Building/Upgrading a Computer. Need Advice.

[Mydis]

I working with a little more than 350$

I already have output/input devices, harddrive, cd drive, floppy drive, and case because I am using all my reusable parts from my emachines T1090(Dont hate me. Im sorry.)

So:

Emachines T1090 case- from emachines

20GB Hard Drive Ultra DMA/66- from emachines

Kingston Ethernet Card- DSL provided, currently in emachines

CD-Drive 48x Max- from emachines

Floppy... its a floppy- from emachines

Plantobuy P4 motherboard 1.7 ghz comes with CPU and fan- $144 on pricewatch.

Plantobuy SB Live soundcard- $13 on pricewatch.

Wasgoingtobuy PC2700 64x64 512MB DDR RAM- $51 on pricewatch but there is 128MB SDRAM in the emachines that I think I could use

Wasgoingtobuy GF4 TI 4200 128mb- $123 on pricewatch but I have no idea when it comes to video cards. I keep hearing conflicting things about radeons. I hear they are cheaper and just as good as geforce from some places, then I hear they have problems with game compatibility from other people.

Any help would be great.

[Lanizer]

Never..ever...get a intel motherboard. you basicly can't overclock
it. If you dont like your current case, I highly recommend a maxtop case..um goto newegg.com and goto case-maxtop and the 1st case on the top with 389278 review. Its a really good case for how cheap it is.

This is a nice set of ram for cheap Better get it if you want before its outty
http://shop2.outpost.com/product/3518494/

For the GF4 Ti4200 , There was a few sales for the PNY version for lower then 100$ at bestbuy you might want to look into but it might be soldout , try your luck.

If you need anything else , I got some free time to do some searching for you lol...

[OneManArmy]

Don't stick with the SDRAM it will slow you down (infact I don't think you can use it with p4's?)

since you're working with a limited budget you might want to look at AMD's they are cheaper and you will get more for your money...

plus with the extra cash you might save if you buy AMD you can either get better ram or up that GFX card to a 9500 pro or something similar

[Mydis]

Well I honestly know very little about this(which is why I am asking for help).

I picked the P4 because I understand the stats they give. P4: thats obviously better than P3. 1.8 Ghz: thats obviously better than 1.3. With the AMD I dont know what they are talking about. MP, XP, Sock, none of the above, what does that mean? I assume when they say 2700 they mean 2.7 GHz, but some of them have an extra 333 after that. wth is that?

That case sounds good. Ill see where Im at with money before I buy it though. Id like a new one because looking at this emachines makes me sick.

Ill check out that RAM when I go home. Should I buy 2 sticks of it or what?

As for video card, you think the Geforce sounds good? How much do the different stats on the card matter compared to their price?

[Sentrosi]

$350 upgrade using AMD is definitely do-able. And knowing that, you should go with the nForce chipset. The nForce chipset unlocks many functions that other chipsets either can't or won't.

Here's my recommendations:

If you go with a micro-ATX board (Assuming your case can't handle a full ATX board):

ASUS A7N266-VM BUNDLE W/ COOLING FAN & (AMD ATHLON XP 2000+ (1.67Ghz Speed); NO MEMORY; NO TESTING)Motherboard specs = $152.43
You can easily disable the on-board video in the BIOS. GeForce2 graphics would suck with Planetside.

512Mb PC2100 DDR = $46.00 Details

ATI Radeon 9500 128MB DDR = $151 Details
While it is an 8x AGP card, you can use it in a 4x slot as well. Here's a direct quote from the manufacturer:

Evil Commando X Radeon 9500 are tested and certified to run on AGP 8x Motherboard and are backward compatible with existing AGP 4x Motherboard. Earlier revision of AGP 8x Motherboard manufactured should be updated with latest BIOS from their manufacturers service support web-site to compliant with the final release of the Intel AGP 3.0 specification.

This gives you a profit of 46 cents. Please note that I did not include any taxes or shipping charges, as I do not know where you live. Click the details buttons and check what shipping costs would be.

