I'm not looking for "Bleeding Edge" and I've been happy with my
Celeron 667 for 5 years, now I upgraded to a Celeron 1.3GHz
Tualatin-Core so this computer will satisfy my needs for another year.
See the funny thing there is $3000 is a heck of a lot of money. My
neighbor bought a 6800 GT 1 gig a mem etc for $2500 when a few months
ago when it was really expensive, I thought he got rooked and he
still didnt hit 3000.
Your first option is get an AMD 64 939 retail CPU(with fan) which
speed ? The lowest is 3000 and its plenty fast around 159-165 or so -
it kind of fluctuates nowadays since it seems like all the online
retailers are using some software that micro manages prices due to
supply and demand at almost a daily rate.
The 3200 I think was around 180-200 and the 3400 $280 or so.
I dont think theres a huge difference but the 939s OC very easily and
some say the higher multiplier on the 3200 etc make it easier to do
since you can change the multiplier downward but not upward on the
chips giving you more flexibilty with the FSB settings or so they say.
Havent tried it yet cause Im waiting for my darn video card.
Next decision --- motherboard PCI express or AGP ?
If you choose PCI express you have to get a PCI express video card
which is no big deal for you since you want to buy a new one. The
other is it can limit the PCI slots you have. Most cards are still PCI
and the PCI express MBs come with smaller PCI x1 slots too which
displace some older PCI slots. Generally you have
PCI express x16 video slot (replaces AGP) , 2 1x PCI express slots, 3
PCI slots. So you lose two PI slots compared to a full older board.
There is one new board the MSI which they managed to squeeze 4 PCI
slots.
The main problem with PCI express theres this strange lag , slowness
in new products recently. Though you can buy nvidias new cards they
seem a bit late in AGP versions and theres just enough supply it seems
to keep prices up. Their nforce4 PCI express boards are slow in coming
and ATIs new video cards ---- they were WIREDs vaporware list at the
end of the year. Im still waiting for my 800XL a month later as are
many others from them and though others are offering finally 800XLs
its in such small qtys that they demand 100 bucks or more over MSRP !
So heres another thing --- some prices may or may not be a lot lower
in the next few months. Whenever this logjam breaks video cards may
tumble a lot in price, and so would SLI and ULtra PCI express MBs.
However I said that in dec and prices and supplies still stink !
So you have the choice ---- Nforce3 250 (or even VIA boards) for your
939 AmD 64 chip meaning decked out but with AGP and PCI slots.
The MSI nforce3 neo platinum is picked by many here because it won a
shoot out at Anandtechs website way back in June or July. I think its
going for $130-150. If you pick Abit and Asus --- I think they have
VIA chip boards which were also mentioned as good by Anandtech.
If you go PCI express these are really new so they could have the
usual bugginess. And there arent a whole lot to choose from yet -- I
think VIA chipset PCI express are still not out yet. So you have
nforce4 - Chaintech Vn4 (cheapest ULTRA board 125 or so) 3 PCI ,
MSI Ultra board $159 or so with 4 CPI slots and there are Gigabyte
boards. There are several around $200 SLI boards nforce4 by Asus ,
Gigabyte etc.
I think there are 3 basic chipsets in the new nforce4 line
budgetbasic/Ultra/SLI. SLI is to run two video cards at the same
time to get extra speed mainly for gamers with lots of $$$$$ to burn.
I bought the Chaintech VN4.
A good card is the 6600GT probably the most popular card that has very
good performance that doesnt take you into the nosebleed range. Its
around $180-200 and comes Im pretty sure now in AGP and PCIE.
Get a decent full tower case. I like the Chieftec style cases by
Antec. They have that full tower case with the vents in front and
door. They generally offer it with an older style 400 watt PS the kind
with the 18 pin plug. You could get an empty case and then buy a fancy
PS with a 20 pin plug.
The one caveat is its an older style case meaning it isnt as deep as
some of the new ones. I think its great otherwise but some of the new
ones though smaller are deeper to accomodate the longer video cards.
Those few inches can make a big difference. I think the 6600 like the
6800 is longer than the usual card too though you can usually work
around it --- it can get really close to the 3.5 drive cage creating a
problem with any drives there.
I dont know about the temp readout. You can buy that seperately and
you can get that in some smaller cases Ive seen, My neighbor got one
with temp readout and bubble lights at a gross out $120.
If you want to spend more wait for the ATI 800XL 256 mem for $299 --
which is supposed to bust the video world wide open with 6800GT
performance at $100 cheaper. This is the one Im wait for. THey are
gouging people now selling non-ATI versions for $100+ markup. WHen its
finally releases in huge numbers itll drop all video card prices
probably.
Virtually all the decent cards have two outs - one DVI and one analog
in which you can adaptors for (two analogs). Ive heard SOME 800XLs
have two DVI outs but I think the ATI 800XL does though some of the
non-ATIs do I think.
All you need is some decent DDR 3200/400. Theres a lot of stuff on
sale recently for around $59 or so a stick 512. Sure its not the best
expensive brands but it works well. I tried my PNY and Kingston
recently on my neighbors AMD 64 when he had problems with his Samsung
memory he bought for $75 a stick. It worked fine. Youll obviously be
able to over clock better if you get higher than 3200 sticks though
and that would cost a lot more though prices are coming down on those
too.
Hard disks - sales on them ALL the time. FRYs outpost has 200 and 160
gig seagates ALL the time with 5 yr warranties. Buy them whenever
theres a sale. Ive heard you have more rebate problems with seagates
though. These are rebate sales. Compusa ,Microcenter, Office Max ,
Office depot etc all have hard disk rebate sales ALLthe time .
Compusa us selling some Hitachi( formerly IBM) hard disks 200 gig
for I think $89 after rebate.
Also Anandtech recommend no RAID for desktops. Negigible performace
gains in the real world he says , except for artificial benchmarks
which will look much better --- and more risk since if one fails you
lose your data. Its been posted here many times before.
Plextor has always been a great maker of burners but NEC is also great
and way way cheaper. I think its selling for $60-70 now at Newegg etc.
16x dual format and dual layer . Pioneer is also another good maker
but also more expensive than NEC.
TV card --- I guess the Hauppauge 150 is still the king , Its a
hardware encoding card , has the chip to do mpeg2 so it takes a big
load off your CPU. which generally enables smoother real time rewind
etc in PVR usage . Compusa had the retail pack for 90 - 29 rebate or
so a week or two ago. However the OEM version is still being sold on
AMAZON for $63-66.
There are 3 versions as I posted before recently in fact. Sheesh.
150 retail which comes with software and remote control no FM radio.
150 MCE versions - short card and regular.
Both of these come with FM radio but no remote I think.
And only drivers no software as low as $63-66.
Check Amazon,com its intermittently in stock both
versions.
People tend to like the second version cause they like to buy a
separate remote thats supposedly better suited for MCE etc
or has more features etc. And they like to buy their own software
either for MCE windows or for WIN XP like Beyond TV etc.
There was a possible rival the ATI 550 based chip cards like the
sapphire 550 theatrix based on the 550 theater ATI chip new --- but
the reviews have been mediocre for it so far.
I bought the 150 hauppauge recently but havent had time to set it up
yet. Just installed it yesterday.
I think the 3000 is enough but lets say you go for the 3200
$200 or so CPU
$159 MSI PCI express board
