New Comp Suggestions

[Searo]

I'm looking to spend 700-1000 for a new comp completely. New mobo, monitor, everything.
What are your suggestions? I was thinking that a 15' or 17' LCD monitor would be awesome, but they're pretty expensive.

Preferably good RAM, 1024 of it.

Good graphics card.

A case. No idea on these.

No idea on fans.

Keyboard? Mouse?

Speakers?

Thanks for help.

[Rbstr]

well the LCD will cost you a good 250 or so, but you couls get a nice 865pe or a good NF2 400 a P4 2.4 or 2.6 ghz or a Decent athalon (respectively) get a Radeon 9600 pr or XT for a graphics card, some A GB of decent CL2 ddr400 ram. The logitec Elite (i think) keyboard with the MX700 mouse is sweet, Altech lansing makes good speakers, for good prices, for cases go realy most are decent, Thermaltake makes a nice case, so does Chieftec. I have a raidmax $50 one that came with a PSU, it has decent cooing and looks good but has some short commings.

go to www.buyxg.com for great deals on hardware
www.frozencpu.com and www.xoxide.com are great Computer cooling/case/psu places. www.Ajump.com is were i bought most of the stuff for this computer, and they have OEM versions of Win XP for $90 bucks if you buy a hardware item there

[Sentrosi]

Just priced a comp for you at ajump.com:

Case: Chenbro Xpider w/o Power supply - Blue
Power Supply: Vantec VAN400B 400W Power Supply
Case Lighting: Raidmax 10" Cold Cathode light - Blue
Motherboard: Abit KV7 KT600 Chipset (w/ 6 channel audio)
Memory: 1GB PC 2700DDR 333
Processor: AMD XP 2400+/2.0Ghz
CPU Heatsink/fan: Thermaltake Volcano 9
Hard Drive: Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM w/ 8Mb Cache
Optical Drive 1: Sony 16x DVD-Rom - black
Optical Drive 2: Sony 52x24x52x CD-RW Drive - Black
Video Card: Asus Radeon 9600XT
Floppy Drive: Sony 1.44Mb Floppy - Black
Operating System: Windows XP w/ SP1a

Total Price: $981.00

[Sentrosi]

Lets see what happens when we go shopping around for other vendors.

Case: Chenbro Xpider w/o Power Supply - Blue ($48.00)Click here for details (http://www.dealsonic.com/chxppcmidtog2.html)
Case Power Supply: CWT 450W power supply with Free Sleeving ($79.00) Click here for details (http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/psu-38.html)
Motherboard: Abit NF7-S Motherboard ($105.00) Click here for details (http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=MB-ABIT-011)
Memory: 2x Kingston DDR PC 2700 512Mb sticks ($148.00) Click here for details (http://www.z-buy.com/product.asp?item=RD-512KT333)
Processor: AMD XP 2600+ ($116.00) Click here for details (http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=CPU-BARTON-010)
Optical Drive 1: Sony 16x DVD-Rom - Black ($37.00) Click here for details (http://us-depot.com/son16xdvdrom.html)
Optical Drive 2: Lite-on 52x32x52x CD-RW Drive - Black ($52.00) Click here for details (http://us-depot.com/lion52becddr.html)
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9600Pro 128MB DDR Memory ($147.00) Click here for details (http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=VC-ATI-9600R)
Floppy Drive: Samsung 1.44Mb Floppy Drive - Black ($9.50) Click here for details (http://www.openlinx.com/english/product/product_description.asp?product_id=1012)
Operating System: Windows XP OEM ($85.00)Click here for details (http://www.us-depot.com/miwixphoedfu.html)

=$826.50

Saved some scratch and upgraded some parts, downgraded others. These prices don't reflect taxes or shipping costs. Use at your leisure.

[Searo]

This (http://www.buyxtremegear.com/9600.html) has me puzzled. What's the difference between all these cards? Why are some 50+ dollars cheaper?

And here (http://www.buyxtremegear.com/intelbox.html) the two categories of processors have a considerable price reduction. Is there anything different in performance there?

What type of ram should I get? 2700? 333mhz? Something better?

