oblivion

ok, heres the deal.....im in the middle of making a computer and i need people's opinions. Im from NY and im on a tight budget ( around $1500).

Heres what i have atm.

Motherboard :: ASUS-K8V ($90)
Processor :: AMD Athlon 3200+ ($310)
Keyboard :: Logitec Cordless Mx Duo ($70)

now, i really need to know what video card im gonna get. I was thinking of borrowing a crappy vid card from my friend until the X800 XT comes out. Well, i doubt its worth the wait....but a friend of mine could gimme a $100 discount, and im also getting it out of spite.

For ram, i can only afford a decent 512 Corsair XMS PC-3200 OEM. Can anyone think of any better ram i could get?

Hard drive........Its gonna be either a seagate 160 GB (ST3160023AS) or................. a 37 GB raptor drive. Then wait a month to buy another 37 GB

The rest i can decide on my own

Well, lets see what u guys think

Lasereth

I'd definitely get a SATA HDD. That'll speed things up nicely! May as well since you're spending $1500 on a PC. That's certainly not a tight budget if ya ask me.

I'd get the Radeon X800 Pro if ya don't feel like waiting. The XT hasn't been benchmarked yet...only the XT Platinum Edition. The regular XT will be a step below the Platinum Edition, so you may as well just get a Radeon X800 Pro. They're "only" $400 USD.

That RAM will do fine, but I'd spend more and get 768 MB or 1 GB. 512 MB simply isn't enough with today's games. Why can you only afford 512 MB if you have $1,500 to spend?

The mobo and processor look great. If you combo together Corsair XMS RAM with a Radeon X800 and Athlon 64 then you'll have an incredibly fast PC that'll run games for years to come. Good luck!

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

oblivion

See, $1500 seems to be a lot, but if you put all the prices together, it adds up. Especially with the speakers and printer im getting.

Its funny.....cause a friend of mine bought the Dell XPS from dell.com for $2400. THAT DUMBASS!!!!! Thats why im getting so much near top of the line stuff for my computer like the X800 XT. Just out of spite. =P. Also, im preparing my comp for Half life 2 W00T!!!!

Zello

It looks like you already know what you want to get.

Definently get 1 gig of ram if you can. If money is an issue, I would cut the video card. It looks like your pretty set on getting the X800, but do you really need it?

As for the hardrives, I would go with the SATA drive now and another later on like you planned. Of course, it depends on if 37 gb is enough for you. If not, maybe you can squeeze this(click) in with your SATA drive. Circuit City has a WD 120gb hd for 40$ after rebate. Only available in store.

__________________
Sorry, you can not add yourself to your own list.

CheesePizzaMan

I have that 120 gb drive and it works great. I got it for 40 bucks too and will probably pick up another to go with it. Course I built my computer for 300 bucks, with a ti4200, 512 megs ram, 120 gig drive, 2400+, and it can take most of what I throw at it. I have 3 hard drives, a dvd drive, cd drive, all on my weaksauce generic 300w power supply and it is flyin', by my standards. Not top of the line, but in a year when I throw 300 bucks at my next computer, its gonna kill a lot of these current thousand dollar systems. SATA seems to be great when your bios can handle it right. Can't wait.

Enough about my cheap ass. If I were you, I wouldn't a dropped 310 on that processor when you coulda picked up the good ram that everyone is suggesting and popped in a mobile barton 2400 or 2500 with an unlocked multiplier and a good thermalright heatsink and gotten a much faster processor for 80 bucks. If ya fry it, ya can buy 3 more before ya hit your old total. And you'd be playin with an athlon 3800+ (or whatever an aircooled 2.5ghz athlon is called) instead of a 3200+.

billege

Did you find the proc at "rip offs are us?"

newegg is selling a
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ for $282. Yes, it's in stock. If you want a whitebox, it's $270.

RAM wise, newegg'll sell you 1GB of Corsair (latency: 2.5) for $187. It's in stock too.

SATA is a good choice, but it's not faster than a EIDE drive. A lot of people forget that.
SATA is not a better HD, it's a better HD interface. It does, and will allow faster transfer rates than EIDE, but the drives themselves have a lot of improving to do yet.
The bennies for SATA are: the improved cable and higher theoretical transfer limit of 150mb/sec.
Hard drives are only sustaining transfer rates in the 64MB/sec range. Burst rates of 90MB/sec are happening, but you can see that 90MB/sec is still pretty far from the IDE ceiling of 133MB/sec.
The SATA "speed limit" of 150 is only impressive for people who forget that the HD is only capable of pushing about half that consistantly.

If cost is your concern, the EIDE version of the 160GB drive is 103, the SATA is 123. Is the skinny cable worth 20 bucks? That's up to you.

