Buying NOW (more or less)

MeesterKu · Jul 31, 2003, 07:30 AM

OK, you might have seen this topic about 2/3 months ago, but I wasn't in a position to buy a PC. Well, based off the way things are going (as in, I can no longer tolerate my current PC), I am going to buy a PC as soon as possible. I just received £1000 today, and will be working my butt off to pay for the rest. Like I say, I'm setting my budget at around £1500+, so with a bit of luck, I can get a job and get a PC within this month at least.

So, here I am again - only this time, asking seriously what PC specs you guys would recommend. I'm into gaming mostly, although I'm a bit more interested in video capping now, considering part of the agreement to get this £1000 was to record TV shows onto DVD for my parents...

For those of you in the US, £1500 is approximately $2400.

I'm pretty set on getting a P4, as they seem to be better performance wise (and I have the cash to senselessly waste. ;D) and I'm not into OCing, so I probably wouldn't reap the benefits from an AMD. I'm looking at a Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb card, as the 256Mb model is £100 more expensive for what appears to be precious little benefit on the benchmarks. Should I get a GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, though? Lastly, a DVD writer is a must, and I think the Sony Multiburner model is pretty sexy (in a 'biegey' sort of sense).

So please, throw some system specs at me. Any suggestions as well as to what sort of sound card (if necessary, considering onboard mobo sound seems to be pretty good these days), make of fans and PSU I should get will also be a huge bonus, as I'm pretty clueless when it comes to who's proverbially 'on top' of the market in this respect.

I'm real sorry this post is too long when I basically could have said 'Can I have some system specs plzthxdie'. But thanks in advance for any responses! =D

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MeesterKu

BWX · Jul 31, 2003, 07:56 AM

With 2400 dollars you can have just about the best of everything, I would go with an AMD and an Abit NF7 v2- personally and OC the snot out of it too.

-Fortissimo III 7.1 is a good card if you hate Creative Audigy's and want nice sounding DVD playback (dolby digital EX ) only $49. Wouldn't an All-In-Wonder 9800pro be good for what you want to do with that rig? Get a huge fast HD if you are burning DVD's too. Don't forget about allot of good fast sysyem ram too.

MeesterKu · Jul 31, 2003, 08:31 AM

The All In Wonder sounds pretty tempting - it doesn't lose anything to gaming, does it? I'm toying with the idea of getting a separate SATA drive for faster DVD writing/gaming, but that's more of a luxury that I can look into later. Thanks for the suggestion! =)

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MeesterKu

**MIG-31** · Jul 31, 2003, 08:38 AM

fx5900 ultra ? unless you hate nvidia cards as an alternate video card.deffinately avoid fx5600's thats my advice!

Kgentatszu] · Jul 31, 2003, 09:07 AM

P4.3.20 800FSB, AIW Radeon 9800Pro, 1024 PC4000, and a good motherboard that will fit all these.......~LOL

i think you can get these for 'bout $1500...

MeesterKu · Jul 31, 2003, 09:17 AM

I might go for the P4 3.06 800FSB - an extra £150 (!!) for 140Mhz seems a little too much money at this stage - I'm not even sure about that, as the price vaults from the 2.8Ghz to the 3Ghz, but I'll see if I get particularly strapped for cash.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention, I'll need a new monitor as well as this old one is on the way out and is simply too dark! I have the brightness and contrast levels to max and still, most FPS' with dark rooms are unplayable owing to the fact I can only see black with occasional visible crates thrown in for comic effect.

Any mobo suggestions?

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MeesterKu

toddsmack2k · Jul 31, 2003, 09:30 AM

Check out the new Abit P4 MB's. They really are loaded. Also if you get a AIW 9800 or 9700 you lose nothing gaming wise, they are clocked the same as non AIW card.

