Advise on what components to buy for DIY built computer

Strat · Post by **Strat** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:37 pm

Well my aging PC is about to get scaped, I'm keeping the CD rewriter cause it is new and the Monitor, although aging, has a refresh rate of 80hz.

The only criteria is it needs to be fast with more than capable graphic ability so my son can still play his graphic intensive 3D shoot em up's. I bought him Medal of Honor last Christmas and he still has not played it because this system is not up to it.

So if you were going to build your own PC and had a budget of around £700 ($1100 to $1200 I think).
What would you buy to get the very best system for the money available?

Your thought's please.

Thanks

Strat.

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 · Post by **Les_the_Sarge_9_1** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 8:57 pm

Part of what you get will be determined by where you are.

In Canada, I do my business with Canada Computers

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.html

They have great prices and even ship COD in Canada.

As for actual parts, my feelings lean towards getting a good video card of course. But your system will need a good processor and definitely a lot of RAM especially if anyone is going to be playing kickin 3d games on it.

Trouble is you often need this which requires that which forces you to buy the other thing.
Depends how old your current set up is.

700 bucks (Canadian) is close to a full case upgrade. By case upgrade I mean everything but drives.

The last time I upgraded I took the hard drive, the floppy and cd burner and just put it in a new case.
There is a certain amount of cost thresshold when buying parts of course. A 700 dollar upgrade today, will be the same as a 700 dollar upgrade in 6 months as far as spending 700 bucks is concerned ie you will be out 700 bucks hehe.

Aim for getting as good a system as possible ie basic case set up ie motherboard, processor and ram. The better the case, the more ease you will have in putting anything in it later.
As for video cards, well you could drop 700 bucks on just a video card.

PS, before you get the impression I am knowledge in the extreme, I am more or less giving my opinion based on observing my constantly upgrading buddies.

If I was to take my 800 Celeron with 256 ram to the next step, I would like begin by aiming to make this a P4 equal and try for a gig of ram. I would probably need a new mother board in the process.
Currently I have a 32 meg PCI Radeon 7000 and a hohum sound card. It won't play anything cutting edge 3d worth squat, but I am not into that at any rate so I haven't that worry.

Strat · Post by **Strat** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 10:10 pm

I live in England so things tend to be a litlle more expensive here, generally just change the USA $ for a £ sign. So a $150 motherboard will actually cost me nearer $200 after rate conversion.

Also I am led to believe that American hardware runs on a differant frequency to europe and is therefore not compatable, can anybody confirm this?

I will be looking for P4 or simular with 400Mhz FSB minimum with a CPU of around the 2.5Ghz mark. Prefer AMD as you do seem to get more power for your money but don't really mind as long as it can operate WinXP professional cause I just picked up a copy for £20, only 3 weeks old with reciept because the shop would not give the chap a cash refund, result.
WinXP PRO is over £250 in England and the Home edition is still £80.

What I really would like to know are your personel preferances of the component parts that you all would buy for yourself's.

ie, MSI Geforce FX 5800 DDR2 128mb graphics card along with ????motherboard etc.

I'm interested in what people think is the best that money can buy while keeping to the £700 budget.
Don't need a moniter or any drives.

Thanks again

Strat..

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 10:58 pm

I recently bought new guts (Main board, video and memory).

I got an MSI K7N2-L (currently ~85US$) with an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (~90US$) (Going to a 2800+ is +100US$ to little benefit)

I went with a Radeon 9600 Pro (~170US$) again as the price/performance sweet spot. For strict performance I would hav matched the K7N2 nVidia chipset with an MSI nVidia 5600, which is about the same price, but I hav had better luck with Radeon drivers and am willing to sacrifice a little synergistic/latest DX superoptimization speed, for what for me is better compatibility with old stuff. (Also in a machine I do alot of testing on, a little mix and match helps)

I got one 512 MB PC2700 stick with the above for about 100US$ (high) and got a second from Best Buy on a rebate deal for $39.99.

I used the existing 400Watt powered minitower and array of HDs.

