Getting new comp, need help.

[Unknown Variable X]

Intel® Pentium® 4 - 3.2C-GHz @ 800Mhz w/ 512k (Socket 478) (Retail Box) w/ Heat Sink & Fan $314.99
Corsair 1Gb PC/3200 Xtreme Low Latency Platinum Series (2 x 512Mb) [TWINX1024-3200XLPT] $364.99
Asus® P4C800-DLX, Socket 478, Intel® i875PE Chipset (ATX) $219.99
SoundBlaster® Audigy™ 2 (OEM) $99.99
Creative® SBS 2.1 350 Speakers $49.99
ATI® Radeon™ 9800 Pro 256Mb DDR AGP TV-Out DVI (Retail Box) $389.99
Viewsonic® E90B 19in SVGA 0.27dp N.I. 1600x1200 MPR II and Energy 2000 certified, Black $249.99
Enlight Mid Tower ATX Case w/ 7 Bays w/o Power Supply, Black $54.99
Enlight 420W ATX Power Supply {Invis:2596} $59.99
LG GSA-4160B Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive (IDE) OEM, Black $119.99
Logitech® Elite™ Keyboard, Black $54.99
Logitech® MX™ 310 Optical Mouse (Retail), Black/Metalic $39.99
160GB Samsung SATA-150 7200RPM 8Mb 8.9ms OEM $134.99
Panasonic 3½ in (1.44Mb) Floppy Disk Drive, Black $9.99
SubTotal: $2164.86
GST: $151.54
PST: $173.19
Total: $2489.59

So this is the computer that is gonna get bought for me. I havent been hardcore into the computer hardware thing since like 98 when I bought the comp I'm using now so I need help. Does everything here look ok? Price isnt really that important since I'm not paying for it. I wanna be able to play basically every game out there at decent speeds, most of em relatively old plus Half-Life 2 and such. So I'm looking for opinions and anything blatantly wrong or that wont work with eachother. Thanks in advance if anyone takes the time to reply.

 

[Event]

Your video card is not the best deal out there. You can get a better one for about the same price from newegg. There is the 9800XT, X800Pro, and 6800GT, all of which are better than the 256MB version of the Radeon 9800 Pro. ($390 for 9800pro? Are you sure that's right?) I haven't kept up on which video card is the best, but I know some here could tell you that (burnout ).

If you can, stay away from Samsung HDDs. They are generally louder and have a shorter lifespan. Western Digital, Seagate and Maxtor are the best.

Other than that, it looks good! The only other thing that bugs me is that DVD-RW... LG? bah, never heard of them. Sony is good for DVD drives. 👍

 

[Unknown Variable X]

Yeah that harddrive was a mistake I meant to choose the maxtor diamonplus. I'll check around about the video card, it might just be that the site I was using hasnt updated. Thx for your help.

EDIT: wait actually all those prices are Canadian dollars so do you think the card is still overpriced? I just confused myself trying to convert

 

[T100]

You might want to go lower GB and higher RPMS on your HD. I would say get the 10000rpm rapitor. Oh and don't get a video card if you are buying custom because you will get ripped off. If you can hit up EBAY and get and ATI because Nvidia takes up 2 PCI slots.

 

[Event]

Oh and don't get a video card if you are buying custom because you will get ripped off. If you can hit up EBAY and get and ATI because Nvidia takes up 2 PCI slots.

What are you smoking? nVidia does NOT take up 2 PCI slots, unless you are talking about linking 2 6600's together, which is VERY expensive and not even available yet, AFAIK. Linking is also OPTIONAL. Do not listen to this guys's incoherent, non-sensible rambling about video card. He is wrong. You will want an AGP video card (takes up NO PCI Slots) unless your Mobo suports PCI Express, which is more expensive. Ati and nVidia both take up equal amounts of AGP/PCI-EX slots. The only nVidia card yet to take up more than one slot was the 5800Ultra, because of the humungous heatsink and fan. Needless to say, they no longer make those.

You CAN buy video cards on eBay, but Newegg offers much better shipping, processing, and Warranties. Plus, they are the lowest prices you can find on the web. (except for eBay...)

 

[Solid Fro]

You have a 5.1 sound card but, you only bought 2.1 speakers?