The segate and the raptor is an apples to oranges comparison. They are built for completely different performance goals. You'll have to decide what you're after, and what you're willing to sacrifice.

Since that board supports RAID on its SATA side, that's a compelling reason to buy SATA.

If you want to get really clever, buy your two raptors, and run them in RAID 0 (thus sacrificing data safty for speed) and keep your system and apps files on those fast buggers.

Then you buy your cheap EIDE 160GB behemoth for mass storage, a month later.

Or get really insane and buy two SATA 160GB drives and run THEM RAID 0 on the other two SATA channels you've got.

Then you'd have your scarey fast raptors in RAID 0 for sys/apps, and pretty durn fast 160s in RAID 0 for media.

Certainly not a good setup if you're worried about drives breaking, but it'd be quick.

__________________
I can sum up the clash of religion in one sentence:
"My Invisible Friend is better than your Invisible Friend."

oblivion

umm yea.....sure, u can think that. But i bought both my mobo and proc in a package deal. So you have to put the prices together. Thus, i spent $400 on both including tax. yea, i know new egg sells the proc cheaper...but not the mobo.

At new egg, both of em will add up to $393. O wow...a whole $7. i prefer "wasting" the $7 by buying the stuff first hand...so i dont buy something thats damaged or anything. Plus, i dont have to worry about it being damaged or lost in the mail.

thus... I R smart shopper =P

oblivion

well, in a couple of months, when i get bored, obviously im gonna OC my 3200. By then ill have enough money to buy a pretty decent cooling system. But for now, the 3200 will do just fine.

Also, people are saying im "cheaping out" by not getting a lot of ram. Well, thats because its one of the easiest to upgrade. So that can wait. Im worrying more about things that are harder to upgrade. Like the vid card........for some reason, im starting to get interested in the GF6 series

CheesePizzaMan

You can't really "OC" your 3200. At least not as much as you'd have been able to OC a mobile 2500 or 2400. THe mobile chips are unlocked, and the 3200's are not. I guess you could buy a 3200, sever some of the bridges to make it a mobile, and then oc it with software, but it would have been much easier to buy a cheap 80 dollar 2400xp mobile chip that will fly right past a stock 3200. I agree with you that a 3200 is just fine for now. I just think that it is great to save money on the chip if money is an issue. You'd have 230-the cost of a better heatsink than the one you bought (thermalright is about 40 bucks if memory serves). That goes a hell of a long way towards a good vid card. I know that it may be too late, and overclocking isn't for everybody. I havn't been "burned" yet by a bad 2400 mobile or 2500 mobile, so I just thought I'd recommend 'em. Or 4 of em, for the price of one 3200.

Lasereth

You gotta remember that he's buying an Athlon 64 3200+. You'll be very hard pressed to OC an Athlon XP to Athlon 64 3200+ speed/power. An Athlon 64 3200+ has 1 MB of L2 cache...there's simply no getting around the raw power boost that Athlon 64's get.

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

oblivion

well said Lasereth =P. I just cant wait until those lazy bastards at microsoft finnish the 64bit supporting OS

billege

Listen smartass, you didn't say in your original post you bought the two as a set, did you?

No, you goddamn didn't.

If you split them, it'd be $200/each.
Not the 90/310 split you posted.

If you want people to believe what you post, then post the whole deal, or don't waste everyone's time.

The newegg produtcs I took time out of my day to try and find YOU a better deal are not "damaged or anything," they are brand-spanking-new.
So while your sarcasm sucks ass, what you "prefer" is irrelavent because you, for some reason, assumed the prices were not for new and they are.

As to losing them in the mail, newegg is as reputable online vender as they come.

Also, you put "wasting" in quotes. I NEVER used the word wasting, and I don't appreciate you implying I did.

I tried to find you a better deal, based on the information YOU provided. If you're going to be a prick because the info YOU posted was inaccurate, you can kiss my ass.


I don't appreciate your attitude, and I sure don't appreciate your inaccuracy.

Stick your tounge out at some script kidde forum.
Please don't waste my time if I try and help you based on YOUR shitty info.

__________________
I can sum up the clash of religion in one sentence:
"My Invisible Friend is better than your Invisible Friend."

Lasereth

Jesus, calm down billege, you're in the wrong too. You implied he didn't know how to shop by saying he bought computer parts at "Rip Offs R Us" or whatever. No, he didn't mention they were a packaged deal, but that doesn't mean ya gotta be a smartass about it, and you were the first one to get a little quip out.

Don't bring "believing what you post" crap into it. He simply forgot to mention it was a packaged deal.

