Building new system need your advise plz

[Viper46744]

I am basically building a new system from scratch all im going to keep is my cd burner and my monitor. I shopped around ww.pricewatch.com. I also looked at reviews at www.bizrate.com and www.resellerratings.com. I Looked at reviews at some sites like toms hardware and geek.com and this is what ive found.Im trying to keep costs as low as possible without killing to much speed. Also would the aluminum case, artic silver 3 and compoents like that be worth it? Assuming i would be overcloking everything videocard,ram,cpu or is it better to spend the money on higher rated compnonents like a 1900+ instead of a 1700+.The system is going to be geared towards gaming thanks in advance!

From NEWEGG http://www.Newegg.com
$107 AMD 1700+/266 FSB Athlon XP PROCESSOR CPU - RETAIL 1700

$90 SOLTEK SL-75DRV4 (Purple Ray Ver.) VIA KT266A AMD Althon & Duron DDR **ATA133** 200/266 MHz FSB Socket A ATX MOTHERBOARD - RETAIL

$105 ATI Radeon 8500

HOUSE OF COMPUTERS http://store.yahoo.com/lib/hoct12/pw.htm

$55 KINGSTON / SAMSUNG BRAND PC2100 DDR MEMORY

$57 Seagate 40.0GB 5400 rpm Udma hdd Eide
$10 3.5 inch disk drive


EBAY
$120 ALUMINUM ATX CASE I always see these around at pretty good prices this one has a 320 power supply I will get a similar one.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2023843219

$20 Round Cables

HIGH SPEED PChttp://www.highspeedpc.com/index.htm?item84.htm
SHIM $8
Artic Silver compund $8
Probbly $60 in shipping on top of all those prices

Frys Electronics
Microsoft keyboard $20
Locitech optical mouse $15

Did I forget anything? Im really lost on the motherboard I should get. I do not need RAID. I just need something that might be compatible in the future and good overclocking features if possible. Thanks again!

 

[jchu14]

I like SVC for ide cables and AS3. $6.99 for an ata100 ide cable and $4.99 for AS3. Shipping is ok @ $3.99, they also have 256mb Samsung PC2100 for $50 but it might be samsung on 3rd instead of samsung with samsung pcb.

Another choice for memory is crucial pc2100 for $52 shipped after a $20 coupon and 15% off F A T Wallet link. see this thread.

Also according to this thread Staples is going to have a 80Gig maxtor 5400rpm for $80 AR starting next sunday. Combine that with a possible 20 off 100 coupon code that you can find on the internet, it would be a hot deal.

If you live in a city where there's PC Club, they're having a great deal on MS keyboard and mouse. thread.

Damn I'm addicted to the HD forum.

 

[Jeff H]

Viper46744, the only thing I'd change is your choice of hard drive. The hard drive is the slowest component in a system today, and you're limiting your performance w/ a 5400RPM drive. A 40GB 7200RPM drive can be had at Newegg for $70, and will take advantage of the ATA133 capability on the Soltek board.

 

[LordAccord]

Be careful about your PSU... you are building a system that pulls a lot, even my friend with an athlon 1600 had problems with a 400w... If you are getting a case with lots of fans or plan on running a full bank of Ram / cards / drives in the future, get a new PSU now...aiming towards 400w and above AMD approved. Like Antec TruePower or Enermax...

Aluminum cases are worth it if you are overclocking... just make sure that you dont skimp on the air flow... They may conduct heat better, but that doesnt mean they do it as well as air does.

PCMods.com has rounded cables for very very reasonable prices, also network cables and rounded 50 pin SCSI cables. I have had no problems with data integrity with my cabling at all. They are a great site to get those from.

I DEFINITELY think agree with the above hard drive post. HDDs are the bottleneck of the new computer... thats why people are getting into RAID and SCSI 160, 320, etc. If you can spend the extra, a good IDE RAID 0 setup doesnt cost that much to integrate...you may not need it, but I say you would need HDD speed the most if you are trying to build a speedy system... at least 7200 rpm drives are a must.

I would also reevaluate the memory brand... I personally would head towards Corsair, Memman, Mushkin....

ALso, as for your purchase locations, check out comparing shipping by getting the majority of your products from one place or a couple of places/// Newegg, googlegear.... they are good sites to buy from, and if you spend 10 more dollars on say, a HDD from newegg over somewhere else, then you spend a little less on shipping since everything else is on the order too. It just seems to make things more convenient, if sometimes a few dollars more, and sometimes a few dollars less. Also it helps that you know the status of your entire order, and dont have one or 2 outstanding components that are holding your system back from being complete.

LoRdAccord

 

[Viper46744]

bump

 

[ubersam]

Since you mentioned OC'ing, get an OEM Athlon (ex. XP 1700+ = $94 @ newegg) and get a better (than retail stock) HSF like an Alpha 8045 ($49) or something. For a case, I'd go with one of these (Chieftec DX01BD - $49.00) and one of these (TT400SS 420watt PS - $46.00 @ directron), which according to an article I've read, are actually pretty good. Then, the mobo should come with some IDE cables, just round them up yourself. That should save you some $$ over the retail CPU + Alum Case + ps + rounded cables.

 

[xynder]

LordAccord, I'm getting a 430W Antec Truepower PSU, but I can't find it on AMD's "Approved" list (though Antec says it works fine).

I'm sure it probably is, since "AMD approved" just means AMD says it's powerful enough (and 430w is more than enough).

 

[Pheran]

Viper,

I don't think it makes much sense to buy a KT266A board at this point, if you are set on Soltek I would buy the SL-75DRV5 instead, it's only $8 more. You might also want to consider the Gigabyte GA-7VRX and the Epox 8K3A; they are all about the same price and both of those did very well in Tom's Latest Roundup. I would also consider getting PC2700 memory to go with it.

 

[ripthesystem]

Hard Drive- Make it a 7200rpm drive.. Seagate is a good brand.. but any slower and you will defeat the purpose of having a speedy new rig.

Mobo- the board you have isn't bad. but you should definately lookup some Epox boards to see if they would better suit your needs. Also very good overclockers.

HS/F- If you are going to OC you will want better than the standard HS/F.. I have heard great things about the Alpha 8045

PSU- Like the look of the case but I would defiately get a better powersupply which could mean purchasing the case and PSU seperately. check out www.colorcases.com (awesome selection- all pretty reasonable prices) and look into a 350-400W Enermax or Antec PSU.

RAM- I like Samsung RAM. Good choice for a solid product/fair price. If you are going to push your system to the max through overclocking then you might want to look into Crucial or Mushkin.. Samsung should be great for everything including modest overclocking though..

good luck!!
ripthesystem

 

[murphy55d]

I just installed the 75DRV4 yesterday, bought off the For/Sale forum... very solid board. I agree though, if you're going to buy new, go with the DRV5.