Need system build advice

[A Person]

It has been a really long time since I last built a computer. A lot has
changed. My current computer keeps dying and trashing my boot partition
which has really hampered my research on what to buy. Guess where I
had my notes?

First off, I need a stable and reliable system. I am physically and
vocally disabled so my computer is my link to the world.

The computer will be mostly used to play Massively Multi-player Online
Roleplaying Games like EverQuest and Guild Wars. Ripping and burning
CD/DVDs is a lesser passion.

My budget isn't set yet but my harddrives, CD and DVD drives are new
enough to keep using. That gives me some freedom to spend more on
other parts.

So far my research points toward getting an Athlon 64. What are the
differences between the Clawhammer, Venice, and San Diego cores?
My current system is an Intel P4 2.4GHz. I'll probably be getting
an Athlon 3500+ or faster so it lasts me a while. Where is the best
bang for the buck sweet spot these days?

Since the Athlon 64 is a 939 processor, my next question is which
motherboard to buy and which to avoid? It needs to support X2 for
potential future upgrades. I'm not interested in SLI. PCI-E will
used for graphics as my old card is garbage. Is nForce 4 the best
choice? Is there more than one version on the nForce 4 chipset?

RAM these days has me confused. The new system will have one or
two gigabytes but the motherboard will likely dictate choices on
that.

My graphics card will be Nvidia. Likely a 6600GT but possibly a
6800 or 7800 of some type.

Any ideas on a decent tower case with a power button near the
bottom? My handicaps restrict my reach so that is important.
My current case is an AOpen desktop version but with two hard-
drives and a CD and DVD drive cooling might be an issue with
the newer processors and graphics cards. I'm not a fan of
noisy computers.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[JAD]

for a stable system (speaking from a disabled point of view also) the worst
thing you can do is go 'state of the art'. Trying to make it reliable and
fast doesn't mean buying the latest and greatest. Go back 1 year from today
and use what was the talk of the town for a guide line. Not that you can't
get a reliable solution keeping up with the Jones, but its a can of worms.
Is XP64 even out of beta yet? Do you use proprietary hardware for
accessibility? These are things that you need the think about depending on
your accessibility needs. A fast machine that you can't enjoy,...well
sucks...and I have been there.

 

[JAD]

It has been a really long time since I last built a computer. A lot has
changed. My current computer keeps dying and trashing my boot partition
which has really hampered my research on what to buy. Guess where I
had my notes?

sounds like a hard drive problem or possibly a mainboard controller/ide
driver issue. A system shutdown or OS reboot rarely involves a partition
thrashing. Maybe the PSU, as THIS is becoming the #1 killer of systems as of
late.

 

[A Person]

for a stable system (speaking from a disabled point of view also) the worst
thing you can do is go 'state of the art'. Trying to make it reliable and
fast doesn't mean buying the latest and greatest. Go back 1 year from today
and use what was the talk of the town for a guide line. Not that you can't
get a reliable solution keeping up with the Jones, but its a can of worms.
Is XP64 even out of beta yet? Do you use proprietary hardware for
accessibility? These are things that you need the think about depending on
your accessibility needs. A fast machine that you can't enjoy,...well
sucks...and I have been there.

XP64 is an OS. The Athlon 64 is a processor, which you probably know,
but your XP64 reference threw me. I won't be using that OS as it lacks
a lot of driver support from what I've read. The Home version of Windows XP
meets my needs.

My handicaps do not require any special hardware. The games my computer
is used for do require a pretty kick ass system, though. Going back a year
is not really a viable option. To reduce the risk of instability I'll be
buying quality parts, hopefully by recommendations here, and avoiding the
temptation to overclock.

Adding part of my old post so people on lousy news servers can see
what I'm looking to learn.

....

The computer will be mostly used to play Massively Multi-player Online
Roleplaying Games like EverQuest and Guild Wars. Ripping and burning
CD/DVDs is a lesser passion.

My budget isn't set yet but my harddrives, CD and DVD drives are new
enough to keep using. That gives me some freedom to spend more on
other parts.

So far my research points toward getting an Athlon 64. What are the
differences between the Clawhammer, Venice, and San Diego cores?
My current system is an Intel P4 2.4GHz. I'll probably be getting
an Athlon 3500+ or faster so it lasts me a while. Where is the best
bang for the buck sweet spot these days?