[Rbstr]

Some are XT's the best/ highest priced 170-200 the Pros are the nxt best and are 150ish and The Regulars/SE's are 120 ish

Get yourself some DDR400 (pc3200) no matter what if you go P4 if you go Athlon you can get ddr333 (pc2700) but i would stick with the 400 becuse if you ever get a newer Athlon like a 3200+ it uses DDR400. Go with Corsiar XMS or or Kingston Hyper-X those are both high quality memories, for a gb of it be sure to get TWO 512 sticks for the double data rate (with one stick you get only get single data rate, so ddr400 becomes sdr200)

[Searo]

Monitor- Kogi L4AX 14" LCD Flat Panel Monitor- www.amazon.com ($219.00), ($149) with 70 rebate

Processor- Intel Pentium 4 Processor @ 2.80Ghz 533mhz FSB w/ Retail CPU Fan-($192.00)
http://www.buyxtremegear.com/intel280.html

Graphics Card- ATI/Sapphire Radeon 9600 128mb DDR AGP8x w/ CRT, TVO, & DVI �OEM (1024-9C20) http://www.buyxtremegear.com/10249c20.html - ($104.00)

RAM- 2x Kingston DDR PC 2700 512Mb sticks ($148.00) http://www.z-buy.com/product.asp?item=RD-512KT333

Optical Drive 2- Lite-on 52x32x52x CD-RW Drive - Black ($52.00) http://us-depot.com/lion52becddr.html

Optical Drive 1- Sony 16x DVD-Rom - Black ($37.00) http://us-depot.com/son16xdvdrom.html

Floppy Drive- Samsung 1.44Mb Floppy Drive - Black ($9.50) http://www.openlinx.com/english/product/product_description.asp?product_id=1012

Case- Chenbro Xpider PC61166 Mid Tower Gaming Case w/ Window, Lock, Blue
http://www.dealsonic.com/chxppcmidtog2.html ($48.00)

Power Supply- Thermaltake W0010 Xaser Silent Purepower 480W Power Supply w/ PFC, S-ATA connector, Black, Retail Package ($68.00) http://www.dealsonic.com/thw0xasipu481.html

Cooling Fan- Thermaltake TT-9025A-2B 90x90x25 High Performance DC Case FAN ($8.00)
http://www.dealsonic.com/ther90higper.html

Hard Drive- IBM 80GB 7200 RPM HD ($99) http://www.buyxtremegear.com/hd-132-104.html

Total=$914.50

Suggestions? This is a rough draft of course, please correct me with any price reductions or OMG THAT IS TEH SUCK DON'T BUY IT!

[NoSurrender]

First off drop the LCD because they suck for gaming. They can't refresh fast enough to update your monitor. heres a awesome CRT that will blow you away http://store.yahoo.com/buyxg/e90fsb.html . Dont go with that 9600 because just looking at the lack of fan is not a good thing unless you want a slower but quieter system. I'd go with this http://store.yahoo.com/buyxg/sap9600xt128.html or http://store.yahoo.com/buyxg/ati9600xt128.html because you'll get much better preformance and overclockability.

[Smaug]

This (http://www.buyxtremegear.com/9600.html) has me puzzled. What's the difference between all these cards? Why are some 50+ dollars cheaper?

And here (http://www.buyxtremegear.com/intelbox.html) the two categories of processors have a considerable price reduction. Is there anything different in performance there?


In response to this the video cards are cheaper because some of them (more expensive) are made by ATI. The other (cheaper ones) cards are made by 'board members' I think they call them. Basically ATI lisences out the GPU and the other companies make their own ati based cards which are usually cheaper.

Those processors have 2 different categories because the more expensive ones are Hyper Threaded, having a 800 mhz FSB, the others are just normal with a 533 mhz FSB.

[Searo]

So the more expensive processors are a better idea?

What's the actual hardware difference between the Radeon cards.

[Searo]

Well, I've looking at two different vid cards-

http://www.power-color.com/r96-d3g.htm
It's a Radeon 9600 with 256 RAM. Made by power-color.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/VGA/9800-xt.asp#Model Number
It's a Radeon 9800 with 128 RAM. Made by Sapphire. Is only 150.

