Kgentatszu]

i'm gonna need a new pc in a few weeks time....and i'm really out of date..
i'm thinking of not spending for more than 1.4k USD(excluding speakers and monitor)....so i'm gonna need some serious help here...
1. intel or amd? (was thinking of amd cause i've one 3.0 and one 2.8 here already..)
2. nvidia or ati? (i killed my 9800pro a year ago)
3. mobo?

the rest i think i can handle cause i'm gonna get some cheap 512 (need 1 gb nowadays?) ram and a 80gig HDD and power supply...

ps: minor to no OC cause i wont have the time to...unless someone wants to suggest me of using the AI feature that asus has to offer....^^ or am i better off with a dell??

krips

What are you going to be using this PC for?

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[color=navy]3200+ Winchester | XP-90 | LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D | Enermax 535W | BBA X800XL | 1GB OCZ PC4000 | 2x80GB RAID1 | Audigy 2 ZS | Logitech Z5300E[/color]

Geminiwave

gaming i'd expect. Especially since hes got 1.4k USD to play with.

if it is indeed gaming, grab yourself an AMD processor. If you can manage it, get an FX-55 since you have all that cash lying around. I'd suggest the MSI NEO2 for your motherboard...or better yet! Wait it out a bit and get the nforce4. It should be really awesome.

As for graphics cards, my personal suggesting is the X800XT. I dont want this turning into an ATI vs nVidia flamewar so I'm not going to go into all the reasons why I think the X800 is better. Just leave it at: I think you should get an X800XT.

get 1gb of RAM...no question. In fact if you can afford it, get 2x1gb of ram and run them dual channel. the FX series sees a HUGE boost in dual channel mode and having 2gb of RAM never hurt anyone.

Besides that, you'll want a high powered 500w PSU definatly. Either get a nice Antec, or an Ultra X Connect, or my personal favorite: PC power and cooling! They look very plain but they are really the best in the industry. Too bad they are expensive.

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crlorentzen

Go with the latest and greatest AMD 64 bit proc.

Video card I would suggest the Geforce 6800 ...but both cards are excellent, I have just liked nVidias drivers a little better and think that the 6800 is more future proof at this point...but along the same lines as Geminiwave I do not want an ATi/nVidia fight going on here. Do some research into the quality and performance of both. (DH, http://www.hardocp.com, http://www.tomshardware.com, our very own Neon_Cowboy (taken with a grain or an entire spoon of salt )

I have always liked ASUS for motherboards. I would also suggest looking towards the nForce 4 mobo, but VIA has created a much better name for themselves lately.

I would say two 512MB sticks or 2 1GB sticks in a dual channel mobo.

look at possible DDR2 support.

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Geminiwave

I personally like ASUS motherboards the best also. its just that the Neo2 the best speed ratings in basically every benchmark on THG when he reviewed a bunch of AMD 64 mobos.

ASUS is a sure thing though. They dont look flashy but they are feature packed, have REALLY GREAT tech support, take RMAs without many(or any) questions, and actually rarely require RMAs.

ps: oh yeah and as far as graphics, do your own research and find something that you think you'll be happiest with. Buy the card that YOU want cause it'll make you the happiest.

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technonerd

Here's my list for around 1500bux

Case w/420 Watts
AMD Athlon 64 3200
MSI K8T Neo-FS2R (K8T800) Or ASUS A8V Deluxe , I perfer MSI, Asus are good also.
512-MB *2 Corsair PC3200 DDR
Geforce 6800 GT or X800Pro (depend on which games, if HL2and CS:S rather than Doom 3 and FryCry then Radeon is recommended)
ViewSonic E90FB
Logitech Z640
Windows XP Home

If you want to spend more, get your hand on Athlon 64 FX-55, Good luck.
The best thing you should do is research.

Maybe wait a little longer on the video card, The Ati is planning to release the new X850 and rumor said that it is faster than 6800.But who knows, again it is better to do some research :P


Beside I just brought P4EE 3.4, and My Gosh I love it.

Kgentatszu]

urm.. sorry for not stating clearly, think i wont be going for serious gaming, maybe movies and music?..
just a while ago, i was looking at dell dimension 8400...

3.2GHz, 1 MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB (its 540 with HT, can someone tell me whats "540"?) Intel(R) 925XE Chipset
512 Necc dual channel DDR2 533Mhz
ATi X800XT PCi express 256MB
80GB, 17' Flat panel....
and stuff for 1.5k USD, and i'm really considering this machine...cheap?
(though i'd really wanna try AMD out but they aint offering no AMD for dells....=.=)

oh and since i wont be using this for serious gaming, maybe some of you could suggest something more worth it.....or any value buys?

keep it going, need more suggestions, thankz a lot guys, especially the ones up there

ps:need the pc before christmas cause thats when i'm moving to Aussy

Necrosis

Um that thing will game pretty good. I would add another 512 stick to it, and maybe another HD.

