. Edited July 5, 2004 by zerodamage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r July 5, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member July 5, 2004 ram heatspreaders are a joke.. they trap the heat in. I run 3.2v through my ram 24/7 and the spreaders arent even warm. The chips are hot, heatspread room temp... hmm... its all about looks and marketing. The only headspreader that actually spreads heat on ram is the new corsair 2-2-2 kits that have the heatspreader bonded to the chips, these right here. Not a lot of people are willing to fork over that much loot though. I agree with you on the PSU though, and PSU CAN enhance your PC's performance. A nice strong psu with steady rails will do wonders for overclocking. A weak psu with unstable rails = unstable computer, overclocking or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar July 7, 2004 Author Share Crowbar Member July 7, 2004 so are you two saying the psu that homer put up is bad? or will it do fine? and how do I know if it will line up with the screw holes on the case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r July 7, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member July 7, 2004 it will line up ATX psu in an ATX case. That psu should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Mmmm]Homer July 7, 2004 Share [Mmmm]Homer Member July 7, 2004 I hope that PSU isn't crap because it's what I have in my personal system. I'm running 5 hard drives including 2 Raptors, overclocked A64/3000, 9800 Pro, 2 sticks of RAM, sound card, 2x 120mm fans, CD-RW drive, floppy off of it. This Thermaltake is the best value for the money IMO ($38), unless you think you need more than 420 watts, which most everyone doesn't. One easily gets into the $70 and up price range beyond this PSU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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