****System Buyer's Guide****NEW UPDATE 12/01

[Poop Shoe]

Thanks for the reply. If I could get the Kingston HyperX memory from Outpost.com before Xmas for ~$160 (almost $100 off) is it worth it? They are currently back ordered.
Thanks
Shoe

 

[imported_Duckman]

awesome thread.

thanks for all the work jpeyton!

 

[Fitzy]

I'm just planning builidng a new PC, wonder if I could have some opinions?

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester 64 bit 512k L2 Cache Retail inc.fan Skt 939

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Socket 939) Motherboard

GeIL 512MB PC3200 Golden Value CAS2.5

Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 120Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache ATA133 - OEM

AOpen GeForce 6600 GT 128MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail

Antec Plus 1080AMG Metallic Gray File Server Case

NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)

(I plan on getting a second stick of RAM in a few months)

I've read on some other sites thats some motherboards' BIOS need to be updating before they will post with a Winchester CPU, is that true?

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Fitzy
I'm just planning builidng a new PC, wonder if I could have some opinions?

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester 64 bit 512k L2 Cache Retail inc.fan Skt 939

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Socket 939) Motherboard

GeIL 512MB PC3200 Golden Value CAS2.5

Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 120Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache ATA133 - OEM

AOpen GeForce 6600 GT 128MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail

Antec Plus 1080AMG Metallic Gray File Server Case

NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)

(I plan on getting a second stick of RAM in a few months)

I've read on some other sites thats some motherboards' BIOS need to be updating before they will post with a Winchester CPU, is that true?

If it's an older release of the motherboard, it will need to be flashed. If you order the motherboard now, I doubt it will still be incompatible out of the box unless it's old stock.

Everything looks good. How much are you paying for the 6600GT?

 

[Fitzy]

The 6600GT is £145

 

[mikeloi]

jpeyton,

Thank you for such a great system guide writeup! I am in the market for a computer around a $1000. I am looking at your midsystem A. My question to you is this - what can I downgrade, and what would you recommend as a substitution, to bring the price of the system down $100-200. I do not need a monitor. The only change I made to your system specs was to swap the case for a Antec mini-tower case(SLK1650B) What hard drive would you recommend with 160gb? I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,
mikeloi

 

[ts3433]

Eliminate the soundcard and floppy, go down to the Chaintech, Epox, or Soltek NF3 board for $75-99 [EDIT: the DFI is $99 now? oops--scratch that, though there's still the Chaintech at ~$75 IIRC], possibly get a 9800 Pro or 6600 GT (though I'd try not to). If you don't plan to OC, you can also get RAM that isn't quite as fancy (like Corsair Value Select, though the CL2 PDP seems to be a great bargain with TCCD chips if you OC). I'd keep the 3400+, as it's a great bargain for a 2.4 GHz A64 (the S939 3800+ is a helluva lot more). You can also get practically the same case that's recommended for a bit less, the SLK3700AMB, which is around $67 with free shipping at Newegg IIRC.

For a hard drive of lesser capacity, same brand rules and stuff apply--Seagates tend to be your best bet, though WDs and Samsungs seem to be fine too. Just make sure what you buy has an 8MB buffer--it's quite a bit better than a 2MB buffer.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: ts3433
Eliminate the soundcard and floppy, go down to the Chaintech, Epox, or Soltek NF3 board for $75-99 [EDIT: the DFI is $99 now? oops--scratch that, though there's still the Chaintech at ~$75 IIRC], possibly get a 9800 Pro or 6600 GT (though I'd try not to). If you don't plan to OC, you can also get RAM that isn't quite as fancy (like Corsair Value Select, though the CL2 PDP seems to be a great bargain with TCCD chips if you OC). I'd keep the 3400+, as it's a great bargain for a 2.4 GHz A64 (the S939 3800+ is a helluva lot more). You can also get practically the same case that's recommended for a bit less, the SLK3700AMB, which is around $67 with free shipping at Newegg IIRC.

For a hard drive of lesser capacity, same brand rules and stuff apply--Seagates tend to be your best bet, though WDs and Samsungs seem to be fine too. Just make sure what you buy has an 8MB buffer--it's quite a bit better than a 2MB buffer.

