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#1
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$1000 to spend on a new computer
Hey all, heres the situation.
Friend of mine has saved up 1k for a new computer system. She's coming over from the Mac side of things (ibook) so there isn't any existing hardware to bring over. She's always wanting to build this all on her own, she's tired of depending on others (apple/friends) to fix things for her. Thank you to everyone that responds. I hate to bug people on this stuff since I know how many sites there are that review products. I've been out of the loop for a while so I'm sorta floundering trying to figure out where to start in on this and what suggestions I can give her for her build. While the reviews out there are nice its always good to get real world feedback on this stuff. CPU: While I was pretty up to date on the AMD stuff when I built my system in Jan, I know things have changed a bit, advice here would be great since the CPU and motherboard are the core of the system. Unfortunately I don't know much in the Intel world, so any insight in to Intel sides of things would be fantastic. Also any good heatsink/fans etc. if the stock coolers are subpar. She's not looking to overclock last I checked. Motherboard: This will of course depend on the CPU, but chipsets to go for or avoid would be great. I'm going to assume she'll go for the options on boards that have onboard lan/firewire/usb2 to cut down on the cost of add on cards. RAM: Looking for stable and large. Speed would be nice but only if it actually makes a noticeable difference (by which I mean latency issues, 2.5 Vs 2 , etc.). If going dual channel makes a difference would be nice too. I know back when it was introduced, AMD boards really didn't get a big boost (if I remember it was something like 5%) whereas Intel boards got a noticeable improvement. Is this still the case? Video: Art and Gaming.. the 2 big concerns from what I understand. I'm going to guess she'll go top end (be kinda a shame if she didn't), my personal taste is to Nvidia, so like the CPU issue I could use some info from the ATI camp so I can give her a good case for each. Also any word about PCI-Express? She's an artist so while some 3D will probably happen (Bryce), it will be kinda sparse from what I understand. Her graphic emphasis will be web design, 2D imaging (Photoshop, illustrator) and Flash. Plus most of her stuff is hand drawn, not digital. Hard Drive: I was personally thinking something like a Raptor for a system disk and them pick up one of the new 16meg cache drives that are due out soon for a storage drive. Any yays or nays on this idea? I know Seagate and WD are both supposed to be coming out soon with some impressive drives and right now Maxtor is putting out a drive with high capacity platters and 16megs of cache while also working with Intels ICH-6 which seems to supposedly increase speeds. If anyone has any real would experience with this stuff I'd love to hear it. I've only seen a few reviews about it. Sound: Onboard sound will most likely work just fine for her, she's not an audiophile so it may be a good way of going about it. Case: I know she'd like to LAN party this thing so something the lil thing could carry without a forklift would be cool but still be solid. We live in Mid California so while the temps don't get way high we can get up to 90 F so something with decent cooling (without sounding like a jet, so no Delta 80's). Monitor: The cost of a monitor is being picked up by friends so the 1k will be completely for the system and keyboard/mouse (by the by she's a south paw so any advice on neutral mice would be cool). OK so that turned in to a blood novel instead of a post. But I thank anyone that actually went though all this. I am of course doing as much research as I can in this but I always try and get insight on this stuff. Again thanks ~A |
#2
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Azaran2003 wrote: Hey all, heres the situation. Friend of mine has saved up 1k for a new computer system. She's coming over from the Mac side of things (ibook) so there isn't any existing hardware to bring over. She's always wanting to build this all on her own, she's tired of depending on others (apple/friends) to fix things for her. Thank you to everyone that responds. I hate to bug people on this stuff since I know how many sites there are that review products. I've been out of the loop for a while so I'm sorta floundering trying to figure out where to start in on this and what suggestions I can give her for her build. While the reviews out there are nice its always good to get real world feedback on this stuff. CPU: While I was pretty up to date on the AMD stuff when I built my system in Jan, I know things have changed a bit, advice here would be great since the CPU and motherboard are the core of the system. Unfortunately I don't know much in the Intel world, so any insight in to Intel sides of things would be fantastic. Forget about Intel, and use an Athlon 64. An Athlon 64 3000+ is only around $160. It is a great performer. