Computer suggestions

[Cabot_Teg118]

I'm looking to start building a computer soon and this is what I have planned:

Asus A7V8X-X MoBo
Athlon XP 2800+
1024mb PC3200 RAM
160GB 7200rpm hd
Colorcases 550W PS
Radeon 9600 256mb
Windows 2000 Pro
17" LCD Monior

What do you think?
Any suggestions?

[Kurtis]

Looks like itll be a good system, only thing I might recommend is getting windows xp pro and instead of an LCD get a larger CRT. LCDs often have blur when there is a lot of movement on the screen, and images aren't as sharp.

[Hippy]

i dont know anything about the mobo but otherwise looks good. One question = do you really need that much ram? Win2000 runs fine with 512 and unless your doing some serious video editing or grapthics modeling you dont need that much :)

Will you aim to overclock or just play as is? Reason i ask is you have no cooling option there. If your just gaming as is then you'll be fine. For overclocking you might want to consider:

a) a barton XP2500+ as this will overclock better and (as i have said before) has a very good performance vs cost ratio;

b) a good heat sink.

I would consider an SLK-900u or -800 with smart fan. They ARE the best air cooled hs you can buy BUT suffer from being very very loud!!! Alternatively a Zalman flower cooler are very good and very very quiet too if you have a lower rpm fan on them.

Check out these sites to see what i mean:

http://www.3dxtreme.org/thermalrightslk800.shtml
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1396
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=627
or for something more extreme...
http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/Tt_Aquarius/index.html

overkill but i hope it helps :)

EDIT: XP pro or home edition would be a good option :)
EDIT2: DOH!!! ;) above post was made while i eat cake... but i agree about the CRT

[Cabot_Teg118]

I'm not really planning on OCing.

I was planning on getting some kind of cooling, I just don't know what, or even what to look for.


I put that much ram because I will be majoring in CS at college w/ the possibilty of some graphics work. I also did a huge flash movie for a school project last year that nearly crashed my current computer every time i saved.


Thanks alot for the help.

[Cabot_Teg118]

and about the monitor, I really like LCD's. I am kinda limited on desk space in my room, and my sister has a Dell 15" LCD for her college computer and I love it. I think it is really clear and easier on the eyes.

[Hippy]

Cool then if not oc'ing the stock cooler should do for you :).

CRT still work better for detailed graphics work... unless you have $$$ to spend on a nice LCD/TFT, but if space is limited then i guess you have little choice :)

If you want to save a few $ then downgrade the ram to 2xCorsair 512mb XMS2700. It is not as costly as the 3200 but is brilliant for a stock system.

Dont forget keyboard/mouse/speakers in your list or are you gona reuse your current set up?

[Cabot_Teg118]

I'm not reusing my current set-up, thats for my parents, I'm taking mine to college in 2 years.

I didn't forget about the keyboard and mouse. That would be kinda silly if I bought this brand new computer but didnt have any keyboard, mouse, or speakers for it. :lol:

[Hippy]

lol yes... i didn't do that at all... nope... do'h!

:) i have a kvm switch set up between the two here. BUT and i stress BUT the rest is in the post right now... even if it has been over a month. A simple 17" CRT and some 2.1 speakers are winging there way to meeeeeeeeeee!!! And an adsl router. Sweet.

[BioNiKaL]

GO CRT's :lol: the mobo is very good and thats a good pc you got priced up i would suggest SATA or a raid setup ide cables just dont cut it anymore

[hone]

yeah, but I don't think SATA drives are that much faster sometimes even slower currently. IDE drives are dropping in prices and you can snipe some great deals at BB on hds. I wouldn't switch over to SATA for the cables alone.

[nark]

Looks like itll be a good system, only thing I might recommend is getting windows xp pro and instead of an LCD get a larger CRT. LCDs often have blur when there is a lot of movement on the screen, and images aren't as sharp.

i would have to totally disagree with you on that Kurtis. I prefer 2000 over xp, why pay the extra money for a new gui? Plus, xp is not as good for some systems as others.

For the LCD vs CRTs. ALthough i prefer a CRT over an LCD, LCD nowadays have latencies in the 16 ms, which is great for games. Although the price for these LCDs are in the 500-700 range. Expensive for my taste.

Cabot, I dont recommend u get a radeon 9600 pro with 256 mb of RAM. Although it might seem like a good card, if u read the reviews. You will notice that it can barely perform as good as 4200 (even not a lot worse). The only advantage is that its DX9 compatible. BTW. 256 mb is OVERKILL for such a poor performer. IT might only need that much ram if u are gonna be running with FSAA and AA turned up ALL the way.

edit: is that the asus a7v8x-x mobo? Since you are getting a new system, you might as well go with an nforce 2 mobo. They are much better performers and overclockers. The a7n8x or the abit nf7-s rev 2 are both good boards.

[caniswolfie]

Some things to keep in mind.

An LCD only looks its best at the natural resolution. (for some monitors 1280x1024 or 1024x768) When doing things outside this resolution you either have the monitor trying to stretch it across the pixels that it has causing some interesting anomalies or have it "Letterbox" it. This comes into play during some video games since you may not want to play in that resolution or may not be able to at all.

SATA is not faster because the standard maximum thoroughput is higher than what the drive mechanically capable of. Even the higher ATA speeds is above the max of a modern drive is capable. So the advantages of SATA are the smaller cable size and the fact that it will be the future standard.

[Rich]

nark beat me to it. I would also recommend the ASUS A7N8x over the A&V8x. The nforce chipset is a better choice for a mobo. Last time I checked, the nforce sneaked past the via chipset by a small margin. The A7N8X is the board I am using and it works great.

I would also like to point out that unless you want to overclock, you will be hurting your performance using DDR400 RAM with a Barton chip with a 333 FSB. The performance hit isn't great, but it is there. You will want a 1:1 ratio for your RAM clock and your FSB clock. When my Barton was running at stock (333 FSB) I actually got HIGHER benchmark numbers by UNDERCLOCKING the DDR400 to DDR333. Just something to think about.

[nark]

nark beat me to it. I would also recommend the ASUS A7N8x over the A&V8x. The nforce chipset is a better choice for a mobo. Last time I checked, the nforce sneaked past the via chipset by a small margin. The A7N8X is the board I am using and it works great.

I would also like to point out that unless you want to overclock, you will be hurting your performance using DDR400 RAM with a Barton chip with a 333 FSB. The performance hit isn't great, but it is there. You will want a 1:1 ratio for your RAM clock and your FSB clock. When my Barton was running at stock (333 FSB) I actually got HIGHER benchmark numbers by UNDERCLOCKING the DDR400 to DDR333. Just something to think about.

ahh i am sorry. Can you ever forgive me Pestis?

neways. I would have to disagree with you about the DDR400 RAM. Even if u are not overclocking, the DDR400 RAM gives you some leway with the timmings you can put. Even though technically you can get the best timmings with PC2700, u usually get a shitty stick of RAM, and therfore wont be able to run it at the best settings. With PC3200, you can easily set the timmings to 2-2-2-2-6.

caniswolfie- SATA is only usefull if u are running two or three RAPTORS in RAID 0.