Planning on building a system.

[Rubric]

What do you think of these specs?

For £855.43 im getting,

Nic flashy case with neon bubbles on the front, windowed top & side with nice flashy light fan.
Asus a7v8X-X Motherboard
Athlon XP2600
Combined DVD CDRW 52X24X52X16
120GB HDD
GeForce Ti4200 128MB GFX
19" Monitor
Windows XP
1GB PC2700 Ram
SubWoofer System
Chrome Keyboard.

Does that sound like a good deal?

 

[heilel]

Originally posted by Rubric
What do you think of these specs?

For £855.43 im getting,

Nic flashy case with neon bubbles on the front, windowed top & side with nice flashy light fan.
Asus a7v8X-X Motherboard
Athlon XP2600
Combined DVD CDRW 52X24X52X16
120GB HDD
GeForce Ti4200 128MB GFX
19" Monitor
Windows XP
1GB PC2700 Ram
SubWoofer System
Chrome Keyboard.

Does that sound like a good deal?

Is that processor a Barton or a normal XP?
If not , get a Barton and if you do , get RAM that runs at DDR400 speed so you can overclock your processor to a FSB400.
Of course you better make sure your Mobo supports that.

Note that the geoforce 4 ti4200 will not support the extra graphical features that the DAOC expansions will have and games like HL2 and Doom3 etc will also require a DX9 compatible card if you want to see all the effects in their glory.
I'd recommend getting a DX9 card if you can afford it.

Other than that, nice system...

 

[Rubric]

Would a 2500 barton be better than 2600 standard xp?

Was a bit worried about that gfx card as i thought it might not be DX9. Whats the cheapest DX9 decent card then?

 

[heilel]

Originally posted by Rubric
Would a 2500 barton be better than 2600 standard xp?

Yes, especially the Barton 2500, it's really good for overclocking, better than some of the faster bartons actually.
and the architecture of the Barton is better (than teh normal XPs)as well and it's pretty cheap too.

Was a bit worried about that gfx card as i thought it might not be DX9. Whats the cheapest DX9 decent card then?

I'm not sure, but avoid the Geoforce MX cards, they're crap.
You could consider a Radeon 9800 I guess as they're not so expensive.
Or if you can afford it a Geoforce fx 5900 ultra, but they're very expensive atm.

I have a Geoforce ti4200 ATM, but I bought it a while back, I probably wouldn't buy one now, actually, I'm waiting until around December before I buy a DX9 card and then I'll probably get a Radeon 9800ultra or a GEoforce fx 5900 pro, they should be cheaper then, so you COULD just get the ti4200 I suppose now as they're so cheap and get a better card later in the year.

 

[heilel]

One other thing, if you xonsider getting the Barton and faster RAM, you'll need to get a better Mobo as well, as your current one only supports a fsb of 333..

I would personally recommend getting this.

EPoX EP-8RDA3+
CPU: AMD Duron / Athlon XP 700-3000MHz+
Socket: Socket A
Chip: nForce2 U400
FSB: 200-400MHz
Slots: 6 PCI / 1 AGPx8 / LAN / Audio / USB2.0 / Firewire
IDE: 2 x Serial ATA
SCSI: None
Ram: 3 x 184-pins DDR PC3200 RAM
Cache: On Chip
Warranty: 2 Years
Producent varekode: EP-8RDA3+

It supports and FSB of 400 and will accept an overclocked Processor at least up to a Barton 3000.
Also the Nforce chipset is a LOT better than the other chipsets.
And it will support PC3200 ram, which you'll need if you wanna goto a FSB of 400 as well.

 

[heilel]

But if you DO overclock, you'll need to get a good cooler.
Like for example a Volcano 9 or Coolermaster 7+ (not the coolermaster 7, as it's faulty).

 

[Rubric]

How much will that mobo cost?

Think im gong for this GFX card now.
Supports T&L and is still fairly cheap

Gainward Geforce4 Powerpack Ultra/750-8x AGP XP Golden Sample 128MBDDR Ti-4800 Se Chipset With Vivo And Dual Crt Or Crt+dvi Output

 

[Rubric]

Think ill give the overclocking with the barton a miss. Its gonna raise my cost up too much with the different mobo & more expensive memory.

Thanks for your help though.

 

[heilel]

Originally posted by Rubric
How much will that mobo cost?

Not sure, I'm in Denmark, so the prices will vary from where you are, but probably around £100, at a wild guess.

Think im gong for this GFX card now.
Supports T&L and is still fairly cheap
Gainward Geforce4 Powerpack Ultra/750-8x AGP XP Golden Sample 128MBDDR Ti-4800 Se Chipset With Vivo And Dual Crt Or Crt+dvi Output

Probably a good idea, as they're so cheap, you can always upgrade your card in 6 months when there's actually games that need it, and they'll be a LOT cheaper then, they're already coming down in price now.

 

[heilel]

Originally posted by Rubric
Think ill give the overclocking with the barton a miss. Its gonna raise my cost up too much with the different mobo & more expensive memory.

Thanks for your help though.

OK, but even if you Don't overclock, it's better to get the barton and keep the rest of your specs, as you'll do better with a Barton than a normal XP processor.

 

[Rubric]

Originally posted by heilel
Not sure, I'm in Denmark, so the prices will vary from where you are, but probably around £100, at a wild guess.


Probably a good idea, as they're so cheap, you can always upgrade your card in 6 months when there's actually games that need it, and they'll be a LOT cheaper then, they're already coming down in price now.

Hmm thats about an extra 60 quid on the mobo ive chosen. Definately gonna stay as i am i think. Would it be better though to go for the Barton 2500 anyway even if im not going to overclock it?

 

[heilel]

Originally posted by Rubric
Hmm thats about an extra 60 quid on the mobo ive chosen. Definately gonna stay as i am i think. Would it be better though to go for the Barton 2500 anyway even if im not going to overclock it?

Fair point about the cost, it's an important consideration.
and YES, you'll be better off with the Barton than a normal XP processor. It's may be clocked slower, but the performance will still be better than the XP 2600 overall and you'll have a better option to overclock later if you so choose.

 

[Rubric]

Excellent its 5 quid cheaper too.

 

[heilel]

However, if you want to read the reviews by professionals, goto
www.overclockers.com or at Tom's hardware or other decent sites and read the barton 2500 review.
They like it.

 

[Rubric]

Thanks again by the way you been a big help.

Total build price including delivery now stands at £830.93
for

AMD 2500 XP Barton
Asus A7V8X-X Mobo
DVD & CDRW combi drive 52x24x52x16x
Maxtor Diamond Back Plus 9 120GB HDD
19" Monitor
Legit Windows XP Home
128MB GeForce 4 Ti-4800
Subwoofer System and a shiny Keyboard.

Shall i burn my Tiny laptop?

 

[heilel]

Originally posted by Rubric
Thanks again by the way you been a big help.

NPs

Shall i burn my Tiny laptop?

No, burn the Tiny company managing director.
Oh you don't need to, they're already out of business, and no wonder.

 

[heilel]

One last point, make sure your PSU (power supply unit) is at LEAST 300 watt, or you may end up being short of power.

 

[Rubric]

Originally posted by heilel
One last point, make sure your PSU (power supply unit) is at LEAST 300 watt, or you may end up being short of power.

450watt twin fan jobby

 

[heilel]

Originally posted by Rubric
450watt twin fan jobby

Nice