[UnAlternate]

hi, i'm building a new pc this summer and could use some help to get it all right. my budget is around 2000 $ for the computer (excluding monitor), and i can't really stretch much further than that.


i will use it alongside my old pIII (which will be used for surfing, leaching, and as a backup storage computer) as my main computer for 2d and 3d graphics, music production, and gaming.

as for the music production side of things, i already have that part pretty covered. i know my needs and what not to do's, and for the gaming - i guess that will work out ok no matter how i do it these days, or?


i'm not at all into all this the way i should be to trust myself though, and there is just soo much to read i get a headache by just looking at it for now. so if anyone could share their views/opinions on this it'd be greatly appreciated.


what i'm thinking so far is this:


MONITORS - i already have a hyundai q17, 17 inch TFT, that i use in 1280x1024. i know i want a second monitor and will probably opt for a crt instead of a tft (to reduce the cost) but i'm not sure if i need a 21 inch 1600x1200, or if i would be ok with a 19 inch 1280x1024. i hear many people saying that for example Maya is a living hell to run in anything less than 1600x1200, but would it be ok with a dual screen setup of 2x 1280x1024? recommendations?

CD/DVD - i guess i'll manage with a single drive to read and write both cd's and dvd's, or? i'm thinking lite-on or plextor here..

CHASSIS - antec sonata, piano black silent 380w. is this enough or do i need more power to drive things if i stuff it heavy?

GRAPHICS - HIS radeon 9800xt, 256 meg. i read that the advantage of the new x800 wasn't really significant if you matched it with anything less than the new 3,4 and above p4's. and since i'm opting for a 3.0 ghz p4, i guess i'll do ok with a 9800xt. any suggestions? and is HIS a reliable manufacturer. this was the cheapest 9800xt i found. any known conflicts or anything?

HARDDRIVES - i'll start out with a 200 gb SATA drive, and add another one later when i have the money. and for branding.. i hear many people prefering maxtor drives for reliability, but from my music background - i was always told to go with seagate barracudas, as these provided the lowest noise and were also easier to silent if needed. any opinions here?

RAM - i want 2 gb of ram in my mashine, but there are som many types to choose from. rambus seems ridiculously expensive, am i ok with ddr? do i need original kingston, or is unbranded ok? and do i go for 2x1024 or 4x512 modules?

MOTHERBOARD - this seems like a tricky one. i've always had good experiences with asus boards and would like to stick with one if possible. but even if i know my processor and ram needs, it's hard to decide upon the different models. i want a stable board supporting the hyper threading of the 3.0ghz p4, and 2gb of high quality ram as well as not causing conflicts with any of my other components. i would also like to have the ability have my two old ide-drives running alongside my new sata's and maybe inbuilt LAN. oh, and which chipsets are best to use with the 9800xt? all asus boards have intel chipstes right? do all chipsets support hyper threading or only the latest?

PROCESSOR - p4 3.0 ghz. and i want the hyper threading! but what's the difference between the C and E models. and the northwood and prescot ones? this is all very confusing..


exept this i will run win xp pro, a wacom tablet, and a pro-level soundcard for my music production needs. but it's a well known card, and i'm sure it won't cause any conflicts.


jees, this got really long. i really dont expect any of you to actually answer all this rambling, but if you have ANY oppinions or thoughts - please share. you'll make this man both wiser and happier! ;P cheers!

[Testament]

Hi there! ^^

I'm no pro on the subject but based on reaserch and experience with my recently built system I'll try to help out.

You mentioned you had good experience with Asus boards, well so did I.
I bought the p4p800-E Deluxe, wich has all that you asked for built in Gigabit Lan, support for pentium 3.0Ghz processors (says 3.2Ghz + if im not mistaken) both northwood and prescott with HP technology ofcourse, 4 DIMM slots, 1 GB capacity each, integrated audio, though you wont need it since you are using more sophisticated music production hardware, and other nice features that you might want to check out at the Asus website. As for the hard drives you get 2 UltraDMA 100/66/33 wich holds up to 4 devices, one UltraDMA 133 wich holds 2 devices and 2 serial ATA slots, so your good to go with that. While you are at the Asus website you might wan't to check out the P4c800-e deluxe model just in case.

The motherboard itself has worked great for me, very stable, no problems in POST, nothing. Since you said you might want to stick with Asus, I would highly recommend this board, based on my esperience with it and the requirements you mentioned.

However, be sure to do some research for yourself on otherboards and read some test reviews etc. The final desicion is yours, don't base your desicion in just our opinions.

About the RAM...I highly recommend corsair ram, specially the XMX series (might come in handy with your gaming). It is also compatible with the board and supports Dual-Channel memory. Before you decide what kind of ram you buy make sure you check the board's supported list, if it doesen't show thee, the RAM manufacturer's site might have the board listed for compatibility.

I read that prescott processors are not very good at the moment, I went with a P4 3.0C w/HT ghz and it works great.

My opinion on HDs is Samsung, got 2 of em and no problems , no noise, never crashed , always worked well. I also got a Western Digital, no problems either, but I seem to prefer Samsung.

Im sure one of the well informed guys here will have something to say about the card, I haven't researched them THAT much, but i would say a 9800XT is a good choise, or if you wanna cut the spending in that area a bit , you might try a saphire 9800 PRo wich can be flashed to a 9800Xt, if you go with that, read up on it well before trying anything.