Hit the nail on the head. Value RAM will save you about $35, a cheaper motherboard will save you about $25, and a lesser video card would drop the price another $50-$150 depending on how nice a card you want. How often do you game on your PC, or would you like to in the future?

Samsung has the least expensive (and also pretty highly recommended) 160GB 8MB Hard Drive on Newegg; that should be a fine choice.

 

[onesNzeros]

Nice guide jpeyton.

The $1500 configuration is pretty close to what I'm looking for but there are some changes

=======================================================
>> Custom barebones setup from Monarch.com <<
Case__________100396 - PS 380W - Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet
Mbd___________110453 - DFI MB LanParty UT NF3 250GB S754 Audio/G
CPU___________120786 - AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Heatsink Fan____130129 - Thermaltake A1838 AMD Opteron/Athlon 64 H
Memory________140305 - DDR (400) 3200 - 1 GB (2 pcs 512) Corsair
Thermal Grease _800018 - Shin-Etsu G675 Thermal Grease ( ? ? ? $14.00 ? ? ? )
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>> And from NewEgg <<
Video Card: GIGA-BYTE nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card 128MB DDR 256-Bit 8X AGP RETAIL
(Just need VGA port, not dual DVI)

Also an Audigy2 ZS Gamer, Sony retail DVD+/-RW, the same 200GB Seagate HDD, and XP Professional OEM
=======================================================

Since I haven't built a computer before I think I'd prefer to have the motherboard, CPU, and memory assembled and tested before I get them.

I do have a few questions though . . .

-- Should I just get the retail CPU kit w/ fan or am I better off with something like I have now? I'm looking to keep things as quiet as possible while still having ample cooling. Do the fans self-adjust normally or how does that work?
-- Also, what about their special thermal grease? Good idea or poppycock?
-- How about the RAM? I wasn't sure what to select so I picked low-mid priced memory based on their recommendation. Any suggestions though? (Their configurator w/ memory options is HERE )
-- Is the 380Watt power supply ample for this setup?

Any other comments/suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[President Of Venezuela]

I'm thinking of making a system with these specs:

Motherboard:

MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum

Processor:

AMD 64 3200+ Retail Socket 939

Video Card:

Nvidia GeForce 6600gt

Ram:

Corsair Value Select 512MB DDR400 x2
Kingston Value Ram 512MB DDR333 x2 (already sitting around in my house feel like i should put it to some use)

HDD:

Western Digital Raptor 74GB x2 in RAID 0

PSU:

Cooler Master Real Power 450W Power Supply

Case:

Antec Silver Performance Series

Monitor:

FG Neovo F-419 19" LCD

Other:

Kworld PCI Tv Tuner Card

OS:

Windows Media Center Edition 2005
Windows XP 64 Bit Edition
Solaris 10/Fedora Core 3

Total Cost: $1833.17 + shipping + tax (all parts from newegg)

Firstly: Any Suggestions about my part choices? This is the first computer I am building and its a bit of money and my christmas present so I dont want to mess it up.

Second: Since this is my first computer I'm building should I get a customized pretested barebones from monarchcomputer.com (about 40$ more but free copy of farcry and hl2 and i cant mess it up) or another such company?

Thanks

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: onesNzeros
Nice guide jpeyton.

The $1500 configuration is pretty close to what I'm looking for but there are some changes

=======================================================
>> Custom barebones setup from Monarch.com <<
Case__________100396 - PS 380W - Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet
Mbd___________110453 - DFI MB LanParty UT NF3 250GB S754 Audio/G
CPU___________120786 - AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Heatsink Fan____130129 - Thermaltake A1838 AMD Opteron/Athlon 64 H
Memory________140305 - DDR (400) 3200 - 1 GB (2 pcs 512) Corsair
Thermal Grease _800018 - Shin-Etsu G675 Thermal Grease ( ? ? ? $14.00 ? ? ? )
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>> And from NewEgg <<
Video Card: GIGA-BYTE nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card 128MB DDR 256-Bit 8X AGP RETAIL
(Just need VGA port, not dual DVI)

Also an Audigy2 ZS Gamer, Sony retail DVD+/-RW, the same 200GB Seagate HDD, and XP Professional OEM
=======================================================

Since I haven't built a computer before I think I'd prefer to have the motherboard, CPU, and memory assembled and tested before I get them.

