Building Home Computer (Need Help!)

[yammer44]

Good evening everyone,

I am building a home computer and i have knowledge of only a fraction of the components.

I have this much so far:

CPU: P4 2.8Ghz 800 fsb

Motherboard: (don't understand all of the motherboard jargon) what is a reliable one that is expandable? is dual channel DDR cool or necassary?

Power Supply: 500w

Videocard: (thinking about radion 9700 pro) is this a good one?

Soundcard: (don't have a clue about sound cards)

Hard Drive: (thinking about 60 GB 7200 rpm) what is a reliable brand?

Memory: (thinking about 512mb) what is the difference between PC 100 memory and PC 2100 memory? is it faster, more reliable?

DVD-ROM: (i want a burner)

CD-RW: (i want a burner)

Floppy: (just want basic and cheap)

Cooling: (don't know whats good) should i get led to make it look sweet?

OS: Windows XP Professional

Case: led case with open panel side


Is there anything missing?
Thank you for your help! It is much appreciated!

 

[mouse5150]

I would like to add you may need:

Modem
Monitor
Lan card
Speaker System
Keyboard and Mouse

Depending on what you need and what you already have.

Just summat to think about

 

[Lostman]

Any good motherboard will have the modem, NIC (lan card) and decent on-board sound.

I'm out of touch on Intel mobo's, so I'll leave that one alone.

Power Supply, 500W? A bit overkill, don't you think? 360w or 400w would be more then enough.

Vid Card - Since your going for broke and spending a lot of cash already, why not go for the Raidon 9800? That would hold you over for a while.

Sound Card - Any good mobo will have good sound on it. You can go with a Creative Labs Audigy 2, but I think they're a waste of money, and that's coming from a musician.

Memory - The max that your board can handle. Probably PC2700. I don't know if intel supports PC3200 yet.

 

[yammer44]

thanks for the help!

would you suggest going with an athlon processor?

cheers

 

[Cherubimon_3.20]

if you plan to play a lot of games, then go with the Athlon

 

[yammer44]

what would be the amd equivalent to a p4 2.8ghz 800fsb processor?

thanks

 

[rezurrectme]

Does a 800 FSB exist on AMD CPUs? I thought they max out at 400MHz.

Cheru: Why are AMD processors better in a gaming environment?

 

[yammer44]

thanks for the help!

i'm going with the amd athlon xp 2700+ with asus A7V8X-X motherboard.

cheers

 

[Cosmic~Fury]

Yammer...

Best choice for an AMD Athlon XP 2700+ thats what I'm getting...you have your choice between thorobred and Barton though, and I'd recommend, and am getting, a thorobred.

The mobo I'm in love with is the Asus A7N8X Deluxe, but you're present decision is just as good.

If you're gaming you'll need MUCH better memory! DDR400 PC3200 512MB and you'll need 2 sticks of it. Make sure what kind of DDR and PC your mobo supports first though...get Kingston HyperX 512MB DDR400 PC3200 you can get two sticks for a REALLY good price http://www.kingston.com

Hard drive...Seagate Barracuda, Western Digital, Matrox, or Maxtor, they all make great hard drives, a bit pricey with WD though...Maxtor seems to be on most people's, and my, A-list...for gaming, get a Maxtor Ultra Series 80.0GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache http://www.maxtor.com

With the DVD-Rom, make sure its a CD/DVD-Rom so you can run both CD and DVDs...for the CD read speed, you'll need 48x or higher...For DVD read, I'm getin' 16x...you'll find pretty good drives under $100...

CD-RW...I heard a while back that Plextor makes the best. I might get their PlexWriter. For burning I'd recommend a 48x/24x/48a somewhere along there and its less than $150 http://www.plextor.com

Floppy? http://www.pricegrabber.com or newegg to find regular, basic stuff. Teac brand is as simple and cheap as it gets, but I can't find one in a black/gray/silver color. Same for Mitsumi brand...

To save money, just get a case with two fans in back, one on side, and a fan or airflow in the front of the case. anymore fans is a plus, but to your specs, not needed.

Creative Labs makes the industries top soundcards...The SoundBlaster Audigy series is quite popular, with your choice between Gamer edition, MP3+ edition, etc...Or you can get an Audigy 2...it goes up to Platinum Pro...if you're like me, and you're gonna begin studio work, I'd get the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. http://www.creative.com they also make some of the top speaker systems...

As for speaker systems, my best experiences come with Klipsch ProMedia speakers, but you have your other top brands like logitech and altec lansing and creative labs/cambridge soundworks, etc... http://www.klipsch.com as I'd recommend...

Logitech or Microsoft make good mice...get a Logitech MX500 Optical...please, in my opinion, and do take my advice, stay away from wireless/cordless pricey keyboard+mouse sets! Optical or the old ball technology is best for gaming, and my experiences with many diff wireless have shown me that cordless sucks!

I can't seem to find a simple, good keyboard under $50, and thats all I wanted, so http://www.keytronic.com can provide you. Just browse their selection.

You'll want your power supply to stay between 420w and 500w...you can get a case with a power supply with it.

If you're gonna buy fans sepearatly, I've heard enermax is a top brand. http://www.hardcorecooling.com http://www.koolance.com and http://www.thermaltake.com and if you want, you can find Arctic Silver 3 on pricebrabber or summit...

Save your money on the videocard. Get an ATi Radeon 9600Pro or an Nvidia 5600. Both 128MB AGP from what I've heard ATi seems to be the better with games right now, and especially if you wanna play Half-Life 2

If you get a dial-up modem, U.S. Robotics, 3Com, or Creative Labs makes pretty good stuff. Get a v.92 and if you're getting DSL or Cable, you're installer should give you a modem.

This is what I'm probably getting:

Monitor: NEC AccuSync LCD7V or NEC MultiSync LCD1760NX
Case+Power Supply&Fans:
Mouse: Logitech MX500 Optical
Keyboard: KeyTronic E03600QLPS2B-C @ KeyTronic.com
Motherboard: Asus A7N8X Deluxe
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2700+ Thourobred @ newegg.com
Videocard: ATi Radeon 9600Pro 128MB AGP
Soundcard: Creative Labs SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Platinum ZS
Memory: 2 sticks of Kingston HyperX 512MB DDR400
PC3200 @ Kingston.com
Hard Drive: Maxtor Ultra Series 80.0GB 7200RPM 8MBCache EIDE ATAPI/133
CD/DVD-Rom:
CD-RW: Plextor PlexWriter 48x/24x/48a EIDE ATAPI @ plextor.com
Cooling:
Floppy:
Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 @ klipsch.com
OS: Windows 2000 Professional @ microsoft.com

edit: oh yeah! make sure your floppy, cd/dvd-rom, cd-rw(if you want), hard drive, are EIDE ATAPI.

 

[Zero Shift]

I wouldn't exactly recommend the T-bred core over the Barton, if i saw the correct cache sizes.
The site i bought my XP 2600+ Barton said it had a 640k cache, while all the T-breds had a paltry 256k.

Maybe....MAYBE the 2700+ since it's got a higher clock rate, but all the faster ones after that are Bartons anyway.
I would personally suggest the 2500-2600+ as they got good reviews almost across the board.