MeesterKu · Jul 31, 2003, 09:54 AM

OK, using overclockers.co.uk , here is the current rig I'm looking at, all prices are VAT inclusive:

P4 3Ghz 800FSB - £331.23
Abit IC7-G Max-2 Advance - £146.76
2x512Mb Corsair DDR XMS4000 - £327.83
Sony DWU10A-10A DVD RW, etc - £151.58
Samsung SD-616QBB 16x48x DVD-ROM + Region Free Mod - £35.14
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9700 Pro AIW 128Mb - £287.82
Western Digital Caviar 200Gb SE 8Mb Cache - £171.43 (Cheaper than the 180Gb model...? O_o)
Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 930SB 19" (Black! =D) - £268.90

This isn't taking fans, cases, PSUs, sound card (if required) into account and already this is £1720.69, so I'm breaking the bank a little here. If anyone has any suggestions on what I can downgrade/upgrade some components to, as well as some recommendations for the aforementioned, then let me know! In fairness, OCrs.co.uk isn't the cheapest place around, and I think I can slice a little off the prices if I go down to my local store, but this isn't a bad reference for the sort of prices I'm looking at.

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MeesterKu

Kgentatszu] · Jul 31, 2003, 10:02 AM

yup, the price sounds 'bout right......and i think the 200 is cheaper than 180 cause of HDD's moving pace.......

Stormy · Jul 31, 2003, 12:58 PM

Ahh, the RPM of the drive right? Lower RPM=Slower reading/writing. For a case, get a LianLi Aluminum Case. You'll thank yourself later if you need to move it to another room. They weigh less. Get a P4 PSU IF you are getting the P4, and not the (sometimes) cheaper AMD's. But don't get a black monitor. They heat up enough already without black paint to broil them.If that mobo has a sound card, that's abit of saving money there. I'll look into it for ya MeesterKu. And I'd get a CD-RW drive instead of a DVD-ROM drive there, as that's like buying 2 TV's and putting them right next to each other, and trying to once differnet channels at once! And you really don't need that fast of a processor. I'd downgrade it to as low as that mobo can support while still being above 2 gHz, as they are good.

Stormy · Jul 31, 2003, 01:00 PM

Ok, just checked it out. You have to get a CPU with a 800 mHz FSB on that board. Sound is 8 channel On-Board.

Dom · Jul 31, 2003, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MeesterKu
I might go for the P4 3.06 800FSB - an extra £150 (!!) for 140Mhz seems a little too much money at this stage - I'm not even sure about that, as the price vaults from the 2.8Ghz to the 3Ghz, but I'll see if I get particularly strapped for cash.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention, I'll need a new monitor as well as this old one is on the way out and is simply too dark! I have the brightness and contrast levels to max and still, most FPS' with dark rooms are unplayable owing to the fact I can only see black with occasional visible crates thrown in for comic effect.

Any mobo suggestions?

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MeesterKu

http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjs..._NAME=IC7-MAX3

~~WyreTheWolf~~ · Aug 1, 2003, 11:46 AM

AMD Athlon XP Barton 3200+
2 x 512MB OCZ PC3700 EL
Abit NF7-S revision 2.0
(use the onboard SoundStorm audio - it is excellent)
VisionTek XTASY Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB (has 2.0ns memory)
2 x 36GB Western Digital Raptor HDDs in RAID level 0
1 x Maxtor 200GB Ultra Series ATA133 storage HDD
LiteON 52x32x52 CD-RW
LiteON 16x48 DVD-ROM
Cheiftec aluminum full tower case (choose color)
Antec, Entermax, or Sparkle 400watt plus power supply

That should pretty well cover it I think .... And would be INSANE fast.

but that is just my 2 cents.

toddsmack2k · Aug 1, 2003, 11:51 AM

"sigh" what a system Wyre!

JavaFox · Aug 1, 2003, 12:52 PM

I would suggest staying away from the top of the line CPUs. The fastest of the fast is always extraordinarily overpriced. Case in point: the 3200+ is $440 and the 3000+ is $242. There isn't that much of a speed difference to justfy that kind of leap in pricing. My suggestion is to buy fast parts, but buy intelligently. In other words, just because you have £1500 to blow, doesn't mean you necessarily should.

I went to Overclockers.co.uk and here is the system I would buy:

AMD Athlon "Barton" XP3000+
Thermalright SLK-800
Western Digital Caviar 80GB Special Edition * 2 (RAID)
Epox 8RDA3+ (they didn't have any Ultra 400 boards in)
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Corsair 512MB DDR XMS3200 Platinum CAS2 * 2
NEC ND-1300A MultiSpin DVD+/-RW
LiteON LTR-52246S 52x/24x/52x CD-RW
Coolermaster Centurion CAC-T01
Enermax EG465AX-VE(G)(FMA) 460W PSU
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£1,320.79