What do you think of these specs?

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darylb

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I've thinking of getting a computer with these specs for college, any suggestions on changes or comments?

Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz (Intel D915GAVL P4, SATA, A/L, DDR400
Pentium 4 heat-sink fan)
Windows XP Pro
160 GB HD
Video Card: ATI RADEON X850 XT 256MB AGP
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Plantinum Edition
17' tower, 350W, CPU-vent, USB
Chassis fan
DVD (DVD+/-RW) Burner/CD burner
LG 52x32x52 CDRW
Logitech MX500 Optical Mouse
Firewire & USB 2.0 Ports (Front/Back)
Flat Screen 19" Monitor (LG)
1 GB Ram
On-board 10/100 LAN w/ Intel® 82562EZ
 
Not bad at all. Though why buy a CDRW if u already have a DVDRW???
Additonally, i don't know how much the ATI card is but the NVidia 6600GT is extremely good. What are you going to use the PC for?
 
You need a bigger and better PSU(id go for 500+watt psu), go with antec, thermaltake or OCZ. Make sure you dont get the shitty 1GB of ram, twinmos is good if u arent overclocking.If you are going to overclock go with OCZ ram. Maybe a 6800GT(leadtek or eVGA) over the 850XT. and Maybe a athlon 64(like a 3500+ venice core, if you do decide to go with AMD, get the DFI lan party motherboard, its awsome) over the Intel p4 depending on what you are using this computer for (AMD>Intels for gaming). For the hard drive stick with seagate and western digital imo. hope this helps a little

edit : what case are you getting?
 
no offense, but it's a bad build

i can make a better one for you, but you gotta tell me how much you can spend and are you building this yourself or via a site?
 
I dont think the video card choice is going to make that big of a difference considering the X850XT and 6600/6800's are about the same. I'd upgrade your power supply unless that one has good amps output, and get a DVDRW cause you can burn CD's DVD's and you wont need to upgrade soon, also i agree about the Athlon 64's because if you get one instead of that 32-bit P4, you wont need to upgrade in case we take that dramatic shift to 64-bitness=)
 
RichM499 said:
I dont think the video card choice is going to make that big of a difference considering the X850XT and 6600/6800's are about the same. I'd upgrade your power supply unless that one has good amps output, and get a DVDRW cause you can burn CD's DVD's and you wont need to upgrade soon, also i agree about the Athlon 64's because if you get one instead of that 32-bit P4, you wont need to upgrade in case we take that dramatic shift to 64-bitness=)

um with a $150 6600gt you can turn on the eye candy with pixel shader 3.0, which you can't do with the $500+ X850XTPE
 
darylb said:
I've thinking of getting a computer with these specs for college, any suggestions on changes or comments?

Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz (Intel D915GAVL P4, SATA, A/L, DDR400
Pentium 4 heat-sink fan)
Windows XP Pro
160 GB HD
Video Card: ATI RADEON X850 XT 256MB AGP
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Plantinum Edition
17' tower, 350W, CPU-vent, USB
Chassis fan
DVD (DVD+/-RW) Burner/CD burner
LG 52x32x52 CDRW
Logitech MX500 Optical Mouse
Firewire & USB 2.0 Ports (Front/Back)
Flat Screen 19" Monitor (LG)
1 GB Ram
On-board 10/100 LAN w/ Intel® 82562EZ
Why on earth are you getting intel? Why the hell would you even think about ATI? You don't need the audigy platinum edition, the only thing it offers over the ZS are extra recording options, nothing that would improve preformance. What would the main purpase of this PC be for? Typing up reports? If so, what you are getting is complete overkill, not to mention your poor choice in brands. Tell me how much you are willing to spend, and I'll set you up real good. Why would you even think of AGP? :confused:
 
17' tower?? I won't even get that in my room. It would have to be outside. It would be level with the top of my second floor. lol.


Anyway, to re-inforce those comments. Right now, for gaming you want to get a Nvidia video card, becauise ATI deos not support pixel shader model 3, meaning that card would be pretty much useless in the very near future, literaly in months, Half life 2 HDR add on thing uses it. If you want to wait a little while, than the new ATI cards are getting my interest.

Intel are not the way to go for gaming, evidence:http://www20.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041221/cpu_charts-15.html#directx_9

Don't use a PSU that comes with a case, unless it is from Antec or Thermaltake. 350 will barely hold that system even from a good make, so it is likely to be unstable/re-start randomly.

Also if that monitor is a TFT/plasma/LCD don't get a cheap one, as they get dead pixels and have a slow refresh rate, so you will get shosting.
 
How much are you looking to spend?

An Nvidia / AMD solution is much better for the money

As you said before, if you want eye candy get the 6800U or GT. If you want to have a raw high peformance ugly single card, get an x850
 
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