New Computer Building Suggestions

[Yifei Chen]

I need a decent Pentium 4 home computer that is powerful enough to do gaming
pretty well max $800 without a monitor/speakers/hard drive, 400w power
supply preferred.

Any suggestions for parts? In particular, I am troubled because of the
numerous amount of parts for cases, and the wiring and stuff, and also a
motherboard suggestion would be great. I've never done this before, so if
anyone could help, I would be most appreciative. Thanks.

 

[nECrO]

I need a decent Pentium 4 home computer that is powerful enough to do gaming
pretty well max $800 without a monitor/speakers/hard drive, 400w power
supply preferred.

Any suggestions for parts? In particular, I am troubled because of the
numerous amount of parts for cases, and the wiring and stuff, and also a
motherboard suggestion would be great. I've never done this before, so if
anyone could help, I would be most appreciative. Thanks.

Does it have to be an Intel machine? Many people are swayed by the marketing
BS into believing that Pentium chips are light years ahead of AMD. Truth is
a comparable AMD AthlonXP is every bit as stable as an Intel chip and in
most cases you would need a machine to tell you how much faster one or the
other is.

Now as far as parts, you didn't mention if you wanted to buy brick and
mortar or Online. Online is better in my opinion and there are quite a few
online retailers with great reputations for good prices and support. I'll
list a few below. As for cases, You can't beat Antec. For about $100-$200
USD. You can get a well constructed case with an Antec PSU. Not sure if any
come w/400W PSU but look around. Epox, Abit and ASUS all make great Intel
and AMD motherboards. Post exactly which PIV chip (Or AMD if you choose) you
will be using and I'll post specific recommendations. Hope this helps.


nECrO

 

[nECrO]

Does it have to be an Intel machine? Many people are swayed by the marketing
BS into believing that Pentium chips are light years ahead of AMD. Truth is
a comparable AMD AthlonXP is every bit as stable as an Intel chip and in
most cases you would need a machine to tell you how much faster one or the
other is.

Now as far as parts, you didn't mention if you wanted to buy brick and
mortar or Online. Online is better in my opinion and there are quite a few
online retailers with great reputations for good prices and support. I'll
list a few below. As for cases, You can't beat Antec. For about $100-$200
USD. You can get a well constructed case with an Antec PSU. Not sure if any
come w/400W PSU but look around. Epox, Abit and ASUS all make great Intel
and AMD motherboards. Post exactly which PIV chip (Or AMD if you choose) you
will be using and I'll post specific recommendations. Hope this helps.


nECrO

oops. forgot the links. here they are.

http://www.newegg.com
http://www.directron.com
http://www.googlegear.com
http://www.accupc.com

You can check these merchants and any online computer retailer at
http://wwwresellerratings.com
nECrO

 

[etarhan]

Your best bet is to look around for local shops in Internet or computer
magazines.

 

[Tiny Tim]

I would recommend an ASUS P4P800 ($129)

Asus makes this in another version Asus P4P800-VM with integrated Video and
an AGP Port for $109.00. Another option could be the Asus P4PE/L for
$95.99.

I would go with one of their 800 Mhz bus speed motherboards and the Asus
2.4C Gig P4 800 Mhz Processor for $172.00

You might have to buy memory. On the cheap I would buy PC2100 DDR from
Crucial. I always buy what they recommend at www.crucial.com

You probably have a CDROM and a Hard Drive and a Floppy.

Antec makes a wide range of cases if you want a new Case.

ANTEC PERFORMANCE II Model# SX630II (BEIGE) ATX MINI TOWER CASE w/ 300W
POWER SUPPLY - RETAIL
$69.99

 

[Rich Morgan]

Hi I recently built my system as well, I want to start by saying good luck.
I got most of my parts online as I like the prices, & I did by most of my
stuff from Newegg.com They were great & got my stuff out right away & they
have alot of free shipping deals.

As to cases I bought a Chiefteck server case black Aluminum, with a 450 ps
for $80 plus tax I love it, & they are very similar to the antecks. as far
as a MB I picked up the 875 Neo Fishr, its pretty good, but I was kinda
pissed about the ram compatability problem. It does have alot of nice
fetures however like the built in raid controllers, which brings me to the
next part. Hard Drives what ever you do get at least an 8mb buffer, I
would recomend Western Digital. & if you want raid get both of them at the
same time so that you can make sure they are the same exact type. as far as
MEM Kingston & Cors are both great if expensive, however you should decide
what type of intel bus speed you want to run, If you want to run at 800 fsm
get dual 3200 chips if you want to save money pick up 2 256 3200 chips, you
might want to do this regardless so that even if you dont get one of the new
chips you will be able to upgrade to those new chips that are comming out at
the end of this year. I would also recommend picking up an ATI 9500 pro
while you still can, these cards blow away the new 9600s that just came out.
Well thats all for now, except to say I use to be the hardest core fan of
AMD untill I had multiple problems with multipule chips as far as stability
running any type of game, unfortunatly. I have heard this has changed but I
dont want to take the chance with my money.
oh also before you listen to any of us biased customers make sure to check
out http://www.tomshardware.com/
or http://www.hardwarezone.com/home/

again good luck for your system oh by the way I spent under 1000 for all
this including a 19 inch moniter the whole system goodluck