I do have a few questions though . . .

-- Should I just get the retail CPU kit w/ fan or am I better off with something like I have now? I'm looking to keep things as quiet as possible while still having ample cooling. Do the fans self-adjust normally or how does that work?
-- Also, what about their special thermal grease? Good idea or poppycock?
-- How about the RAM? I wasn't sure what to select so I picked low-mid priced memory based on their recommendation. Any suggestions though? (Their configurator w/ memory options is HERE )
-- Is the 380Watt power supply ample for this setup?

Any other comments/suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

The 380W Antec PSU is fine for the setup.

Are you planning on overclocking your setup? If not, Corsair Value Select memory is a great buy; typically around $150 for 1GB.

I know nothing about their "Shin-Etsu" thermal grease, but I do use Arctic Silver 5 on every CPU installation; and that stuff is only $5 shipped from SVC.com. Highly recommended by many people.

That particular heatsink is a ThermalTake SilentBoost, which is a great heatsink for the price. Copper-finned, and it has a rheostat for the fan so you can turn it down low if you're not overclocking, or turn it up higher to cool-down your CPU if you are overclocking. I would not recommend the retail heatsink/fan if you want something quiet.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: President Of Venezuela
I'm thinking of making a system with these specs:

Motherboard:

MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum

Processor:

AMD 64 3200+ Retail Socket 939

Video Card:

Nvidia GeForce 6600gt

Ram:

Corsair Value Select 512MB DDR400 x2
Kingston Value Ram 512MB DDR333 x2 (already sitting around in my house feel like i should put it to some use)

HDD:

Western Digital Raptor 74GB x2 in RAID 0

PSU:

Cooler Master Real Power 450W Power Supply

Case:

Antec Silver Performance Series

Monitor:

FG Neovo F-419 19" LCD

Other:

Kworld PCI Tv Tuner Card

OS:

Windows Media Center Edition 2005
Windows XP 64 Bit Edition
Solaris 10/Fedora Core 3

Total Cost: $1833.17 + shipping + tax (all parts from newegg)

Firstly: Any Suggestions about my part choices? This is the first computer I am building and its a bit of money and my christmas present so I dont want to mess it up.

Second: Since this is my first computer I'm building should I get a customized pretested barebones from monarchcomputer.com (about 40$ more but free copy of farcry and hl2 and i cant mess it up) or another such company?

Thanks

If this is your first build, and you don't know your way around the inside of a computer, then yes I would go for the Monarch pretested combo. If you're the type who is patient and doesn't mind reading twice and assembling once, check out mechBgon's guide in the first post of this thread, and just order all the items from Newegg.

How much is the 6600GT? I know that Newegg has 6800s for $275.

If you run all four sticks of RAM, your memory bus speed will drop from 400MHz to 333MHz; a performance hit.

Anand's article on Raptors in RAID 0 recommended that most users stay away from RAID 0 because it offers little performance increase and a lot of added risk of data corruption.

 

[President Of Venezuela]

| How much is the 6600GT? I know that Newegg has 6800s for $275.

The 6600GT is 200-249 depending on which company actually makes the chipboard the nvidia sits on, but all of the 6800's except the 400-dollar version appear to be out of stock at the moment at newegg. When I'm actually ordering if they have the 6800 I might go for that instead.

| If you run all four sticks of RAM, your memory bus speed will drop from 400MHz to 333MHz; a performance hit.

Ok I'll just run the two then.

| Anand's article on Raptors in RAID 0 recommended that most users stay away from RAID 0 because it offers little performance increase and a lot of added risk of data corruption.

Thanks for the tip, I'll make sure to read that.

It sounds like I'll just go with the monarch, I dont often have the patience to read a manual even once so that dosent seem like a particularly good plan and since it's about the same price I dont really mind paying them the 20 dollars or so to make sure I can't break it and that it works.

 

[President Of Venezuela]

After reading the acticle on raid 0 I am undecided about wether to use Raid 0 or Jbod, the thing is that I don't really have any important information and anything I do have that I cant afford to lose I can back up to another computer or to my external harddrive so a disk failure isnt really that big of a deal to me, especially considering that Raptors are warrentied for 5 years. On the other hand if I can weedle some of my relatives into getting me some hard drives I'm considering making a 4 Raptor 0+1 Raid.