If you can hit up EBAY and get and ATI because Nvidia takes up 2 PCI slots.

What the hell? Nvidia cards do not take up two PCI slots. Some Nvidia cards have cooling systems that take up the PCI slot right next to the AGP slot, but two? Wrong. Most Nvidia cards have "one slot cooling", but it's up to Nvidia's partners such as MSI, Gainward, XFX, Gigabyte, etc. to decide what type of cooling systems they want on their cards.

 

[Event]

You have a 5.1 sound card but, you only bought 2.1 speakers?

Most sound cards offer 5.1, but you can get away with 2.1. My onboard sound has 5.1 but I'm using 2.1. Maybe sound isn't too much to him (and didn't know thatn his mobo has onboard sound )

 

[Burnout]

Intel® Pentium® 4 - 3.2C-GHz @ 800Mhz w/ 512k (Socket 478) (Retail Box) w/ Heat Sink & Fan $314.99
Corsair 1Gb PC/3200 Xtreme Low Latency Platinum Series (2 x 512Mb) [TWINX1024-3200XLPT] $364.99
Asus® P4C800-DLX, Socket 478, Intel® i875PE Chipset (ATX) $219.99
SoundBlaster® Audigy™ 2 (OEM) $99.99
Creative® SBS 2.1 350 Speakers $49.99
ATI® Radeon™ 9800 Pro 256Mb DDR AGP TV-Out DVI (Retail Box) $389.99
Viewsonic® E90B 19in SVGA 0.27dp N.I. 1600x1200 MPR II and Energy 2000 certified, Black $249.99
Enlight Mid Tower ATX Case w/ 7 Bays w/o Power Supply, Black $54.99
Enlight 420W ATX Power Supply {Invis:2596} $59.99
LG GSA-4160B Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive (IDE) OEM, Black $119.99
Logitech® Elite™ Keyboard, Black $54.99
Logitech® MX™ 310 Optical Mouse (Retail), Black/Metalic $39.99
160GB Samsung SATA-150 7200RPM 8Mb 8.9ms OEM $134.99
Panasonic 3½ in (1.44Mb) Floppy Disk Drive, Black $9.99
SubTotal: $2164.86
GST: $151.54
PST: $173.19
Total: $2489.59

So this is the computer that is gonna get bought for me. I havent been hardcore into the computer hardware thing since like 98 when I bought the comp I'm using now so I need help. Does everything here look ok? Price isnt really that important since I'm not paying for it. I wanna be able to play basically every game out there at decent speeds, most of em relatively old plus Half-Life 2 and such. So I'm looking for opinions and anything blatantly wrong or that wont work with eachother. Thanks in advance if anyone takes the time to reply.

$390C = 309.056 USD.

Still slightly over priced for a 256MB 9800 Pro, but you should know something. Doubling the memory is primarly a sort of marketing scam, as it doesn't improve performance at all, practically, except in a very small selection of games. Of course, it would also increase performance in heavy AA/AF situations, but the GPU on the 9800 Pro isn't powerful enough to handle these situations in most cases anyways.

I'd go with a 9800 Pro 128, or better yet, something like a 6800nu, which is more expensive, but should lie within the same area as the 9800 Pro 256.

(burnout ).

 

[Solid Fro]

It isn't too much more to get 5.1 speakers. If you only want 2.1 sound, save some money and get a cheap $20 2.1 sound card or use the intergrated sound on the motherboard.

 

[emad]

save yourself a couple $100's of dollars and get an athlon64 setup. For hardcore gaming, there's nothing better . You can use the money you saved and buy a Radeon x800 which, is one of the most powerful gfx cards on the market.

Aside from that:
$119USD seems a bit much for a dvdrw drive if you consider that I can get a 16x dual layer Lite-On drive for roughly $95USD... but then again, i've got access to local stores that have prices better in some cases than Newegg.com.

 

[Unknown Variable X]

save yourself a couple $100's of dollars and get an athlon64 setup. For hardcore gaming, there's nothing better . You can use the money you saved and buy a Radeon x800 which, is one of the most powerful gfx cards on the market.

