Building new comp for ah...tips pls.

[Nilsen]

I have decided to build myself a new comp for AH/AH2.

Im planning on spending as little as possible on it because i spend most of my money and time on laptops. and it would be an (almost) dedicated AH/AH2 box. My limit is aprox 1000$ not including monitor but im hoping to get lower.

Where shal i put my money? (fast ram, fast graphics or processor)I want the comp to be fairly silent.

This is what i have in mind:

I want very good framerates and quality in AH and AH2 at 1280x**** and 1024x768 no need for higher res.

The only components that i have decided on is the seagate 80gb disk because it is fairly silent. I also want ATI card..no nvidia. Would like AMD but can go for intel.

Dont really need USB2 but i need firewire.

For the rest im hoping for some input from you guys.

thx

[mjolnir]

Well, from all the interviews, Skuzzy makes it sound like a slightly slower processor will still work fine if you have a good graphics card.  I haven't been in the States this year, so I haven't got a real good idea of what the newest stuff is, but I'd say if you got yourself a Radeon 8500 or something along those lines, it would probably be a pretty good start.

and 1024x768 no need for higher res.

If you get a monitor that can support it, you really ought to try 1600x1200 sometime.  It's a world of difference.

[Nilsen]

thx, but i already have a very good sony trinitron flatfaced monitor that works best at those res. In the future I may go for a 17" LCD but those are also usualy 1280x****'

Here is what i have in mind so far so feel free to comment:

Processor: AMD barton XP2500 (overkill??)

Graph. card : ATI radoen 9500pro/9700nonpro

memory: 1x512mb...what kind?..have no idea what all the specs mean.

HD: 80gb seagate barr.

DVD: no need for software bundle, just a good drive.

CD/RW: no real need, but if there are some cheap good drives pls give me a tip.

Motherboard: clueless here but is should have firewire, usb and ethernet and be known to be stable.

Cabinet: no idea here either but i want it to have a good price and silent.

Soundcard: should work good with AH voice and have decent sound quality. no need for surround or gameport on it.

[Siaf__csf]

Your specs are just fine except that you should get a nforce2 motherboard (it has all the things you wanted) and 2x256mb memory sticks since nforce2 needs it that way.

The nforce2 board also comes with a kickass built in sound, you won't need a separate sound card at all.

[gatso]

Originally posted by Nilsen10
I want the comp to be fairly silent.

http://www.quietpc.com/

Cases, heatsinks, fans and PSU from these guys. AMD CPU, Nforce2 MB, couple o sticks o memory. the HD you've picked out and an ATI card. Job done.   If I needed to this is almost exactly the system I'd build right now.

Gatso

[acetnt]

Nilsen10

You could look up the prices of the asus a7n8x deluxe version - it is an excellent nforce2 motherboard for AMD XP processor - it supports DDR 400 has USB2.0 and Firewire onboard. You will need to buy two pieces of Ram for optimal results. Pair this with a Radeon 9700 (best for price) or a 9500 (Direct 9 compliant and cheaper) and you will have the beginnings of a hell of a system. As for the RAM - it is good to stick to the well known brands like crucial but I have had good results with the cheaper PC3500 Geil - but buy this at your own risk. Try to get cas 2 ram - this is more expensive but helps performance. I purchase cas 2.5 PC3500 i.e. 433MHz geil ram (due to price) and have had no problems with it so far - BUT I will say again it is best to purchase the ram that the motherboard manufacturer recommends.

As for your cpu choice - excellent choice - but stick with the 333Mhz FSB version

Hope this helps

[Nilsen]

sure did, thx for the tips

ive decided on two of these:

Corsair XMS3200LL DDR-DIMM 256MB PC3200
32Meg x 8, CAS 2-2-2-6-T1, 400MHz

any good?

[Ghosth]

Mwave.com

Can confure your own system with drop down scroll bars. Choose between intell/amd systems, etc.

Starts with motherboard, & all options will be compatble with that board.
Then juggle options till your happy with price.

Recently built 2 systems from there.
Abit Kd7-E mboard, amd xp 2000 cpu.
Ati Radeon 9000 pro 128mb AGP card
256k pc2700 ram, 80 gig WD HD, & Liteon CD burner & DVD.
While not top of the line,  I built both for about 600$ each.


key is to research Motherboards.

[singh7]

Corsair is also a good memory maker and this Ram looks good.  If you buy this motherboard i.e. asus you will need to put dimms in slot2/3 or 1/3 to get optimum performance........

Believe me this setup is already way fast. I would think that the only way to get more frame rate is to get broadband....if you do not already have this.

[singh7]

Forgot to mention - you can use http://www.pricewatch.com to check hardware prices. I also normally check to see if the site has very good recommendations before shopping online - but then this is a whole other issue.

[Nilsen]

Ok, here is my final setup....any comments??

Skuzzy?


