Author Topic: Buying new PC. Advice needed =) (Read 1523 times)

Tac · « **on:** April 25, 2001, 05:40:00 PM »

I know my way around and how to fix HRDWR/SWR on the magical boxes, but as far as which components are better than others, I only know about sound cards. The rest im in the dark
Here's the specs of the system im looking into, anyone care to say if any of the components are of bad quality? Im keen on knowing if the MBD, RAM and monitor are good.

Pentium 4 Computer System
Intel Certified ATX Mid Tower Case with 300 Watt Power Supply
Intel D850GB motherboard - i850 Chipset
(Use memory in pairs only!!!)
5 PCI - 1 4X AGP Slots - ATA/100 Controller - 4 USB
Heavy-duty Heat Sink and Fan Assembly
1.44 MB Floppy Drive
104 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse
Millennium Gold Service Plan on any system we assemble!
Processor Pentium 4 - 1.5 GHz CPU
Memory 256 MB (2x128MB) Rambus 800 MHz
Hard Drive 5400 RPM 60 GB Ultra/100
Video Card GeForce2 MX Dual Display 32MB AGP
Sound Card Sound Blaster Live! 5.1(OEM)
Network Cards 3COM 3C905CX-TXM 10/100
Monitor AOC 9GLRS - 19 Inch - 0.25mm 1600 x 1200
Operating System Windows Millennium installed and on CD
Service Plans One year on site warranty

Thnx for any help!

PD: I would also like to know which vid card would be best for gaming in this system. Gforce 3? which model? radeon? hell I dunno, help me out

GRUNHERZ · « **Reply #1 on:** April 25, 2001, 05:53:00 PM »

Buy AMD Athlon, P4 is not very good now plus I hear Intel will change something in design that will make it unable for you to upgrade to a faster P4 down the line. But there are folks here who know way more bout this than I do.

Tac · « **Reply #2 on:** April 25, 2001, 05:57:00 PM »

Aye, but AMD's only go to 1.3 ghz

Here's a spec with the AMD set

Pre-configured AMD Thunderbird/Duron Computer System with DDR Memory
ATX Mid Tower Case with 250 Watt Power Supply
Iwill KA266 Motherboard - 266/200 MHz FSB - DDR Memory
1 4X AGP - 5 PCI Slots - Ultra33/66/100
Heavy Duty Heat Sink and Fan Assembly
1.44 MB Floppy Drive
104 Keyboard, Mouse
Millennium Gold Service Plan on any system we assemble!
Processor Thunderbird 1.3 GHz CPU (266 MHz FSB)
Upgrade Case Full Tower ATX case
Memory 512MB PC2100 DDR Memory (Two 128 MB)
Hard Drive 5400 RPM 60 GB Ultra/100
Video Card GeForce2 MX Dual Display 32MB AGP
Network Cards 3COM 3C905CX-TXM 10/100
Speakers Altec ACS-54 Five piece Subwoofer System
Monitor AOC 9GLRS - 19 Inch - 0.25mm 1600 x 1200
Operating System Windows Millennium installed and on CD
Service Plans One year on site warranty

Feel free to comment on both quotes

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #3 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:00:00 PM »

AMD is evil. They will deceive you in order to steal your soul. Don't buy their products... EVER!

AKDejaVu

[This message has been edited by AKDejaVu (edited 04-25-2001).]

Brat · « **Reply #4 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:02:00 PM »

I'm sure I'll get chewed on for this one...

I prefer AMD over Intel for processors on gaming systems...

You might also want to hold off another couple weeks and wait for the new GeForce cards...if not...forget the dual display, for the same price you can get the MX card with 64MB on it instead...

I know it's nice to have a service plan...but building your own system is pretty easy and helluva lotta fun...

BBGunn · « **Reply #5 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:06:00 PM »

I have an AMD processor and an Asus board which was fairly easy to set up. Assembled the thing myself. Works OK.

Tac · « **Reply #6 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:09:00 PM »

Why you say so Deja? Ive been an Intel client forever, so Im kinda lean to getting an intel. But ive heard so much about AMD performing better than intel chips.. well, lets say im confused in which one would be better for gaming.

And yes, it IS for gaming. Screw the X-Box

Tac · « **Reply #7 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:13:00 PM »

Holy cow! Was just checking the DELL website.. they 1.7ghz chip is out!!!

*pulls hair*

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

brady · « **Reply #8 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:14:00 PM »

Alienware, DO IT AND DON'T LOOK BACK, 1.5 P4 and loving it.OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYAAAAAAAAA A

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[This message has been edited by brady (edited 04-25-2001).]

Fatty · « **Reply #9 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:15:00 PM »

They should be putting a 300W power supply in that AMD system, at least.

