Building a new comp

[Oziyn]

thx for the info guys

[Oziyn]

OK now this is great.

its got a good graphic card and its pretty cheap, it supports the CPU that i want and its got 8 FRIGGEN USB PORTS. lol the most ive seen is 4

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea...&CatId=1572

[CoffeeFiend]

OK now this is great.

its got a good graphic card and its pretty cheap, it supports the CPU that i want and its got 8 FRIGGEN USB PORTS. lol the most ive seen is 4

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea...&CatId=1572

Only 2 DIMMs, no DVI, only DDR 667 max, and no spdif so worse board than the 60$ asus from ncix, also more expensive, and from a crappy seller.

Edit: oh ya, BTW, no, it's NOT a good graphic card on it. Intel GMA 950 sucks VERY badly. That's what I got in my 5 year old HP POS box, and it even sucked compared to the other cards out back then. You'd be hard pressed finding a worse vid card. Old 945 chipset too (I wouldn't stick a core 2 duo on one of those), and old-ish ICH7.

BTW, my board has 12 USB

Edited June 12, 2008 by crahak

[Zxian]

Oziyn - I'll say it again - don't skimp on the motherboard. If you do, you'll likely just end up buying a new one the moment that you're looking to upgrade.

Go for the P5K series or the GA-EP35 motherboards. Honestly - it'll be money well spent. For get any chipset from Intel that starts with a 9, or any nVidia chipset...

[Oziyn]

im looking at this one and it doesnt look bad to me.

i dont see anything rong with it.

i have decided to get windows xp SP3 and people say its a great motherboard

[CoffeeFiend]

Well, it comes down to: it's your money. I wouldn't buy that board for 35$ (I have seen similar boards with that chipset for 35$). I basically can't think of anything NOT wrong with the board. That, and the crappy seller too...

Your new processor will be a little bit faster than your old one (forget about overclocking with that old board), you'll likely have a bit more ram (but then again your onboard video will use some too, so again not much gained there). The video card is 99% likely MUCH slower. In the end, it won't be much of an upgrade at all (perhaps 5% faster than my 5 year old 500$ HP). You'd likely get almost as much of a performance boost in your current PC by throwing 50$ of extra RAM in it than buying that. It's just not worth upgrading to. That board makes the 350$ refurb look REAL good (it most definitely has a better motherboard than that in it!). As for Vista (which is very nice imo), I wouldn't put it on that box either, just because it'll have a solid 1.0 windows experience index (the absolute lowest you can get), thanks to the onboard video.

Just like Zxian says.

I'm done making any recommendations here. This keeps getting worse. We're at the point that the refurb HP from BestBuy looks better specs-wise (newer chipset, vid card that slaughters this one, DVI out, better audio, spdif out, supports faster ram, etc). Even my 5yo HP tower (the box I can't wait to get rid of) looks nice all of a sudden, at least it has 4 DIMMs and a spdif out (exact same northbridge/southbridge/s***ty GMA video)... Not like you're really following any advice given here anyways.

Edited June 13, 2008 by crahak

[Zxian]

Like crahak said - it's your money, but you can find current generation hardware for not too much more money. The problem with that board is that you're limited to first generation Core 2 Duo processors (which are hard to find) and it's based on the 945 chipset... which is two years old.

The motherboard is one of the most important decisions in a computer (second to the power supply IMO). I think you would be making a big mistake by purchasing any motherboard based on the i945, i965, or i975 chipsets today.

[Oziyn]

ok guys im sorry if it seams as though im not taking your advice ive just been looking at stuff that looks better to me. im not very good with this because this is the first comp ive actually built myself...well..planning on building myself.

im about to check out the board that zxian recommended and the one crahak recommended.

once again i appologize for being so rude.

ok guys heres the thing.

I just relized that all of those motherboards are great but i still need a cpu.

so can you guys choose a good cpu around the 100$ area.

I dont play games. please keep that in mind.

thx!

and can you please tell me what you think about cellaron duo cores and if u can please find me a mobo that supports cellaron duo core.

ive been using celaron for 4 years now and it seems pretty good to me

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku...ture=PowerColor

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/cat...t-775-Processor

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku...#Specifications

how bout this?

Edited June 13, 2008 by Zxian

[Zxian]

Motherboard - Great choice. That board will serve you just fine.

CPU - not so much. The P4 Dual Cores are old technology. They're slow and they consume a lot of power making them difficult to cool. Get yourself an Intel E2160. Dispite the lower clock speed, it's a much faster CPU and consumes much less electricity. Not to mention, it's cheaper.

Video card - The 3450 should be fine for what you do. Just be warned - it's not going to run modern games at any decent pace. If you're looking for a dedicated video card on a budget - you've just found it.

Also... there's no need to make a new post every time you want to add more information - simply use the edit button. I've merged your last four replies into one.

Just because something looks good, doesn't always mean that it is. A good way to check for how good parts are is to Google for reviews of that part. Have a look at the date that the review was made. If it's anything over a year, don't bother buying it. If the component gets a good review, then add it to the list of options.