Kgentatszu]

*gulp, another stick of 512 of that kind would cost me another $100.......its out of my budget...>.<

CrapolaJola

If you're not going to be serious gmaes just music/movies no need to blow $1500 go for something cheaper. Perosnally I'd go the K8n Neo with a 3000+ and a nice heatsink then OC to 2.4+ on air, and buy a gig fo ram. If you built it yourself you'd have good performnce and save yourself soem money. Either way go AMD cuz a 939 winchester @ 2.4+ will rape that P4 hardcoreeeeee

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P2 X4 @ 3.6ghz, 4gb ddr3, SSD, 5870 @ 950/1250 + a 3ghz i5 lappy

CDsDontBurn

well, it's best if you build it yourself. you save some money, and you know exactly what parts you're getting, not some POS proprietary ish from dell, or who ever. If you're not going to be playing some serious games, i'd say get yourself a decent mid range graphics card like a 9600pro/xt, then that way you can afford to get 1Gb of ram (2x512 sticks). i say get an AMD64 s939 3000+. Best bang for the buck, and unlike p4 chips, they have more future built into them . 64 bit!

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Kgentatszu]

actually, to say the truth, i dont have much time on hand to research into parts and build meself one cause i'm flying tomorrow with a friend and will be back a few days later....so what i can do now is decidewhat i should get (help from ye guys) and ask someone to put it into one piece....meaning no OC..>.<
hmm...lets see here, AMD64 s939 3000+, is this cheap?
ATi X300se, is that good?

CDsDontBurn

the x300 is only pci-e as far as i know. As of right now, all A64 boards support only AGP. To be honest, a 9600pro/xt will out perform the x300 anyways. Don't worry about OCing your system, just put it together, and make sure it's working fine. OC it just when you have time and/or when you wanna have some fun w/your rig. the s939 3000+ goes for about $150 (US), so it's relatively cheap compared to it's more powerful counterparts.

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Kgentatszu]

damn guys, mum bought the dell already...=.= she said "no" when i wanna custom build it............=.=..............so i just have to bear with what i'm given....thankz anyway guys..

Geminiwave

dude...

you had $1400....AND YOU'RE ON A BUDGET?!?!?!!?

jeeeeeeez.

oh well. There aint nothin wrong with Dells. I've done much gaming on my friend's Dell and it is adequate. Just see about upgrading the graphics...seriously thats the one thing that dells REALLY lack in.

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CrapolaJola

Dells aren't that bad, but with the same amount of money you could build yourself a better computer. Also, Gemini he doesn't need to worry about his graphics card, the comp he listed has an x800xt . I must say though if I had $1400 I'd buy a 3000+ Winchester, Xp-90 (altho I already have one), MSI K8N Neo2, 2x512mb OCZ pc3200 VX ram (sick new ram does on average 2-2-2-10 at 250fsb and higher for a lot of people too), asus 6800nu )only moddable 6800nu that has 256mb and not crapy ram speed wise) or a x800pro vivo, because an Oc'd 64 @ 2.4+ rapes a P4, new P4s+DDR2=overpriced, and amd rapes intel in gaming performance.

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P2 X4 @ 3.6ghz, 4gb ddr3, SSD, 5870 @ 950/1250 + a 3ghz i5 lappy

CDsDontBurn

w00t w00t! The truth be told on that .

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Kgentatszu]

whats the diff between the current ddr and the new ddr2?

btw, which ones better? x800pro or xt or 6800gto?

oh well, think i'll try AMD next time.......so, P4 really sucks nowadays eh?

CDsDontBurn

the difference between DDR and DDR2, is that the latency timings on DDR2 as of right now really suck. for a pretty penny the best timings i've seen on DDR2 have been 3-3-3-8 @ 533 which is ok. For several pretty pennys If you get DDR2 @ 667, the timings will be somewhere along the lines of 4-4-4-12. DDR1 has awsome timings of 2-2-2-5 if you want to pay a pretty penny. Having the lower latency timings increases calculations, increased calculations means higher FPS when playing games. Intel fanboys will say something like "DDR2 memory is rated higher than DDR1" even though it's true (DDR1 = 500 highest i've seen vs. DDR2 = 667 highest i've seen), there's no point in having that higher rated memory if the only p4 available right now to utilize it is the p4 LGA775 3.46Ghz EE w/the 1066 FSB. All other P4s have an 800Mhz FSB, so DDR1 @ 400Mhz is all you really need.

As far as which video card is better, i say it depends on which games you will be playing more often. If games like DOOM3, and FarCry and other games based on those engines, get a 6x00 series card. if you're going to be playing HL2 and games based on that engine, then get an x800 series card. Do your research first to see which card you will prefer both short term and long term.

well....AMD owns intel in game play and benchmarking, but if you're going to be multi-tasking, like burning a DVD while playing a game, or running photoshop and encrypting/decrypting a DVD or something like that, then you want to get intel. intel chips are more efficient at doing that kind of stuff because of the hyperthreading technology they have. But again, just like i said with the video cards, do your research and pick what you think would be the better buy for yourself.

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pr0digal jenius

p4 doesn't suck...but it isn't quite as adept at gaming(mind you we're talking maybe 5FPS), but go encode something, or render something....and well....AMD sucks a fat one next to a strong p4

drakesteakn

wel PJ i guess u havent used one of the new AMD chips. they dont suck at encoding anymore. had 3 movies encoding at once before and never where never slow. when the dual core chips come out, intel will beg for amd to buy them out. no more Hyperthreading. ballgame will be over.

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CDsDontBurn

bah! i want me one of them dual core A64s. Going to wait a while first.....gotta pay off my present rig ......stupid credit cards .

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