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2065&p=1 Also any good heatsink/fans etc. if the stock coolers are subpar. She's not looking to overclock last I checked. Motherboard: This will of course depend on the CPU, but chipsets to go for or avoid would be great. I'm going to assume she'll go for the options on boards that have onboard lan/firewire/usb2 to cut down on the cost of add on cards. RAM: Looking for stable and large. Speed would be nice but only if it actually makes a noticeable difference (by which I mean latency issues, 2.5 Vs 2 , etc.). If going dual channel makes a difference would be nice too. I know back when it was introduced, AMD boards really didn't get a big boost (if I remember it was something like 5%) whereas Intel boards got a noticeable improvement. Is this still the case? Video: Art and Gaming.. the 2 big concerns from what I understand. I'm going to guess she'll go top end (be kinda a shame if she didn't), my personal taste is to Nvidia, so like the CPU issue I could use some info from the ATI camp so I can give her a good case for each. Also any word about PCI-Express? She's an artist so while some 3D will probably happen (Bryce), it will be kinda sparse from what I understand. Her graphic emphasis will be web design, 2D imaging (Photoshop, illustrator) A gig of ram would be a good idea. and Flash. Plus most of her stuff is hand drawn, not digital. Hard Drive: I was personally thinking something like a Raptor for a system disk and them pick up one of the new 16meg cache drives that are due out soon for a storage drive. Any yays or nays on this idea? I know Seagate and WD are both supposed to be coming out soon with some impressive drives and right now Maxtor is putting out a drive with high capacity platters and 16megs of cache while also working with Intels ICH-6 which seems to supposedly increase speeds. If anyone has any real would experience with this stuff I'd love to hear it. I've only seen a few reviews about it. Sound: Onboard sound will most likely work just fine for her, she's not an audiophile so it may be a good way of going about it. Case: I know she'd like to LAN party this thing so something the lil thing could carry without a forklift would be cool but still be solid. We live in Mid California so while the temps don't get way high we can get up to 90 F so something with decent cooling (without sounding like a jet, so no Delta 80's). Monitor: The cost of a monitor is being picked up by friends so the 1k will be completely for the system and keyboard/mouse (by the by she's a south paw so any advice on neutral mice would be cool). I am a lefty, and love my Microsoft optical wheel mouse. It was inexpensive, and is the first mouse that has lasted me over two years. OK so that turned in to a blood novel instead of a post. But I thank anyone that actually went though all this. I am of course doing as much research as I can in this but I always try and get insight on this stuff. Again thanks ~A |
#3
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"Azaran2003" wrote in message ... Hey all, heres the situation. Friend of mine has saved up 1k for a new computer system. CPU: AMD 64 is the CPU of choice these days. Find where the price jumps up a lot and get the CPU below that. An extra $10 or $20 for the next best CPU is fine, but $100? Nope. Motherboard: VIA was the chipset to avoid before. Can't say much about them these days. Having extra options on board is always good and they can be disabled if you don't need them. Don't spend a lot more for a board just to get an extra option though. RAM: 1gig for sure. Determine the speed of memory that you'll need to match the CPU and find the cheapest NAME BRAND that meets the spec. Then add about 10-20% to that price and see if you can find lower latency or faster speed. You don't want to spend too much extra for a small gain in performance. You'll want a pair of 512's and not a single 1gig stick. Consider ECC memory if your mainboard supports it. Video: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. 128meg version of these cards is selling at a reasonable price. 9600XT would be a cheaper second choice. As for PCI-e... Definately a good place to start, but it's a bit early as far as availability goes. If you can find a good mainboard with PCI-e and a videocard to match definately go for it, but don't spend a lot more for it. The deciding factor is how long she plans on keeping the machine without upgrading. Hard Drive: I recently got a 34gig Raptor. I don't notice a large improvement and the drive is louder than the rest I have when seeking. A pair of these in RAID 0 might make a noticable performance difference and most mainboards provide RAID these days. Does add a bit of cost for a small amount of fast storage though. Sound: Onboard sound will most likely work just fine for her, she's not an audiophile so it may be a good way of going about it. Smart move. She can always add a soundcard later if needed. Avoid anything made by Creative though. Case: I know she'd like to LAN party this thing so something the lil thing could Has she considered one of the Shuttle cube machines? Not a lot of room for upgrades and you won't be able to install Raptors for RAID, but they are still good performers if you don't plan on adding a bunch of cards into the machine. Monitor: The cost of a monitor is being picked up by friends so the 1k will be completely for the system and keyboard/mouse (by the by she's a south paw so any advice on neutral mice would be cool). Go optical and cordless for the mouse (Cordless keyboard is cool too, but don't spend a lot extra to get one). Best to go to the local bigbox store and see what is comfortable. |
