My new comp- opinions

[Cantacuzene]

Here is what I'm prolly going to buy unless anyone raises any major issues...

Antec ATX full tower w/ 400 watt ps
AMD Athlon XP 2100+
512 megs of PC2700 ddr
ASUS A7V8X w/ onboard sound, LAN and firewire
Toshiba 1612 dvd-rom
Lite on 48x cdr-rw
Gainward GeForce 4 ti4200

I'm transferring my old hard drives over to the new computer so I don't need to buy one of those. With shipping I got all this for $750.

Thanks for the opinions. And remember price IS an issue.

[sbp]

Looks fine.

[spigidygak]

Since you mention price is an issue why a 48x burner? A tad overkill anyhow. The real time difference in burners after around 32x is sort of useless. Even after 24 you're talking about seconds not minutes anymore. Save yourself some cash there and get a lower speed. You can also save more on the graphics card unless I'm assuming you're planning to do some gaming. Other than that everything looks good.

[smurphy]

I would look at the Gigabyte board GA-7VAXP. Just as fast as the ASUS but cheaper, which meets your needs but has all the latest features and growth.
http://www.giga-byte.com/products/7vaxp.htm

I like ANTEC cases but here in Canada they are a bit pricey. I have been using InWin cases for a long time and they are very good. Look at the IW-J508 case. They are $65 with a 300W powerman PS which is enough for the AMD CPU. These cases also have a front USB panel.
http://www.in-win.com.tw/home/detail.php?show=features&event=ATX&class=Mid_Tower&type=J-Series&model=IW-J508

Also look at maybe using the new Plextor CD-RW/DVD combo drive though it will only save you a few bucks. I have been using it in my Shuttle XPC system for almost two months and it has been very good.
http://www.plextor.com/english/products/20_10.html

Cheers,
Scott Murphy

[Cantacuzene]

I switched cases to the one Newegg has on sale on their fron page, the chieftec for 68$.

As for the burner, the difference in price between a 48x and 32x isnt enough to make me prefer the 32x.

I think the ASUS board is just as good as the gigabyte. I don't see any great superiority, in fact I think the ASUS board is a bit better.

Thanks for the help guys, now all I have to do is fid a friend with enough space on their credit card to allow me to order this stuff...

[faither]

If you're going to get the KT400 MB, why don't you get the PC3200 memory? Only about $20 more for 512MB. I think it's worth it if you're upgrading.

[Cantacuzene]

As far as the 3200 memory goes, I would get it but as of today newegg was sold out of 512 sticks of 3200 and crucial is way over priced. If newegg gets the 3200 in befor ei order I prolly will end up getting it.

[GraingerGuy]

Besides, every site that I've seen that has the KT400 use PC3200 RAM is actually lowers performance vs. PC2700 RAM. So the PC2700 would actually be a better choice anyway.

I have this motherboard and I have to say that I'm impressed. I'm using 512MB PC2700 RAM and a T-bird 1.2Ghz. It runs everything that I want. :)

[smurphy]

Geez...I wish my parts here in Canada were that cheap! There about double that now and that is from my distributor. Dam exchange rate :angry:

Not so Cheery but Cheers anyway,
Scott Murphy

[Cantacuzene]

There is nothing I'd liek to do more than stay Intel. I've been Intel all my computing life and I really am nervous about going AMD, but like you said, I need drives and a case, and I have the same amount of money to spend, so AMD is my only choice.

On a crappy note, Newegg discovered that they mis-priced the 2100+. They had the retail box for 107$. The oem was 117$. In any event they are sold out now so I guess I'll be getting a 2000+ oem instead with a volcano heatsink/fan and some arctic silver.

[bachviet]

That is one nice computer you have there.

[sbp]

http://www.googlegear.com has OEM AthlonXP 2100 for $89 shipped. Retail AthlonXP 2100 is $100 shipped. Good store to buy from as DarkFury can attest.

[kain9i6]

I just bought the Gigabyte GA-7VAXP and I must say so far it is an awesome board.. Excellent overclocking abilities and was only $129.00 .. and that is at FRY'S of all places.. I'm sure it can be found cheaper.. If KT400 is the way you are going, i'd stick with pc2700 ram.. better.. performance wise.. considering most people don't support the pc3200 anymore (not mobo wise, but VIA for example won't help you get 400mhz speeds out of your ram) Nvidia will though.. so if you can stick it out, get a new nforce2 board.. I JUST got my new stuff and I'll be getting an nforce2 about 2 months after it comes out (just to make sure bugs are cleared out.. I never buy a 1st rev of anything.. heh)

But, back to the subject.. ASUS may be of better quality (some would argue that point though).. but performance wise, there isn't much difference between them and the gigabyte.. so if it's price issue you are looking at.. go with the gigabyte.. being also you get dual bios with the gigabyte which saved my ass since I got the board (bios flashes went wrong by user error)

Whatever you decide to do, good luck with the system

[Showtime]

Not if your into overclocking but people have been buy tons of Athlon 1600+ AROI/AGOIA cpu's and oc'ing them to 2000+ speeds. New egg also has that popular 1700+ amd for like $70.

