Hello all,

I need some guidance in choosing components for building a top of the
line PC for personal use. If you have suggestions and/or can suggest
web sites/links, it would help me a lot.
I follow this group frequently - so I' am familiar with the tech terms
but have never put together a system myself
Thanks and HAPPY NEW YEAR,
Vinny

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello all,
>
> I need some guidance in choosing components for building a top of the
> line PC for personal use.

Personal use for what kind of applications?

> If you have suggestions and/or can suggest
> web sites/links,

You mean links to suppliers? Just type in NewEgg.Com and for most things
you're done.

> it would help me a lot.
> I follow this group frequently - so I' am familiar with the tech terms
> but have never put together a system myself.

So what you really need is a DIY guide?

Hi again,

Applications: Office, moderate to high amount of gaming, home video
editing, DVD burning, MP3, movie watching(home theatre)
(am I describing a typical "Media center"
appliation here?)
Links: To sites having information about various system configurations
based on Intel as well as AMD,
sites with comparisons, technology, trends, etc
DIY: Well, yes and no, Yes because what I need is advice on good choice
and combination of components which make a great, stable system
No - because, I have never built a system myself, I' am posting from
India, here we have a fair amount of choice in hardware and trained
people who custom build the systems on commercial basis but they
generally do not provide good choices or do not experiment beyond
standard setups.

My personal liking is for an AMD Athlon 64 based system but the lack of
software and Windows support is a worrying factor.
How does Athlon 64 and/or Athlon 64 FX based system compare with the
latest Intel systems in the 32 bit environment?

Thanks again,
Vinny

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hi again,
>
> Applications: Office, moderate to high amount of gaming, home video
> editing, DVD burning, MP3, movie watching(home theatre)
> (am I describing a typical "Media center"
> appliation here?)
> Links: To sites having information about various system configurations
> based on Intel as well as AMD,
> sites with comparisons, technology, trends, etc
> DIY: Well, yes and no, Yes because what I need is advice on good choice
> and combination of components which make a great, stable system
> No - because, I have never built a system myself, I' am posting from
> India, here we have a fair amount of choice in hardware and trained
> people who custom build the systems on commercial basis but they
> generally do not provide good choices or do not experiment beyond
> standard setups.
>
> My personal liking is for an AMD Athlon 64 based system but the lack of
> software and Windows support is a worrying factor.

Who is the idiot who told your there is a lack of
"software and Windows support" ?

For most home/office tasks, the only processor faster
than an Athlon64 for Windows 2000 or Windows XP is
an AthlonFX.

The AMD64 processors *can* do 64 bits, but they are also
the best 32 bit x86 processors on the market.

> How does Athlon 64 and/or Athlon 64 FX based system compare with the
> latest Intel systems in the 32 bit environment?

Athlon 64 and AthlonFX beats the P4 and PEEE in just
about everything - while running cooler, quieter, and
using a lot less power.


For a top-notch gaming system that can also do everything
else you need, I would suggest you use something like the
Asus A8N-SLI, an Athlon64 3500+ (or faster if you have
the $$$$), and whatever ATI or nVidia PCI-E card turns
your crank.

For something a little cheaper, go with the Asus A8V-Deluxe
motherboard. Note that this means going with an AGP video
card instead of PCI-E.

For the kinds of things you'll be doing, 512 MB should be
enough RAM, but I wouldn't hesitate to go with 1 GB. Be
sure to get two matching DIMMs so you take advantage of
dual-channel DDR. Get low latency DDR3200 - or faster
if your budget has room and you want to get a few more
fps in your games.

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In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>My personal liking is for an AMD Athlon 64 based system but the lack of
>software and Windows support is a worrying factor.

What lack of software? It runs all the same stuff that any Intel processor
does, and then some (like 64-bit Linux) that AFAIK no current Intel
processor (except maybe an Itanic) will run.

I can't believe this "AMD has compatibility issues" meme is still in
circulation. It was debunked years ago. (Then again, if I looked hard
enough, I'd probably find someone still asking for get-well cards for Craig
Shergold, or David Rhodes' MAKE_MONEY_FAST spam.)

_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( http://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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=3NOk
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since many of you seem very knowledgable about processors, i'm going to
go a bit off topic with a question of my own. excuse my ignorance if
the answer to this is common knowledge. i have a p4 2.8A with a 533fsb
and 1mb cache. which i believe is the one and only intel p4 prescott
without hyper-threading. does this mean my mobo is the same as those
prescotts with ht? and if so, how so? also since i believe it's a 478
socket job, can i throw an ht enabled p4 on it without any fuss? also,
is this a task i can do myself as a relative novice? usually i google
it to find these answers, but i can't come up with anything quick and
i'm a bit pressed for time (aren't we all) these days. so these message
boards are a great conveniance for me. thanks alot for any replys : )

jd wrote:
> since many of you seem very knowledgable about processors, i'm going to
> go a bit off topic with a question of my own. excuse my ignorance if
> the answer to this is common knowledge. i have a p4 2.8A with a 533fsb
> and 1mb cache. which i believe is the one and only intel p4 prescott
> without hyper-threading. does this mean my mobo is the same as those
> prescotts with ht? and if so, how so? also since i believe it's a 478
> socket job, can i throw an ht enabled p4 on it without any fuss? also,
> is this a task i can do myself as a relative novice? usually i google
> it to find these answers, but i can't come up with anything quick and
> i'm a bit pressed for time (aren't we all) these days. so these message
> boards are a great conveniance for me. thanks alot for any replys : )
>

An HT-capable motherboard will work with both
HT-capable P4's and non-HT P4's - so long as
the motherboard has the right socket and can
give the CPU the clocks and voltages it needs.

A non-HT motherboard will also work with both
HT and non-HT P4's - you simply won't have the
option of enabling HT in an HT-capable P4.

If you don't have a manual for your motherboard
you can download one - typically as a PDF - from
the manufacturer's web site. The manual will
tell you whether the mobo supports HT. Alternatively,
just look in your BIOS setup for a setting that lets
you enable/disable HT. The manual and/or the web
site should also have a processor compatibility list
for your mobo.

thanks for the info, rob : )

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> My personal liking is for an AMD Athlon 64 based system but the lack of
> software and Windows support is a worrying factor.
> How does Athlon 64 and/or Athlon 64 FX based system compare with the
> latest Intel systems in the 32 bit environment?

You'll find that the whole idea of the Athlon 64-series is that it runs
the regular old 32-bit Windows with no changes, and it doesn't need a
special 64-bit version of Windows at all. That's why it's become so
popular compared to something like the Intel Itanium which cannot run
without its own specially-designed version of Windows.

When the 64-bit version of Windows that's specially designed for Athlon
64 comes out, it's likely to run much faster, and it can still continue
to run the old 32-bit programs that run under 32-bit Windows.

Yousuf Khan

(E-Mail Removed) schrieb:

> I need some guidance in choosing components for building a top of the
> line PC for personal use. If you have suggestions and/or can suggest
> web sites/links, it would help me a lot.
....

Go to www.google.com and enter: how to build a pc - and you will
immediately gain a wide choice of hyperlinks to documents among which
you may choose according to your preferences and taste.

The main 'guidance' cannot be but: READ... the mainboard manual, the
mainboard manufacturer's web site (BIOS and driver updates, RAM
compatibility...) et cetera.

HTH - Roy