Aside from that:
$119USD seems a bit much for a dvdrw drive if you consider that I can get a 16x dual layer Lite-On drive for roughly $95USD... but then again, i've got access to local stores that have prices better in some cases than Newegg.com.

Its $119CAD all the prices there are from www.pccanada.com. I chose them only because they are in toronto(edit: actually etobicoke but whatever close enough, or maybe etobicoke is in toronto i dunno, I've lived here my whole life and I still dont know most of the street names around my house) and will build the pc for me at no extra cost and if I want I can stand around and watch them put it together.

I know the mobo has integrated sound but I have the perception that anything integrated is crap and I can get a soundblaster card for like $50 which I dont think is much. Speakers arent that important cause I'll most likely be using headphones for games but I want a basic subwoofer setup for when I'm working out or something.

I was thinking about getting pci express and using ddr2 ram but its just more money than I wanna spend. Which brings me to my next point, I gotta get this price down to around $2k. I was thinking about dropping the sound card if the mobo can do the job. Possibly dropping 512 ram and saving up for more later. I could probably drop the keyboard too and just use a simple less expensive one. Is there any preference towards monitors, I was looking through them and I just chose the middle one that supports a high res.

 

[Event]

Its $119CAD all the prices there are from www.pccanada.com. I chose them only because they are in toronto(edit: actually etobicoke but whatever close enough, or maybe etobicoke is in toronto i dunno, I've lived here my whole life and I still dont know most of the street names around my house) and will build the pc for me at no extra cost and if I want I can stand around and watch them put it together.

I know the mobo has integrated sound but I have the perception that anything integrated is crap and I can get a soundblaster card for like $50 which I dont think is much. Speakers arent that important cause I'll most likely be using headphones for games but I want a basic subwoofer setup for when I'm working out or something.

I was thinking about getting pci express and using ddr2 ram but its just more money than I wanna spend. Which brings me to my next point, I gotta get this price down to around $2k. I was thinking about dropping the sound card if the mobo can do the job. Possibly dropping 512 ram and saving up for more later. I could probably drop the keyboard too and just use a simple less expensive one. Is there any preference towards monitors, I was looking through them and I just chose the middle one that supports a high res.

if you don't plan on overclocking, You can get cheaper RAM, like Corsair Value Select RAM (Cheapest CAS2.5 RAM ). I would NOT suggest using 512MB for gaming. I thought I could get away with 512MB, and I was wrong. I regret it. I now need to buy more ram. You can drop the Sound card and can go down to the 128MB 9800Pro. They can be found for around $200USD. The PSU can also be downgraded to a 360W. If you plan on overclocking, though, go fro the 420W to be safe. That's all the penny pinching I can find. The RAM is the best place to downgrade to save $$. Keep the 2x512MB sticks, though. You will appreciate the 1GB of RAM when loading Doom 3 or HL 2 levels...

 

[emad]

alrighty, in that case, check www.canadacomputers.com - they've got stores in 'sauga as well as in scarborough and downtown toronto. I get nearly all my parts from them even though I work at a computer store and get discounts.

Cost > Performance wise, ddr2 won't make a huge difference and PCI-E won't make any difference at all right now.

Get an Athlon64 3200+ @ $278 with a Gigabyte GA-K8VT800 Pro Motherboard @ $146.

The monitor's dot pitch is pretty bad. Generally lower is best. Go for a Samsung Samsung SyncMaster™ DynaFlat™ 955DF @ $250. 0.2mm dot pitch and the samsung crts are pretty damn good.

 

[emad]

You can drop the Sound card and can go down to the 128MB 9800Pro. They can be found for around $200USD.

At the price they're charging for the 256 meg, he should go for it considering that my usual supplier has the standard 9800 @ $385 canadian

 

[Event]

At the price they're charging for the 256 meg, he should go for it considering that my usual supplier has the standard 9800 @ $385 canadian

That's for the All-in-Wonder. It allows you to watch TV through your computer. It also allows for making PS2 vids. 👍

From the 2 sites mentioned, I can't even find 1 9800Pro 128MB...

Here are some vendors who do carry it.
http://canadianshoppingdeals.pricenetwork.ca/products.php?p=29

 

[Unknown Variable X]

K well this is what I've got so far, I dont like amd so I'm sticking with intel. This is without keyboard mouse or sound card. I'll never really use 5.1 so I can live with the mobo if it can cut it.