Tac · « **Reply #10 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:47:00 PM »

This sentence was found in the Dell website after the quote of a new system:

"Includes Windows® Millenium Edition - the home version of the world's favourite software"

That is so wrong, and so disturbing on so many levels I think im gonna puke.

anyway, look at this:

Dell Dimension 8100 Series: Dimension® 8100 Series,Pentium® 4 Processor at 1.7Ghz
D8117HB - [220-2472]
Memory: 256MB PC800 RDRAM
256M82 - [311-8426]
Keyboard: New Dell® Enhanced Quiet Key Keyboard
EQK - [310-2753]
Monitor: FREE UPGRADE! 17"(16.0" viewable) P780 FD Trinitron® Monitor
P780P - [461-2535]
Video Card: New 32MB DDR ATI Radeon Card
32MID2 - [320-5323]
Hard Drive: 20GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
20SL - [340-2237]
Floppy Drive: 3.5 in Floppy Drive
3 - [340-2805]
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition (Windows Me)
WME - [313-7222] [412-1050] [420-8050]
Mouse: Dell® 2 Button Mouse
SM - [310-2758]
Modem: No Modem Requested for Home
N - [460-8920]
DVD-ROM or CD-ROM Drive: FREE UPGRADE! 16X Max Variable DVD ROM Drive
16DVDP - [313-1460] [461-1438]
Sound Card: SB Live! Digital Sound Card with 1024V
SB1024 - [313-7869]
Speakers: NEW Harman Kardon HK-695 Surround Sound Speakers with Subwoofer
HK695 - [313-1487]
Bundled Software: Microsoft® Office XP Small Business with Money 2001 Standard
XPSBM - [412-2356] [412-1200]
Norton Antivirus® at No Additional Charge: Norton Antivirus® 2001
NAV - [412-4630]
Digital Imaging Software: Image Expert® 2000,Dell Edition ($0)
DPS - [412-2108]
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: 3 Year Ltd. Warranty, 3 Year At Home Service, Lifetime 24x7 Phone Support
S3OS - [950-1270] [950-1272]
Internet Access Service at no additional charge: 1-Year DellNet™ by MSN® Internet Access Service[add$0]
MSN1YRP - [412-9800]
Resolution Assistant: Resolution Assistant
RA - [412-0175]

with all costs (tax, SH) included, this puppy is about 2268 bucks.

The quote on the 1.5ghz P4 system on my first post was $1962 without tax or SH. With both Tax and SH it might go to $2100 or more.

Hot damn, I love Dell.

My old P2 300 seems to come from a good family! whohooo!

Skuzzy · « **Reply #11 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:52:00 PM »

Not a fan of the P4, due to its poor design, but if you want it, then that is all that matters.
Now, I would upgrade the Radeon 32MB card to the 64MB card as the 64MB card is clocked faster and should not cost that much more to upgrade to it.

------------------
Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

Animal · « **Reply #12 on:** April 25, 2001, 06:55:00 PM »

I agree with Skuzz
why get such a high end system if you are only going to use a Geforce MX

Go for a radeon or a geforce 2 64mb

------------------
Nethawk: Does your squad openly shoot down chutes?
Fatty: At times, but only if they want to.
Nethawk: Theyre scum
Fatty: cc they are scum

Fatty: as am I

Fat DRUNK Bastards

bloom25 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 25, 2001, 07:01:00 PM »

Guys, raw clock speed alone means NOTHING when comparing different processors. The fact is that an AMD 1.33 will BLOW THE DOORS off ANY p4 in AH! This includes the 1.7Ghz. If you want a rough idea how they perform, go to www.tomshardware.com and www.anandtech.com and look at the Unreal Tournament and Expendable benchmarks. Both are DirectX based games like AH. AH will be even faster on the Athlons because it makes heavy use of the FPU.

Another reason not to buy a P4 system is that the socket the CPU fits in will be changing next quarter. This means you WILL NOT be able to upgrade the CPU in less than 2 months. This fact alone should persuade you not to buy a p4 system.

A third reason is the Rambus ram the P4 takes. It costs you a TON to buy, and has such high latency that it offers no real world performance benefits over DDR Sdram.

As for AKDejaVu, he works for Intel.

He may be somewhat biased...

(Here's a question for AKDejaVu: I heard you just got a p3 1 gig system given to you. Why didn't they give you a P4? Could it be because they know that it actually performs worse than the p3 for engineering software?

)

In a nutshell AMD Athlon Thunderbirds are cheaper, faster, and more easily upgradable than P4 systems.

There are only 2 things that a P4 does very well in: Quake 3 at low resolutions, and Flask MPEG 4 encoding. In all other benchmarks the 1.2 Tbird is on par with the 1.7 P4, and the 1.33 pulls ahead by a little bit.

To be entirely honest will you though, any CPU you buy today over a gig will be so fast that other parts of the system will limit your framerates. You would need a GeForce 2 Ultra to get even a small difference in AH framerates.

------------------
bloom25
-MAW-
(Formerly of the)
THUNDERBIRDS

2Late4U · « **Reply #14 on:** April 25, 2001, 07:05:00 PM »

Ummm TAC,

AMD is only at 1.3 gHz, but its faster than the damned P4 1.7 gHz in almost all benchamarks (and when it loses it loses by under 5%). The AMD costs about 60% the P4, and the DDR ram is cheaper than the P4 ram too.

Buying a P4 is a huge waste at this point...maybe in the future, but for now.