 

[Splitfyre]

Hey Guys,

I need someone to spec out a machine that's main purpose is for video editing, and general home office use. I'm looking specifically at what video cards would be best used in this type of setup.

 

[onesNzeros]

Thanks for the speedy reply jpeyton!

Are you planning on overclocking your setup? If not, Corsair Value Select memory is a great buy; typically around $150 for 1GB.

Well, at this point I don't plan to overclock it, but I would prefer to keep my options open if it's possible to do so without paying too big a premium. I very well might get into some overclocking later on but right now I just want the system to be stable.

I know nothing about their "Shin-Etsu" thermal grease, but I do use Arctic Silver 5 on every CPU installation; and that stuff is only $5 shipped from SVC.com. Highly recommended by many people.

Hmm, not sure what to think on their stuff then. Almost makes me want to just do it myself using the stuff you mentioned but I'm not sure how easy it is to screw something up when mounting the heatsink to the processor, and that to the motherboard. It's probably no biggie but not having done it before, I'm a little hesitant to tackle it.

That particular heatsink is a ThermalTake SilentBoost, which is a great heatsink for the price. Copper-finned, and it has a rheostat for the fan so you can turn it down low if you're not overclocking, or turn it up higher to cool-down your CPU if you are overclocking. I would not recommend the retail heatsink/fan if you want something quiet.

Okay, time to show my ignorance. This probably belongs in the Cooling forum but how is the fan speed handled in that case? Can it be set to regulate itself based on CPU temps or do I need a way to monitor CPU temps while putting a sustained heavy load on the CPU to see if temps stay in check and adjust the fan accordingly? Minimizing noise is definitely a concern as my hard drive, case, and video card choices were all based in no small part on that criteria.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[Rickyohead]

hi everyone. i've been reading the forums here fore a while and decided to jump in. half life 2 has inspired me to upgrade my computer that is now about 4 years old. I have an athlon xp 1800+, 1 Gig PC2100 RAM...

I recently bought a 9800pro video card and a 480w thermaltake PSU ($300 total for both) to handle the game, now i'm ready to do the mobo, CPU, and RAM. (later a new SATA HD, new case)

I do lots of graphics and web work, and I'm back into playing games after experiencing half life 2. Basically, I want to make this upgrade last several years again.

I am looking at the Athlon 64 (939) 3500+ and ASUS A8V Deluxe combo. What brand of 1GB (2x512) DDR400 RAM, heatsink fan, motherboard, do you recommend for this or similar processors? I am trying to spend less than $700 on the mobo/cpu/fan/ram combo to keep me around $1000 total. Is this possible?

Thanks!

 

[President Of Venezuela]

It is possible. I personally dont have any of the parts but I spent alot of time looking on newegg for parts to a similar setup, for cheap pretty good ram try Corsair Value Select its about 150 for 1gb i think. I would go for hte best motherboard possible because thats really the important part. After reading many reviews, I myself have decided on getting the MSI NEO2 Platinum. its about 140 at newegg. I dunno anything about heatsinks, and the proc should be about 300$ i think. you might want to go with better ram if its still below 1k after all that.

 

[Rickyohead]

Thanks for the advice.

Is it important to buy RAM in tested pairs and avoid using the 3rd and 4th DIMM slots? I read that somewhere. (probably here ) What main reasons made you choose the MSI Neo 2 Platinum vs. the others? I'm having a hard time deciding because I hear great things about the MSI and Asus boards, as well as occasional upgrade horror stories equally on both sides.

One last question, is the 939 socket looking most promising for upgrades in the future? Next time around it would be nice to just upgrade the processor instead of the whole darn machine!

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: onesNzeros
Okay, time to show my ignorance. This probably belongs in the Cooling forum but how is the fan speed handled in that case? Can it be set to regulate itself based on CPU temps or do I need a way to monitor CPU temps while putting a sustained heavy load on the CPU to see if temps stay in check and adjust the fan accordingly? Minimizing noise is definitely a concern as my hard drive, case, and video card choices were all based in no small part on that criteria.

