build up?

[dru]

im thinking this will do for me....ill be downloading a lot of videos, pc gamming, mp3s, etc.
AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.8GHz)
350W Enermax Power Supply
Kingston 512MB PC2700 DDR RAM
nVidia GeForce 4 Ti-4200
harddrives? maybe 2 280gb?
Lite-On 40x12x48x CD-RW drive
Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum
Altec Lansing AVS500W 4 speakers, 1 subwoofer system
Firewire & USB 2.0 compatible

what else do i need?

[Craig]

Originally posted by dru@Dec 28 2002, 09:41 PM
harddrives? maybe 2 280gb?
Lite-On 40x12x48x CD-RW drive
Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM
Are you going to need that much space for storage ?

Why are you getting both a CD drive and a DVD drive, why not just get one of the newer rewritable DVD drives ?

What about a nice 17" LCD screen and a filter/cover ?

[dru]

so i can copy cds.

how much is a 19" monitor will cost?

[LoneSwordsman]

19" CRT
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Ca...slc.asp?Id=1207 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_slc.asp?Id=1207)

19" LCD
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Ca...slc.asp?Id=1208 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_slc.asp?Id=1208)

[ren28]

You might want to try an Ati Radeon 9700 if it is cost-effective enough. I also don't seen the need for so much storage unless you are going for speed (RAID 0).

Audigy2 is out. I don't know if it's worth the extra money though.

Regarding LCD's... it's my opinion that CRT's are still better than LCD's in terms of picture quality. They are much heavier and take more space though.

[himura-dono]

im thinking this will do for me....ill be downloading a lot of videos, pc gamming, mp3s, etc.
AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.8GHz)
if you don't plan on overclocking at all. otherwise newegg.com has 1600+ for $48 with free shipping and are guaranteed agoia (but you may get aroia stepping which is better and seems to be what i've ben getting consistently with every order to them) which generally can hit 1.8 in their sleep. then again, i don't know your tastes in risk. might as well stick with the 2200+

350W Enermax Power Supply
i tend to suggest 400+w for any amd build just for the "you never know" factor. you may upgrade later.

Kingston 512MB PC2700 DDR RAM
samsung is usually cheaper and a better performer

nVidia GeForce 4 Ti-4200
beware gainward... they've been having problems with their's lately. pink screens have been popping up among users that have recently bought them in the last few months.

harddrives? maybe 2 280gb?
....ok, i'm assuming you mistyped that and meant 2 - 80gb any major manufacturer is fine

Lite-On 40x12x48x CD-RW drive
Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM
lite-on is awesome. is that the slot-load pioneer?

Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum
unless ur a real audiophile, i'd stick with a cheap 5.1 soundblaster card ($35ish). i'm fairly picky, and i use a turtle beach santa cruz which is cheaper than the audigy and in my opinion sounds better

Altec Lansing AVS500W 4 speakers, 1 subwoofer system
decent speakers


all of this sounds fine generally, but i noticed the most important part missing... where's your mobo?

[himura-dono]

Originally posted by Craig@Dec 29 2002, 03:47 AM
Why are you getting both a CD drive and a DVD drive, why not just get one of the newer rewritable DVD drives ?

What about a nice 17" LCD screen and a filter/cover ?



i think because those things are hella expensive in comparison to having the two drives. aside from that the cd-rw writing ability is drastically slower on dvd-rw's. and sony's is also the only one supporting all of the current format choices for dvd writing technology.

lcd's aren't very gaming friendly. and they cost too damn much imho. i have a nice 20" viewable dell (sony made) trinitron that i got for 200 shipped a year ago.

[blue__blood]

It looks like you're willing to spend a pretty penny for the near the top hardware, why not get an Adaptec raid card and RAID5 between three 80 giggers?

[Scaramanga]

I would change the speakers to Klipsch's 5.1 system and Hercules has a Radeon 9700 card that's overclocking-friendly. I mean who doesn't want an extra 10 frame rates in Unreal Tourney 2K3?

Plus, i hear the HyperThreading Pentium 4s are racing towards 3 Ghz? You could use that extra processor help when it comes to editing movies and downloading pr0n AND playing Star Wars Galaxies online.

:D

[ren28]

The Klipsch 5.1 system (for computers) is pretty good. I am using that temporarily until I get a real home theater system and it sounds great even with PCM input through the optical connector (in the $180 Klipsch decoder). It can only sound better with Dolby Digital signal. The only thing that sucks about it is that it does not come with a decoder. It's only a $550-580 system and it fills the room with decent sound. Only power users need apply.