What do you think?

[Smaug]

I have a sapphire radeon 9800 with 256 ram and its a good card.

[Rbstr]

Don't get a Radeon 9600 regular get a Pro they are much better, and its been proven that 256 mb of memory does not improve the preformance of card except when faster speed memory is used as part of the upgrade. also don't get a 533 mhz fsb P4 be sure to get a 800 mhz fsb P4

[NoSurrender]

yea the 800 is the way to go.

[Searo]

Ok. Switched processor to a Pentium 4 2.6GHz 800MHz FSB processor for $175.

Is an XT considerably better than a pro?
I'm now looking at these-

PowerColor ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB DVI+CRT+TV 8X AGP - RETAIL BOX (R96-D3G) ($156)

ATI/Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT 128MB DDR AGP8X w/ CRT, TVO, & DVI - OEM ($158)

As you can see, they're the same price. Which is better, XT or 128 more RAM?

[WildHamster23]

Get a Dell....
wait for good deals... I will try to update good dell deal....
I just got a new dell but the deal is over.
you can never build a comp that is cheaper than a Dell, if you wait for a good deal.
my new dell
Deminsion 4600
p4 2.66 (533mhz bus)
512 Ram (2x256 PC2700, 333mhz)
9800 non-pro (out perform the 9600xt)
80 GB (hard drive)
48X CDRW
Gigabit ethernet card
integrate 5.1 sound card
optical mouse + keyboard
Plus a nice case
no floppy drive ( will get a 128mb USB memory key for $33 from dell home)
no speaker
Total $550
Can anyone beat that price

[Searo]

Here's how its going so far-

New Computer- ($960)

Monitor- ViewSonic/Optiquest E70FB 17� .25mm Flat Screen SVGA Monitor Black Color ($125) http://www.buyxtremegear.com/e70fb.html

Processor- Intel Pentium 4 Processor @ 2.6GHz 800MHz w/ Retail CPU Fan ($175)
http://www.buyxtremegear.com/intel260800.html

Graphics Card- ? ($150)

RAM- 2x Kingston DDR PC 2700 512Mb sticks ($148.00) http://www.z-buy.com/product.asp?item=RD-512KT333

Optical Drive 2- Lite-on 52x32x52x CD-RW Drive - Black ($52.00) http://us-depot.com/lion52becddr.html

Optical Drive 1- Sony 16x DVD-Rom - Black ($37.00) http://us-depot.com/son16xdvdrom.html

Floppy Drive- Samsung 1.44Mb Floppy Drive - Black ($9.50) http://www.openlinx.com/english/product/product_description.asp?product_id=1012

Case- Aspire Black X-Dreamer Turbo Case with 350w Power Supply ($50) http://www.buyxtremegear.com/xdreamerblk.html

Cooling Fan- Thermaltake TT-9025A-2B 90x90x25 High Performance DC Case FAN ($8.00)
http://www.dealsonic.com/ther90higper.html

Hard Drive- Seagate 80GB ST380011A ATA100 7200RPM OEM ($72)
http://www.ajump.com/ajump/default.asp

Mouse/Keyboard- Black Chieftec Matching Keyboard and Mouse ($24.99)
http://www.xoxide.com/blacchiefmat.html

Speakers- Mitsuko Active Multimedia Speakers ($.01)
http://www.buyxtremegear.com/redcolinmous.html

Motherboard- ABIT NF7-S REV 2.0 ($105)
http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=MB-ABIT-011

Card remains an unknown until you guys tell me whether 256ram or XT edition is better. Hehe.
Also, are OSes expensive?

[Rbstr]

for that price the XT is FAR better, the 256 mb of ram there is wastful, and the XT has temperature sensors and warantied overclocking.

XP home full at bestbuy or the like will run 200 pro 300, OEM from Ajump or the like wil run you 90 pro 200

And you got a p4 so you NEED to get Pc 3200 or higher 2700 is a waste of a processor. Its will only be 10 bucks more.

