building pc need suggestions

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old.mike15

Guest
I want to build a new computer. I need suggestions on the components I should buy such as motherboard, cpu, video card, and sound card etc. I have already purchased the case. Its an antec SX1240 the specs can be found at:

http://www.antec-inc.com/product/cases/1240_spe.htm

Its a full tower with 8 3.5 inch drive bays and 6 5.25 inch drive bays. And it has 7 expansion slots and a 400 watt power supply. I dont know it looked pretty beastly to me and I saved a little on it buying it at a computer show. I need suggestions on components. Its for home use but I want it to be a great system.

I have no clue what motherboard to get or what cpu to buy. I would like to go with a dual processor but it can get a little pricey. If I went with the dual processor I would probably do it with the athlon mp processors since p4 dont support dual.(I would love to go with dual 2 ghz xeon processors or somethin like that but the price is to high). I will probably end up with just a single processor unless someone gets me to decide otherwise. If I do that what should I get p4 or amd and what motherboard to go with it? I havent done much with motherboards so I dont know really what to look for when buying. I have between $450 - $550 to spend on bothe motherboard and cpu.

I was thinkin about the ati radeon 8500 for video card cause I want a decent card that has dual monitor support and the the Sounblaster Live Audigy Platinum sound card if anyone has any ideas on these. And what ever else u think I should buy to make my system great. I will appreciate a bunch of suggestions. Thanks
 
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Embattle

Guest
Well what I want to know first is why dual processor?
 
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old.mike15

Guest
The dual processor isnt really a needed thing...and the benchmarks ive seen done by many sites only show a small improvement in speed. I dont think all that many apps and games take advantage of having the second processor. But I do a lot of multi tasking so I thought I would bring it on this message board to get some suggestions. I am probably going to end up with the single processor. like a 1.8 - 2 ghz p4 or an amd athlon xp 1900. But I do need some ideas. And I need to know a good motherboard to get with either.
 
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Embattle

Guest
Don't bother with SMP since generally most games don't support it and still very few apps do.

Athlon XP 1900+ (2000+ Should Appear Soon)
Abit KR7A-RAID Mobo
512MB DDR
2x Western Digital 80GB+ HD
ATi 8500 (Since you need dual mon support)
 
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old.mike15

Guest
alright thanks for the suggestions ill look at those components. If anyone else has any suggestions please post. And if there is any cool gadgets to put in it or on it plz post. Like im gonna modify the case...cut a pattern in it and add a window. And have some of those neon lights in it...the ones that plug into the power supply....Stuff like that
 
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(Shovel)

Guest
Sound wise the Audigy is the bollocks aparently.
As you seem to have money to burn, the top model has the Live!Drive thing for stereo connections, and also has a couple of Firewire ports on the back iirc.

I have an SBLive! and it is dead good, so the new one should really rock.
 
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old.mike15

Guest
yea the live drive is a good feature and what I have heard the audigy platinum card is great. Well at least it should be a lot better than what I got now. Currently I got an sblive value and its ok but no where near top quality sound. I have cambridge fps 2000 digital speakers which I got close to 2 years ago for $200 when I bought the system I am using now. The speakers are still great but the sound card doesnt take full advantage of them.
 
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old.mike15

Guest
I was comparing the amd athlon xps and the p4s and saw that the athlon only has a bus speed of 266 Mhz compared to the p4's 400 Mhz. Not really sure how much this effects anything but was wondering if having the larger bus speed is better. And whats the difference on the pentium 4s between socket 423 and the 478. The 478 costs more...y?
 
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Embattle

Guest
Its doesn't matter about the 400Mhz in this case, although if you run a benchmark utility called Sandra you might what the 400Mhz ;)
 
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old.mike15

Guest
Ok then I might go with the amd I have always bought intel cpu's but it might be time for a change. Anyone else have any opinions on which I should buy.
 
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PR.

Guest
Arr do not go for a dual CPU system, I built one end of july 2001 a dual P3 1ghz and it was extremely unstable and 98% of the time only one CPU was being used with any force, I've now just finished a P4 1.9ghz to replace it

Don't touch VIA chipsets they may be cheap and for some reason they always show good reviews but every one I've had has been a complete bag 'o' crap. My dual P3 had to have a USB PCI Card bought for it because there was a bug in the Win2k & VIA chipsets SMP drivers meaning 5mins after bootup all USB devices lost power til reboot :/

As for soundcard I bought a Hercules GameTheaterXP, so far it is pretty good, You get the full 5.1 sound from DVD's unlike my SBlive 5.1 which never managed it. Though I have noticed gaming sound is not so great.

