OK, I've never put one together before so I know bugger all about how to go about doing it, but I guess you have to start somewhere. 1)What CPU should I use? AMD Athlon or Pentium? What's the latest CPU speed and what price am I looking at? 2)Mother board, which type should I buy? I have heard around the traps that Gigabyte is the one to go for and what the hell does the reference 64 bit architecture mean??? 3)Sound card, is Sound Blaster still the one to go for? 4)Graphics card what's the best to use? 5)I want to be able to plug my PC into a projector to play games on the big screen, what card do I buy? 6)What's the fastest CD burner/drive available on the market? and the brand to go for. 7)As above but for DVD burner / drive. I won't be using the PC entirely for games. Help from all you computer geeks would greatly be appreciated. :thumbsup:
Hmm depends largely on what you are aiming for this is strictly my opinion 1) I prefer AMDs over Pentiums. While Pentiums do seem to perform better on benchmark tests, the differences are not really noticable unless you really use programs that push your PC to the limit, however, you pay more for a pentium. 2) Depending on the CPU you get, you will have to do research on motherboards prior to buying. You will have to see the specific features of the motherboards and determine what features you want. Better motherboards DO cost more. I would go for MSI or ASUS (where the latter is more expensive) over the other brands. 3) Sound Blaster is still considered by many to be the class act to follow. There are some others out there but from experience (my brother specifically) some other brands may not be as well supported as Sound blaster (drivers and software wise) 4) Graphics card is a very tough question. New models are being churned out faster than rabbits breed (ok am exaggating abit there). There are 2 camps here. Nivida and ATi. Nivida produces the GeForce series and ATi the Raedeon series. Again I think reading up on these things prior to deciding on which level you want to go for is a good idea. 5) Re question 4 - various cards have different features. some even have digital out. 6 & 7) Liteon is the brand to go for fastest burner from the top of my head is 48x CD-R and 16x DVD-R DL (Dual Layer) all is combined in one drive so you dont need to get 2 other then another spare normal DVD drive as the source drive to copy from - Note speeds may be faster now...havent followed up on the speeds of late.... Hope this helps (some). Check out Tom's Hardware for reviews and performance benchmarks for the CPUs, Motherboards and GPU (Graphic Processors) which will help you decide what you want. Cheers Matt
Alot to ponder If the room where the PC will be is not Air conditioned, I wouldn't touch a Pentium 4 with a barge pole. They do run very hot, and farkn noisy and they throttle back to a slower speed if they overheat. Now I say "why pay for a 3GHz or faster chip" that might only run at 1GHz My opinion for what it is worth on the CPU, AMD have a far superior processor at the moment. Cool Quiet 64 bit Reliable Compatible Same warranty as Intel AMD have more longevity on a platform (they hold their socket design longer, making upgrading cheaper and easier (Suggest use the 939 socket) Memory controller is on the chip (not on the motherboard), so no bottleneck I own a computer shop, and we sell more AMD now than pentiums. Anyway, that is just one of the components mentioned. Motherboards, just stick with one of the major brand names, Gigabyte, ASUS, Albatron, ABIT, MSI etc etc. Look at the available models to compare the features they have. As for Sound blaster (aka Creative), they qre quite good, again, look at specs for your requirements, you can pay between $40 and many hundreds for a Sound card from creative. With Videocard, it will depend on your motherboard choice, stick with PCI Express, as it is the emerging connection standard, and that will at least give you some future upgradability. I won't bother with the Radeon vs Nvidia argument, the games you want to play will give you the requirements. Look at the cost of those cards, add 50% and that will keep you adhead of the game for about 12 months. Any Modern Graphics card will plug into a projector. Projectors have at least VGA, Composite and SVHS inputs. I wouldn't personally bother with a CD Burner. If you want two drives, get a DVD reader (reads CDs too), and a DVD Burner (reads and burns everything). I am fond of the LG drives, current model is 4167BB. Well, that's my opinions. The choices are almost infinite, good luck PM me if you like.
check out the buyers guides at http://www.anandtech.com/guides/ I've been into computers for over 20 years but only really care about what's good when it's time to upgrade so can't really give you specifics but I tend to look at sites like that above, check out benchmarks between the graphics cards to determine what I'm willing to settle on as the latest and greatest are usually very expensive and become next to worthless and slow within in a year. You don't really need a sound card, you get very good sound on most decent motherboards these days. AMD's been the best bang for buck for a long time, I also prefer Abit motherboards as they've always been good for overclocking but you probably won't want to bother with that.
