My potential rig

[bplamondon]

Im building a new machine and looking for advice on what to improve. It will be used for media applications (30%), image editing(10%), gaming(30%) and programming(30%).

Antec Server Case and 430W PSU - $112

NEC Dual Layer DVD 8x +/-R Burner - $80

NEC DVD Rom 16x - $37

WD SATA 120Gb HD 7200RPM for Storage - $97

WD 36Gb SATA HD 10000RPM - for games/apps - $118

1Gb (2x512mb) OCZ Enhanced Latency Dual Channel DDR500 - $297

MSI Neo2 PFISR i865PE Mobo - $124

P4 3.0C 800FSB CPU - $219

eVGA nVidia 6800 GT - $409

Total - $1493

Ok... change anything you think needs to be changed, or make any suggestions you like but please give explainations as to why. Im trying to keep the machine under $1500 and possibly more towards the $1400 side of things if at all possible.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Mik3y]

for the raptor, you should currently ditch the 120gb drive and the 36.7gb raptor to get the 74gb raptor. the 74gb one is faster and holds more space. it costs 188 at newegg right now. once you get a bit more money, then get another drive for storage. also, i prefer the athlon 64 over the pentium for this.

 

[bplamondon]

I see your point with the drives and I shall take it into consideration. Also if you prefer the A64, could you explain why for this and what mobo/mem would be advisable if I switched to that?

 

[bplamondon]

bump because I like attention... or something

 

[Mik3y]

well, depending on how much you encode/decode, the athlon 64 will be a better overall performer for its shorter pipelines. as for games and programming, it will benefit more wtih shorter pipelines because it will allow faster data transfer from the cpu to the memory. for your system, you seem to be doing things "in the middle", meaning it doesnt really matter which cpu to choose. both will perform fine since you seem to be running things that each cpu specializes in. i prefer the athlon 64 because of its potential 64 bit which will increase performance on every field. its got, by far, more longevity then the pentium.

 

[sisooktom]

Personally, I'd dump the Raptor if you're on a budget. You'll barely notice a difference, and you can get 160GB drives for like $100.

 

[tilindel]

Like Mik3y said, either processor is fine because, while the Athlon would be better for games, you're using it just as much for encoding, etc, which is where a Pentium would be slightly better. In the end, it'll boil down to price and personal preference, because it'll be at least a year and a half before a 64-bit processor becomes mainstream, and even longer until everything is completely integrated over to the 64-bit realm. If you went for the Pentium you should be fine until you're next upgrade, as long as you don't wait more than 2 and a half years or so, at the maximum.

 

[CVSiN]

Athlon 64 all the way..
same performance (in 32 bit mode) but watch out when windows XP 64 bit and drivers get here ...
This is backed up on pretty much every tech geek site out there.. the A64 is a extremely solid performer and is much cheaper in general than Intel chips in its class.
other than that solid system but you could dump that raptor to save a few bucks.. just buy a nice quality basic 7200 SATA drive and youll have all the speed you can use you wont feel the difference in games ..mainly data xfer...

 

[Illissius]

2x Crucial 512MB PC3200 - $178
Lower latency/higher bandwidth memory doesn't affect real world performance very much at all (ie, stuff other than Sandra), and costs a lot more.

Asus K8N-E Deluxe - $143
Athlon 64 3000+ Retail - $223
A64s are a lot faster at gaming, and magnitudes faster at compiling. The A64 2800+ is on par with a 3.2C at games, and ties or beats a 3.4EE at compiling (dunno which, the lowest processor in AT's reviews is the 3000+, which beat it by a margin). Dunno about "media applications" (what exactly does it mean?) and image editing, but that's 60% already.
EDIT - If you have money left over and want to spend it, upgrade to a 3200+ 2.2GHz 512K.

The rest is fine, except for possibly the hard drives. I don't know what your storage needs are, but if you decide to get a Raptor at all, get the 74GB version (it's significantly faster).

 

[bplamondon]

dump the raptor and go for an athlon? I guess that works...

what mobo / memory should I consider?

lets see... if I dump the raptor that saves me $118... also to I go socket 754 or 939?

 

[bplamondon]

media is music things like iTunes, fruitloops, waveedit, etc. image editing is photoshop, illustrator and some web stuff (macromedia mainly.()

 

[bplamondon]

Also how much of an improvement is a SATA drive over the IDE as an IDE 160 costs about the same as a 120 SATA drive?

 

[sisooktom]

Go socket 754. 939 is way overpriced right now and before anyone mentions upgrade path, by the time you need to upgrade that CPU, you'll want a new board too. As for drives, on Newegg the Seagate 160GB SATA is $8.50 more than the 160GB IDE. The performance difference is pretty much nill, but SATA cables are much nicer, and help to keep your case neater.

 

[Gamingphreek]

SATA is generally better, not too noticably though. I would definately get a SATA for this Upgrade. Also keep the Raptors. You will notice differences here and there. Only ditch it if you are strapped for cash.

I would recommend the A64 for what your doing.

-Kevin

 

[bplamondon]

Version 2... cause you helped me... more help is always nice though.

Antec Server Case and 430W PSU - $112

NEC Dual Layer DVD 8x +/-R Burner - $80

NEC DVD Rom 16x - $37

WD IDE 160Gb HD 7200RPM for Storage - $92

WD 36Gb SATA HD 10000RPM for games/apps - $118

1Gb (2x512mb) Corsair XMS PC3200 DDR - $237

ASUS K8N-E Deluxe - $145

Athlon 64 3000+ - $223

eVGA nVidia 6800 GT - $409

Total - $1467

Ok, round 2, any other changes you would suggest... I plan on keeping the one raptor, so dont bother asking me to change that

 

[Mik3y]

there isnt any increase in performance with sata over ide. their just connected differently to save space and allows for better connectivity wtih other drives. other then that, if you're on a budget, stick to ide.

 

[bplamondon]

Ok, Ill switch to IDE cause I dont care about space... well for the 160 at least...

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Originally posted by: bplamondon
dump the raptor and go for an athlon? I guess that works...

what mobo / memory should I consider?

lets see... if I dump the raptor that saves me $118... also to I go socket 754 or 939?

Go for sock754 as 939 is just wayyy too pricey.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Originally posted by: bplamondon
media is music things like iTunes, fruitloops, waveedit, etc. image editing is photoshop, illustrator and some web stuff (macromedia mainly.()

You may want to fork out a second hd because content creation apps will want to have a "scratch disk" separate hard drive from the hd with the OS.

 

[Illissius]

Save a bunch of money by getting value RAM - the XMS stuff costs nearly twice as much and is 1-2% faster at best. Use some of it to upgrade to a 74GB Raptor, which is faster (normal 7200RPM drives sometimes catch the 36GB version in a few benchmarks, but the 74GB always leads, by a significant amount).

 

[unlockthesource]

You could move to AMD for a cheaper and faster chip (even 64-bit)
Unless of course, your an intel diehard...