And One more REALY REALY BIG thing that mobo is not going to work, you couldn't even fit a p4 into it, its an Athlon Mobo. I Sugest either an Asus P4P800 Deluxe, i have one its sweet with lots of features. Or an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, the same thing but with a 875p chipset, if you have the money.

Oh that dell is craptastic in comparison to what he will have if he gets as stated above, with a correct mobo though, you get what you pay for, even though it may seem like a good deal, the raddy there is barly goin to outpreform a 9600 pro, because its the cheapest one they can find, so its has the worst memory possible, that still goes by the ATI specs. The ram is cl3 crap, the p4 is a 533mhz oldie, and most of dells mobos suck, except the XPS mobo, but that offers no bios options, it won't even let you use cl2 memory, its locked at cl3.

If you a realy stupid and cant put together your own comp the yes buy a dell, but the price of a GOOD computer that was home made compared to what dell would make with the same price is going to be a far better deal. Or if you need a crappy computer for surfing the web or typing things, because you can't beet dells prices on the lowest prefoming things

[Sentrosi]

Suggest you go with the 9600pro XT version. The XT's are supposed to have a higher speed core and memory bandwidth inside the card. Where did you find that 9600pro XT?

[Searo]

BuyXG.com

Ok-So, upgrade RAM. Get a different Mobo. Check.

Will do.

Thanks.

[Sentrosi]

If you can float the extra $30, get the ATI version. You'll be sure to get the frequencies that the XT's have.

[Rbstr]

no ge the powercolor 9600 XT it has faster rams than the ATI specs

EDIT on second though go with the cheaper one, and also all RAdeons have to meat the minumum specs that ATI says so if you but a 9600 XT it will be as fast as the one made directaly by ATI, if not faster because mamufacturers are alower to use faster memory/ clock speeds if they want

[Searo]

There are three cards-
1. ATi Radeon 9600XT with 128 ($180)
2. ATi/Sapphire 9600XT with 128 ($150)
3. ATi/PowerColor 9600 Pro with 256 ($150)

I'm seeing the 2nd option as the best deal.

[Smaug]

get the sapphire XT

[Rbstr]

yeah get the saphire

[WildHamster23]

The 9800 non-pro from Dell uses the samsung ram which is good for OC!!
No matter how you OC an 9600XT, you cant beat an 9800 np
The 9600 xt is 4X and the 9800np is 8X
The dell MOBO has an 800 mhz bus, you can upgrade up the cpu anytime you want.
I can ebay my old cpu for $120 and get a new 2.6HT for $175.
Then I can get a pair of 512ram for $150
$550 -$120 + 175 + 150 = $755

I'm not trying to discourage you from building your own comp.
If you know what you are doing then building a comp is simple and easy.
If you don't then it is going to be pain in the butt, but it is worth it. Cause you will learn a lot of shit about computer, and you will spend lots of time researching on how to tweak your comp to make it perfect.
Conclusion: To save money get a Dell.
To learn more about Comp build it yourself.

Also, get a 19' flat CRT you won't regret it.

[Rbstr]

NO THE 9600 is not a 4x! for god sakes all new cards are 8x even the 9200 and 5200 are 8x. You can't savfe money making a highr preformance sytem with dell. A top of the Line P4 3.2ghz 800mhz fsb with a gb FAST ram, 9800 pro/xt a good well cooled case and all the usual fixings built yourself beats the dell thats made that way by almost a k, you can shose brands yo want not just the brands dell gets the cheapest. plus you know your getting the parts you want and don't have to deal with tech suport because you know how the thing works. plus you know its been put together with quality and care. for gods sake adding a floppy drive costs $20, you can go to your local pc place and get one for 5

[Searo]

Also, what does the AGP slot size have to do with quality anyway? Besides the fact all good cards are 8x, it has nothing to with it.

I was going with Sapphire, just wanted to see if anyone could justify the extra $50.

Also, I'm sticking with the 2700. Anything else is just too expensive right now. I might upgrade later.

19' is too expensive also. I don't need a giant screen, I'm what, 6 inches away? 17' is fine.

