New PC Spec.

[bodhi]

Hi, im building a pc for my mate with a budget of approx £500. Its going to be used for general office stuff, nothing fancy, although i am gonna get him half life and maybe AOE to try and encourage him to play games, although i dont think it will work!!

Anyway, im quite capable of choosing the little bits and pieces, i would just like some advice on the actual 'box'. He doesnt want a tft monitor, so gonna get him a 17" iiyama or something.

So, standard case with 400w ish power supply. Is the AMD XP processor still worth getting? Its not a dodo yet? I quite fancy an asus motherboard cause ive always liked them. Any chance someone can suggest an asus board and appropriate processor for it, and possible the ram too. The rest of the stuff should be pretty simple i guess.

So, its

Motherboard:
Processor
RAM:

Sorry this is a very messy message, but i hope someone can help me out, just wanna make sure i get stuff thats gonna work together.

Oh, doesnt need wifi but does need 10/100 LAN onboard cause they will get their broadband from telewest.

Cheers.

 

[Me__2001]

the athlon XP's are still good its just they will probably be phased out soon to make way for the athlon64's, so i'd say

Asus A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 2800
512MB Geil Value Ram or Samsung PC2700

maybe PC3200 im not sure about FSB on CPU, should work ok but im sure someone will say if it won't

 

[Reefsmoka]

Motherboard: Abit KV-7 £42
Processor: AMD 3000XP 400Mhz FSB OEM £90
Processor Fan: Thermaltake Volcano 11+ £13
Memory: CrucialCorsair Value 2x512 PC3200 £100
Graphics Card: Ati Radeon 9800Pro £140
Hard Drive: Maxtor Dimond Max +9 80 Gig £35
DVD Rom: Sony £20
Case: Arianet Cybercase 420w PSU £ 22
Case Fan: £5

All from Aria for under £500

All prices are pretty close approximates, some a little cheaper, some a little more. I would wait till mid January though, when the sales really kick in. I reckon by then you'll be able to knock £50-£80 off all that if you look around hard enough.

 

[bodhi]

the athlon XP's are still good its just they will probably be phased out soon to make way for the athlon64's, so i'd say

Asus A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 2800
512MB Geil Value Ram or Samsung PC2700

maybe PC3200 im not sure about FSB on CPU, should work ok but im sure someone will say if it won't

Yeah, was thinking of the asus A7N8X-X board, it looks pretty good and overclockers have it for just over £40 which seems like a bargain!! If i get that board and an XP 2800 that will be a pretty good machine wont it? Also, would i need PC3200??

Anyone had experience of that asus board?

 

[Me__2001]

i was looking to use something similar for my dad because it is cheap

the FSB of 2800's are 333 tihink and 3000's or 3200's are 400

 

[ChristopherP]

i'd take Reefs spec.

edit:

I would change it in one way though, get a SATA hard drive for it, that would defo speed things up.

 

[bodhi]

Does PC3200 RAM work with 333 FSB and 400FSB then? I hate this FSB nonsense!! lol.

I know the asus board is cheap, but is it good?! I was going to buy a jetway board but its about 70 quid. It does have more usb ports etc.

 

[muckshifter]

2700 = DDR333 = 333FSB
3200 = DDR400 = 400FSB

Always use the highest rated RAM (DDR400) you can afford, but no less than the CPUs FSB

So, even if you use a 133 CPU but your motherboard is capable of using 3200/DDR400 then use the faster memory.

Asus make very good MBs, especially the A7N8 range (so do MSI's Delta range ), popularity helps to keep the price down. I personally would not use a Jetway.
(that is MY personal opinion)

SATA will help "future proofing" so even when we eventually see 600mb transfer rate (2006/7) you should have no problem 'swapping out' the old drive for the new.

 

[bodhi]

I was just going to go for standard ATA hard drive, didnt think SATA would make much difference. Also, cause i havn't used one before, i was scared!! lol. Is it just the same? Buy a SATA drive and get a standard cable and plug it onto the motherboard? I imagine so. Take it its not a standard IDE cable but some new thing?

 

[bodhi]

Oh, and i was just worred about the Asus board cause it was only 40 quid. But i take it its still a quality board?

What about the Asus A7N8X-X Board
AMD XP2800 or 3000
512Mb PC3200 Memory
Seagate SATA Hard Drive (Oh, does the asus board support SATA drives?)