I hope you find what you're looking for.

[OneManArmy]

he's on hte right track but I can find you some better deals. Gotta go with the AMD XP

to make it easy whatever the AMD number says is what its = to in Pentium standards for example AMD 2100+ = p4 2.1Ghz


when you see 333 next to it that means it is one of the new Chips. (2500+ and up) you need a mobo that supports 333mHz fsb for that..


socket A is just how the chip connects to the Mobo.

Let me find you some good deals and I'll post em up here for you.

[Mydis]

That would be awsome.

*Oh, and I live in St.Louis Mo, which is basically right in the middle of the country.

[Mydis]

Originally posted by OneManArmy
Let me find you some good deals and I'll post em up here for you.

I dont want to sound pushy or anything, but are you still planning on doing this? If not, it's not a big deal, just let me know.

[OneManArmy]

yea I've been looking, But because of your case you are limited. I didn't really do much better than the other guy.

**NOTE*** I don't even know if you can use that case. but assuming you can (i'll find out)

AMD Athlon XP 2100+/266 FSB Thoroughbred Processor CPU 2100+/ 1.73GHz -OEM $88

CPU HEATSINK/FAN $4

ECS Motherboard for AMD Processors VIA KM266, Model# K7VMM+ Retail $57

512Mb PC2100 DDR $46

RADEON 9500 PRO $173

Total $368

*** I know its a little bit more than what you said you had but that 9500 PRO is well worth it. ***

[Sentrosi]

I would be extremely suspect of a cpu/fan combo for $4, especially one that is supposed to cool a 1.7Ghz chip That's why I went with an XP retail chip as opposed to an OEM chip. It's about $15 more but you get an AMD approved fan/heatsink combo.

Sure the 9500 pro is better than the 9500, but wouldn't it be better than the GeForce2 on-board video? I would think that the regular 9500 would perform better than the GeForce2. Remember, this is about getting to play the game with a reasonable machine, not the uber machines some people have and swear by. Nothing is stopping him from upgrading later either.

I was told when I was building my machine that if you want to go with an AMD XP, get the nForce chipset. I stuck by that and now have a wonderful machine. That ECS board is ok, but the combo I posted is only $30 more and you get the benefit of the nForce chipset. If you decide to go with the ECS board, that could save you the $30 for the 9500 pro. It's your call though. I've build a couple of machines with ECS boards and they're great. No hassle at all with them.

[OneManArmy]

oh and as a quick note that heatsink/fan combo is straight form www.Newegg.com rated up to 2Ghz... (as a matter of fact I think it is an AMD approved one)

and there's no need for an onboard video when you are just going to disable it. with that combo he was only getting a 2000+ The one I suggested was 2100+ and he saves $30 for the (9500 PRO which can net him a lot more FPS than the regular 9500 which equals nice steady framerate when coming across large battles while playing Planetside.

[Mydis]

I really wanted to get a new case but I thought it would be a better idea to keep the one I have and use the money I saved on something else. If it is going to turn out to be a problem though I would gladly get a new one.

$350 is more of a guideline than a limit. I could probably squeeze out up to $425-$450. $350 is how much I have in actual cash. Then I have bestbuy cards I could sell my parents(or actually use to buy a part), a PS2 game I got for christmas and never opened to return, my mom owes me an old christmas present, and maybe some money my parants will just "loan" me.

It would also be helpful if you could give links to where you found the different items for those prices, if it's not too much of a hastle. Im sure I could find them for myself though.

[Sentrosi]

The links are in my post Mydis.

[OneManArmy]

the first three are from www.newegg.com


and the last two are from www.pricewatch.com


and I jsut talked to a tech guy from Emachines and he said that any micro ATX MOBO should fit just fine in your case.

[Zatrais]

The 9500 pro has 8 pipelines, the 9500 has 4....

Don't get the 9500, not worth the money.

nice spec sheets for radeons

http://www.blisware.com/all_products..._connect3d.htm