Just ordered this setup from Newegg

J

J.C. Scott

I'm hoping I made the right buying decisions here regarding a new system I
plan on putting together, and any feedback or thoughts would be appreciated
here. I basically had a $2000 budget, and wanted to get something geared
more toward gaming than not, so here's what I got:


Intel Socket T (LGA 775) 915P ATX Motherboard

Intel Pentium 4 650 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model
BX80547PG3400F

2 Crucial 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered System
Memory Model CT12864AA53E

3 Seagate Barracuda's at 7200.8 ST3200826AS 200GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150

Rosewill RP500 ATX 500W Power Supply

ATI 100-435400 Radeon X850XTPE 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card

CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface
Sound Card

LG IEEE1394/ USB2.0 External DVD Burner Model GSA-5163D

SAMSUNG IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model TS-H352A/BEBP

CHENMING CMUI-601AECB-U Charcoal Black 1.0mm SECC Server Computer Case

With shipping, I ended up being slightly over budget at $2,031 and I hope it
was worth it. I could've gone with AMD but given I've had good luck with
Intel so far, I didn't want to deviate just yet, although I'm pretty sure
I'll give AMD a whirl next time just because I've heard really good things.
That aside, everything seemed like fairly solid choices to me. Anyway, any
thoughts?
 
D

Derek Baker

J.C. Scott said:
I'm hoping I made the right buying decisions here regarding a new system I
plan on putting together, and any feedback or thoughts would be
appreciated
here. I basically had a $2000 budget, and wanted to get something geared
more toward gaming than not, so here's what I got:


Intel Socket T (LGA 775) 915P ATX Motherboard

Intel Pentium 4 650 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model
BX80547PG3400F

2 Crucial 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered System
Memory Model CT12864AA53E

3 Seagate Barracuda's at 7200.8 ST3200826AS 200GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150

Rosewill RP500 ATX 500W Power Supply

ATI 100-435400 Radeon X850XTPE 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card

CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface
Sound Card

LG IEEE1394/ USB2.0 External DVD Burner Model GSA-5163D

SAMSUNG IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model TS-H352A/BEBP

CHENMING CMUI-601AECB-U Charcoal Black 1.0mm SECC Server Computer Case

With shipping, I ended up being slightly over budget at $2,031 and I hope
it
was worth it. I could've gone with AMD but given I've had good luck with
Intel so far, I didn't want to deviate just yet, although I'm pretty sure
I'll give AMD a whirl next time just because I've heard really good
things.
That aside, everything seemed like fairly solid choices to me. Anyway, any
thoughts?
Click to expand...

Yes. For gaming you should definitely have gone AMD. For less than the price
of that 650 you could have had an Athlon 64 3800+ that will beat it for
gaming: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2353&p=9
 
J

John

I'm hoping I made the right buying decisions here regarding a new system I
plan on putting together, and any feedback or thoughts would be appreciated
here. I basically had a $2000 budget, and wanted to get something geared
more toward gaming than not, so here's what I got:


Intel Socket T (LGA 775) 915P ATX Motherboard

Intel Pentium 4 650 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model
BX80547PG3400F

2 Crucial 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered System
Memory Model CT12864AA53E
Click to expand...
3 Seagate Barracuda's at 7200.8 ST3200826AS 200GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150

Rosewill RP500 ATX 500W Power Supply

ATI 100-435400 Radeon X850XTPE 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card

CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface
Sound Card

LG IEEE1394/ USB2.0 External DVD Burner Model GSA-5163D

SAMSUNG IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model TS-H352A/BEBP

CHENMING CMUI-601AECB-U Charcoal Black 1.0mm SECC Server Computer Case

With shipping, I ended up being slightly over budget at $2,031 and I hope it
was worth it. I could've gone with AMD but given I've had good luck with
Intel so far, I didn't want to deviate just yet, although I'm pretty sure
I'll give AMD a whirl next time just because I've heard really good things.
That aside, everything seemed like fairly solid choices to me. Anyway, any
thoughts?
Click to expand...


Seems OK. Its a matter of taste. You probably ended up paying more for
the INTEL and the fact your got 4200 mem , Sata 150 HDs, a closer to
cutting edge graphics card , external DVD burner and internal DVD
driver.

You would have saved a bundle probably by going for an AMD, PATA HDs,
800XL ATI , internal DVD burner but its your money so if you like your
choices thats all that counts.
 