I bought a few months ago from a local shop I like to support (and when prices were a bit higher) so the above in total cost me a nearly $550. Now you should be able to get the same stuff for a good bit under 500US$

I like the MSI mainboards - they offer online BIOS updates, every overclocking tweak you could possibly want (though i run mine stock), good reliability ( we had problems with our Matrix servers with ASUS boards and the MSI replacements have all been rock solid. The AMD processors are good bit cheaper than INTEL counterparts. The on board 5.1 sound from the nVidia chipset rocks my Boston acoustics home theater sound system. (the k7n2-L has software vice hardware DSP - if that matters go for the pricier K7N2's that have the hardware DSP - about 50-60US$ premium. The 10 dollar riser give you an optical TOSlink out to home audio-vice PC speaker systems.

In your price range you can go to the better (hardware DSP main board, and a 2800+ (or even 3000+ but they are like 275US$) but I would put the extra money in bigger (more) HDs, or if audiophile sound is a priority an Audigy sound card.

If you are replacing your case - make sure it has a 400+ watt power supply and at least 2 case fans(plus the Power supply fan) AMD chips do tend to run hot and can go squirrelly when too hot.

I'm VERY happy with what I got for the money...

Marc von Martial · Post by **Marc von Martial** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 2:45 am

Yep, I can also only recommend MSI parts. They´re the way to go. Price value is exceptional. The have great bundles too. Especially the graphic cards, you get a whole lot of free games with them

. The motherboards come with free lates PowerDVD or WinDVD4 and a whole set of others apps.

I would recommend the MSI K7-N2G board, simply awesome. The BIOS support by MSI is exceptional, not to mention the nice online update system they have.

I personally have the K7N2G-ILSR version, I can only recommend it.

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/ ... hp?UID=398

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 2:55 am

www.pricewatch.com

Blunderbuss · Post by **Blunderbuss** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 9:40 pm

Thanks for the link, Falls. Those prices are incredibly low compared with the shop prices in the UK.

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 9:44 pm

Originally posted by Blunderbuss
Thanks for the link, Falls. Those prices are incredibly low compared with the shop prices in the UK.

Be careful...some of those companies are good...some are bad
They just take a product and show you all of the companies selling it

Make sure you are aware of who is going to be selling it to you...and what you are buying

Also...
Most of those companies are here in the states
Shipping might be pricey

Its an excellent site....just be a wary shopper when buying from a company on there

Bobthehatchit · Post by **Bobthehatchit** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 1:56 am

Go intel for the mb and a P4 cpu.

Ati and geforce cards are always level pregging so it just a question of personal taste, and don't skimp on the DDR.

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 · Post by **Les_the_Sarge_9_1** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 2:04 am

I learned something a while back actually. A friend bought a new game that supposedly exceeded his machine at the time.

But he had Ram coming out of his ears so to speak.

Ram won't fix everything of course, but you can likely always use MORE ram. As he was able to play the game, and mainly because his Ram clobbered the games requirements.

Marc von Martial · Post by **Marc von Martial** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 2:17 am

Go intel for the mb and a P4 cpu.

Why would you want to do that?

Talking RAM, get quality brand RAM , like Kingston or Infineon, that "cheap" stuff (it isn´t actually much cheaper) only gives you more grief if you have bad luck.

Bobthehatchit · Post by **Bobthehatchit** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 2:18 am

Originally posted by Les the Sarge 9-1
I learned something a while back actually. A friend bought a new game that supposedly exceeded his machine at the time.

But he had Ram coming out of his ears so to speak.

Ram won't fix everything of course, but you can likely always use MORE ram. As he was able to play the game, and mainly because his Ram clobbered the games requirements.

True thought its better to have more ram and a smaller cpu the a massive cpu and only 128mb of ram.

Blunderbuss · Post by **Blunderbuss** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 8:42 pm

Originally posted by Bobthehatchit
True thought its better to have more ram and a smaller cpu the a massive cpu and only 128mb of ram.

The maximum amount of memory my computer can handle is 1 GB. It seemed like a massive amount when I bought it, but it looks as if it's going to be exceeded by the latest games requirements in a fairly short space of time.

wodin · Post by **wodin** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 8:46 pm

As stated earlier go with MSI.

I always buy video cards by MSI and I am at present wanting a new motherboard and ram.

