Another building my PC topic.

[ReDGuNNeR]

I'm planning on buying a PC for the next generation games that are coming out (mainly HL:2 and Doom 3) and....wait for it..... I need your help:cheese: . I don't have alot of money to go all out with a 3.2 800fsb p4 and a Radeon 9800 Pro Ultimate, but im not that bad off either... you can make a suggestion to add/remove something. (upgrading/buying a PC is almost like buying a car lol)

First off, Current PC specs (maybe I can salvage something)
--
AMD Duron 800mhz
Asus A7V
Geforce 2 MX
512MB SDRAM
Soundblaster Live! VALUE (heh)
52x CDROM and 16x Burner
20 gig 7200rpm Western Digital

and what im looking at:
--
a P4 with 800 fsb (maybe a 2.4, please list a good and cheap mobo)
a Radeon 9600 pro ( willing to spend 30 more bucks on the 256 version)
512 stick of RAM

did I miss something, please help me out, and please keep the prices low

EDIT: I know there is a sticky, but the information is outdated( "...A Pentium 2Ghz and a Geforce 4 for the best visuals." ) with that new benchmark out.

 

[Pressure]

Your mobo won't support 800 fsb you'll need a new one but which one is up to you. You said a cheap one but you might want to get a good one because a poor mobo can hinder the quality of your comp.

 

[Noodlygod]

If you want to tell me how much you can spend I can come up with some specs for you. =)

 

[stryder2720]

Umm how about a 200gig HD

 

[ReDGuNNeR]

i am willing to spend about( ABOUT, I can go a bit over) $750-$800 dollars (US)

 

[Scudded]

I'd go for a 128mb 9600 pro and spend the money you saved there to other things

 

[crabcakes66]

Originally posted by Scudded
I'd go for a 128mb 9600 pro and spend the money you saved there to other things

theres no poinmt in buying a 9600 when you have the money for a 9800.....that makes no sense

 

[SidewinderX]

crab: but he's alswo buying RAM, mobo, processor, proberly a hdd. Plus the video card. read his post first.

 

[Asus]

Originally posted by Pressure
Your mobo won't support 800 fsb you'll need a new one but which one is up to you. You said a cheap one but you might want to get a good one because a poor mobo can hinder the quality of your comp.

Haha, his motherboard wont support a P4.
You can reuse the:
52x CDROM and 16x Burner
20 gig 7200rpm Western Digital
of course.
I would suggest a bigger harddrive. 120gb WD harddrives seem to be onsale everywhere (SE 8mb cache versions too...ooo).
If you have lived with a 20gb drive this whole time, 120gb will be big for you at first.
If at all possible, I would put your money into a 9800 pro (or non pro) rather than into the cpu. If it was me and I had to wait for money on a 9800 pro...I would. Intels p4 2.4ghz fsb800 can be found pretty cheap i hear.
If you really do not have money for a 9800 AND buying a P4...I would go with a AMD 2500+ for around 80$ and grab a Nforce2 mobo for 80$ as well. Along with 512mb DDR PC2700 which can be found under 100$.
Either one will have enough power to last you a while. Especially with a 9800 pro for gaming.

 

[TheRook]

Originally posted by Asus
Haha, his motherboard wont support a P4.
You can reuse the:
52x CDROM and 16x Burner
20 gig 7200rpm Western Digital
of course.
I would suggest a bigger harddrive. 120gb WD harddrives seem to be onsale everywhere (SE 8mb cache versions too...ooo).
If you have lived with a 20gb drive this whole time, 120gb will be big for you at first.
If at all possible, I would put your money into a 9800 pro (or non pro) rather than into the cpu. If it was me and I had to wait for money on a 9800 pro...I would. Intels p4 2.4ghz fsb800 can be found pretty cheap i hear.
If you really do not have money for a 9800 AND buying a P4...I would go with a AMD 2500+ for around 80$ and grab a Nforce2 mobo for 80$ as well. Along with 512mb DDR PC2700 which can be found under 100$.
Either one will have enough power to last you a while. Especially with a 9800 pro for gaming.

i agree with the last paragraph... the one about going for the amd... my 2000xp is overclocked to a 2600xp and it beats out 2.4gig p4's cos im the daddy and its on stock hsf too

therook

 

[MacGraham]

and what im looking at:
--
a P4 with 800 fsb (maybe a 2.4, please list a good and cheap mobo)
a Radeon 9600 pro ( willing to spend 30 more bucks on the 256 version)
512 stick of RAM


If your lokking to budget then forget Pentiums, nothing against them it's just that they're expensive. An XP 2600+ is a good budget chip. If your not going the whole hog on a 9800 then why bother with a 256Mb either. Tyan do the best 9600pro at the moment, built for overclocking with internal hardware monitoring (£99 ex VAT ebuyer.co.uk). 512Mb of RAM will also do you find. The extra £50 you pay for another 512 will be better spent else where rather than the small performance difference it will give. Asus A7N8X is a great Mobo and the deluxe version has great 5.1 sound on-board (soundstorm chip form the Xbox).

Sorry about everything in £'s but hope this helps

 

[ReDGuNNeR]

Wow, thanks for all the responses guys! I am now looking into the Athlon XP's, and I want to ask, do they overclock well (primarily the 2500+ and 2600+) becuase one of the reasons I picked the P4 was the fact that they overclock really well. And is it hard to overclock the XP's? in my current PC, you had to pencil in the bridges in the chip.. kind of an annoyance to me heh..

 

[MacGraham]

Originally posted by ReDGuNNeR
Wow, thanks for all the responses guys! I am now looking into the Athlon XP's, and I want to ask, do they overclock well (primarily the 2500+ and 2600+) becuase one of the reasons I picked the P4 was the fact that they overclock really well. And is it hard to overclock the XP's? in my current PC, you had to pencil in the bridges in the chip.. kind of an annoyance to me heh..

my rigs running a XP2400 at XP2600 speeds quite nicely. Cause of the FSB speed of that chip my Mobo won't make it go any faster but I'm sure it would do it happily enough. Athlons are famous for their overclocking potential

 

[MacGraham]

Originally posted by ReDGuNNeR
Wow, thanks for all the responses guys! I am now looking into the Athlon XP's, and I want to ask, do they overclock well (primarily the 2500+ and 2600+) becuase one of the reasons I picked the P4 was the fact that they overclock really well. And is it hard to overclock the XP's? in my current PC, you had to pencil in the bridges in the chip.. kind of an annoyance to me heh..

The Asus Mobo lets you overclock though the bios, CPU and memory. No pissing about with anything techy you just press buttons

 

[Noodlygod]

Alrighty: These prices are all based on Newegg.com. You'll probably be able to find an even better deal using pricewatch but I doubt you'll be able to find it all from the same store.

Asus A7N8X: 94.99
AMD Athlon XP Barton 2500+: 85.00
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (128): 174.00
Kingston 512mb PC2700 DDR Ram: 85.00

I didn't pick out a case, I don't know if you need one. But let's say we add 60 bucks for a new case. Your total is:

498.99 Without any tax/shipping.

So, you can still either up the video or add another 512mb of Ram and be within your price range. Good luck!

 

[Noodlygod]

And I forgot to add a hard drive and it's been over 15 minutes so heres a hard drive:

Samsung 120gb: 94

(The 120gb was only 20 bucks more so I figure why not?)

New total:
592.99