Since the Athlon 64 is a 939 processor, my next question is which
motherboard to buy and which to avoid? It needs to support X2 for
potential future upgrades. I'm not interested in SLI. PCI-E will
used for graphics as my old card is garbage. Is nForce 4 the best
choice? Is there more than one version of the nForce 4 chipset?

RAM these days has me confused. The new system will have one or
two gigabytes but the motherboard will likely dictate choices on
that.

My graphics card will be Nvidia. Likely a 6600GT but possibly a
6800 or 7800 of some type.

Any ideas on a decent tower case with a power button near the
bottom? My handicaps restrict my reach so that is important.
My current case is an AOpen desktop version but with two hard-
drives and a CD and DVD drive cooling might be an issue with
the newer processors and graphics cards. I'm not a fan of
noisy computers.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[A Person]

sounds like a hard drive problem or possibly a mainboard controller/ide
driver issue. A system shutdown or OS reboot rarely involves a partition
thrashing. Maybe the PSU, as THIS is becoming the #1 killer of systems as of
late.

It's the mainboard. It is getting progressively worse but still boots
for now. Hence the rush to pick new parts before it dies. I usually
don't post questions without doing more research first.

At a minimum a new mainboard, RAM, and graphics card will be needed.
My old system was getting too slow to meet my needs even before the
problems started.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[JAD]

XP64 is an OS. The Athlon 64 is a processor, which you probably know,
but your XP64 reference threw me. I won't be using that OS as it lacks
a lot of driver support from what I've read. The Home version of Windows XP
meets my needs.

Yes Windows XP64 the OS was what I was referring to. Since I have not jumped
into the 64 bit arena yet, I would think that if you do not run a 64bit OS
with your 64bit CPU your not getting your money's worth, and since your
games will be advertised to take advantage of this...I don't know, I could
be off base here so I will go no further with this area.

My handicaps do not require any special hardware. The games my computer
is used for do require a pretty kick ass system, though. Going back a year
is not really a viable option. To reduce the risk of instability I'll be
buying quality parts, hopefully by recommendations here, and avoiding the
temptation to overclock.

Adding part of my old post so people on lousy news servers can see
what I'm looking to learn.

...

The computer will be mostly used to play Massively Multi-player Online
Roleplaying Games like EverQuest and Guild Wars. Ripping and burning
CD/DVDs is a lesser passion.

As of late I have not dabbled in the multiplayer game arena. That latest
game I play-played is Medal of honor allied assault , The ever evolving
Americas Army, Any UT made. Do these come close to what your playing?

These I can play on a 7500 64meg ATI card ,1 gig PC2100 ram on an P4 2.0 /
ASUS P4b266 with every thing at its highest within the game settings. The
computer only behaves as good as the slowest person connected to the
particular game IMO. My point being, don't spend allot of cash unnessarily.
The 'future upgrade' argument is valid, but these days the tech out grows
software and changes become more radical, so like your doing, you keep
everything but the MB and CPU/cooling solution. I haven't been sitting
around talking about a 'CPU upgade only' situation for some time now. It
will be interesting to see how far PSP intendo ect will advance thier game
machines....little more on the networking side and there won't be a need for
PC to game.

 

[A Person]

As of late I have not dabbled in the multiplayer game arena. That latest
game I play-played is Medal of honor allied assault , The ever evolving
Americas Army, Any UT made. Do these come close to what your playing?

No clue on those games. The games I play do require my turning options
off to maintain viable speed.

If my mainboard were healthy a new graphics card would be a good short
term option. Getting another mainboard for my 2.4 P4 would likely keep
me with AGP which is a dying, if not dead, standard. My 1Gb of PC133 RAM
is antique by today's standards. It just looks like modest changes now
would force major changes next upgrade. I may as well just do it now.
My history has been to do lots of small upgrades until that doesn't
suffice and then buy top quality hardware, but not quite bleeding edge,
and begin the cycle again as needed.

My prior systems have used ASUS and Abit mainboards. The current one
uses [never again!] ECS. Being without USENET 3 years has left oblivious
to the manufacturers to avoid and the ones to buy. Newegg, for example,
has 19 manufacturers of AMD mainboards listed. AMD and Intel aren't
helping things by their oodles of processor variations.