Graphics card, personally I would stick with a GF3 or similar nVidia card mostly cos there better and you know that problems with them are gonna be ironed out in both games and the drivers. Although at the moment this BSOD nv4_disp.dll is still haunting me :(

Oh and don't go for a AMD, stick with the best (Intel) :D

Hope this helps
 
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old.mike15

Guest
I think im gonna go with the single intel pentium 4 1.9 Ghz. Still not sure about motherboard or a lot of other things. I would go with the gf3 but, I am not positive in saying this, but I do not believe it supports dual monitor. And I would like to use dual monitors because I do a lot of web design and multitasking and other such things and it would be nice to have the 2. As for the sound card I might end up with something else but right now I want the $200 Audigy platinum. Everything ive heard about it is good. And with the live drive as the bonus feature its a decent set-up. Anyone know any good companies to order computer parts from. You know low price and quality stuff.
 
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Embattle

Guest
I had the GTXP but found it created too much noise.
 
S

Scouse

Guest
Mike - I *really* urge you not to go with the beast (intel) :)

The Athlon XP+ is the processor to pop for. The P4 just isn't a mature processor yet - and, more importantly, the AthlonXP just runs complete rings around it.

I own both intel and AMD systems (aswell as support them professionally) and there are no stability issues that I've come across with the AMD systems over the Intel ones.

The AMD cpu line is significantly cheaper than the Intel line to boot - and DDR ram is dirt cheap :)

At present the 1800+ is probably at the right price/performance point but that'll change soon so if you are prepared to wait a short while then you can prolly pick a better one up cheap(er).


The only thing I can say if you've never owned an AMD system b4 - if you DO plump for one and have a VIA chipset motherboard then make sure you grab the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers from www.viatech.com (i think) and install them as soon as you've put the OS on.


Oh - and btw - put a proper OS like Win2k on ;)

Good luck!
 
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old.mike15

Guest
Sounds good im still trying to decide amd or intel. It is good to hear that from someone that has one of each. I hate when people say that amd sucks or intel sucks when they have never even owned one.

The things holding me back from buying an amd is that the 1900 only runs at 1.6 Ghz(somethin like that) and only has 266 Mhz bus speed compared to say a p4 1.9 Ghz with 400 Mhz bus. Even though I do like amds lower prices still trying to decide. And as for the OS id use win 2k because while I ran that on my machine I didnt have any probs other than the fact that u cant play most games. So I upgraded to xp pro and like that other than figurin out some of the changes and finding my way around them. So I will probably just use xp pro.

:touch:
 
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PR.

Guest
Stick with Intel I tells ya! :)

And do not ever get a VIA chipset mobo, I Cannot stress this enough

:D
 
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Will

Guest
Even though the clock speed of the AMD processors is slower than that of the Intel chips, the AMD perform more instructions by cycle (IPC if I have to type it again;)), so the performance at the same clock speed is far higher in AMD favour. But don't take our word for it, check some benchmarks.

I read Tom's Hardware myself.
 
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Will

Guest
I found this, a very interesting little article on the P4, and Intel design in general.
 
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Scouse

Guest
"The things holding me back from buying an amd is that the 1900 only runs at 1.6 Ghz(somethin like that) and only has 266 Mhz bus speed compared to say a p4 1.9 Ghz with 400 Mhz bus."


As people above have said - AMD's still whup the equivalent intel processors ass :)

The Athlon XP1800+ kicks the ass of the Intel P4 2Gig :)

Toms Hardware is good, and www.firingsquad.com also do some nice articles with lots of gaming-related benchmarks.

Don't worry about bus speed etc...

Oh - and ignore PR - my main PC is a 1 Gig athlon with an Asus A7V motherboard (VIA chipset), running Win2k - and I have NO problems whatsoever with it ;)
 
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old.mike15

Guest
I looked at the article and benchmarks on those pages plus several others that I found and yes the amd in most situations do score much higher than a p4. And it seems that most people that actually own an amd seem to stick by it. So there is a good possibility that I will try something new and go for an amd athlon.
 
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old.mike15

Guest
Is the amd athlon xp 2000 due to appear soon.....is it gonna be expensive. Like the p4 2 Ghz is twice the price of the 1.9 Ghz I hope amd will not do the same. One of the reasons I might go with amd is there low price.
 
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Embattle

Guest
End of this month, most probably priced sub £300.
 
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old.mike15

Guest
a bit high but whats that in US$ anyone know im not good with currencies. Im geussin like $450 or somethin like that but I could be really far off
 
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Embattle

Guest
If you convert it yes but generally you get it for less, most probably around $350.
 
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old.mike15

Guest
Ok sounds pretty good I might wait til it comes out or just go with the 1900
 
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old.mike15

Guest
That site is pretty good. And I think im gonna go with the just releashed amd athlon xp 2000 as my cpu.
 
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