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Building a new computer!
tehkensai
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I need your help!
This is my first time building a computer on my own with all my own parts.
Anyway, I'd like to try and scavenge some stuff off of my old computer.
This is what I have that I plan on scavenging:
500W Power supply
16x DVD Rom
CDRW some speed
The ram says its PC3200. I have no idea what that means, and I want to scavenge it for the new comp. I've gleaned that obviously I need a compatible motherboard...which raises my next question.
Intel or AMD these days? Right now I have an AMD, but its nigh 2 years old now.
Same question with my graphics card...I have an ATI Radeon x1600xt and it does pretty well, but its starting to not cut it for my games. so, Nvidia or Radeon?
I'm willing to spend about 100-200 on the motherboard, the processor is anything goes, and same with the video card.
Thanks for your help!
This is my first time building a computer on my own with all my own parts.
Anyway, I'd like to try and scavenge some stuff off of my old computer.
This is what I have that I plan on scavenging:
500W Power supply
16x DVD Rom
CDRW some speed
The ram says its PC3200. I have no idea what that means, and I want to scavenge it for the new comp. I've gleaned that obviously I need a compatible motherboard...which raises my next question.
Intel or AMD these days? Right now I have an AMD, but its nigh 2 years old now.
Same question with my graphics card...I have an ATI Radeon x1600xt and it does pretty well, but its starting to not cut it for my games. so, Nvidia or Radeon?
I'm willing to spend about 100-200 on the motherboard, the processor is anything goes, and same with the video card.
Thanks for your help!
tehkensai on
Posts
Right now, Intel is tops when it comes to processors. The C2D line beats the hell out of AMD's stuff in terms of performance, though I believe AMD processors are cheaper for the same speed (if AMD has a processor that's fast enough, that is).
Nvidia beats ATI in the video market if you're getting a high end card. ATI has nothing that can touch a 8800 Ultra, but you might find a good deal on a strong ATI card if you're not aiming that high.
While I agree, I would want to wait and see what happens with this whole ATI/AMD marriage that we've seen next-to-nothing resulting from it. Could be some good stuff, even with driver updates, soon down the line.
Smaller budget? AMD. large budget? Intel. If you want to be safe, go with Intel/Nvidia. Also, unless you want to be sorry about it in a year, don't use that PC3200 ram. Upgrade that fo' shizzle.
I want to spend less than $160? ATI/AMD
I want to spend more than $160? Intel/Nvidia
AMD's are better for the price below $160(Although I haven't done the math on the 5600+ for a while), while Intel's are better above(for the most part. Stock, Intel's don't start becoming worth it until $200+, compared to say a 5600+. You either need to buy a $200-300 dollar C2D to get that improvement, or overclock.
Pretty similar with video cards. Dx9 cards(X1950 vs 7950 series) is pretty much a winner for ATI. Also, from what I can tell, ATI is better with the cheaper DX10 cards(2600 vs 8600 series), because while comparable in power, I believe the ATI cards are cheaper for the power point. However, the best card to get at the moment is probably an 8800GTS 320mb. Does DX10, its powerful, its not that expensive($270 or so after rebate).
And yeah, just get new ram. You can get two gigs of good ram for $60. Just do it
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145034
Even cheaper:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227124
I spent some time today throwing together a tentative PC build over at Newegg. I've been kind of out of the loop hardware-wise for a while, so it's mostly assembled going by what I've heard here, on SA's SH/SC subforum, and according to the number and quality of Newegg's customer reviews for each item. I don't plan on actually ordering the parts until mid-October, so this gives me some time to get some more research done regarding price drops, hot deals, and glaring incompatibilities. I'm not keeping anything from my current machine, which will wind up as a low-budget HTPC in the near future.
I'm gonna spoiler this 'cause it's huge, but the Newegg wishlist link is here.
$150
Power Supply: Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply
$40
Motherboard: ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
$135
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
$195
Video Card: EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB PCI Express x16
$370
RAM: 2x CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 Dual Channel Kit
$205
Hard Drives: 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
$160
Disc Drives: 2x LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with 12X DVD-RAM write Model LH-20A1H-185
$65
Total: ~$1460
The only thing I'm really worried about is the PSU not being quite beefy enough for the video card.
I was going to suggest getting the P5K3, for future compatibility with DDR3, but the information on the reviews lead me to believe that it isn't backward compatible with DDR2 (wtf?). I don't think DDR3 is ready for prime time yet, so I agree with going with the vanilla P5K.
I'm going to try and hold out until the end of the year to see more information on adoption of PCI-E 2.0 with the X38 chipset (link). I don't care to pay the premium for bleeding edge tech, but I like to "future proof" (that's a bit of a stretch) my PC purchases as best I can.
Btw.. first Pa post, been a lurker for a long time and felt like throwing my 2 cents in (that and I'm looking forward to grouping up with the steam group in TF2)
I use this, only $20 and will save you the grief of wondering why your CPU is idling at 70 degrees(Celsius) and then having to wait a week while the new heatsink comes in.
Also redstormpopcorn are you planning on putting those two hard disk in a RAID 0 array? If so, I'd advise against it.
As you suspected - this is a rather bad choice. It's an older design with a lot of power on the +3.3V and +5V lines and not much on the +12V one. CPUs are powered from the +12V line now, so 18A would be "cutting it close".
Unfortunately, quality of FSP PSUs, which I would suggest in the past, has fallen, and they aren't very quiet. Better PSUs start at ~$80, eg. a newer Thermaltake 500W unit
I'll just remind you that a 64-bit OS is required for the whole 4GB to be useable
I would suggest WD SE16 drives instead - the ones ending in -AAKS specifically. They are very quiet (the latest Barracudas are actually loud, according to SPCR) and are one of the fastest desktop drives.
If you don't need RAID, and can use the extra space, then drives up to 500GB have fairly good price-per-GB.
...why do you need two of those?
At night, the ice weasels come."
Good to see that I was right about that, since my uncertainty's what kept me from ordering it yesterday.
I was thinking on switching to 64-bit Vista Business anyway; it's the same price and I've already found drivers for everything but the old-ass printer I plan on replacing anyway.
I'll do some more research on the HDDs, thanks
Backups and drive-to-drive copying; not having to bother with indirect copying and being able to burn to two targets at once ('sup dual-core computing :V) will be well worth the extra ~$30.
Thanks a lot for the input, I'll revise the list as I change things