Building AMD system, please tell me what you think

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mitchua
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Mitchua

I'm building a new base PC for a friend (i.e. no CDROM or floppy). Here's
what I'm thinking. I'm trying to keep the price at $700CND (which is what
all this costs at my local computer store). It's primarily for gaming,
movies, etc. Please tell me what you think. Is there anything I should
change?

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7V600
512MB DDR-2700 333Mhz
Seagate 120GB w/ 8mb cache S-ATA
Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro
Case with 350W PSU

--Mitchua
 
I'm building a new base PC for a friend (i.e. no CDROM or floppy). Here's
what I'm thinking. I'm trying to keep the price at $700CND (which is what
all this costs at my local computer store). It's primarily for gaming,
movies, etc. Please tell me what you think. Is there anything I should
change?

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7V600
512MB DDR-2700 333Mhz
Seagate 120GB w/ 8mb cache S-ATA
Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro
Case with 350W PSU

--Mitchua
Click to expand...

If you are running newer games go for 1 gig of RAM.
My 10 penn'th



--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
email shepATpartyheld.de
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
Mitchua said:
I'm building a new base PC for a friend (i.e. no CDROM or floppy). Here's
what I'm thinking. I'm trying to keep the price at $700CND (which is what
all this costs at my local computer store). It's primarily for gaming,
movies, etc. Please tell me what you think. Is there anything I should
change?

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7V600
512MB DDR-2700 333Mhz
Seagate 120GB w/ 8mb cache S-ATA
Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro
Case with 350W PSU

--Mitchua
Click to expand...

Yeah where you buy at. Pass up your local store and order online and save
some $.

Hank
 
Mitchua said:
I'm building a new base PC for a friend (i.e. no CDROM or floppy). Here's
what I'm thinking. I'm trying to keep the price at $700CND (which is what
all this costs at my local computer store). It's primarily for gaming,
movies, etc. Please tell me what you think. Is there anything I should
change?

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7V600
512MB DDR-2700 333Mhz
Seagate 120GB w/ 8mb cache S-ATA
Click to expand...

Compare the warranty of this drive to that of other drive makers for
equivalent specs. I'm not sure about this particular drive, but seagate
have dropped down to a 1 year warranty on many drives while western
digital have a three year warranty on most if not all drives. After
recently having a seagate die on me after 18 months and a real hassle in
getting it replaced under warranty, I now am buying western digital drives.
 
Sooky Grumper said:
Compare the warranty of this drive to that of other drive makers for
equivalent specs. I'm not sure about this particular drive, but seagate
have dropped down to a 1 year warranty on many drives while western
digital have a three year warranty on most if not all drives. After
recently having a seagate die on me after 18 months and a real hassle in
getting it replaced under warranty, I now am buying western digital
Click to expand...
drives.

I'm mainly buying Seagate because they are generally quieter than the WD
ones. I have the IDE Seagate 120GB and although it's not as quiet as the
Seagate IV, it's still very nice.

--Mitchua
 
Hank said:
Yeah where you buy at. Pass up your local store and order online and save
some $.
Click to expand...

When you factor in shipping costs and the border taxes to order stuff from
the U.S., I've never found an online (Canadian) retailer that's cheaper than
Canada Computers (http://canadacomputers.com/). Not to mention the 15% tax
we pay on things up here in Ontario! We do get free healthcare though ;-)

--Mitchua
 
Shep© said:
If you are running newer games go for 1 gig of RAM.
My 10 penn'th
Click to expand...

Good point. I was thinking that's something that could be upgraded later to
save on costs now. Speaking of RAM though, is 333Mhz really going to
preform better than 400Mhz with a 333Mhz CPU like some zines say?

Thanks for the reply,
Mitchua
 
I'm building a new base PC for a friend (i.e. no CDROM or floppy). Here's
what I'm thinking. I'm trying to keep the price at $700CND (which is what
all this costs at my local computer store). It's primarily for gaming,
movies, etc. Please tell me what you think. Is there anything I should
change?
Click to expand...

How do you plan on loading in the operating system and games without a cdrom
? Also while you may not need it , the floppy sould only be a few dollars
more.
 
Ralph Mowery said:
How do you plan on loading in the operating system and games without a cdrom
? Also while you may not need it , the floppy sould only be a few dollars
more.
Click to expand...
I agree, it may be hard without a CDROM :-) I'm actually salvaging a burner
and floppy drive from the old computer.

--Mitchua
 
Mitchua said:
I agree, it may be hard without a CDROM :-) I'm actually salvaging a burner
and floppy drive from the old computer.

--Mitchua
Click to expand...

Also, BIOS updates are usually done via a floppy. Then again, that may
have changed. I usually end up updating BIOSes of older systems (500mhz
and below), so my impression is biased.
 
Sooky Grumper said:
Also, BIOS updates are usually done via a floppy. Then again, that may
have changed. I usually end up updating BIOSes of older systems (500mhz
and below), so my impression is biased.
Click to expand...
Not to mention all the great Linux distros on floppy!
 
Good point. I was thinking that's something that could be upgraded later to
save on costs now. Speaking of RAM though, is 333Mhz really going to
preform better than 400Mhz with a 333Mhz CPU like some zines say?

Thanks for the reply,
Mitchua
Click to expand...


i'd go for 400 even if it goes a little slower.

when it comes time to upgrade to 64 bit motherboard and chip (which
will happen eventually), you can use the ram. Get the ram as a one
piece 512 block as the 64 bit system will need a crapload of ram to be
useful. So 512 as one block will give you more space to expand on the
new board.

I generally don't worry about "future proofing" my system when i buy
it but in this case it may pay off since 64 bit chips will be on the
market in force in 2004.
 
No, not really. My faith is invested in nForce chipsets though. But
that's probably just religion...


ancra
 
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