Author Topic: What would you buy with $2500? (Read 552 times)

LLv34_Camouflage · « **on:** July 26, 2002, 05:42:21 PM »

Hi guys!

If you had $2500, what kind of a flight sim setup would you buy and why? These are the components that you would have to get with that money:

Motherboard
Processor
1 GB Memory
128MB Graphics card
19" Monitor
Sound card
Operating system

Don't worry about the case, hard drives, CDRW and such...

Thanks

Camo

Animal · « **Reply #1 on:** July 26, 2002, 06:36:34 PM »

Do you want Intel or AMD?

And for the video card, WAIT FOR THE RADEON 9700

LLv34_Camouflage · « **Reply #2 on:** July 26, 2002, 06:42:31 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Animal
Do you want Intel or AMD?

The question was "what would you buy and why".

Thanks!

Camo

CavemanJ · « **Reply #3 on:** July 26, 2002, 07:35:37 PM »

hmmm... I think I'd start with an MSI nForce board. the 415. Slap in an Athlon XP 2000+. I'm kinda partial to Crucial for RAM, nice and easy to order online, free 2day fedex shipping

. GF4 (are there 128mb models? haven't really looked) on the vidcard, MSI or Gainward. Or the Gainward GF3 Ti200 128. Over clocks smoothly to above Ti500 levels.
I'm happy with my Envision 19", so I could get another one.
Sound I'd use the onboard sound on the nForce board. No since replacing something that's not broken. And Win2k Pro for the OS. No way I'm goin subscription based for an operating system (ie: XP)

Pongo · « **Reply #4 on:** July 26, 2002, 09:06:37 PM »

for 2500 US you can buy just about any dam thing you want.
and a 21 inch monitor.

Animal · « **Reply #5 on:** July 26, 2002, 09:27:47 PM »

I'd buy a Radeon 9700 when it comes out. This is a no brainer.

The latest Athon XP processor on a 333 motherboard.

512mb PC2700 DDR Muskin, or more.

a Western Digital special edition hard disk

Hercules Game Theater XP sound card

And the rest save it for the Sony 21" monitor. It will be worth it.

bloom25 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 27, 2002, 12:45:24 AM »

This is a tough one.

A P4 2.53 GHz with PC1066 Rambus or PC2700 DDR Sdram on a 533 MHz FSB board using a GeForce 4 4600 (128 MB - they all are) could run over $2500 depending on what else you need. I would wait for about a month for the Radeon 9700 card though, it's a lot faster from the early benchmarks I've seen.

An XP 2100 or 2200+ system will perform nearly as well overall and will cost quite a bit less.

Athlons and P4s each have strengths and weaknesses relative to each other so it's hard to say that one is substantially better than the other, but a 2.533 GHz P4 with Rambus is probably slightly faster. I've used them both, and I can't really tell a difference to be honest. Go with whatever you prefer is my advise at this point. I will say that if you are planning on using any serious mathematical software packages, they will be faster on the Athlon. Video encoding software is a bit faster on the P4s. Gaming performance tends to be about even overall. If I had to compare them, I'd say an XP 2100+ falls about between the 2.26B and 2.4B P4s and ahead of all the A type P4s. The XP 2200+ is between the 2.4B P4 and 2.533 P4. If it matters, Intel will release a 2.8 GHz P4 by September and a 3.06 GHz P4 probably around November. AMD will probably not be that high, but probably around XP 2600 - 2800 by November with their newer Barton core Athlon XPs.

I can tell you that right now (neglecting the Radeon 9700, since it's not out yet) that if you configure similar performing top of the line systems this is what you would pay locally:

(1 GB of ram is going to cost you $400 at least with PC2700 and over $500 with PC1066 Rambus and give you very little in performance over 512MB. Unless memory comes way down it's not worth it right now.)

Intel:
P4 2.53 GHz - $690 for a retail box model
P4 2.4 'B' type GHz - $475 " " " " "
P4 2.26 'B' type GHz - $280 " " " " "
Intel 845G chipset MB - $120 - $140 depending on brand
Soundblaster Audigy - $80 (unless you get onboard sound)
Case w/ 340 - 350W power supply - $75
60 GB Harddrive (7200 rpm) - $100
512 MB PC2700 DDR Sdram - $200 for anything good (ram is high right now)
GeForce 4 Ti 4600 - $380
CD drives - $35
CD burner (32x or 40x) - $80 - $120
Floppy - $12

Athlon XP 2100+ - $190 (online significantly cheaper)
XP 2200+ $240 for retail box models (there is very little performance increase for $50 extra expense)
nForce MB [great onboard sound and very reliable] (Asus A7N266-C being my current favorite pick) - $115 - $130
OR
Via KT333 based board (MSI KT3 Ultra is pretty good) - $90
(you will need a sound card if you go this way)
SB Audigy - $80
GeForce 4 Ti 4600 - $380
60 GB 7200 RPM HD - $100
512 MB PC2700 DDR Sdram - $200
Case w/ 340 - 350 W PS - $75
CD drive - $35
CD burner - $80 - $120
Floppy - $12

The way I see it is that with the AMD system you can afford to get a really good 19" monitor or even a 21" monitor and have cash left.

