Need Help Selecting Stuff to Build a PC 1

[Guest_imported]

Hi
I'm going to build a computer. I'm a mac enthusiast, with the original imac (about 4 years old.) I desperately need a new comp (for War3 and general use.) So, I've decided to build a PC since for about 600-700 I can get a great one. However I need help in deciding what to get.

Processor : AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 1.47 GhZ $67
I figure that's the best bang for my buck (I'm kinda on a budget)
I was wondering if I should try to overclock it?

Mobo : MSI KT3 Ultra $77

http://www.msicomputer.com./product...model=KT3_Ultra

I want to get 333 DDR RAM because it's the fastest, so I hear this is the best mobo to get for that. Although I think I want the ARU version of it because it has USB 2.0. Or does USB 2.0 not really matter? Another question, my friend said I might need RAID, but that's a good deal more to get. Do I need RAID? Or is the IDE good enough?

Case : Evercase Screwless Middle Tower $43

http://www.evercase.com/Products/e4252.htm

I'm getting this because it is only 43 bucks and is supposed to be good, but I don't know really know. If I should be overclocking should I get a case with more fans? Or is this good enough?

Video Card : ATI Radeon 8500 LE $94
I'm fairly confident about getting this. It's a high performance card for only $94. And I'm pretty sure it will play War3, right? Should I overclock this?

RAM : Crucial 256 MB PC 2700 DDR RAM $88
This is the 333 DDR RAM, and it's the cheapest I could find it at for good quality.

Hard Drive : Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM $100
This is the cheapest/best 80 GB HD I could find.

CD Burner : CDRW 36X12X48 CYBERDRIVE $56
For $56 this is the cheapest/best burner I could find. I'm not gonna get a floppy drive because I have this, plus floppies are becoming obsolete. Also, I'm going to be using this as my main CD reader, that's okay right?

Ethernet : Linksys EtherFast 10/100 LAN Card $20
Even though this is $20, and there are cheaper cards, I think I'm going with this for the quality. I'm pretty sure the mobo I'm getting doesn't have ethernet built-in.

Sound : I'm going to use the built-in sound on the MSI mobo and forget about a sound card.

Speakers : Logitech Z540 5-Piece Speaker System $57
I figure this is the best bang for my buck at $57.

Keyboard : Microsoft 114 keys (10 internet Hot Keys) Internet Keyboard PS/2 $17
This is again the cheapest/best keyboard I could find.

Mouse : Designer Scroll Optical Mouse Model H3003 $6
Supposedly a good optical mouse for just $6!

Total : $625

And there's my system so far. Feel free to make suggestions on the components, whether they will be good for me or if I should get something else. Please also comment on what else I will need! Also if you have advice for a first time PC builder on the building process or anything else, please tell me.
The website I am going to use to buy most of this is

http://www.newegg.com

Thanks!

 

[Stretchy]

Looks pretty good so far. Shame your in the US though coz theres a great deal on CoolerMaster cases over here in some stores at the moment. I would go with the Athlon XP as I feel there is more bang there than the P4.

Doubt you will really need to overclock it but, if you do then CoolerMaster cases are really good on airflow (personal experience), i would imagine similar offerings from Lian-Li etc will provide a similar standard.

HTH
_______________
Stretchy [Pipe]

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Good choices, but consider a Lite-On CD burner. It performs (almost) like a Plextor for around the same money as the Cyberdrive. I haven't seen too many glowing reviews of the Cyberdrive compared with the Lite-On.

The MSI board is really good - I bought one for my father. I'm seeing very good reports of the Gigabyte GA-7VRXP, however thread602-321297. All the current crop of major brand DDR333 mobos perform within a few whiskers of each other, so go for the features/budget.

USB 2.0 would be a very "nice to have" feature when there are more compliant devices, so you could see this option as a "future-proofing" factor. USB 2.0 add-on cards are available fairly cheaply; you might want to consider one that also has firewire, depending on your needs. This could be bought later.

I wouldn't think you'd feel the need to overclock the XP/DDR333 combo (unless you felt the irresistable need to play games with your expensive electronics!) - it's PDQ. However, Athlon cooling is a hot topic -)) on many sites (including this one), so consider the case very carefully. Time to plug my FAQ faq602-2213

IMO it's worth the extra outlay on the case, because you can upgrade everything else later. The case you have to live with. As for RAM; Crucial and Kingston have deserved reputations, but Samsung, Corsair and Mushkin are good, and cheaper.

I've found that there's not very much difference in performance between PC2700 (333Mz) and PC2100 (266Mhz) DDR RAM anyway; bang for buck, PC2100 is my choice. That'll save enough for a Lian-Li

Hope this is helpful CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[Eguy]

//soapbox = ON

I counted 5 occurrences of the word "cheapest" in your post. Please, do yourself a favor, remember its the cheapest for a reason. I've said it a thousand times "Buy the best, and cry only once". If you can wait a few weeks or more to increase your budget then do it. You will be happier in the long run. On overclocking - don't do it. The trade offs in system instability aren't worth it. Were talking about speeding things up by nanoseconds, or the time it takes light to travel a few feet. Is anyone going to notice?