J

J.C. Scott

Derek Baker said:
Yes. For gaming you should definitely have gone AMD. For less than the price
of that 650 you could have had an Athlon 64 3800+ that will beat it for
gaming: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2353&p=9
Click to expand...

Nice. I suppose I probably should've given AMD more serious consideration,
perhaps. All I've ever owned are Intel based processors, so there's some
nervousness there in terms of unfamiliarity with AMD. I'll probably be
upgrading again in a year or two and when I do I'll try AMD for a change and
see how that goes. Old habits die hard though, unfortunately.
 
J

J.C. Scott

[email protected] said:
Seems OK. Its a matter of taste. You probably ended up paying more for
the INTEL and the fact your got 4200 mem , Sata 150 HDs, a closer to
cutting edge graphics card , external DVD burner and internal DVD
driver.

You would have saved a bundle probably by going for an AMD, PATA HDs,
800XL ATI , internal DVD burner but its your money so if you like your
choices thats all that counts.
Click to expand...

It was definitely my mistake for not enquiring *before* I ordered. I do
agree that the 800XT would've probably been a better buy, given that there's
very little difference in performance between it and the 850XT from what
I've read. Also, I would've bought an internal burner for sure but I
couldn't find that model as an internal and definitely wanted that brand
considering the glowing review it received from CDFreaks.com.
 
J

J.C. Scott

Derek Baker said:
I don't know the Rosewill brand, but looking at newegg it seems pretty cheap
for a 500watt unit. There's no point spending all that cash and sticking it
with a cheap PSU.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree. The Rosewill was recommended by a friend and I've had
second thoughts about it. The more I consider it, the more I think maybe I
should've ordered a Thermaltake or Antec, perhaps. I still could, I suppose.
Any particular recommendations given my specs?
 
D

Derek Baker

J.C. Scott said:
I tend to agree. The Rosewill was recommended by a friend and I've had
second thoughts about it. The more I consider it, the more I think maybe
I
should've ordered a Thermaltake or Antec, perhaps. I still could, I
suppose.
Any particular recommendations given my specs?
Click to expand...

I've recently brought a Seasonic for quietness, but if that's not important
to you, this looks nice:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103930
 
B

Bob

I'm hoping I made the right buying decisions here regarding a new system I
plan on putting together, and any feedback or thoughts would be appreciated
here. I basically had a $2000 budget,
Click to expand...

See how much that system would cost you at Directron in Houston. They
will build it and burn it in for an extra $27, which is cheap
insurance.

http://www.directron.com/

Although you do have a few expensive parts in that system, I find it
hard to believe it will cost you $2K at Directron.

BTW, you shoudl consider a Zalman copper heat sink for that P4. My son
has a 3.2GHz Prescott retail box and the cooler was not adequate. The
Zalman 7700 will cool a rocket motor.

Why buy separate sound and video cards when many Intel chipset
motherboards have integrated sound and video on the board.

--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism."
--John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty"
 
D

Derek Baker

Bob said:
See how much that system would cost you at Directron in Houston. They
will build it and burn it in for an extra $27, which is cheap
insurance.

http://www.directron.com/

Although you do have a few expensive parts in that system, I find it
hard to believe it will cost you $2K at Directron.

BTW, you shoudl consider a Zalman copper heat sink for that P4. My son
has a 3.2GHz Prescott retail box and the cooler was not adequate. The
Zalman 7700 will cool a rocket motor.

Why buy separate sound and video cards when many Intel chipset
motherboards have integrated sound and video on the board.
Click to expand...


Because he's said he 'wanted to get something geared more toward gaming than
not'

The audio may be okay, can't speak firsthand, but even the best integrated
graphics, which Intel's certainly aren't, are crap for gaming.
 
B

Bob

I would've bought an internal burner for sure but I
couldn't find that model as an internal and definitely wanted that brand
considering the glowing review it received from CDFreaks.com.
Click to expand...

My son has burned several hundred DVDs with his Sony (rebranded
Lite-On) and not one problem. It cost him $50 from Directron.

http://www.directron.com/directron/dwd26a.html

Next time do yourself a big favor and call Directron for
recommendations before you spend any money.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism."
--John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty"
 
K

kony

My son has burned several hundred DVDs with his Sony (rebranded
Lite-On) and not one problem. It cost him $50 from Directron.

http://www.directron.com/directron/dwd26a.html

Next time do yourself a big favor and call Directron for
recommendations before you spend any money.
Click to expand...


