Building computer, need opinions, AMD or P4?

[ale_x13]

I know you guys probably get alot of this and I have been trying to learn as much as possible about CPU's and Motherboards etc, but its hard to find unbiased tests, especially with specific setups.

I want to build a new computer myself, i sort of know how to do this. What I was wondering is if the setup I intend is any good, or if u can get better parts for cheaper etc.

Heres what I have in mind (i am going to use this mainly for game playing, some graphic applications such as 3ds max, but I want it to be set up for game use)

I am in australia but i will try to transfer the prices into rough american dollars.

First is the case - How important is this? i have seen them ranging from about US$10 to $150 and Im not sure I understand why, I assume because of better ventilation systems and power supplies etc but if there is something im missing please let me know. I have budgeted around $130 (about 90 us dollars) for this.

2 - Motherboard, for this I have chosen an ASUS A7N8X-X at $130 (90 us) as i am thinking of going with AMD Athlon as the processor.

3 - CPU, I have been looking at an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ ($125us), 2700+ ($202us)or 2800+ ($245us),but I cant seem to find a good comparison between the three, for example which represents the best value for money etc? i am also considering a p4 processor (the best with comparable price i have found is 2.4ghz with 800mhz fsb, at $205us)

4 - RAM, I have found two 512MB "sticks" of Legend DDR400 for $225US total.

5 - Video Card, this has been subject to much debate by me. I have not much of an idea in this department but I think I am going to go with a Gigacube ATI Radeon 9600 pro-lite 256MB card, for $210us, or an Inno3d nVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 256MB card for $195us. I am very open to suggestion here so please any input is welcome.

6 - Sound card, here i have no idea whatsoever. I dont know if i want to spend too much here though, but it depends. I found a SoundBlaster Audigy EX for $85us but i dont know about this. I currently have a Aureal Vortex 2, I also found a Soundblaster Live! for about $15us so i am stumped here truth be told.

7 - HDD, here i was looking at a 120GB 7200rpm Seagate, but i dont know what is good or not. also i would like to know whether IDE or SCSI is better and whats the difference? though all i could find on SCSI was a 1.2GB volume so my assumption is that SCSI is outdated and IDE is the later version.

the rest such as CD-R/RW, DVD, Speakers, Mouse I am not too phased about, the only other thing is a NEC 17" LCD for $510us.

please help and set me straight on any of the above options, opinions more than welcome, and thanks for your patience with yet another person asking about building a computer. If you think of something I havent mentioned as one of my options feel free to mention it I am not commited to anything above by any means, though i would like to work to a bit of a budget if possible. My calculations were that this complete setup (with mouse, keyboard and all the little xtras) would cost around $2,300 australian (i think around $1,600 US). I am open to spending a little more if I believe its money well spent but would prefer to keep costs down if possible.

Thanks again,

Alex

[Omardeth]

here we go


1 case is important but it is not . I cheap case is fine . as far as i am concerned it just hold everything . just don't get a micro (small ) case . a mid tower that has the power supply sitting like this in the case will be fine .


make sure that the case you get is able to take at least 1 fan in the back like this pic . it will have a fan blowing out of the case in the back


and make sure it has a least a spot for 1 or more fans in the front on the bottom to suck air in .

the power supply is really important . make SURE you get one that is dual fan . and make sure the fan is in the BOTTOM of the power supply , NOT fron and back . if you look at the first photo you will see how the power supply sits in the case . well the cpu will sit right under it . todays cpu's put off some heat . the fan in the bottom of the power supply will help move that hot air right off the cpu . if there is no fan in the bottom of the paower supply you will get a hot pocket of air there . so the cpu will run hotter . hotter cpu not good !! also make sure the 12v rail has a min of 18a . with amd cpu's you need like 14a min and thats right on the edge so 18a will give ya a little head room .

2 the asus board is a good pick can't argue with that .

3 those cpu's are fine but i would say get a xp2500 they are cheaper and as you learn alittle more you can over clock it to reach the speed of the cpu's you posted . the memory you have picked will work good for overclocking so why get the higher end cpus when you can overclock a cheaper one .

4 your good with what you picked

5 this is all about budget . DON'T waste your money on a 256mb card . it is just a gimick . don't do it . you will be paying for ram that will just sit on your video card and not be used . a 128 is fine . if you were gonna do lots of 3d grafic work i would say ya get it but since it is leaning towards games i say no it is a waste . don't buy any video card that has the words ''lite" in them . an ati 9600 or a 9600 pro is good . a gf4 ti4200/4400/4600/4800 card will work also .the ti4200 is alittle cheaper than the 9600 . it all depends on your budget .

6 the asus motherboard has sound onboard built in and it is pretty good . i would try it first and if you don't like it THEN get a sound card .

7 hard drives . western digital , seagate , maxtor . pick one . i don't know about there but the seagate and western digital have 3 year warrantees here but maxtore only has 1 . so that something to think about . as far as scci don't worry about that it is very costly and you won't need it for a game box .


hope this helps good luck

[ale_x13]

Wow that was quick.

Thanks for the info, just one q. with regards to overclocking the 2500+, couldnt you then overclock a 2600+ and it would be even quicker? or do the 2600+ not have the same overclocking capabilities?? im not sure i understand overclocking entirely.

and as for the graphics card, i thought the 256mb in those cards i mentioned may be a gimmick, i will definately go for a 128mb now thanks.

I have seen in one place... wait... here: http://oc3dmark.octeams.com/cardguide.html

this place puts the 9500 pro as faster than the 9600 pro.

i found an ati radeon 9500 pro 128mb for $205 us dollars at newegg.com.

[ale_x13]

Okay, I have decided to settle on the 2500+ xp. now my only question is, which one? there are many 2500+ cpu variants, such as the barton or something similar, which is the best in terms of overclocking and potential?

[blubomber]

Go with the chip with the Barton core. that will give you 512KB cache instead of 256KB. Also, the Bartons are pretty good over clockers. you should be able to get the 2500+ up to 3000+ range, maybe more.

[stroyal]

chech this out
gameve.com
The OEM barton 2500+ is 95 and the retail is 92
That was the price 3 weeks ago when I bought one

[ale_x13]

thanks, all this clears up alot. i think thats all i needed to know, now to empty my wallet.... hahah

[ShawnD1]

Before you pick a processor, look at these speed tests from anandtech. The speed tests run on for several pages after this one.
http://anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1834&p=5

This is from the end of the article

So if you're looking to buy the best on the block today, look no further than a Pentium 4 but we'd caution against purchasing the 3.2GHz Pentium 4. The price premium you're going to be paying doesn't justify the performance advantage you get over a 3.0C, not to mention that the 3.2GHz Pentium 4 is the hottest running CPU on the block. We'd recommend going with one of the slightly lower clocked 800MHz FSB models (the 2.6C or 2.8C come to mind) and holding off on upgrading again until the Socket-775 Prescott CPUs hit next year.

As for video card, the FX5600 is an ok card for middle of the line performance. Before you buy any cards, read this article. It talkes about features of the cards and it's really interesting.
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1821
The benchmarks between the cards start on page 22.
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1821&p=22

As for sound cards. I'm not an expert on sound but basically any sound card will do. As long as your sound comes from a sound card and not some integrated crap, your computer will run faster. A Sound Blaster Live! will do just fine.

For the hard drive, stick with IDE. SCSI drives are more likely to give you a hard time because it's not really the standard. In setups for Windows and Linux you will always notice something like "push <button> if you need to configure SCSI drives". IDE is basically just plug and play.

[RamonGTP]

I got my Barton 2500+ to 3200+ Could go higher but my memory is only PC2700

[Siliconjunkie]

For the hard drive, stick with IDE. SCSI drives are more likely to give you a hard time because it's not really the standard. In setups for Windows and Linux you will always notice something like "push <button> if you need to configure SCSI drives". IDE is basically just plug and play.

This is pretty much not true. Just like IDE has master/slave SCSI has ID #s. But you get better performance, but pay for it.