Building newbie needs help with first try

[Ravesky]

I really need a new computer to take to college with me, my 4 year old junker is not going to be able to handle the games I hope to play soon such as HL2 and EQ2.. I only have AT MOST $1300 to spend, preferably less if possible. I have picked out a bunch of stuff that I think works well together. Is this computer going to be upgradeable in the future? I have to build this computer soon so I can play EQ2 when it comes out in two weeks .

In order to save money, I was thinking about going to an AMD 3200 64 bit 754 socket proc and a diff motherboard, this would save me around a hundred dollars. I was also thinking about going to like a 100 GB Sata 7200 RPM hard drive. Would taking this route greatly decrease the computerÂ’s performance?

Any input/comments would be greatly appreciated.

It might be easier to just look here http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=1052884

Case- http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-156-135&depa=0

RAIDMAX Black 10-bay Case with 420W Power Supply – 45.00

Mobo- http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-181&depa=0

ABIT "AV8" K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 939 CPU – 111.00

Processor- http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-463&depa=0

AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 512K, L2 Cache, Windows Compatible 64-bit Processor 939 Pin – 292.00

Vid Card- http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-202&depa=0

eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card, 128MB GDDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP – 285.00

Sound Card- Is the mobo enough for now?

RAM - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-480&depa=0

Corsair Value Select Dual Channel Kit 184 Pin 1G(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 – 158.00

-I donÂ’t really understand Dual Channel, is it worth it?

Floppy - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=21-104-101&depa=0

Mitsumi Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive 11.00

Hard Drive - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&depa=0

Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive – 182.00

DVD-Rom - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=27-152-032&depa=0

NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Black – 71.00

OS- http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=37-102-151&depa=0 My current comp still runs Windows MEÂ…it sucks

Fan - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-998-121&depa=0

Aspire 120mm 4-pin UV Blue LED Case Fan 12.00

Random Stuff - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=35-100-007&depa=0

Arctic Silver Premium Silver Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound 12.00


--I can get a bundle on newegg with the MB, Proc, and Ram for 50 less--

 

[Leonidas]

it all looks ok, i would suggest if you are on a budget to go for a lesser processor, you can alway supgrade later and the processor normally doesnt hold you back on higher end graphix its normally the gpu that does. dual channel memory if you install two modules that are identical then they are each given one channel to the cpu, instead of sharing a single one it can increase memory bandwidth 50% if im not mistaken can increase performance quite a bit , ive never seen the need for excessivley fast harddrives personally so you may find it smarter to go for a cheaper drive. and as for the OS you can normally find nice people that you may already know who have a (lets call it "free") version of windows you can have.

as for sound the mobo should be enough in my opinion but im not a big sound sorta person when it comes to videogames and comps.

 

[YanBooth]

Looks good, but I would suggest this hard drive instead... http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-145-048&depa=0
Speed is good, but it is a lot of money, and you could go for the 3200 CPU, and if you spend less on the hard drive, you can get a bettter video card!
Good luck!
Yan

 

[RangerX]

What's your current setup??
EQ II only requires a 1HGz processor with 2 GHz recommended. For the GPU they require a 64MB card required a 128MB card but say 256MB would be even better. I think it's going to be your GPU that matters. Your chosen vidoe card will be more than adequate. Go for 512MB to a 1GB of Ram if you can.
Any Athlon 64 will be fine and you could even step down to a Barton Core regular Athlon XP and save money as well. I'd think you feel better about the Athlon 64 though.

I agree with the others about the hard drive and processor. I'd rather have a cheaper 7200rpm hard drive with 2x the storage than a 10,000rpm drive. I think the rpms do not make a noticable difference. Personally I'd go with a 754pin Athon only because I don't upgrade my processor often enough to warrant the upgradability on the 939's. From my experience by the time most people want to upgrade the processor it's time to upgrade the motherboard too anyway. If you're off to college I doubt you'll want to upgrade that often. Save the rest of your money for college activities such as drinking beverages

By the time it becomes cheap enough to want SLI and two video cards or a non-bugged WIN XP 64 edition OS there will be a new chipset anyway that everone is gonna say that will be better.

MB sound is fine unless you have a SB live or better in your current system.

Salvage what you can from the old system if possible
Hard drives
Sound card
3.5 Floppy drive (that will save you 11 bucks)
CD Drive
Keyboard/Mouse
Monitor if possible

 

[RangerX]

oops I meant Sony recommends a 128MB card

 

[RangerX]

Nice case but I noticed you selected 120mm fans for it. Does it fit 120mm fans??

 

[TechKid]

all seems good, but if your interested in games you might want to look at a better graphics card.

 

[oz13ms2000]

Get a 6800GT instead, it is great value because it tops the current ATI cards, and you can easily overclock it to 6800Ultra speeds.

 

[Ravesky]

Quick question..what is a GPU?

Anyways....my current setup is a p3, 866 mb geforce 4200 ti 64 mb, 30 gb HD. Not good enough I think..

The case I am thinking about I will probably not include those fans now that I think about it.

If I go for the cheaper proc, a 3200 64 bit, will performance suffer? I am planning on changing to a 80 gb seagate sata 72000 and getting a higher performance memory. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-019&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-018&depa=0

Also, if I go 3200 and get the 6800 GT card, will it's performance be hindered by the slower processor?

 

[RangerX]

I don't think going to a cheaper proc is going to make a big difference at all. I think once you get to the Athlon 64 level it's going to be small differences between processors for a least a year or two. Like I said by the time you want to upgrade the processor you may want to upgrade the MB anyway.

GPU=Graphic Processing Unit?? Your Video Card basically


I think the 6800GT will be fine. I think it's going to take more of your load off of your CPU which is what you want

Believe it or not your current geforce TI card may be supported in EQ2 but I don't think you'd want to use it