It seems like it's new 'puter time. Wifey now works at home and ties up my Precious. Besides, my ol' 1700+ is kinda stale.
I need some advice tho:
P4 2.8 or P4 2.4 or 3200+ or the 3000+ 64 bit Athlon?
512mb 3200 or 512mb2700?
Radeon 9600XT or GFX-5200 or GFX-5600 OR EVEN THE GFX-5700?
Would a gig of 3200 Kingston and a slower P4 or Athlon be better?
I don't want a top line machine as Baby consumes $$$ but I want something that can cope with CounterStrike II smooth *and* last longer than 6 months after CS comes out.
Any other good combos thats give bang for my buck???
Thx!
My new 'puter
Just built a Athlon64 3200 for my brother, and it is quite noticably faster than my P4 2.53/533. They cost around $270 though.
In my opinion, the Athlon64 is worth the extra money versus saving a hundred bucks on a lesser CPU. A good mobo like the Asus K8V is also important.
As for the RAM, I would go with 512 MB PC3200 now, and get another 512 later. (I need 1+GB at all times). The 400mhz versus 333mhz isn't earth shattering, but hey it makes a little difference.
Video cards, well ... up to you. They are all pretty good, and the FX5900 and Radeon9800 pros are under $200 already and they rock. I would read some reviews on the 9600XT FX5600 etc ... but you will not touch the 5900 or 9800's with those other cards, but they are only $120's as well.
My opinion :
Asus K8V (~$140)
Cruicial or Kingston 512MB PC3200 (~$75)
Athlon64 3200 (~$270)
Radeon9800 128MB (<$200)
--
So you could shave off maybe $250 by going with a P4 3ghz/XP3200+ cheaper mobo and 9600/FX5600 video. But I would spend the extra personally, as you will be happier I believe in the long run.
Good luck and have fun!
In my opinion, the Athlon64 is worth the extra money versus saving a hundred bucks on a lesser CPU. A good mobo like the Asus K8V is also important.
As for the RAM, I would go with 512 MB PC3200 now, and get another 512 later. (I need 1+GB at all times). The 400mhz versus 333mhz isn't earth shattering, but hey it makes a little difference.
Video cards, well ... up to you. They are all pretty good, and the FX5900 and Radeon9800 pros are under $200 already and they rock. I would read some reviews on the 9600XT FX5600 etc ... but you will not touch the 5900 or 9800's with those other cards, but they are only $120's as well.
My opinion :
Asus K8V (~$140)
Cruicial or Kingston 512MB PC3200 (~$75)
Athlon64 3200 (~$270)
Radeon9800 128MB (<$200)
--
So you could shave off maybe $250 by going with a P4 3ghz/XP3200+ cheaper mobo and 9600/FX5600 video. But I would spend the extra personally, as you will be happier I believe in the long run.
Good luck and have fun!
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midnightservice
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well i would get the 64 bit system with 512mb ram and the 9600xt card.......i got to play with that card this week and it is quite nice....on a celeron 2 ghz system with 256mb ram it benched marked out on 3dmark01 with a score of 7528......so not to damn bad for 199.99.......so it is all up to you..........if i was doing it i would go with the 5700 ultra..it is the same card as 5900fx
-Mid
-Mid
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Archangelus
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1) I (personally) wouldn't worry about the 64-bit procs. If you can get one at a good price, great. Otherwise, you'll be fine with a 3000+ or 3200+ without the x86-64 architecture. Regardless, I'd go AMD if you want best performance for the cost. If you are concerned about supportability and beign confident that every game will run without "architecture related" issues, then perhaps look at Intel.
2) Don't get less than 512MB RAM. If you can afford it, get 1GB.
3) GeForceFX 5700 Ultra is a great card without the high ticket price. I highly recommend it.
4) Make sure you research any product you are interested in by reading their support forums. You get the worst picture, but at least your eyes are open to the potential issues.
If you have any specific questions, let me know, or mid, or whomever - oh hell, just post 'em.
-Arch
2) Don't get less than 512MB RAM. If you can afford it, get 1GB.
3) GeForceFX 5700 Ultra is a great card without the high ticket price. I highly recommend it.
4) Make sure you research any product you are interested in by reading their support forums. You get the worst picture, but at least your eyes are open to the potential issues.
If you have any specific questions, let me know, or mid, or whomever - oh hell, just post 'em.
-Arch
No way, you would definately go 5900 over 5700 Ultra, it is in no way the same card. The 5700U only has 4 pixel pipes while the 5900 uses 8.midnightservice wrote:well i would get the 64 bit system with 512mb ram and the 9600xt card.......i got to play with that card this week and it is quite nice....on a celeron 2 ghz system with 256mb ram it benched marked out on 3dmark01 with a score of 7528......so not to damn bad for 199.99.......so it is all up to you..........if i was doing it i would go with the 5700 ultra..it is the same card as 5900fx
-Mid
Also if you get a pre-nerf 5900 (400/850 clocks) than you can flash the bios to a 5950 (as they are the same card with diff cooling) and OC to 500/1000 with no problems. Sure you don't have to OC it at the time as it plays any game, but you can down the road when you need more juice.
Careful with FX5900's when buying though, there are now an "XT" version and others that run at 400/700 clocks.
I actually had an FX5700 for a week but I sent it back for the FX5900, my 3dMark scores basically doubled and while playing games it runs flawlessly, where the 5700 saw some video lag with details pumped up.
I also would recommend 1GB DDR400 if you're spending that much, and make sure you get a good power supply like an Antec 430 or 480 or something like that.
I just built this system in January for under $1200 Canadian (so about $900 USD or so):
Antec 480watt PSU
P4 2.6C (OC'd to 3.0ghz)
1GB DDR400
FX5900 (flashed to 5950 and OC'd to 500/1000)
80GB SATA HDD
SB Audigy 5.1
Intel 865 chipset MB
CDRW/DVD combo drive
CDRW drive
10/100 NIC
There isn't a single game that does not play rock solid yet with this setup.
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