[Rbstr]

2x 4x and 8x are the speeds of the bus.

I don not mean to offen dyou buy saying that about del they are a respectable company for the most part, even though they can have very deceptive adverting, and for many people it has its uses, especialy laptops and SFF systems but for their desktops its obvious that they care little for prefomance baseing almost all advertizing on Processor Speed in ghz and HD space, but a Pentium M that goes 900mhz can outpreform my Celeron 2.4 ghz easily.

[Daleon]

Yea, the parts picked out here could maybe beat his dell, at twice the price. And it would not smoke the Dell either. I bet after less than $200-$300 the Dell would win hands down also, so in total would be cheaper and be better.

The 9600XT is 8x AGP yes, but who cares, AGP 4x-8x means jack crap. The 9600XT though does ONLY have 4 pipelines, 2 geometry engines, and 128 bit memory interface! Where as the 9800NP has 8 pipelines, 4 geometry engines, and a 256 bit memory interface. These cards are NO WHERE near the same league ok, understand hello, anyone home??? The 9600 XT is WELL under 9700 Pro speeds still. The 9800 NP is in the big boy ranges of fps, not the midrange. The 9800 NP can EASILY upgraded to 9800 Pro and its guaranteed pretty much b/c its not actually having to unlock anything, its just clocking back up to full speed where it should have been to begin with. Wonder why Dell doesn't sell 9800 NP's anymore? B/c its to good a deal.

This difference in video power alone would give his Dell quite a lead in any 3dmark battles. And speculating is dumb, just run some 3dmark tests and see what you get.

[WildHamster23]

Oops.. 9600xt is 8X not 4X. I want to say is that 9600XT uses 4 pipelines....
Thx Daleon for pointing out the Price vs Performance issue and the graphic card issue.
I'm just trying to help ppl save some money!!!!!!
I agree that Dell has some over price High-end computers..
But he is looking for a mid-range computer, and dell has cheap mid-range comps.
Do not miss this year's Black Friday!!! many comp stores have some good deals.
This Wednesday CompUSA has the 160GB hard-drive for $80....

[WildHamster23]

This is my suggestion for you.
If you can't wait for a good cheap dell.
Go to Ebay and auction a Dell 8300 for about $680 before shipping cost
1 month ago there was a killing deal for Dell 8300.. ofcourse I got one and sold it over Ebay.
Make sure the dell 8300 is 2.6HT 512 RAM has the 9800np card, 80GB,
48X CDRW
The Dell 8300 is a better mobo.. it works with "Prescott"
I think it is kinda hard to find the Dell 8300 anymore... but try your luck..

[Ait'al]

Just remembe this:

A top of the Line P4 3.2ghz 800mhz fsb with a gb FAST ram, 9800 pro/xt a good well cooled case and all the usual fixings built yourself beats the dell thats made that way by almost a k,

with higher mem can cost up to 6600 dollars. :brow: i know!;) or will soon. I have to cut the 344 dollar raid card and only get one 250gb HDD.:tear: Ill wait till i get the workstation.8) oh well no 1.25-1.5 terabyte HDD. -1376$

Mine should only cost 4200$. Big difference nomatter how you look at it :lol:And Thats withough speakers or printers etc.

So it may not be that bad to say "im getting a dell". if its good enough. :D

*taunt**taunt*JK

[Rbstr]

you have 2 Sata ports on a good 875 or 865pe mobo already, mine, has 2 sata with raid 0, the regular HDD channels and a Via IDE ATA 133 raid controler with raid, 0, 1, JOBD, and 0+1 i can have up to 2.5 terabytes of 250gb SATA and ATA 133 hds, its kinda cool.

Wildhammster do you work for dell?

[WildHamster23]

I don't work for dell, but I'm a Fatwallet fan....(if you know what I'm talking about)

[Ait'al]

What are you talking about?

[Daleon]

Fatwallet is similar to AnandTech's hotdeals forum. Whenever a SMOKING deal is put up anywhere on the net, it gets posted at these places and everyone there goes and rapes the deal heh. Some really nice deals pop on there, you just have to be fast.