It's starting to look a wee bit suspicious how often you
mention Directron, particularly when the products may be
cheaper elsewhere, for example;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131250
http://www.acnt.com/product.asp?pf_id=DVDRWS150
http://www.buycyberpc.com/sodw8xdvdrin.html

However, Sony has historically done a rather poor job of
providing firmware updates, so while technically one can
hack it to get a newer Lite-On firmware flashed to their
Sony, it's easier to just cut out the middleman and buy the
Liteon drive instead (Lite-On SOHW-1673) which is available
at about the same price-points from many of the same
vendors.

Although, I still keep hearing the NEC 35(nn) series has the
best media compatibility... Lite-On makes decent drives but
the compatibility alone might be good reason to go with the
NEC.
 
K

kony

Why buy separate sound and video cards when many Intel chipset
motherboards have integrated sound and video on the board.
Click to expand...

Who would spend in the neighborhood of $2K then try to save
$50 by using integrated video and sound?

Integrated features are for cost-savings... maybe
appropriate on a $400 box, out of place on anything more
expensive.
 
C

Cuzman

J.C. Scott wrote:

" With shipping, I ended up being slightly over budget at $2,031 and I
hope it was worth it. "


If I was spending $2k at Newegg on a case and its contents, I would
probably look towards the following:

- AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHz 512KB 90nm Venice
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103531 $373.99
- Asus A8N-SLI Premium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540 $195.00
- 2x 1GB Rosewill PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 RW400/2048KITDP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820223032 $187.99
- Asus EN6800GT/2DT/256MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121192 $396.00
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102178 $71.00
- Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 8MB 10,000RPM SATA-150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144160 $186.00
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 300GB 8MB 7,200RPM SATA-150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148064 $182.00
- 2x NEC DVD+-RW Dual Layer ND-3540A Silver
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152053 $119.98
- Antec TruePower 2.0 TRUECONTROL II-550
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817103933 $119.00
- Lian-Li PC65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811112024 $120.00
TOTAL = $1,950.96
 
J

J.C. Scott

Bob said:
My son has burned several hundred DVDs with his Sony (rebranded
Lite-On) and not one problem. It cost him $50 from Directron.
Click to expand...

I looked quite extensively at other burners, Sony included, and the main
reason I went with the one I did was because many reviewers have expressed
they felt it was the fastest burner with the highest quality burns
available. I did give serious consideration to NEC, though.
 
B

Bob

Who would spend in the neighborhood of $2K then try to save
$50 by using integrated video and sound?
Click to expand...

He should not have spent in the neighborhood of $2K in the first
place. One of the ways to save would have been to buy a motherboard
with on-board video.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism."
--John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty"
 
B

Bob

It's starting to look a wee bit suspicious how often you
mention Directron, particularly when the products may be
cheaper elsewhere, for example;
Click to expand...

I happen to like Directron. The main reason is I know some of the
people there. I did business with them back when they were starting
out as Houston Computer Center. They have always treated me right,
even though I am certainly not a large customer. The company is run by
computer enthusiasts, not minimum wage morons. You can immediately see
that when you visit their new facilities.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131250
Click to expand...

I have talked to newegg and their people are arrogant. The reason is
because they really don't know what they are doing nor do they care.
http://www.acnt.com/product.asp?pf_id=DVDRWS150
http://www.buycyberpc.com/sodw8xdvdrin.html
Click to expand...

Never heard of them.
However, Sony has historically done a rather poor job of
providing firmware updates,
Click to expand...

From what I read here and the other forums, Sony is not alone. People
are bitching about NEC and some of the other brand names.
so while technically one can
hack it to get a newer Lite-On firmware flashed to their
Sony, it's easier to just cut out the middleman and buy the
Liteon drive instead (Lite-On SOHW-1673) which is available
at about the same price-points from many of the same
vendors.
Click to expand...

The specs do not match the Sony my son has very well. Maybe you are
thinking about a different Lite-On unit.

His unit is Sony DW-D26A 16X DVD+/-RW DVD Burners, Double Layer 4X
DVD+R, OEM.

http://www.directron.com/dwd26a.html
Although, I still keep hearing the NEC 35(nn) series has the
best media compatibility.
Click to expand...

http://www.directron.com/nd3520bg.html

Yet it is one of the most bitched about drives.
Lite-On makes decent drives but
the compatibility alone might be good reason to go with the
NEC.
Click to expand...

If you could get NEC to provide firmware revisions...

--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism."
--John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty"
 
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