[himura-dono]

the thing is we really don't know if he/she is being budget minded and trying to get the most for their money. i wouldn't reccomend a $700 processor to anyone, whether they be poor, smart, rich, or retarded. i'd chunk a p4 for an xp any day. at least then i feel i got way more than my money's worth. and the hyper threading enabled p4's are crap. they don't do nearly what they market and have only shown a few percentage point bonus when compared to a normal p4. these p4's also have shown many problems with soundblaster cards. so audigy would be out. if you ask my opinion, figure out your budget and state it before you get many of the ludicrous suggestions. if altec's are all someone want's to be happy, i wouldn't suggest klipsch's. if they want a 1.8ghz amd xp then don't suggest a $700 cpu. if they're thinking ti4200 which goes for a lil over 100 now, i wouldn't suggest a $400+ hercules radeon 9700 pro.

yeesh. :(

[Scaramanga]

Well, we'll let dru worry about the budget constraints of upgrading. However, if the factor is performance vs. value, I would suggest going all out, rather than fretting every year if my card was complaint with the latest PC games or my soundcard couldn't pump 6.1 surround sound AND was THX certified. There's nothing wrong with plunking $600 for a processor or $400 for graphics card, if you want to be ahead of the pack. At one time, my 32mb 3dfx card cost over $100 and I can safely say I gave it a nice funeral.

[himura-dono]

yes, but if everyone is too busy saying [insert expensive hardware item] pwnz so you better have it or u sux0rz hardcor3 (or at least the mentality), then the person is gonna think a few things like shit, i wanted realistic items. if you look at the build he offered for criticism, it shows the budget. while altecs are not klipsche's, they are pretty decent and probably fine since they meet or exceed his/her standards. an amd 2200+ isn't an amd 2700+ nor a p4 ht 3*cough*ghz. it also isn't a hugely expensive processor. i have a nice little amd 1600+ that in a single setup hit 2.0+ ghz. it was a little over 600mhz jump for my *at the time* $53.00 processor. now, that pretty much slaps a 2200+ up and down the block for price vs. preformance, as even oc'ed the 2200+'s aren't really setting records beaten rediculously by agoia-y and aroia-y cored 1600+ cpu's. however, dru may or may not want to overclock, or void any warranties, unlike me.

to me, if i were to post a list and get nothing but, "d00d, dvd-rw, 3ghz ht p4, klipsche, etc etc" i'de be insulted and wish i had never made a comment. in fact, that may be why dru hasn't made a comment since. it seems no matter where i am, i'm surrounded by people who say what you all have said. i put my dually together for 650ish with the water cooling. now my chips in dual use will only hit 1.8 ghz, but i get the speed i need and the ability to abuse my system with my typical "gotta be running a million and one things" self. if i wanted even more performance, i'd have stuck with a uni processor system. but i wanted to have more control and be able to command more. now if i posted the specs of my machine, i'm sure you'd all be acting the same way.

it's not expensive = quality, or expensive = best, especially not to each individual. it's that dru put out what he/she thought was a good system, and it is, and wanted to hear some critique of it. and don't try and argue that what everyone has said has been a critique because it's far from it.

<_<

[wylin]

im building a system also in the near future (march) i await the NV30 and its progenity

probably use:

CPU: Pentium 4 3.06 HT - should be cheaper by then
Mobo:ASUS P4PE w/ serial ata and sound - asus whore tried and true
Memory: 2 sticks of 256 meg corsair CAS:2 DDR2700 ram w/ heat sink
Videocard: Geforce FX/nv30 = im a nvidia whore
Storage: use the serial ata controller and adapt for now my 120gig WD 8meg buffer drive till true Serial ATA drives appear
Case: either alluminum or antec Soho 400watt w/ antec or engermax power supplies
Monitor: reuse my existing 19' flat CRT samsung 955DF
Speakers: Reuse my Logitech Z540's
Optical Drives: a Toshiba DVD-rom and a Pioneer A-05 DVD-R/w - screw that +rw bs, DVD-R plays in ps2's heh...

[Scaramanga]

Again, I'll restate my point of letting dru worry about the about the costs and you actually reread my posts, NOT ONCE DID I CRITIQUE OR ARGUE AGAINST anything anyone recommended, so relax. Where in my posts did I criticize, as you said, SO RELAX? All I did was recommend products which were top of the line based on my personal research, SO RELAX?

LET DRU WORRY ABOUT THE COSTS, WHO ARE YOU, THE ACCOUNTANT?

