The Official PC building thread!

Lol not one for elaborate posts, are we ddp?

But yeah, if it's the right socket and supports your CPU, there's not much you can do wrong. With RAM stick to a reputable brand like Kingston, Corsair or Crucial. These relatively cheap "superb performance at a great price" deals from brands you haven't heard much about are recipes for bad news.

 

Hello everyone. This are the computer specs that I have laid out for a computer I am trying to build under $1000. Please let me know your opinions - if this system will work well. I'm not into hardcore gaming like counter-strike and things like that. If anything, the only games I would really play are Diablo II or Age of Empires III, most likely.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester 1GHz HT 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor $357

ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard- $76

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB of ram (2 x 512MB) $66

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive $75

eVGA 256-P2-N369-T6 Geforce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 $99

LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner With LightScribe $53

Also...Does anyone know where I can get a 19" LCD flat panel for a good price (under $200ish)?

I also don't really know anything about cases and cooling. I've only "built" (upgraded really) one computer before. I bought an AMD processor, ram, motherboard, and case. But my computer is loud and I don't know anything about fans, cases, and cooling...so having a quiet and reliable computer is important to me.

Thanks for you input!!

Mike

 

Great Choice of CPU, congrats on that one. That's an admirable system for under $1000, but you'll probably want to spend most of the remainder of the 1000 on the monitor. Good 19" screens aren't that cheap. You can get digimate ones or similar for a low price, but generally their picture quality isn't all that.
Generally you're looking at say LG, Viewsonic, Samsung and Hyundai. As a rule of thumb: 12ms or LESS, and 500:1 or MORE.

 

Thanks for the post. I'll probably also swap out the 160GB Western Digital hard drive and instead go with the 250 GB Seagate drive that is going for $90 on newegg.

Any advice on a case? Not even sure what size I need. As for material...is aluminum the way to go? That's what I have no and it's great because it's so light, but it's loud. Don't know if that's due to the case or the fans. I don't know anything about cases and cooling system, so I need some advice about what type of case and cooling system/fans to buy. Please provide a link if possible. Thanks a lot.

Mike

 

Generally, to stop noise you want quieter fans, not a thicker case. Aluminium cases are great because, as you say they're light, plus they look fantastic. When looking for case fans, look for the noise level in dB(A), dBA or just dB. If it's above 30, avoid it, it's not going to be very quiet at all. If it's 25-30 it's reasonable, 20-25 is good, not very audible, below 20 is ideal. Below 15 is rare, but very worth it, you'd struggle to whisper quieter.

MIDI ATX Tower is all I can really say about cases. There are loads to choose from.

 

As far as hard drives go is there an interface that provides a faster rate of transfer than the others?

 

For single drives, the interface is generally unimportant, but Serial ATA, and in particular Serial ATA 2 offers a few advantages.

Firstly, a 3Gbps (375MB/s) max transfer rate which will allow up to 6 normal or 4 high speed drives to be synchronised together (RAID stripe) at full speed. However, for anyone who doesn't need ultra fast or ultra high capacity drives, this is mostly irrelevant.

Secondly, a few drives supporting S-ATA feature NCQ (Native command queuing). Basically, the drive orders its own commands, since it knows its physical properties better than any generic software, allowing it to prioritise jobs and basically go faster.

In addition, Serial ATA is the cheap way of getting high speed (10,000rpm) hard disks, in the form of Western Digital Raptors. If you're after high speed, not huge capacity, these are the ones to go for.

If not, then look for any S-ATA II drive that offers NCQ and you're onto a winner. Generally Samsung drives are the quietest, and Seagate do quite well here too.

 

I am constructing a computer in the range of $900-1000. This is what I plan on buying.

Processor: AMD 64 FX-53 #ADAFX53DEP5AS

Mobo: ABIT KN8 Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard or ABIT AN8 SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6V250F0 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

GPU: Radeon X800 XL DVD Edition 256MB PCIE or Radeon X800 XL 256MB PCIE

Any suggestions?

 

The FX-53 is an old top of the line model. You might be better off choosing something like a 4000+ in stead. It might be cheaper but not necessarily slower. Or if you can overclock, then pick something like a 3700 and boost it up to about 2.6Ghz.

 

Okay, I'm going through some personal problems... I.E. Wife taking my computer... So I'm staying real world budget conscience, no where near bottom of the line, but not a dream machine.. I've been looking around, having purchased anything yet, and I was wondering if anyone had any corrections/suggestions/comments on what I've got setup

Gigabyte K8U ULi Socket 754 ATX Motherboard and an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0GHz OEM Processor
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1532091&CatId=0
Aspire X-Cruiser Thermally Advantaged Case - Black
http://www.xoxide.com/aspire-x-cruiser-case-black.html
Western Digital Caviar SE 320 GB Hard Drive
http://www.bizrate.com/marketplace/...,sort--,userzip--75119,zip_go--Calculate.html

RAM is going to be DDR400, 1G, no clue what brand, or if I should get 2 512's or 1 1024...
Video Card and sound card I've already got taken care of.
Any input/advice/different brand suggestions would be nice.. Trying not to rush in and make a stupid mistake.

 

im wanting to get this asus pw191 monitor with my new setup, but im having tons of trouble finding it. (in the US) http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=10&l2=89&l3=0&model=1040&modelmenu=1

 

Ok dont make fun of me here ! ! but , if you get htat motherboard, it offers SATA so ... im just wondering.. why wouldnt you get a SATA Harddrive and not an IDE? I never understood SATA !

 

SATA is so much easier, no master / slave, faster data speeds, RAID functions, smaller wires for neater cases and better airflow.

 

With RAM, if you'll ever want more, then go one stick of 1GB. if you'll only ever have 1GB then go for two 512MB sticks, simply because one stick leaves you more room for expansion.
S-ATA is advantageous in almost every way possible. In some cases it's even cheaper, plus it allows for NCQ (and thus higher speed).

 

So would you guys recommend that he pass up the IDE HD and go with a SATA??

And another noobish concern i have... I noticed someone on this thread posted about second generation "new technologies"... and how sometimes you might pay more for a chip that doesnt bench as well as other chips... I was looking at the motherboard/CPU combos on Pricewatch.com and noticed that the Athlon 2400 was cheaper that 2200, and am now starting to take this into consideration for building a new PC. Any advice here? I would assume that the 2400 benches better than the 2200... are there any other models that are like this... cheap but perform well??

 

Motherboard bundles are quite fickle in terms of price, particularly since the motherboards that come with the deal will vary. The 2400 bundle may well have a cheaper motherboard. Low end Athlon64 CPUs (socket 939) are cheap but perform well, but this advantage is mostly for those who overclock their CPUs.

The SATA drive is a much better bet than the IDE version.

 

If you notice, some of this GSKill ram and others have a one day sale, with prices of $150 or less. Whihc of these would be right for a low end Ath.64 3000 sempron machine? Does the motherboard matter? will i need to clock this and change the voltages? I will prolly buy one tonight.

 

Athlon64 sempron? Pick one!
Sempron64 maybe.
All you really need to check is if the motherboard is:
a) The right socket (754 for sempron64, 754/939 for Athlon64 - check on the CPU's info page, 939 is better)
b) supports the cpu (not all 754 mobos support semprons)
c) well reviewed - check as many site's opinion as you can.

If you want to overclock that's up to you, but read the afterdawn guide if you haven't done it before.

 

Nice little bundle with the Mobo and cpu. SATA all the way. If its on the mobo use it. It's like $90 for a 200GB HD which is fine unless you do a lot of movie and picture editing. As for RAM, make sure its a company that has been around for a while like PNY or Ultra. They have lifetime warrenties and they won't be dropping out of the market ne time soon. You can get 2 512 sticks since your mobo has three slots, incase you want another 512 later on. Monitor should have a good contrast ratio, atleast 500:1. Everyone here has some good advice so your on the right path. Good Luck.

 

Basically, no matter how good the deal seems, don't buy from people you haven't heard of. It could work out fine, but if it doesn't things could go bad. I'm just wondering how long my Nanya-elixir RAM is going to last...