Thanks.

 

[muckshifter]

Ok, I'm getting confused as you seem to be here.

The Asus A7N8X-X is a good alround "standard" motherboard, I've used loads ... it has nothing fancy like having SATA fitted onboard. So buying a SATA drive for it is a waste and will not be conectable without added 'converters' at extra cost.

Stick with an IDE drive for this set-up

What about the Asus A7N8X-X Board
AMD XP2800 or 3000
512Mb PC3200 Memory

My reference to SATA was in reply to Chris's post who was replying to Reefer's post and the Abit KV-7 which does have SATA support onboard the motherboard.

Abit make some good MBs, some however, require an inner knowledge of how the universe works.

Sorry for the confusion there.

 

[bodhi]

No problem mate, just wanting to get my info sorted before i start this week project. Would you suggest that the asus board etc would make a good machine though? Its gonna be used for broadband and office stuff? I would prefer to go for an asus than abit, probably more just personal choice than anything else, just cause i always think asus make good boards and i havn't used abit. Fear of the unknown!! Oh, i take it i CANT go wrong with PC3200? That will work whatever i get motherboard and processor wise?

 

[Me__2001]

No but the A7N8X-E Deluxe does its just it costs £60

 

[muckshifter]

ME-2001
A good sugestion for thought ... the A7N8X-X is geting a little left behind in technology terms.

bodhi, I agree, stick with Asus.

 

[Me__2001]

Mucks i know what you mean, i only suggested it because its cheap and you could probably get a reasonable gaming rig out of it in the future if he ever wanted to upgrade, i thought someone may have suggested something better.

Bodhi the ram should work fine i just thought it would be a waste if you got PC3200 as it will be running a PC2700 speeds if you got a 333 FSB CPU (tell me if im wrong)

 

[muckshifter]

Personally, dispite some of the advice I give, I tend to match everything to the CPU.

So if I bought an Athlon 'Barton' XP2500 (333Mhz) CPU I would fit 2700/333 memory, even on a 400 motherboard. If or when time comes around to upgrade, I'm usually looking to replace all 3 anyway. I'm a Scot and I do look after the pennies.

Though, my Dear Lady Wife gets my 'hand-me-down' and so too my daughter gets a 'new' system.

 

[ChristopherP]

You'll find nothing wrong with the KV7 - got one in my sisters machine, runs sweet, real sweet. Has SATA, USB2, LAN, AGP8x - everything you need.

That with a SATA hard drive will definatly make a BETTER machine than the Asus with a PATA hard drive, for the same money. The SATA cables are VERY thing, about 10 times smaller than the IDE cables, much better for airflow etc...

 

[bodhi]

Yeah, im going to go for the asus board at 60 quid, it has SATA, Firewire, more USB ports etc. Just looks like a lot better board, infact, it looks like one of the best ive seen, especially at that price. SO thats the board sorted!! The XP processors dont seem to be made now. Not many of them about. Was gonna get the XP-3200 but it seems quite expensive. Will just stick with 512MB of PC3200 RAM.

That sound like a good spec?

 

[muckshifter]

Careful on the memory, it uses "Dual Channel Memory Architecture", that is to say, you should really get two sticks to make use of it. I have only ever seen that Asus board with three memory slots, so it’s even more important to get the right amount of memory.

Go for two sticks of 512 if you can afford those, if not two sticks of 256. XP will thank you for as much as you can throw at it.

There is no need to lash-out on "twin-matched-super-duper Dual Cannel" memory, there is no such thing, just get a pair of Corsair Value ram or Corsair Performance ram ... hell, even Kingston value ram will do. My personal preference would be the Corsair in that system, although Crucial will guarantee to match the ram to the MB.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Crucial non-ecc RAM prices, inc. delivery, as of now:

2 x 256 PC2700 - £49.32
2 x 256 PC3200 - £51.68

For an extra £2.36, I'd go for the PC3200 myself, some degree of future proofing there.

I would try and get a board with some SATA ports if possible, don't want to be left in the Stone Age.

Abit boards aren't half as complicated now as they used to be, those days of having to get the Bios just so and choosing correct PCI slots are long gone with their newer boards.

Attached is pix of XP processor prices from Scan.