//soapbox = OFF

Ed Please let me know if the suggestion(s) I provide are helpful to you.
Sometimes you're the windshield... Sometimes you're the bug.

 

[ceh4702]

I looked at this case and it doesnt have any fans in it at all I don't think. That might be why it costs less. I couldnt see how big the fan area is in the back; probably 8 CM fan opening. Sometimes it is better to pay more for a case if it has good fans in it. Some people like to buy their own fans. Enermax makes some nice Adjustable Fans that run at 6,000 RPMs and can be adjusted to make less noise. You need to have at least an intake and an exhaust fan for your case. 8 cm is the standard Fan Size.

I like this case:

Enermax, CS-003-01WB, 2-Tone, 10-Bay, 300W PS, P4, MID Tower It sells for $58.00 has fan openings on top, on the side to blow on the cpu on the front (Extra Large) and 2 8 cm fan openings on the back. They have many variations of this case style. I don't know why they do not sell this case with an AMD power supply.

You will need a CPU Cooler of some kind. If you get an AMD you need a good cooler. You can either get a Retail CPU that comes with cooler and fan already or buy an OEM CPU and then buy a CPU cooler of your choice. Lots of people use a Volcano series cooler, but I have heard good results from a company called CoolJag as well. Too bad newegg doesnt sell the larger CoolJag CPU Coolers. They only sell the small ones designed for P4 for short rack 1U cases If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[ANFPS26]

I've got that same Cyberdrive burner with Nero and it is a great burner. It burns 12X media at 32X with no errors. It looks good and it performs good . It's $56 at newegg like you you said. Why waste more money when this one does an excellent job. I highly reccomend it. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[dakota81]

My only comment is to splurge on a better CD drive. I still insist to people this is the one area where you do not cut corners. For a CDRW, most any drive is really fine - and I'm guessing that you'll some time down the road add in a dvd/cdrom drive. If you do, I insist on Toshiba or Pioneer ONLY, there is a noticable difference in performance between the best and the cheap.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Think I posted this a while back, but here it is again (it's that useful!)

http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/02q2/020521/index.html

CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[Guest_imported]

Wow, I posted this same topic on another forum and I have gotten much more helpful responses here! Thanks.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

There are good sites, great sites, then there's T-T CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[paparazi]

Hi everyone!
Just my observations.
Citrix engineer is correct about the memory but he didn't explain why.
Good PC2100 has often got a Cas latency of 2.0 (CL2) FAST!
Where as there is very little PC2700 CL2 around it tends to be CL2.5, Slower! so although PC2700 offers greater bandwidth over PC2100 the slower Cas latency means that there is very little differance in performance between the two.
SO! either pay alot more for PC2700 CL2 or go with 2100 CL2
as it isn't worth the extra cost going for 2700 CL2.5
NEXT!
It is still my opinion that system performance suffers by using the onboard sound, even a cheap $15 4 channel audio card will free up vital system resources allowing the motherboard to run at it's full potential.
I agree with the others on the writer, go for a slower writing speed if you have to, that should allow a better make at the same price.
I am not sure you fully understand what "raid is"
Ask yourself the question "will I ever need more than two hard drives in my system"? if the answer is NO then you don't need raid. (sorry guys, I know I haven't fully explained raid)
Important! and often overlooked, a good quality power supply is essential!
Finally!
Don't skimp on cooling! go for a decent heatsink/fan and make sure your case has at least one extra case fan (two prefered)
Martin Please let members know if there advice has helped any.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

True that on-board audio steals from the processor, but with that processor and a healthy amount of RAM, you won't notice system degradation unless you do high-powered audio stuff with ProTools, Cubase, audio synching and the like. The on-board audio on the MSI board is better than most cheap cards - and is 5.1 Dolby Digital.

I'd say save for a few months after putting your computer together, then buy a Turtle Beach or Hercules card if you want to upgrade the sound.

I won't go for a full explanation, but to clarify a little further, RAID is more than having >2 disks. It is creating an array from your disks which is either a mirror (one or more disks are exact replicas of the system disk(s) in case of failure), or a stripe (all disks are combined to make a single huge volume. One disk is usually sacrificed for parity) - or it can be a combination of these methods.

That is vastly over-simplified, but gives the idea. RAID can increase data transfer times quite significantly, but part of this is often down to the large cache that manufacturers include on the controller.

An add-on RAID card can be purchased inexpensively later - with IDE, the 'I' in RAID really does mean Inexpensive! (RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks).

My $0.02 is; keep the initial computer simple, but of high quality. You can always add to it later, if the foundation is solid. Also, if it's overloaded with gizmos, then when it goes wrong, you won't know what caused the problem.

Good point about the power supply CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk