The Official PC building thread!

well......you'll notice it's about 200+ slower
ok ok no you won't it won't make almost any difference at all
save the bucks and put them into a better graphic card

 

And what is a good all in wonder video card that is PCI express 16 meant for video editing and light gaming.
Probably close to 300 dollars?

 

That'd be this one then
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102642

 

That is a big price increase, is it worth it?

 

I am looking for advice - After struggling between buying an HP a1450n computer or building a custom computer, I have decided to put one together - I have never put a computer together before, but I have added hard drives, installed lots of cards, memory, etc.....

This computer will be used for normal household computing - word processing, database, financial records, etc. I also do CAD work (Keycreator, Acad Mech. Desktop), light photo processing and once in a while, video processing and DVD creation.

I have a 300G IDE hard drive that I have been putting music and photo files on that I will want to put in the new computer - probably as a second drive.

I have read through this thread (or at least the postings since Jan'06) and feel pretty good about the components that I have selected - but before I pull the trigger, would like some comments on the specific items I have chosen:

[bold]CPU[/bold] - AMD X2 4200+
[bold]Motherboard[/bold] - MSI K8N Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 - I picked this motherboard because it has several PCI slots available and has on board Firewire.
[bold]Graphics Card[/bold] - XFX PVT42EUDE3 Geforce 6800 XT
[bold]Case[/bold] - Antec Sonata II case - looking for lots of drive bays
[bold]Memory[/bold] - CORSAIR XMX 2GB(2x1GB)
[bold]Hard Drive[/bold] - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250 GB SATA
[bold]Optical Drive[/bold] - LITE-ON 16X DVD+-R Burner
[bold]Operating System[/bold] - Windows XP Home - ??Any reason that I should go for Windows XP Media or XP Pro??

Do I really need a floppy drive?

Any comments are welcome.

 

You won't be able to use both cores of your X2 unless you use Mediacenter or Pro, since Home only supports one processor. Floppy drives are largely unnecessary these days, but given how cheap they are, should you need to install some software from them (usually system related) then you may as well.

 

After the rebate that's $309, so close to your $300 limit. It's quite a powerful card though. If you don't need that much power, then go for the X800XL version rather than the X1800XL as here.

 

Thanks, sammorris.

Any preference for XP Pro over XP Media Center?

 

Er, not having used MC I'm not sure of the great differences, but since they're similar prices I'd guess that MC doesn't have a few things that Pro does.

 

I've used media center before and it has choices that you normally only get with the software installed with whatever devices you use for audio/ video capture, and if you dont have the devices installed its useless. If you have the devices its overkill because it adds extra programs when you install the software. Pick your poison. Media center I believe was meant for people who bought a computer at the local store with a TV card in it. If you DIY its not necessery.

 

That's what I thought. XP Pro is probably the best bet, but above all, NOT 64 edition.

 

whats the best intel processor to use when building a pc? what about the dual core version??? any links? i am thinking of putting it in my pc, thanks

 

Which socket are you using, 478 or 775? The best Intel processor overall will be the Dual Core Extreme 965, but single core, the 3400mhz Northwood Extreme. Of course these are 775, but If you only have 478 available, you're limited to pretty much what you have already.

 

Im building a pc for my friend. His into animation and stuff. He uses alot of heavy programs like 3DMAX and Photoshop CS. Now i think for a cpu i would get him a AMD Athlon 64(939)+3800. Now i think that i should get him a 256MB pci express video card but i dont know if it to much for him. I Know that heavy gamer have them but I dont know if this would benefit him. Should i just go with a AGP? Also is that a good choice for a cpu? THANKS!

 

If I'm doing stuff like pitbull07 as well as gameing, what should I look for in a GPU and do you have any suggestions for a card around $200? Also, what is your opinion on the Radeon® X1600 PRO 512MB PCI Express® and Radeon X800 XL DVD Edition 256MB PCIE.

Thanks

 

Hi guys,

I am planning on putting together a pc for my brother.I'm updating my pc and going to use my old components to build a new one.
He will have my old mother board which is a Gigabyte GA-7VT600(-L)and my old athlon xp2600 cpu. I also have a Geforce 5600 128 mb which I'm planning to give him as well. I'm trying to build a pc in the range of $300-400 and will look for the cheapest online deals including ebay.

I have never built a computer before, but I'm assuming the remaining items I need are: a network adapter, dvd/cd writer, sound card, hard drive, ribbon cable, RAM (1 gb), Keyboard, mouse, power supply, speakers, and a case. Did I forget anything else? I think I can get away with all of these items within my price range.

He doesn't need anything too fancy, just something to surf the web and play occassional games. The reason that I'm upgrading is to get a chip that has SEE2 to use adobe premiere elements; something he'll probably never use. Any help you could provide would be appreciated.

 

one of you is gonna need a monitor

 

pitbull07: The CPU is good if you can afford that. Graphics-wise it's really a question of what will you be doing and how much can you spend. A 256MB X800GTO is a sound purchase for light gaming and all multimedia. You can go for an X1600XT or 6800GT if you like, but that may be a bit overkill.

eparker89: Unless you crave Pixel Shader 3 ultra quality, the X800XL will be better a its faster, and sometimes cheaper. An X1600XT will top an 800XL, but not the 1600 pro.

bridq: 1GB of RAM for casual surfing is probably ott, and a 5600 isn't going to do much with it anyway, that's a slow VPU. 512 would do I should think.

Pcrepair: I rather hoped everyone would realise that themselves!

 

Sammorris, you think 1GB of RAM is too much? I figured that since 1GB is pretty much the norm these days might as well put it in there. I'm giving him a geforce 5600 because it's the only card I have laying around. I used to play Battlefield 2 with it (even though detail wasn't that great), but it should do the trick. What is VPU? Video processing unit?

What about all the other components? Do you think I could get them all between my price range of $300-$400?