Chieftec Dragon Medium Tower black

MSI KT4V motherboard

AMD Athlon XP2500+ 1.833 GHz 333 MHz bus

GlacialTech CPU-fan Socket A/370/FCPGA

2x TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 256MB CL2.5

Sony floppydrive 3,5" 1,44MB MPF-920 black

Seagate Barracuda V 80GB IDE 7200RPM

Samsung DVD-drive IDE 16x/48x black

Samsung CD-burner IDE 48x/24x/48x black

Sapphire Radeon 9700 Atlantis 128MB

Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2

Price comes to about 950$ and i decided not to go for a nforce motherboard because i wanted a good soundcard for hooking this system up to my bang&olufsen stereo. Didnt need a bigger harddrive either cause i have an external firewire 120gb drive that i use with my laptop now.

[Reschke]

MSI KT4V would not have been my choice on the motherboard. If I had to get an MSI board I would still go for the NForce2 chipset board there. While the KT400 is less problematic than previous Via chipsets it still has issues. I helped my neighbor build his latest computer and it has a A7V8X board which setup nicely until we plugged in his USB CDRW. Then it (CDRW) went intermittent just like it did on his previous Via based KT266a chipset based board. I brought over my cougar and had the same problems with it not accepting the lastest drivers that I have with my KT266 chipset A7V266 board.

So this week he is getting an Nforce2 based board and I should be getting one within a month or so. Probably going to get the A7N8X Deluxe myself. They can be found for between $125-160 USD. The Deluxe is the one that has IEEE1394 on the motherboard itself.

Just my choice though and you may be dropping the cost of the motherboard to get better somewhere else which is ok as well.

[Nilsen]

thx for the tip.

I really dont need to get many perticular brand of board, I just want one that is fast , reliable, has usb2 and firewire. I also saw that one board (dont remember wich) had a problem with the size of the 9500/9700 graph card.

I dont think ill ever overclock the thing, id rather want it to be stable.

This is my first statonary puter for many many years cause ive always used laptops  and im a bit green when it comes to putting together puters

[Reschke]

If you're stuck on MSI here is a board I have heard good things about. No experience personally but have heard good things. I do like building computers with MSI motherboards but I will not be using a Via chipset in my next system no matter what.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/detail_spec/product_detail.asp?model=K7N2G-ILSR



MSI Part No. MS-6570G-020  
Specification
CPU  
    • Supports Socket A for AMD® Athlon™/Athlon™ XP/Duron™ processors @FSB 100/133/166
• Supports 600MHz up to Athlon™ XP 2700+ processor or higher  
Chipset  
    • nVIDIA® nForce2 IGP Chipset
- Integrated TV encoder
- Supports DDR266/333 with internal graphic core, DDR266/333/400 with external add-on card
- AGP 3.0 8x interface at 533MHz

• nVIDIA® nForce2 MCP-T Chipset
- AC97 Interface supporting up to two concurrent codecs
- Ultra ATA133 for the fastest hard disk throughput
- USB 2.0 EHCI/1.1 OHCI controller
- FireWire® and USB 2.0 for the fastest digital connectivity
- Audio Processing Unit(APU) encodes audio in Dolby® Digital 5.1 format for full surround sound effects  
FSB
    • 100/133/166(200/266/333)MHz clocks are supported  
Main Memory
    • Supports six memory banks using three 184-pin DDR DIMMs
• Supports up to 3GB PC3200/2700/2100/1600 DDR SDRAMs
• Supports both 64-bit and 128-bit DDR SDRAM  
SLOTS  
    • One AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 1.5V 4x/8x slot
• Five 32-bit PCI bus slots (support 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface)
• One ACR (Advanced Communication Riser) slot
BIOS
    • The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
• The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface (DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.
On-Board IDE  
    • An IDE controller on the MCP2/MCP2-T chipset provides IDE HDD/CDROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes
• Can connect up to four IDE devices
Serial ATA Interface
    • Support 2 serial ATA plus 1 ATA133
- RAID O or 1 are supported
- RAID function works w/ATA133+SATA H/D or 2 SATA H/D
• Connect up to 2 Serial ATA devices and 1 ATA133 device
In-Chip TV-out
    • Integrated TV-out encoder, through external bracket

In-Chip IEEE1394  
    • nVIDIA MCP2-T IEEE1394 controller
- Support up to two ports via external bracket  
Network  
    • Chipset integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet/Fast Ethernet  
Audio
    • Realtek ALC650 6-channel audio
- Dolby Digital 5.1 format  
On-Board Peripherals
    - 1 floppy port that supports two FDD with 360KB, 720KB,1.44MB and 2.88MB
- 1 serial port and 1 VGA port
- 1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
- 3 audio ports in vertical
- 2 IEEE1394 connectors
- 6 USB ports (Rear * 4/ Front * 2)
- 1 RJ-45 jack  
Dimension  
    30.5 cm(L) x 23 cm(W) ATX Form Factor  
Mounting  
    6 mounting holes

[Nilsen]

Going for the asus A7N8X Deluxe/GD motherboard instead