<_<

[himura-dono]

no, i'm someone who builds pc's for spare income, but i do it honest and tailor it to the person. i go into bestbuy telling the 80 year old woman who just wants something to read email and do some surfing that she doesn't need a $2k computer that some ass is trying to sell her. i don't even tell them of my side business, just that a smaller shop could more than likely help her with something geared toward her needs rather than the pricetag a bestbuy lackey is trying to force on her, or that the system that the clerk suggested is way beyond her needs and offer some suggestions. same for other people. when they tell a clerk that they just need something to *BLAH* and he/she suggests immediately something WAAAAAAAAAAAY beyond their needs, i tell them otherwise when lackeyboi is gone. i now get ejected on site from 4 of my local bestbuy's for helping people. if they ask why i know, or if i can help them more, i tell them that it would be better to speak outside of the store to avoid any legalities. bestbuy claims i'm driving away their business when all i'm doing is informing them that the clerk is lying outright to them.

maybe that's why i get irritated. i have my preferences, but i don't push them on anyone, and if i can save a customer money on their build, i don't pocket the extra, i tell them where they can save and educate them.

even though this is more than likely going to appear to be a different situation to you, not to me, it's a viewpoint you can understand and hopefully understand the points. i'm not saying "fuck you blarg, this products better, etc" or any kind of attack, so i actually think you need to chill bro, i'm ice.

[himura-dono]

Originally posted by wylin@Jan 3 2003, 04:37 PM
im building a system also in the near future (march) i await the NV30 and its progenity

probably use:

CPU: Pentium 4 3.06 HT - should be cheaper by then
Mobo:ASUS P4PE w/ serial ata and sound - asus whore tried and true
Memory: 2 sticks of 256 meg corsair CAS:2 DDR2700 ram w/ heat sink
Videocard: Geforce FX/nv30 = im a nvidia whore
Storage: use the serial ata controller and adapt for now my 120gig WD 8meg buffer drive till true Serial ATA drives appear
Case: either alluminum or antec Soho 400watt w/ antec or engermax power supplies
Monitor: reuse my existing 19' flat CRT samsung 955DF
Speakers: Reuse my Logitech Z540's
Optical Drives: a Toshiba DVD-rom and a Pioneer A-05 DVD-R/w - screw that +rw bs, DVD-R plays in ps2's heh...
will, just make sure you have the most up to date firmware on that pioneer dvd-rw when you get it. there's been instantaneous drive deaths with people that've used 4x media, even if used in 2x.

pretty nice setup btw. but one thing to watch for is the fact that although ht in no way equals dually power, it does have some of it's drawbacks. meaning the sb line of soundcards have issues when combined with it. so if you were thinking audigy 2, maybe wait it out if you hear that there's still issues unresolved by march.

[Dhaval 4 U 2 NV]

....


hmmmm.... OOOOUCH

hey yo, himura-dono.... that hurt about the Bestbuy thing... i work at bestbuy. But thas ok... i am hated all the time. hehehe B) . Not to side track from the subject but.... we give wat is best for the person's buy. Anyways.... why waste money on something that is limiting while one can allocate money towards a better machine that does wat they want and in the future if they want to upgrade to do more things, they have that leway? Just a thought.

All computers nowdays have a life time of two years, statistically speaking.

Wat i think would be a good computer that will last me atleast 4 to 5 years max right now is something to this affect:

- Motherboard: Asus brand is the way to go... i recommend a Multi-processor one, because that is where the future is leading. With lots of pci , or agp slots.
- Processor: over 2.5 Ghz; P4, is the way to go for now... but i think AMD is working on something right now, so it depends on wat they come out with. If you get a multi processor board, you will be smokin the 3.06Ghz processor.
- RAM Memory: 512 MB DDR; but i would upgrade to 1024MB.
- Hard drive: wat ever u like it to be... it is not like u can't add-on...but i recommend a 120GB.
- Drives: floppy, DVDrom, if enough money dvd+-R/RW; CD-RW 52x24x48x
- Graphics card: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro or ATI All in Wonder... but any will do, as long it has self allocated 128MB, and watever plugins, and connections u need.
- Sound card: Creative brand is cool, extigy is also awsome...
- Sound system: Klipsch is the way to go... hehehe, unless you have money to go to a sound company and have them make u a high high wattage sys.
- keyborad and mouse : ur preference
- Headphones: sony mdr-600
- any Mike... unless u plan on being a singer.
- Moniter: 19in flat panel. The way i see it... if u take care if it good... it will last u about 8 yrs. So it is worth the money.... but if u really are goin to do that... i would just get a nice flat panel tv... with vid / moniter ins... and save some that way and kill two birds with one stone.

okokok, hollup, getting to much into this...but i think i got the essentials.

laters
dhaval
...

[himura-dono]

the thing is that most tv's only support an ungodly low resolution. this is why monitors are more generally for the same size.
btw, you still use a floppy? whoa...
my only beef with creative is that they are non-dually compliant without work usually, and they don't update drivers that SERIOUSLY need to be updated.

my dually is as follows. not any uber pwnage but it keeps me happy.