[Oziyn]

thank u very much xzian

but i i dont think that that cpu is compatible with the motherboard i want

EDIT: Im adding a new list of stuff because the motherboard wasn't really..compatible with the cpu so im getting a bit more expensive one.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku...anufacture=ASUS ----motherboard

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku...ture=PowerColor ----video

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku...nufacture=Intel ----CPU

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku...CZ%20Technology ----ram

Edited June 13, 2008 by Oziyn

[Kelsenellenelvian]

I have a 2140 that I hotwired and it works pretty good. 2.13ghz on a mobo that doesn't allow oc'ing

The 2160 will be fine

Edited June 13, 2008 by Kelsenellenelvian

[Zxian]

The E2160 CPU will work with any chipset from the 945 and up. The chioce of any P35 (or the P45 you chose) will work. Older CPUs will work with newer chipsets. Newer CPUs don't always work on older chipsets. If you wanted to, you could run an old Celeron LGA775 on the top of the line motherboard today (not that you'd ever want to...).

From what I understand, the P5Q Pro is a great motherboard, and should leave you plenty of upgrade room for the future. Just make sure you don't get the plain P5Q (non-Pro/E/Deluxe, etc). I'm not sure what ASUS was smoking when they laid out that board, but the ATX power connector is buried close to the back IO panel. Good choice there.

If I were you, I'd see if I could get the Western Digital WD6400AAKS. It's a very fast hard drive, while still being very quiet. You should be able to find it for roughly the same price you had posted for the WD5000AACS.

I'd also like to suggest you go for a different case. I understand that the Xion case may look pretty, but there are a couple of things that bother me. First off - it's a no-name PSU in there. That's an instant no-no in my books. The PSU is one of the key components in your computer. If it decides to have a hairday, it could take every other component down with it. Secondly - the airflow in the case isn't really the best. You'll have a better time cooling all your components if you get something like the Antec NSK4480, which includes an Antec EarthWatts 380W PSU. If you're worried that your computer won't have enough power, have a look at my system description here. The maximum power draw that I can get from that system from the AC outlet is about 300W. Judging by the efficiency of the PSU, that makes the actual internal power draw somewhere in the vicinity of 250W. Your setup will draw less than 150W at full load.

I think it's time to start finalizing a parts list, and then look at where you can get the best prices.

[Oziyn]

kk im thinking im gonna go with the 935 because its got a couple more things that i want than the other one so.. yeah

so this is my motherboard-Click me----

This is my cpu----Click me----intel pentium duel core.

This is my graphics----Click me----geforce 8600

Ram----Click me----2Gb

Edited June 13, 2008 by Oziyn

[CoffeeFiend]

kk im thinking im gonna go with the 935 because its got a couple more things that i want than the other one so.. yeah

so this is my motherboard-Click me----

This is my cpu----Click me----intel pentium duel core.

This is my graphics----Click me----geforce 8600

Ram----Click me----2Gb

Looks like you're making nice choices now.

Parts you already picked:

GA-EP35-DS3L $90.25 (priced matched from DirectCanada here)

XFX GeForce 8600GT $38.88

The e2160 is a fine CPU (the one in my main box), but the e2180 is only 1.11$ more... $72.99

The ram you picked is alright. You can pay 50$ w/o mail in rebates, or $32.99 for basically the same thing, but with a mail in rebate (here).

If you add to that:

the 640GB WD hard drive I linked to earlier, and that Zxian just mentioned, it's $85.99

then the nice Antec NSK4480 case + psu Zxian mentioned, that's another $70.31 (priced matched from DirectCanada here)

All you're missing after that, is a DVD writer, most of which are around 25$. So you're looking at about 415$ total, for a fast machine with quality parts. It's a few bucks extra than the refurb HP, but

-you'll have a significantly faster CPU if you try to overclock it at all (very easy -- my e2160 OC'ed from 1.8 to 3.4, and benchmarks about 3x faster than my old P4 3GHz)

-you got more disk space (140GB extra)

-you got a better video card (faster, more memory, better outputs)

-you got a far nicer motherboard (HP motherboards aren't exactly great) with better chipset (very stable), more features and all, which is more upgradable too

-you get faster memory (brand name too)

-you get a lot nicer case (especially airflow wise - thanks to the nice 120mm fan, more drive bays too - something HP cases suck at)

-you get a nice PSU (the no-name stuff HP uses is trash that will die on you), which is 80plus rated (save on your power bill!), it's of good quality, from a reputable company, has a couple solid 12v rails, a decent connector set, etc

...and none of them parts are refurbished/2nd hand or anything.

An extra 65$ well spent. Already not having to replace the PSU in a year, and the savings of using a 80plus model will just about pay for the difference in price anyways. It should be very stable and fast too.

[Oziyn]

ok well im going with all of that but i have decided to get this case

its the most beautiful thing in the world.

then im going with this PS

if its not to hard can som1 please find me a better price for these or free shipping. i would be very thankful.

EDIT: btw this case has way better cooling and great reviews and it looks heavenly:P

Edited June 13, 2008 by Oziyn