And for the record, I've ordered about $2500-$3000 worth of computer equipment from NewEgg.com in the past couple of years, and sent back almost all of it (sans a motherboard, processor, and PSU) because it came broke. NewEgg isn't known for their quality...they're known for their good shipping and *superb* RMA policy. The fact that it comes broke doesn't make them a bad company; it's the fact that they take back broken parts that makes them a good company. I've even got broken retail parts from NewEgg. It IS better to buy from a retail store if ya can get a good price.

You seriously need to calm down. He wasn't being a smartass or "implying" anything with quotes. You implied he was a bad shopper, so he retaliated.

He wasn't a prick...that was you taking it personally for some reason. Go get a massage or something!

If ya don't appreciate his attitude, then don't start the stuff you just did. It just makes it worse. This wouldn't have started if you didn't suggest he was a bad shopper in the first place, so you had as much of an attitude as he did.

I'm sure oblivion didn't mean anything personally, so I'd reread what he said and calm down! We're just trying to get a computer together, that's all. Responses like this are what TFP is against -- you know that!

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

billege

NO, I didn't imply he was a bad shopper.

I implied the store he found the processer at was charging overly high prices. That's why I called the store "rip offs are us," as opposed to calling him anything.

See the difference?

I beg to differ on what I see in his post, and the excuses you're making for him.

I tried to help based on his bad info, he was sarcastic in return.

I'd propose that if you, or he, thinks my comment about the store being "rip offs are us" is a quip about either his shopping talents, or person in general, you're guilty of reading a bit deep.


Either way, this is silly.

Moving on...
oblivion, did you figure out anything regarding hard drive choice?

__________________
I can sum up the clash of religion in one sentence:
"My Invisible Friend is better than your Invisible Friend."

Lasereth

I believe you're guilty of that too.

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

oblivion

For my HD, i was planning on getting a seagate HD, but a lot of my friends keep nagging me to get a damn raptor.

im probably gonna get a raptor and that HD that Zella recommended. Heh, i might as well try to please most of my friends.

Also, now.... for my vid card, i think im gonna get the 9800XT temporarily until ATI comes up with an all-in-wonder version of the X800s. Itll be easier to resell the 9800XT when the time comes

Lasereth

Come on man, if you're gonna get a 9800XT, that's not far from how much an X800 Pro costs anyway! One company had them for $350 a few days ago on techbargains.com.

Radeon 9800XT's are near that price or over. Neither one are all in wonder, so you may as well get an X800. I think it'd be easier to resell the X800 Pro after the AIW version comes out.

Sorry to nag, but that X800 Pro is just too damned good to pass up, even temporarily. Go for it!!

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

oblivion

Well, its all up to the video card Gods. Whatever i have a chance to buy first will be the one.

PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST......gimme links for sites that sell the X800 pro XD hahaha

Lasereth

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...131-245&depa=0

GO GO GO!!!!!! Only $480!!!!

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

thephuse

I thought the X800 Pro was supposed to be $400... what's goin' on?

hey "oblivion" don't waste ur money on Raptors... do you REALLY need to transfer files that much quicker than a regular SATA or EIDE HDD?...

Like I said from the begining.. go with more RAM... besides.. if ur gonna pay 480+ for an X800 Pro.. u mite as well get anything else u fancy

(Like i said.. I cant get the X800 for u until its in stock at CompUSA)

__________________
b000yahed up your w000pah!!

Joygasm~!!

oblivion

hey "thephuse", whats with the quotes around my name? Jeez Brian, u might as well call me by my real name. Like i said...i can always buy more ram later on.

im gonna order the 160 Seagate HD, the 512 Corsair XMS PC-3200 OEM, and the 120 HD from Circuit City tomorrow.....

and if u stop being a dick, maybe ill get the X800 pro from you by next week.

josobot

check out newegg.com , don't go all fancy at once, you won't easily find out whats incompatible or defective

oblivion

ive already searched through newegg, pricewatch, ebay....the works. Those parts ive listed seem to be the best and reasonable......other then the x800 hahaha

thephuse

... uh.. how am i being a dick if I cant get you an item that you want, which by the way is a favor, because ITS NOT IN STOCK!!?!?...

You're the dick for trying to use me for a video card.

__________________
b000yahed up your w000pah!!

Joygasm~!!

oblivion

shaddup dicky and get me that vid card.

ill meet u in the back alley behind compUSA at midnight tomorrow.....BE THERE!!

xD

oberon

I've never seen any ATA (parallel or serial) drives push greater than about 40MB/sec read or write. And usually the read is somewhat faster than the write.

SCSI is another story. My Maxtor Atlas 10K IV easily does 65-70MB/sec sustained transfer, both ways.


EDIT: I double checked. It seems my WD1600JB's can actually do about 55MB/sec read, but only about 25MB/sec write. That seems to be the usual ATA behavior.

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"There are finer fish in the sea than have ever been caught." -- Irish proverb