Intel® Pentium® 4 - 3.2C-GHz @ 800Mhz w/ 512k (Socket 478) (Retail Box) w/ Heat Sink & Fan {Invis:3023} $314.99

Corsair 1Gb PC/3200 Xtreme Low Latency Platinum Series (2 x 512Mb) [TWINX1024-3200XLPT] {Invis:3718} $364.99

Asus® P4C800E-DLX, Socket 478, Intel® i875PE Chipset (ATX) {Invis:3016} $234.99

160 GB Maxtor Diamond Max® Plus 9 UDMA-133 7200RPM 8Mb 9ms OEM {Invis:2486} $124.99

Sony DWD22A Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive (IDE) OEM, Black {Invis:3890} $119.99

Creative® SBS 2.1 350 Speakers {Invis:3828} $49.99

ATI® Radeon™ 9800 Pro 128Mb DDR AGP TV-Out DVI (Retail Box) {Invis:2827} $284.99

Samsung DynaFlat 997DF-Silver/Black 19in SVGA 0.20hdp N.I. 1920x1440 MPR-II and ENERGY STAR® {Invis:3809} $289.99

Enlight Mid Tower ATX Case w/ 7 Bays w/o Power Supply, Black {Invis:3936} $54.99

Enlight 420W ATX Power Supply {Invis:2596} $59.99

SubTotal: $1899.90
GST: $132.99
PST: $151.99
Total: $2184.88

If its worth the extra memory I could drop 512 ram, buy the 9800pro 256, and just buy some more ram a while after.

 

[Event]

So I take it you will try to overclock this machine?

 

[Unknown Variable X]

Probably not for a while atleast. I've never done it before. I dont think I'll have too, its a pretty big leap from my current (brace yourself) P3 450mhz 448sdram GeForce2 mx400. Dell pos.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Don't drop the system memory.

If you want a system with really good throughput, buy a pair of hard drives and set them up as a RAID0 stripe - this basically means that the two disks are interleaved, and both can be written/read at the same time. Your Mobo will need to support RAID though. I have a pair of 250GB S-ATA drives, and they're seriously fast.

I would certainly drop the memory on my graphics card to get another hard drive. You also need case fans.

 

[Solid Fro]

Get an Athlon64 3200+ @ $278 with a Gigabyte GA-K8VT800 Pro Motherboard @ $146.

Socket 754 is a dead end in my opinion. I would wait for the Winchester Athlon 64 for socket 939.

The monitor's dot pitch is pretty bad. Generally lower is best. Go for a Samsung Samsung SyncMaster™ DynaFlat™ 955DF @ $250. 0.2mm dot pitch and the samsung crts are pretty damn good.

I have this monitor. It is an awesome monitor, games look so good on it, highly recommended 👍

 

[T100]

Okay well the 6800 Ultra does stick up into the top of the next slot....we had to move the card right above it on my friends cpu...I don't remember what the card was but all I know is that is didn't fit.

 

[Burnout]

Socket 754 is a dead end in my opinion. I would wait for a Newcastle Athlon 64 for socket 939.


I have this monitor. It is an awesome monitor, games look so good on it, highly recommended 👍

I've got a Syncmasteer 790DF with a .2mm dot pitch. Great monitor. 👍

 

[Event]

I've got a Syncmasteer 790DF with a .2mm dot pitch. Great monitor. 👍

I've got the 793MB. I think it is a lower model, but it has the .2mm dot pinch. it isn't truley flat, though. Plus, when the amount of white color on the screen changes, the size of the screen changes slightly, like on a CRT TV. It is inexpensive, though. The 993mb is $200 (19-in) and my 793mb was $150 +$20 Rebate. 👍

 

[Burnout]

I've got the 793MB. I think it is a lower model, but it has the .2mm dot pinch. it isn't truley flat, though. Plus, when the amount of white color on the screen changes, the size of the screen changes slightly, like on a CRT TV. It is inexpensive, though. The 993mb is $200 (19-in) and my 793mb was $150 +$20 Rebate. 👍

👍

I just got this monitor, actually. About 5 days ago. $109 at Sam's Club.

It's flat.