I don't know that much about PSU, but if you could I'd upgrade to 420.

Like I said before, im no pro, just speaking from research and experience with hardware I've used. Make sure you do some research for yourself and compare the top guys in your list so you can be satisfied with what you spend your money on.

Tons of luck with your new system, I hope you can get what you desire.
C ya.

[Gort]

$2000? That's not a bad start. My only advice overall is to try and get two decent CRT monitors and setup for dual display. I have it at work, and quite a few here have it as well. If you're a production monkey, you'll really, really want to get dual display setup; you'll thank yourself in the long run. I'm running a Radeon 9800 Pro here at work, and it works terrific for what I do (lots of 2d with a little bit of 3d). Coupled with the PIV 2.8 ghz CPU (with hyperthreading), it makes the "after hours LAN deathmatch for beer" with coworkers a joy.

ASUS typically doesn't make junk. I can't say anymore than that. I tried ABIT once and wasn't all that happy; the MB failed after a year (a dual capable VP6).

The machine I have here at work was custom built through ABS. Even though some of the options were not available through their online configurator, I got on the phone with a sales rep, told him what I wanted, got it configured and got the pricing right away.

I'm very happy.

You should be happy too. Good for you and best in your new venture for new machine deliciousness.
_________________
- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[UnAlternate]

thanx so much for your thoughts guys! really appreciate it!

i found a store here today that could build me the following system for pretty much exactly 2000 $.


BOARD: asus p4c800-e (deluxe?)
PROCESSOR: p4 prescott 3.0 ghz
RAM: 4x512mb = 2gb. kingston
GRAPHICS: his - 9800xt, 256 mb
DRIVE: seagate barracuda 200gb
CHASSIS: antec sonata, 380 w
DVD-/CD BURNER: nec nd-2500a
FLOPPY: samsung 1,44, black


i think i'll start out with this (as well as the soundcard i already have) and add a second harddrive and monitor later. i will certaily make it with a single 200gb drive for a while and adding a second one later is easy. and i guess i'll have to wait a few more months for a second monitor, as i don't want to cut any more of the computer specs. well, i'll get one soon though.


does all this sound ok? anything that doesn't support any other part? any known conflicts between these components? thougts, suggestions? thanx.

[UnAlternate]

oh, and..

i just heard someone say that the northwoods are better than the prescotts. produces lesser heat but with the same or better processing power. do i opt for a northwood C instead?

the same guy said that 380w of the antec sonata is probably not enough, but the guy at the store claimed that as the antec PSU's were of such high quality it would be ok. thoughts?

[Testament]

About prescott and northwood.

What i meant was that in my humble opinion, I prefer the Northwood at the moment. Benchmarks of the prescott surpase the northwood however, I read that it spreads head quite a bit and has a bit of stability issues. However since the prescott seems to be more of a future project, if you'd like to have this processors for future advantages that aren't really going on at the moment, maybe you want the prescott, though i don't know if they will make some design changes or what not.

But like I said, your choice, this is just my opnions, you should ofcourse do a bit of research yourself and get whatever meets your needs.

About the PSU, I just mentioned the upgrade because since it seems that you're gonna load up your machine with plenty of HDDs and other hardware, just thought you might wanted to make sure you had enough power for all of em. Remember to save a power line for your chassis fans , wanna keep it cool.

So make sure you read about the processors and make the final desition yourself .
Heres a link to Tom's Hardware comparison, quite nice.
Good luck with everything.

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040517/

[UnAlternate]

thanks testament! i wasn't talking about you what i mentioned "the guy". it was someone from another forum, but thanks very much for your help anyway!

i'll guess i'll do some more reading then, no summer for me, eh.. ;P

[B0b]

i priced up a dual opteron 240 system (64bit CPU with 32bit compatability) with 2GB RAM SATA RAID 3Dlabs Wildcat etc a few weeks back including 19" Mitsubishi monitor for just over $1400 from newegg

i'll get some l8st prices as your looking @ spending $2000

[Testament]

Yeah I got my parts from Newegg also, great buy huh? ^^

[UnAlternate]

wow. the prices on newegg almost seem too good to be true. especially compared to what i get for my bucks here in sweden. so, you guys both have good experiences with newegg?

[B0b]

newegg is gr8 for US purchases - if they're shipping abroad watch out for import duty...

i only shop in the UK when purchasing for parts over here - but if someone asks me about systems in the US i point them towards newegg..

[UnAlternate]

thanx, i just noticed that newegg does not ship internationally though. bob, where is the best place to get your parts if you want them shipped to sweden? does your UK dealer ship outside UK?

[B0b]

prices in sweden no good then?

[UnAlternate]

prices here in sweden are horrible compared to newegg. a wacom intuos 2 a5, for example, costs more than twice the newegg price here.

[B0b]

currently 1.0 UKP = 13.7957 SEK

so a wacom tablet over here would set u back.. 3921.18 SEK

[Tomasis]

not good idea to order from UK. this is quite expensive.

Shipping in Germany is about at 20-30% lower prices comparing with Sweden

go with sweden, better for the support, warranty, fast shipping

[Tomasis]

I bought Wacom Intuos 2 A5 from Germany for 3000SEK

not bad price in Europe though

[DiabloDaz]

Amazon.co.uk is the way forward an Wacom Intuos 2 A6 for 1861.72SEK

[UnAlternate]

many thanx guys! .D
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