NYR_32 6 Posted March 24, 2003 Share Posted March 24, 2003 This is my first time building a computer, and I would like some input, here is the parts list I have compiled: Case- ANTEC PERFORMANCE II BLACK Model SX635BII (BLACK) ATX MINI TOWER CASE w/ Antec 350W POWER SUPPLY $80.99 Mobo- Asus P4PE/L $113.99 CPU- Intel Pentium 4 2.4BGHz 512K 533MHz $164.00 Hard Drive- WESTERN DIGITAL 80GB 7200RPM EIDE HARD DRIVE 8 MB cache $97.00 Ram- CRUCIAL MICRON 512MB 64x64 PC 2700 DDR RAM $75.00 DVD Drive- LITE-ON XJ-HD166S 16X DVD ROM Drive $35.00 CDRW- Lite On 52x24x52 CDRW Model LTR-52246S $50.00 Graphics Card- ASUS V9280TD Geforce4 Ti4200 128MB $149.99 Sound Card- VOYETRA TURTLE BEACH SANTA CRUZ $62.00 Floppy Drive- SAMSUNG 1.44MB FLOPPY $7.00 OS- Window XP Home Edition $93.00 All totaled: $927.97 (price's from Newegg.com, before shipping) My questions are am I forgetting any thing, does this stuff look compatible and is there some where I can improve without much increase in cost. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nib 0 Posted March 24, 2003 Share Posted March 24, 2003 ...and is there some where I can improve without much increase in cost. Have you looked into AMD processors? You can get more chip for your money with AMD. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stinger 0 Posted March 24, 2003 Share Posted March 24, 2003 (edited) Only thing I could suggest is on the Mobo. Look up MSI's Max with the SiS 648 Chipset. Better AGP, Ram speeds allowed, and its red too :)It has all the same stuff as that board pretty much except the stuff I listed and the fact it is a Great overclocker and ios only $80. Great choice on Sound Card btw. Edit the CPU is fine leave it, $30 aint much and you will get a P4 that can be OC'd like a you know...Plus more cache. Edited March 24, 2003 by Stinger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NYR_32 6 Posted March 24, 2003 Author Share Posted March 24, 2003 Have you looked into AMD processors? You can get more chip for your money with AMD. I'd prefer to stick with an Intel chip. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WhiteKnight77 1 Posted March 24, 2003 Share Posted March 24, 2003 I would put a plain CD-ROM in there as some games have copyright protection that hampers the use of a burner or combo drive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NYR_32 6 Posted March 24, 2003 Author Share Posted March 24, 2003 (edited) I would put a plain CD-ROM in there as some games have copyright protection that hampers the use of a burner or combo drive. I plan on putting in both a seperate dvd drive and cd burner. Edited March 24, 2003 by NYR_32 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Urban_Tiger 0 Posted March 24, 2003 Share Posted March 24, 2003 (edited) I presently have a combo DVD/CD-RW and can't say it's ever been "Hampering" in the slightest Whiteknight hehehe!! I intend to get a seperate DVD-RW and CD-RW in the not too distant future anyway though (mainly because 1 has restricted speeds effecting the other etc and it is 2 years old as well), would like to know what you mean by "Hampering" tho Whitenight???? Do you mean for copying protected CD's or something else ?? I presently have 1 of the items you list NYR 32, that being the Asus AGP card (the exact same item infact if the one you are looking at is the x8 AGP which makes a big difference too ), it's extremely good so can recommend that for you ! I posted about it in response to a different question on VGA cards. To summarise the performance if it's of interest to you, it benchmarked with 3DMark2001 Pro at 13,657 with a couple of things tweaked down, but if I benchmark it on average settings it averages a score of around 12,800 which essentially is very good and high end and the Frames Per Second peaked at an awesome 233 FPS . Benchmarks obviously aren't the "be all and end all" to how good any one product is but it always gives a good idea of what you are getting and I've certainy seen awesome results with many games since having that AGP card and would certainly recommend one to anyone looking at one and I am extremely impressed and very happy with it (previously I had an Elsa Gladiac Ti516 64mb and the Asus is basically "4" times better as another guide) ! My signature tells you that I prefer AMD's personally but we all have our own preferences and the kit you have listed will certainly give you a good system alround when all told m8 ! Must admitt if I was building that sytem up for the sake of maybe the extra $15, I'd go for the next board up the range, the P4PE-LSA1394 i845PE . I know you may not want the onboard sound if you are wanting to buy a standalone card too but you can disable that in the BIOS and the same with the onboard LAN if you don't require that too. The P4PE-LSA1394 i845PE has all the capabilities of the standard P4PE-L i845PE BUT it also has the SATA capability which although you may not use now, it leaves you some room for forward compatability with future upgrades or additions you may make, the standard P4PE-L i845PE doesn't have SATA!! The P4PE-LSA1394 i845PE also has onboard Firewire, which again you may not have a use for now but the same applies to that as to SATA!! The hard drive too, have you looked at Maxtor's, you can get an 80GB with the same specs except it will run at a faster ATA133 for slightly cheaper than the WD, or you could get a 120GB item for approx $10 more too with the same specs that will also run at ATA133 too!! Those would certainly be a couple of things I'd consider TBH m8 ! Just freindly advise tho of course lol, I'm not saying what you have shortlisted is crap or anything, only you could get something a little better for very similar or even less cash ! Bet ya can't wait to get it all together if the sytem you are running now is old or slow either can ya hehehe???? Edited March 24, 2003 by Urban_Tiger Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WhiteKnight77 1 Posted March 24, 2003 Share Posted March 24, 2003 Actually people have had and still do have problems with GR and Splinter Cell not installing or being able to play the games with a burner. There are several here at this site that have had that very problem cuz the copyright protection messes with a burner. Reread what I said. Now not everyone will have such problems, but there are those who have had and when using a regular CD-ROM were able to install and play. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Urban_Tiger 0 Posted March 24, 2003 Share Posted March 24, 2003 AArrrrr rite, I follow ya now Whiteknight! Yeh, it's probably just one of those compatability things isn't it, part of it can often depend on the manufacturer. If you cut costs on things like CD burners etc and buy a cheap one then often problems can arise unfortunately ! The DVD/CD-RW Combo I have is a Toshiba and it's performed flawlessly thankfully as said for 2 years ! On the flipside, I also have a standard Creative CD-ROM on another system which you'd expect to be very good quality and not cause any particular issues being Creative, but the damn thing is incredibly fussy about any CD's inserted, some times it simply won't read a CD full stop, other times it will infinitely search a CD that I know has got information or data on it and never find anything and it just spins up and doesn't stop, the only way it can be stopped if it does that is to reboot lol!! I rate Creative very highly and have had alsorts of products off them in the past but I don' think I'd ever buy another CD-ROM off them lol!! Sound cards and systems I swear by em, got one of their Webcams too and it's great lol!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WhiteKnight77 1 Posted March 24, 2003 Share Posted March 24, 2003 Weird, the 52x CD-ROM I got from Creative had no problems whatsoever. I guess I got a good one. *shrugs shoulders* Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NYR_32 6 Posted March 25, 2003 Author Share Posted March 25, 2003 Ok I've decided to switch the mobo to the ASUS P4PE/R/L/SATA, after looking up the sis 648 chipset, I prefer to stick with the intel chipset that the Asus board has. I'm still trying to figure out whether to go with a Maxtor or WD hard drive, any opinions on these would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WhiteKnight77 1 Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 I have the WD HD just like the one you are considering and love it, (though you are getting it for less than I paid ) and My 30GB wd has been pretty trouble free and it is almost 2 years old now Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NYR_32 6 Posted March 25, 2003 Author Share Posted March 25, 2003 Another question, do I really need the floppy drive? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WhiteKnight77 1 Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 While Win2k and XP can be boot a PC from the CD. if you decide to use win98SE or winME you need a floppy drive. On that note, I use a floppy to save saved game files for backup purposes and for reinstallation if for some reason the game needs to be uninstalled and reinstalled. Since these kind of files are small for the most part, you can save several different games saved game files to them in their own folders. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dark Ranger 0 Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 NYR_32, Hope I'm not too late...been out of town for a while. First off, your system looks fine. Good job with spec'ing components. If you haven't ordered parts yet, just check out GoogleGear.com. When I built my computers, I order PC components from both GG.com and NewEgg.com. Some parts were cheaper at GoogleGear, others at NewEgg. It's up to you. Second of all, WD and Maxtor are both excellent companies. You will be happy either way. I personally use Maxtor, just because you get a bit more performance for your money. ( My HDD is a ATA/133 80GB with 8MB Cache purchased a few dollars cheaper than a WD.) It's up to you. I would go ahead and buy a floppy, they are only about $14 or so. I use 'em for creating Emergency Repair Diskettes with Registry Backups and such. Other than that, your system looks great. Not much to add here for suggestiions. Good job NYR. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NYR_32 6 Posted March 25, 2003 Author Share Posted March 25, 2003 Your not to late Dark Ranger, i was planning on ordering some of the parts this week, I'll probalby order the case alt least today. I think I'll go with the WD hard drive, same specs as the Maxtor, but a little less expensive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Urban_Tiger 0 Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 As far as their specs go the Wes D's run at a max of ATA 100, whereas a Maxtor of the same size or higher will run at the faster ATA 133 and that is quite a difference, which is why I prefer Maxtor personally (as said we all have our individual preferences tho and I'm not saying in the slightest that just because I use Maxtors that WD's are crap or anything lol). Other than that the specifications of both drives are identical (eg 7200rpm and 8mb cache etc), it's solely that extra ATA speed!! That is the only reason I use Maxtors these days tho as I have also had WD's in the past too back when all HD's ran at ATA 66 years ago lol, the performance of them was more or less identical then but the difference between ATA 100 and ATA 133 now is significant ! Everywhere I have looked the Maxtors have been cheaper than the WD's too lol! Obviously it's going to vary tho!! The Maxtor 80gb averages around $10 cheaper than the WD equivalent and as above runs faster, and a 120gb Maxtor of the same specs also at ATA 133 is only $15 more than the WD you listed too )! Anywho....Hope thats of some more help!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NurFACE 0 Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 I hope that I'm not to late with my suggestions. I think you should go with the 2.53 MHZ processor due to clock setting is for 133MHZ. The performance of your computer overall at 133MHZ with everything clocked. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NYR_32 6 Posted March 25, 2003 Author Share Posted March 25, 2003 I'd prefer to stay under $1000, and I already decided to spring for mobo that's a step up from the one I originally choose, bumping up the processor, will push the price to about $990, and some of the components have shipping charges, and that will push the cost beyond a $1000. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Urban_Tiger 0 Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 Was the info on the Maxtors useful too NYR lol??? Made a decision on that one yet hehehe?? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stinger 0 Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 I still dont know why you want an extremly expensive mobo rather than an outperforming $80 one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NurFACE 0 Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 I understand your budget but I just wanted to point out 133MHZ. The computer you build needs to fit your budget so disregard 2.53MHZ. I wasn't sure if you had given bus speed and clock speed consideration. Good luck with your new system. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NYR_32 6 Posted March 26, 2003 Author Share Posted March 26, 2003 (edited) OK its to late for me to give up on this, I've ordered the case and mobo, hope I'm not getting in over my head. Edited March 26, 2003 by NYR_32 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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