AMD have been kicking INTELS BUTT since the 1000mhz mark. Dare I say it, even before then. A very good friend of mine was telling me all along about AMD kicking butt but kept on ignoring him for years - I was a "loyal" Intel customer - Finally he sent me an unbiased "deep and meaningfull" article about the history of processors and comparisons and as they say the rest is history. I too now own an AMD system and it hammers. Flashback.... Wasn't it Intel that relied on shear megaherts? (1,000,000mhz)!!!!! "Crank those mhz out SCOTTY" The MHZ KING... Rather than applying "technology". Ridiculing AMD'S "Ferrari" Athlons while running at less mhz and running rings around the overbloated supermegahert P4 Dinosaurs processing error corrections rather than performing essential calculations making them slower than 1000mhz cpus. What a Joke. :LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL: Hmmm... I wonder now how AMD'S law suit is going against Intel using Bullying tactics to push AMD out of the market. LOSERS :thumbsdown:
You could also check out whirlpool forums (not the whitegoods) forums.whirlpool.net.au there are quite alot of threads with the same questions that you're asking, so have a browse around and see what other users opinions are. For best prices on parts check out www.staticice.com.au which is a search engine nation wide for prices from several stores. Personally i have found MSY to have the cheapest prices for the parts i need (www.msy.com.au). If you do intend to buy from there though, i'd probably advise you to bring along someone who knows their computers as the store is TINY and there is usually a line of people, some of whom get upset at being held up by people who don't know what they want etc.
Noxter Whats ure budget? Check here for prices http://www.pcmaniacs.com.au/ http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php Best be for my $ right now would be an AMD Dual core CPU and PCI express SLI Motherboard. Whilst most stuff doesnt utilise multithreading right now it gives you a slight advantage for future proofing. The SLI motherboard is also good this way because you can stick one video card in it for now and get an extra performance boost by adding a second later on. Pick of the mobo's right now is the DFI Lan party new release. Thats what I'm getting in the next couple of weeks. Call me on the mobile if you want to know more. BTW, get an excellent case like something from Antech too. They have plenty of room and something with a bit more air inside will allow you to run cooler and quieter.
ahh if you were closer to dandenong id build it for you for free i whole heartidly agree with the AMD preaching.. they are a beautifull chipset.. i have the amd 1500+, i bought it back in 2000.. i STILL use it today, and i STILL play all the top end games.. one thing not to skimp on, if your into games, is the GFX card.. buy an above average card for that. NEVER buy top of the range.. you will always get stung, aim for 2-3 below it.. hope that helps
Forgot to mention Yes I agree with Cletus on the casing, get something with good working room which will also equate to more space for the PC to "breathe". In addition, a very important component is the power supply as well. Get good branded ones. They cost more but they are more reliable and can provide more juice for the power hungry PC and their components. I am not too sure about what others may think on this, but I would also be looking for RAM from either Apacer or Kingston who provide lifetime warranty. I have had bad experiences with "unbranded" RAM before. Finally, VIC has swap meets every Sunday, once you know what you are after, it may be a good idea to go there to check out on prices. Items that are not prone to failure (such as casings, CD/DVD drives, monitors...etc) can be purchased at a bargain at those meets. For items such as CPU, motherboards, RAM and GPUs, you could still buy them there but I would be abit skeptical and I would say buy it from a reliable shop (which would not fold up and disappear the next day). Cheers Matt
There's no Athlon XP 1500+ in year 2000 I bought an Athlon XP 1800+ in 2002 and it's close to the top end at the time. Unless you're talking about different AMD processor.