Frys has an Athlon 2100+ and ECS mobo for $149.

I'd wait for the lower end NForce boards to hit the market. The performance is amazing with NVidia cards and decent memory.

The new ht p4s are here, there should be one more drop in prices before Christmas.

Good luck
-jel:halo:

[sbp]

The Intel price drop on Celeron 2 and some P4's happened yesterday.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-965523.html
"The cuts, which were focused on the high end of the Pentium 4 and Celeron families, are the first formal discounts for the desktop line since September (http://news.com.com/2100-1001-956307.html), when Intel released the 2.8GHz Pentium 4.

The cuts bring the price of the 2.8GHz Pentium 4 down 21 percent, from $508, in 1,000 unit quantities, to $401. The prices on the 2.66GHz and 2.6GHz P4 chips drop 24 percent, from $401 to $305.

The 2GHz P4 {Celeron}, meanwhile, drops 19 percent, from $103 to $83, while the 1.4GHz chip drops 27 percent, from $74 to $54."

price chart: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1037134980
Note the Pentium 4's whose prices remained the same.

This is it for the rest of the year {no more price cuts}.

P4 2.4 GHz is still the sweet spot.

"Basically, Intel does not need to lower the prices more significantly these days since AMD currently cannot provide a lot of high-end chips and only offers the Athlon XP 2400+ and 2200+ in mass quantities, meanwhile Intel has been selling its high-end Pentium 4 2.80GHz CPUs for almost three month already. Intel does not currently offer the Pentium 2.0GHz chips in the official price-list, as a result, the Athlon XP 2000+ only competes with the Celeron 2.0GHz in terms of price and performance, hence, there is almost no sense for the Number One processor maker to reduce the costs of the Pentium 4 2.20 and 2.40GHz, especially keeping in mind AMD’s inability to fulfil the demand on Athlon XP 2400+ chips. When later this year, or in early 2003, AMD will offer the Athlon XP 2700+ and 2800+ processors in substantial quantities all around the world, Intel will definitely lower its current prices on the CPUs as well. At the moment AMD only supplies its Athlon XP 2600+ and 2700+ to Asia and Europe in limited quantities only and the microprocessor giant has nothing to fear."

[K2]

Originally posted by smurphy
Geez...I wish my parts here in Canada were that cheap! There about double that now and that is from my distributor. Dam exchange rate :angry:

Not so Cheery but Cheers anyway,
Scott Murphy


haha... i hear ya :D

[bachviet]

Originally posted by sbp
The Intel price drop on Celeron 2 and some P4's happened yesterday...
Sorry but I would rather get the XP 2000+ for $10 more instead of the Celery 2Ghz!

[Showtime]

The AMD 2800+($300?) is being reviewed all over and it's getting very good marks for gaming etc.
For the $/performance that 2800+ is a better choice than the 2.8 P4. I havent seen too much ocing of either yet, so that could change things for me.

Celerons suck! but are good enough for many people.

1.8A P4's hit 2.4ghz with little effort and cost about $130.

:shrug:

-jel:halo:

[sbp]

Originally posted by the jello is jigglin
The AMD 2800+($300?) is being reviewed all over and it's getting very good marks for gaming etc.
For the $/performance that 2800+ is a better choice than the 2.8 P4. I havent seen too much ocing of either yet, so that could change things for me.

Celerons suck! but are good enough for many people.

1.8A P4's hit 2.4ghz with little effort and cost about $130.

:shrug:

-jel:halo: The Athlon XP 2800+ won't be readily available until next year. Only Newegg has the OEM 2800 AthlonXp for $410.00. *Ouch* P4 2.8Ghz goes for same price.

Yeah better to stick with a lower speed cpu, o/c it and save $.

[Cantacuzene]

Ordered my comp today... here is the final tally...

ATX server case by cheiftec
AMD 2100+
512 megs of pc2700 ddr ram
Nforce2 mobo with sound, lan, firewire, usb2
Gainward gf4 4200
Lite on 48x burner
Lite on DVD rom

All told 745$ shipped. Transferring my current hard drives to the new comp.

[Nija]

Originally posted by Cantacuzene


Nforce2 mobo with sound, lan, firewire, usb2


which nForce2 board did you get? Asus?leadtek?etc.

where did you end up buying from btw?

let us know how goes it... :D

[Cantacuzene]

Asus A7N8X Nforce2 Mobo.

Newegg.com.