Building Home Computer (Need Help!)

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amd may have a shorter data path, but intel has twice the fsb and faster processing speed as well

dual channel ddr is awesome i would recommend getting it if possible as it theoretically doubles the speed of your ram, i woudl try for 1-2 gb of ram

the msi 865pe neo-2 fis2r is a great mobo, as demonstreated here and you can pick one up for under $140 (retail)
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030707/index.html

i would go with either pc3200 or pc2700 (depending on your money)

the ati radeon 9200 is a good card for the money (i think you an pick one up that has 128mb for around $70)

500w is a little overkill, but if you ever get a 2nd hdd and have 2-3 cd roms, plus a high-power graphics card, you will need at least 450w, so 500 isnt crazy

i wouldnt get anything smaller than 100gb for your hdd as it isnt cost-effective, you can pick up a 120gb hdd for around $100, western digital and maxtor are 2 really good brands, although other good brands exist
 
Gotta love the AMD & Intel debate.

The reason AMD has such a following is because it's less $ for what you get compared to Intel. You can argue features all you want, but benchmarks tell the true tale.
 
i can't thank you guys enough!

i sincerely appreciate your valuable knowledge and support. after this and some further research i shouldn't have any problem putting together my new system.

cheers, yammer
 
you also cant argue with the fact that the AMD communicates with its ram at half speed, and the fact that if you run a p4 2.2 GHz vs an Athlon XP 2000+ the Intel wins virtually everywhere, as seen here: http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20020107/p42200-11.html

look at the lightwave scores, the P4 takes 130 seconds less (thats a 176% increase in speed) now i realize this is an older test and if i can find some newer ones i will post them later

*edit* i have found some more tests and the only tests that the AMD wins are the FPS tests in 3D rendering other than that the
P4 wins hands down every time:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/roundupcpu/pentium4-28-athlonxp-26-mx.html

and this is with the "older" p4 that only had the 533MHz FSB, im sure the newer 800MHz FSB will pull even farther away from AMD

*edit*
 
I like the P4's, have you seen their prices lately??!! THEY HAVE DROPPED LIKE AN AVALANCHE!!!
The 3.2 GHZ used to be like $1200 (Aus) but is now like $650
looks like Intel might be releasing a Pentium 5 or something soon
 
a good sound card is the "Sound Blaster Live" and an excellent sound card is the "Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum" but onboard sound with the MB can be almost as good.

Get a Sony CD burner and a Pioneer DVD drive/burner

PC100 is REALLY SLOW compared to PC2700 but PC3200 is even faster than PC2700

Floppy drive: doesn't really matter as long as it works

Get a Radeon 9600 Pro (for better cost vs performance)

Hard Drive: I like the Seagate drives. they're really quiet, relatively inexpensive - not cheap-parts-sort-of-thing - and are good quality

Cooling: depends on CPU but the Thermaltake Volcano is really good
also get whole system cooling, the Thermaltake CFAN-SM8 (can be seen here: http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php?prdid=00003129) <- this site is in Aussie dollars

Monitor: get a Sony Trinitron, ive seen a 21" for just $399 (Aus) at a swap meet.

Motherboard: Asus P4C800 Deluxe Gold, you can find the specs here: http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php?prdid=00006199 (again, Aussie dollars)
it has onboard LAN 1000 Megabytes per second
supports all AGP graphics cards
and all DDR RAM disks
Has a feature called "Crashfree BIOS2" <--this doesn't mean that your computer crashes for free... lol
It is easier to reset the BIOS
 
Yea, it takes an Intel 2.2 to compete against an AMD XP 2000+?
LOL, kidding (sort of)
Yea, the AMD/Intel debate can go on forever...LOL
The fact is, a lot of people that have been using older AMD processors like the K6 series know that AMDs worked more efficiently, they were cheaper and easily overclocked. Hardcore AMD fans, like myself are not going to be easily persuaded. I must say that "faster" Intel processors can totally ruin AMDs in most all benchmarks. But another interesting fact is that the AMD XP processor was built around the XP OS and it uses it's naming convention to get the consumer educated about how the processor will compare/benchmark with that of a like-named Intel processor (pretty ballsy of AMD). Goes to show that the processor speed isn't everything. Speaking of, in the sencond link above, take a close look at how the XP 2100+ compares to the Intel 2.53!!!! And we are talking about 2 processors that shouldn't be anywhere near the same ballpark?!?!?
Intel has got the processor interaction with the FSB over AMD so far but I feel that in the future (especially with the AMD 64) this will change. I think that once Longhorn comes out, AMD 64 processors will be at more of a consumer buying level and will start to blow Intel out of the water (once again). Either way, it'll be interesting.

-Michael
 
I must heartily agree with Groovin' Mike.....I was a pentium only guy until I saw a comparison of the Athlon XP 3000+ run with WinXP....it blew anything else away!!!! I had always been told that they clocked slower, but it's not all about clock speed it's about what the processor DOES with the speed it has.....oh and the Platinum Audigy is NOT a crappy soundcard.....it's just about versatility, it comes with enough inputs and software to run a small recording studio (I should know, I've used mine to record a couple records for myself and friends). I actually had a friend recently spend about $1200 on music software alone and my Audigy came with more than half of the apps he bought....plus it can be used as a MIDI controller, optical mixboard, guitar amp, anything really....the point is not the sound quality.....it's the versatility........It's really the BIGGETY-BOMB!!!!!!
 
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