Wodin

BrubakerII · Post by **BrubakerII** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 10:52 am

Originally posted by Marc Schwanebeck
Why would you want to do that?

Talking RAM, get quality brand RAM , like Kingston or Infineon, that "cheap" stuff (it isn´t actually much cheaper) only gives you more grief if you have bad luck.

Agree on the Ram!!!

Marc a couple of points/questions. I have been a Athlon kinda guy for a few years now, but am considering moving back to Intel for my next upgrade (board/chip/ram/gfx). This is because it seems to me that Intel have the edge at present in bandwidth and also require fans that aren't parts listed for a 747

I do agree they are unneceesarily dear. For my mind I thought something in the 2.4Ghz category seems reasonable value for money. Is there a reason you think Athlon are the better buy right at this point of time?

On motherboards, I too have had good experince with MSI but am fervently reading the different comparisons around in relation to the chip mentioned above. Aus magazines seem to favour the Abit IC7 and IS7 range of boards over the MSI - both in quality, functionality and price. Do you have an opinion on that?

Thanks in advance.

Brubaker

Bobthehatchit · Post by **Bobthehatchit** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 6:56 pm

Originally posted by BrubakerII
Agree on the Ram!!!

Marc a couple of points/questions. I have been a Athlon kinda guy for a few years now, but am considering moving back to Intel for my next upgrade (board/chip/ram/gfx). This is because it seems to me that Intel have the edge at present in bandwidth and also require fans that aren't parts listed for a 747 I do agree they are unneceesarily dear. For my mind I thought something in the 2.4Ghz category seems reasonable value for money. Is there a reason you think Athlon are the better buy right at this point of time?

On motherboards, I too have had good experince with MSI but am fervently reading the different comparisons around in relation to the chip mentioned above. Aus magazines seem to favour the Abit IC7 and IS7 range of boards over the MSI - both in quality, functionality and price. Do you have an opinion on that?

Thanks in advance.

Brubaker

Had an abit board with on board raid controllers, not serail ports, very flash very unstable....

Runing an intel p4 gbv board with the same cpu and ram and it runs like a dream.

BrubakerII · Post by **BrubakerII** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 4:33 am

Originally posted by Bobthehatchit
Runing an intel p4 gbv board with the same cpu and ram and it runs like a dream.

Hi Bob

What exactly is a gbv board?

Bobthehatchit · Post by **Bobthehatchit** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 8:17 pm

Originally posted by BrubakerII
Hi Bob

What exactly is a gbv board?

"MainBoard Intel 845 GBV".

Its the model of the board mate.

Karnaaj · Post by **Karnaaj** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 10:17 pm

Last time I looked, a couple weeks ago, a 2.4mHz P4 was running roughly (and I do mean "roughly" - I usually figure a 10-15% "slop" for parts-pricing for meself) $200 US at TigerDirect, whilst at NewEgg about the same buckage would get a 2.6 or mebbe a little better... I'll be checking on prices more often as I get money scraped together.

My next boxen will be parted - I *think* I have a new power-supply (cutting a deal with someone, once I hear back from 'em), but despite the uncoolness <G> factor of having a case that's been dropped and is all bent up (no side panels and "CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS" tape wrapped around it; makes for weird colours when the cold-cathode goes on. [And I only have the cold-cathode light because I won it in a giveaway - what, spend money to rice up this $#!+box? <G>]), I think I'll do a new case as well. About $200ish US on a CPU, at least a gig of DDR, $200ish on a videocard (nVidia), and maybe a DVD-burner if I like the prices. Pop out the drives, SoundBlaster, NIC and modem, and slap the mess together. Then, I can do about the same popping on my brother's box, and he'll be upgraded. (Actually, pop everything out of *his* [not-trashed] case, and pop all the better stuff [mobo/CPU/RAM/etc] back in. Slop the leftovers into the scrapped-box, and drag it over to a friend's house. "Need parts?" <G>)

Wheee...

BrubakerII · Post by **BrubakerII** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 6:33 am

Roger Bob - gottit :rolleyes:

Brubaker

Advise on what components to buy for DIY built computer

Advise on what components to buy for DIY built computer

Rip-off Britain (again)

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