building new PC

[Randy Reimers]

I am going to build a new PC, wondering what board/CPU combo is recommended?
I'm not a gamer, don't need extreme high end, looking for bang for the buck.
I do need to be able to hook up 4 IDE devices, and a new SATA drive. Don't
want onboard video, unless good? I would like to get a speedy CPU, 1/2 gig
RAM, I do put this to some use for sure, would like fast start-up. Was
looking at ASUS K8V board/CPU combo from TigetDirect, looks like it has what
I want - any advice there?

Thanks
Randy

 

[JK]

I am going to build a new PC, wondering what board/CPU combo is recommended?
I'm not a gamer, don't need extreme high end, looking for bang for the buck.
I do need to be able to hook up 4 IDE devices, and a new SATA drive. Don't
want onboard video, unless good? I would like to get a speedy CPU, 1/2 gig
RAM, I do put this to some use for sure, would like fast start-up. Was
looking at ASUS K8V board/CPU combo from TigetDirect, looks like it has what
I want - any advice there?

Well, I think you are on the right track with a 64 bits MB/CPU for
coming 64 bits OS being common in the future.

But I would think of getting 1 Gbyte ram. Further KV8 is a via chipset
MB for socket 754. I would pick a socket 939 motherboard and one of
the newer 90 nm process CPU, like winchester or venice. Per example a
3200+ or 3500+. A winchester CPU per example uses only idle 13 watt
and load 65 watt, where older 130 nm cores consumes 20 watt more by
full load. By using the 90 nm CPUs and getting a MB with Cool&Quiet it
is possible to get a rather quiet PC. There are new types of PSUs with
a single 120 mm fan that makes less noise. AMDs stock cooler is
sufficient and can be rather quiet with C&Q too.

Asus is a good brand, but they don't make a Nforce3 s939 MB with AGP,
just Nforce4 with pci express. But Gigabyte and MSI have NF3 MB with
AGP, if you want to use the old graphics card.

Just to put some things in play as you asked for.

best regards

John

 

[name]

I'm using an ASUS A8N-E 939 socket mobo, with 1GB Mushkin HP PC3200 RAM
(2x512),
an AMD 64 3200 (Winchester), and a ATI X300 256MB Video card.
I'm not a gamer, I'm a PC tech and the setup I have is great. It has 2 IDE
controllers and 4 SATA headers with optional RAID. The NForce4 chipset is
great and dual memory controllers give great memory bandwith. The system is
quiet, fast and very upgradeable, with a BIOS update it can handle AMD's new
dual core chips. And, yes, go for the 90nn process CPU it makes a big
difference.
Hope this helps.

john