Thanks again for your help!

Actually, I made a mistake. I was thinking of the Thermaltake Venus 12, which is the exact same heatsink but comes with a different fan that has both temperature control options and a rheostat.

The Silent Boost just comes with a quiet fan; but from the reviews I've read, it still cools very well, even in overclocked situations. Anand used the same heatsink in his review of overclocked Athlon 64 Winchesters, I believe. The fan does have RPM monitoring, so it can be sped up or slowed down via motherboard controlled options like AMDs Quiet'N'Cool feature.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Splitfyre
Hey Guys,

I need someone to spec out a machine that's main purpose is for video editing, and general home office use. I'm looking specifically at what video cards would be best used in this type of setup.

If you're going to be working with digital video, just get a video card with good image quality that is sufficient for your other needs; if you're working with analog video, you'll need a good capture card. ATI's All-In-Wonder series offers pretty good image quality; you could also get a basic card and add a Hauppauge TV-Capture card that can capture and encode from analog sources.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Rickyohead
hi everyone. i've been reading the forums here fore a while and decided to jump in. half life 2 has inspired me to upgrade my computer that is now about 4 years old. I have an athlon xp 1800+, 1 Gig PC2100 RAM...

I recently bought a 9800pro video card and a 480w thermaltake PSU ($300 total for both) to handle the game, now i'm ready to do the mobo, CPU, and RAM. (later a new SATA HD, new case)

I do lots of graphics and web work, and I'm back into playing games after experiencing half life 2. Basically, I want to make this upgrade last several years again.

I am looking at the Athlon 64 (939) 3500+ and ASUS A8V Deluxe combo. What brand of 1GB (2x512) DDR400 RAM, heatsink fan, motherboard, do you recommend for this or similar processors? I am trying to spend less than $700 on the mobo/cpu/fan/ram combo to keep me around $1000 total. Is this possible?

Thanks!

I think you have two possibilities here. For your motherboard choices, the MSI K8N Neo2 and Asus A8V are the two best 939 boards in their price range; you can't go wrong with either one. Just from reading people's experiences, the MSI seems to be a better overclocker.

Which brings us to the CPU and RAM. If you don't plan on overclocking much, get the 3500+ w/ 1GB Corsair Value PC3200. If you do want to overclock, get the 3200+ w/ faster memory and a better heatsink; PDP w/ XBL plus a ThermalTake Silent Boost would be good options.

 

[Poop Shoe]

Alright guys, I am trying to upgrade my rig for Xmas and am having trouble making a decision: here is my current thought:
I already have an Antec Sonata case I got at CompUSA on Black Friday for $69.
I also picked up the Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus 300GB, 7200rpm, 16mb cache HD for $199 to use as my primary drive.
I also got the PNY GeFroce 6800 AGP video card for $200.

My initial thought is to get the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3 MB and a Athlon64 3200+ retail chip: together ~$365 shipped from multiple places.

Now that I hear ZipZoomFly is expecting the Asus nForce4 MB with PCIe mid December for $220 shipped, my question is thus:
Get Asus MB with PCIe, step down on the chip to Athlon64 3000+ retail and return my video card and step down to a GeForce 6600GT with PCIe for ~$200?
So Asus MB $220 + Athlon64 3000+ $150 + 6600GT PCIe $200= $570 with free shipping

OR

MSI nforce3 + Athlon64 3200+ Shipped together: $365 + GeForce 6800 $230-$30 rebate= $575-30=$545 with a faster processor and a faster video card.

So, get the upgradeable MB and video card capabilities, or the faster rig now and expect to use it for ~2 years and then do it all over again, new MB, CPU Video card.

See the dilema?
Would love some help!
Mike

 

[ts3433]

If you don't plan to upgrade for about 2 years, I would actually suggest a S754.

If I misunderstood and you did intend to upgrade somewhat, at least, with prices that high, I wouldn't go for that motherboard right now. Wait for prices to settle and maybe pick one up when you need to upgrade to a PCIe videocard.

 

[jpeyton]

Poop Shoe,

Don't worry about NF4. In your situation, I would stick with the NF3 Ultra motherboard and keep your AGP video card. It makes NO sense to pay more for a slower CPU/GFX card just so you *might* be more future-proof.