I'm not going to choose either AMD or Intel above the other, because either is fine with me at this point. The nForce chipset AMD systems are simple to setup, fast, and rock solid stable. A VIA KT333 AMD setup is cheaper and using PC2700 DDR Sdram is a bit faster than the nForce stuff, but they are a little bit more involved to setup. The 845G chipset Intel rigs are also very stable, fast, and setup easily.

bloom25 · « **Reply #7 on:** July 27, 2002, 12:50:01 AM »

Oh, I totally forgot the OS. I still prefer Win2k over XP, for security and licensing issues.

bigUC · « **Reply #8 on:** July 28, 2002, 05:09:24 AM »

for $2500?

LLv34_Camouflage · « **Reply #9 on:** July 28, 2002, 05:20:27 PM »

Thanks for the tips, guys!

I remember the VIA chipsets were causing problems in the past. What is the deal with them nowadays? VIA is a popular chipset for the Athlons, right? Can the nForce motherboard be bought without the soundcard? I've always been a big fan of building the computer with components and none of that integrated stuff... Or am I just old fashioned, is the nForce sound card good?

Bloom's Athlon suggestion looks tempting, leaving almost $1500 for a monitor... Enough for the 21" Sony F520, does 2048x1536@86Hz.

Camo

DAVENRINO · « **Reply #10 on:** July 28, 2002, 08:08:25 PM »

I am using the ob sound on my MSI K7N415 and it sounds great. IF you don't like it you can always add a sound card later. It isn't available without ob sound but the board is less than $100 with it anyway. I also use the ob LAN for DSL. The Nforce 2 boards will be out VERY soon. I'd probably wait for the Nforce 2 and ATI 9700 to come out.

bloom25 · « **Reply #11 on:** July 28, 2002, 08:22:58 PM »

The VIA stuff is pretty good these days. I do like the nForce better though. It's hard to get a more stable and simple to setup board. You can get nForce 415D boards without the integrated GeForce 2 MX, but I haven't seen one without the sound built on. Regardless, the sound built on is excellent IMO. It's easily the best integrated sound you can get. The only thing I don't like about it is a current lack of a good mixer application in it's drivers. (This may be added soon from what I've heard.)

The Asus A7N266-C is a great board IMO. The '-C' A7N266 boards do not have the onboard video. You can get this board for around $125 at most computer stores, and probably cheaper online. Another thing I like about this board is that it has hardware CPU overheat protection for Athlon XP CPUs. Up until now, only Intel supporting boards had that. If you get this board, use two identical sticks of DDR SDRAM in slots 1 and 2 for dual channel memory operation and top performance. It comes with a card giving you front stereo speaker, rear speaker, center channel, microphone, line in, and SPDIF connectors. The nForce MCP has a built on Dolby Digital 5.1 hardware encoder, so if you play a DVD movie using a program like PowerDVD it will decode all 6 audio channels without any CPU hit. Unlike VIA, the nForce chipsets use a single driver for everything. The newest version 1.05 driver is around 9 Megs and you can get it right from nVidia's site. VIA KT333 based boards are a little cheaper than nForce boards, and aren't quite as tweakable and probably just a touch slower as a result, but I still prefer them for the reasons I mentioned above.

More semi-good news is that AMD will drop Athlon XP prices by 5 - 20% depending on the speed within the next few weeks, but they are already pretty inexpensive. If you plan on waiting for the Radeon 9700 then these cuts should have already happened when you go to build the system.

Intel should release a 2.8 GHz P4 by the end of the summer, so depending on when you do this the Intel P4s may have dropped in price as well, changing the whole situation again if AMD haven't released a 2400+ or 2600+ by then.

lord dolf vader · « **Reply #12 on:** July 29, 2002, 05:54:21 AM »

i just built 2 boards one with a a7v266c and one a7n266vm . what he said is exactly spot on . no probs with via but n force is just a little faster over all. also for about the same price (5 bucks or so more) it had a a decent ( 47 fps at startup offline in ah at 1000x1200)

then spend the extra on monitor YEA !!

mipoikel · « **Reply #13 on:** July 29, 2002, 07:44:24 AM »

Camo! Jos olet hankkimassa vempeleitä' niin katsotaan sitä sitten kun tuut suomeen!

Mie tai Maxxon kyllä hoidellaan tällaset jutut!:D Etullisesti...

LePaul · « **Reply #14 on:** July 29, 2002, 10:59:08 AM »

What Bloom said....recently built my Athlon XP 2000+ with the MSI board he referenced. Very very fast system. Was pondering going to XP 2100 or XP 2200 but couldnt really validate the extra money for so little mhz gain.

I like Intels, and i like AMDs...but for what I spent on this AMD setup, versus what I would've spent for an Intel setup (much more)...I'm very pleased. I had money leftover to buy a pricier video card and more ram (512 vs 256).

Im interested in what the new Radeon will offer, but pleased with the GeForce 4 4600 too.

I'd give the AMD some real serious thought. If you want a killer game machine with perfomance that screams with the Intels, minus the extra money, buy one. Use all that extra $$ on toys, pizza and beer