#4
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Azaran2003 wrote:
.... snip ... Motherboard: This will of course depend on the CPU, but chipsets to go for or avoid would be great. I'm going to assume she'll go for the options on boards that have onboard lan/firewire/usb2 to cut down on the cost of add on cards. Just make sure the chipset can handle ECC memory. See the "Error Correction" thread here. RAM: Looking for stable and large. Speed would be nice but only if it actually makes a noticeable difference (by which I mean latency issues, 2.5 Vs 2 , etc.). If going dual channel makes a difference would be nice too. I know back when it was introduced, AMD boards really didn't get a big boost (if I remember it was something like 5%) whereas Intel boards got a noticeable improvement. Is this still the case? I highly recommend ECC memory. However, if you don't want to spend the money (15 to 25% increase in memory cost) now you can get less capable memory and choose to upgrade later, iff you have the motherboard capability. -- Chuck F ) ) Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems. http://cbfalconer.home.att.net USE worldnet address! |
#5
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#6
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"CBFalconer" wrote:
Azaran2003 wrote: ... snip ... Motherboard: This will of course depend on the CPU, but chipsets to go for or avoid would be great. I'm going to assume she'll go for the options on boards that have onboard lan/firewire/usb2 to cut down on the cost of add on cards. Just make sure the chipset can handle ECC memory. See the "Error Correction" thread here. RAM: Looking for stable and large. Speed would be nice but only if it actually makes a noticeable difference (by which I mean latency issues, 2.5 Vs 2 , etc.). If going dual channel makes a difference would be nice too. I know back when it was introduced, AMD boards really didn't get a big boost (if I remember it was something like 5%) whereas Intel boards got a noticeable improvement. Is this still the case? I highly recommend ECC memory. However, if you don't want to spend the money (15 to 25% increase in memory cost) now you can get less capable memory and choose to upgrade later, iff you have the motherboard capability. That brings up a good point. Do Macs use ECC memory? Jon |
#7
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Noozer wrote:
Smart move. She can always add a soundcard later if needed. Avoid anything made by Creative though. Why? I've never had any problems with any Creative card I've had. What do you recommend instead? -- My great-grandfather was born and raised in Elgin - did he eventually lose his marbles? |
#8
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CPU:
AMD64, go for a 939 socket Motherboard: VIA chipset for AMD64, nForce2 for AthXP RAM: At least 1GB of PC3500 Video: For top of the line, go nVidia 6800 or ATI x800 - avoid creative and 'no-name' cards as hey underperform Hard Drive: I'd go for a RAID array of 4 Maxtor disks with 8MB caches, choose whatever size you want. Sound: Onboard sound will most likely work just fine for her, she's not an audiophile so it may be a good way of going about it. If you get an nForce2 (with AthlonXP) choose an ultra board for better sound hamman |
#9
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Hey guys, thanks for all the suggestions. quick question on the ram. Couple of
you suggested doing 2x512 instead of a single stick of 1gig. Aside from running dual channel, is there a good reason for it? Are the timing any worse, and if so by how much? And will a latency difference of 2.0 - 3.0 really make a noticiable difference? I'm not talking benchmarks but real world difference (one of the hard things to find out in a review). Thanks again everyone ~A |
#10
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Azaran2003 wrote:
Hey guys, thanks for all the suggestions. quick question on the ram. Couple of you suggested doing 2x512 instead of a single stick of 1gig. Aside from running dual channel, is there a good reason for it? With the Nforce2 chipset, RAM in dual channel config provides only a tiny performance increase. You will probably end up purchasing 2x512MB modules since 1GB modules are about $70US more, according to the Crucial site. The Intel 865xx and 875 series do benefit from using RAM in dual channel configuration. Are the timing any worse, and if so by how much? And will a latency difference of 2.0 - 3.0 really make a noticiable difference? I'm not talking benchmarks but real world difference (one of the hard things to find out in a review). Thanks again everyone ~A CAS latency at CL2.5 vs CL3 makes no real world difference. You said, "She's an artist so while some 3D will probably happen (Bryce), it will be kinda sparse from what I understand. Her graphic emphasis will be web design, 2D imaging (Photoshop, illustrator) and Flash. Plus most of her stuff is hand drawn, not digital." If colour accuracy is important, she should stay well away from LCD monitors. If she plans to LAN, this is a nice little case, with a 350W PSU: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15000 |
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