2 - 1600+(1.4ghz)@2000+(1.8ghz for now)
MSI K7D master-L
1gb of samsung pc2700 @ cas 2
ATI Radeon 8500 128mb LE (i fried my aiw >_<") yet to be overclocked as it's a replacement for my aiw that should be coming in 3 days.
48x12x48x lite-on cd-rw (will be flashing to the 48x24x48x firmware)
-spot reserved for sony's dvd writer drive supporting it all-
3 - 100gb wd's in raid 5 (had 4 but one bit the dust do to a erm...water mishap but rma is on it's way... thank god for being able to ghost it still)
IBM deskstar 120gb (as boot drive and backups of other systems in the house except for HTPC)
3ware escalade 4 port ata133 raid controller
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz soundcard
Logitech wireless optical freedom pro set
Klipsch 4.1's (being moved to my home theater pc and will just get a decent 2 speaker set replacement for dually) + klipsch/monster cables
Dell (unfrequenced) 21" (20" viewable) sony made trinitron

xp pro w/sp1
------------

as for BB. d00d, c'mon, be upfront. what would you think of someone trying to sell a little old woman who obviously has no want's past email and surfing and repeatedly tells the clerk while being bullied into buying it with the extended warranty no less.

2 yr lifespan is dependent on what you actually need it for. people who just do word processing and surfing/email really don't need anything past a 600mhz system, and even that's beyond what they really need.

[Dhaval 4 U 2 NV]

....


hehehe,

well...even old ladies have future plans... and no we don't force. atleast i don't...but most of the costumers come to best buy bc of the service plan... jeez if u get a sony, shit... did u know u get only 90 day labor warranty, and a year parts? after 90 days they charge you 100/hr to get it fixed. Don't you think a service plan for 3 yrs that costs 250 worth it? i do... in all the electronics i have gotten ever in my life it has always had some problem stemming after 2 years.... if BB can't fix it... they will give u a brand new product... just a thought. Especially for flat panels nowadays... if a pixel blows out... no manufacturer will fix it unless it is a patch under their warranty, and it usually costs about 400-600 to replace the whole screen. would u rather pay 60 bucks to BB or 500? Basically it is like having car insurance.
True about the two year life of computers.... but i uttered the number for an average person, who if he is average, wants more than just notepad, and printer capability. Ask anybody... they don't keep their machine more than 4 years max.... this is not an ideal world. Look i know where you are coming from... and to an extent i believe u are right. But at the same time, i believe in spending the money for the best... not something that i will have to let go too early and get something else. Right now, 3.06 is in, wat makes u think 1.6 is any good now? yeh... so wat if i am getting a lambhorghini...it is not just the name baby, just peek under the hood. when one goes out to get a car... does one go for the last years model? or the current one? I reast my case.

I still don't understand why yall want a 48x24x48x... why not go for a 52x24x48x CDRW. TDK is a nice brand?
I wouldn't get a DVD R/RW just yet. The speed is too slow to be worth the money.
I would get the Bluetooth package.
If u spend money for a 4.1 system, why not go for a 7.1? think about the future man.

ok i understand ... we all don't have a couple grand sitting around in our pockets begging to be given away. But who said it had to be unreasonable?

later
dhaval
...

[BaiginLong]

Dhaval works for Best Buy people
he's always trying to get business
DUN TRUST HIM!!!
j/k :P
some of what he says makes sense but only if you're a power user or some other person who high up there with tech needs
my old 733MHz and 128MB is just fine for my sister and her school work and Internet needs

it all depends on the purpose of the computer

[wylin]

himura i'll probably be using the onboard sound because i dont feel like i wanna spend 80$ on another sound card (i have alot of spare SB live 2-3) and even though its a slight perfomance hit to use the Asus audio codec not like im an audiophile or nething. yah im gonna buy around march or april when the 3.06 is a bit cheaper right now 700$ CPU is rape.

I want a system capable of playing doom 3 thats all!

[himura-dono]

Originally posted by wylin@Jan 7 2003, 04:38 PM
himura i'll probably be using the onboard sound because i dont feel like i wanna spend 80$ on another sound card (i have alot of spare SB live 2-3) and even though its a slight perfomance hit to use the Asus audio codec not like im an audiophile or nething. yah im gonna buy around march or april when the 3.06 is a bit cheaper right now 700$ CPU is rape.

I want a system capable of playing doom 3 thats all!
i'm not a big one, but i like quality. i'm fine with 192 and up. but i have a hard time listening to 128. unless it's from my asian music folder.

my htpc at the moment is on the ac97 onboard. i may add an sblive mp3+ i have laying around instead when i migrate my klipsche's.

and yes, 700 for a cpu is beyond rape.

although in my opinion over 300 is nuts for video too. i would be willing to spend that much for an fx, but nothing else.hekk, i got my 128mb radeon 8500 aiw for $100 off a friend. the replacement non aiw cost me $70. i'm not a huge gamer, but i want something i can overclock and enjoy.