computer upgrade specs...

[KaBuTaR]

okie... me lookin to upgrade my comp and can get one built to these specs... thought i'd run them by you guys to see how they are -

 

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz, 512K, 533FSB, Socket-478

Motherboard: AOpen MX46-533V (DDR 266/333) SiS651 w/audio, VGA, LAN, USB2.0, ATA133, AGP4x

Memory Module: 512MB PC800 RDRAM (2 x 256 MB)

Housing: AOpen H340A P4 Ready Slim PC Case (for MX series motherboards)

Hard Drive: Maxtor 60 GB UDMA 100 7200 RPM Hard Drive

DVDROM: AOpen 1648 16x DVD Drive (16x dvd, 48x read)

VGA Card: AOpen nVidia Geforce4 Ti4200-8x 128 MB DDR AGP 8x, Video in/out, TV out, DVI, Dual

Networking: AOpen AON-325 10/100 Mbps PCI NIC

Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live 5.1 OEM Dolby Digital Sound Card

 

Total price including 15% tax: $1567.45 Canadian

 

plannin to reuse my trusty TEAC writer and perhaps the 10 gig Maxtor drive i'm running rite now as well as keyboard, speakers, mouse, and monitor (no way i'm buyin a new 19 inch!!!!)

 

I need a good game card AND i need LAN networking to get to the internet - basically i need a proper ethernet card.

 

Not entirely sure what the motherboard and CPU specs mean lol - just went with the best lookin one.

 

What do you guys think?

[Treacherous Mercenary]

While the specs all look good, you might want to check out some reviews for the mother board you have selected if you haven't already. I know, sometimes it doesn't mean anything, but that applies toward games as I see it. It can sometimes mean a difference in buying that stuff. As for the video card, that's actually quite good with what you have there! I have the same thing right now in my AMD Athlon XP system. As for getting RDRAM, the mother board won't support it. You must get a mother board that can support RDRAM. If anything, I might suggest an AMD system actually. I hear the barton processors (if you can afford the Athlon XP 2500+) beat the Intel processor 3.06 in some tests. Upto you with what you want to go with there however. I suggest you go with DDR RAM though, it's suppose to be abit faster than RDRAM anyways. One last thing, Apeon is alright, but I would look into other companies like Asus for mother boards which are suppose to be quite nice.

 

Just my two cents, anymore questions and I'll be glad to answer.

 

Also, check out http://www.tomshardware.com for some

reviews, etc.

 

One last thing, You might want to get yourself a Thermaltake case fan while your at it.

[KaBuTaR]

I actually redid the specs slightly - changed the audio card and got rid of the network card since it's integrated.

 

New specs:

 

 

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz, 512K, 533FSB, Socket-478

Motherboard: AOpen MX46-533V (DDR 266/333) SiS651 w/audio, VGA, LAN, USB2.0, ATA133, AGP4x

Memory Module: 512MB PC800 RDRAM (2 x 256 MB)

Housing: AOpen H340A P4 Ready Slim PC Case (for MX series motherboards)

Hard Drive: Maxtor 60 GB UDMA 100 7200 RPM Hard Drive

DVDROM: AOpen 1648 16x DVD Drive (16x dvd, 48x read)

VGA Card: AOpen nVidia Geforce4 Ti4200-8x 128 MB DDR AGP 8x, Video in/out, TV out, DVI, Dual

Networking: NONE

Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 1394 5.1 OEM Sound Card

 

Total price including 15% tax: $1610.00 canadian

 

 

Actually, question. There's another motherboard that has specs:

AOpen MX4GE (DDR 266/333) i845GE w/audio, VGA, LAN, USB 2.0, 4x AGP

 

I notice this second motherboard doesn't have the ATA 133 thing and is also a bit more expensive - would this make a difference to the motherboard?

 

and there's a different RAM module that is 512 MB PC 2100 DDR RAM (2 x 256 MB) and is slightly cheaper... I'm guessing this is better and would be supported by the motherboard too?

 

Although I did notice that 512 MB = 2 x 256 MB is cheaper than 1 x 512 MB for PC 2100 DDR. As well, I can get 1000 MB RAM = 2 modules of 512 MB RAM for the same price as the 2 x 256 MB - what do you suggest?

 

(all above are DDR)

 

yep... vid card is great... that's why i picked it!

 

 

 

 

EDIT: With respect to Athlon motherboards, I can get an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 2.2 GHz Socket A 333 MHz with an AOpen AK77-8XN KT400 (DDR 266/333/400) w. 8xAGP, 5.1audio, LAN, USB2.0, ATA-133 motherboard and 1000Mb = 2 modules of 512Mb PC2700 333MHz RAM

 

as for the RAM there - that can be up in the air - i can get the 1000 MB with 2 modules of PC 2100 512 MB, or PC 2700 512 MB, or 512 MB = 512 x 1, or 512 MB = 256 x 2. a little unsure there.

 

thanks for takin the time!

 

p.s. what are these opteron/xeon things i keep hearing about? are they the new 'pentium 5's?

[Treacherous Mercenary]

Originally posted by KaBuTaR

I actually redid the specs slightly - changed the audio card and got rid of the network card since it's integrated.

 

New specs:

 

 

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz, 512K, 533FSB, Socket-478

Motherboard: AOpen MX46-533V (DDR 266/333) SiS651 w/audio, VGA, LAN, USB2.0, ATA133, AGP4x

Memory Module: 512MB PC800 RDRAM (2 x 256 MB)

Housing: AOpen H340A P4 Ready Slim PC Case (for MX series motherboards)

Hard Drive: Maxtor 60 GB UDMA 100 7200 RPM Hard Drive

DVDROM: AOpen 1648 16x DVD Drive (16x dvd, 48x read)

VGA Card: AOpen nVidia Geforce4 Ti4200-8x 128 MB DDR AGP 8x, Video in/out, TV out, DVI, Dual

Networking: NONE

Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 1394 5.1 OEM Sound Card

 

Total price including 15% tax: $1610.00 canadian

 

You can only go with DDR on that mobo with Intel. Also, you might want to look else where. I suggest you don't bother with AOpen as the hardware isn't that good or I should say from what I noticed anyways.

 

I notice this second motherboard doesn't have the ATA 133 thing and is also a bit more expensive - would this make a difference to the motherboard?

 

It won't matter as long as you get a hard drive that's ATA100.

 

Although I did notice that 512 MB = 2 x 256 MB is cheaper than 1 x 512 MB for PC 2100 DDR. As well, I can get 1000 MB RAM = 2 modules of 512 MB RAM for the same price as the 2 x 256 MB - what do you suggest?

 

Whenever is good for you, but I might suggest two sticks if you go with Athlon XP if you plan on getting yourself an Nforce2 mother board.

 

 

 

p.s. what are these opteron/xeon things i keep hearing about? are they the new 'pentium 5's?

 

Those are more for creating servers actually. They are seperate from Pentiums. A seperate line of processors basicly.

 

EDIT: With respect to Athlon motherboards, I can get an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 2.2 GHz Socket A 333 MHz with an AOpen AK77-8XN KT400 (DDR 266/333/400) w. 8xAGP, 5.1audio, LAN, USB2.0, ATA-133 motherboard and 1000Mb = 2 modules of 512Mb PC2700 333MHz RAM

 

as for the RAM there - that can be up in the air - i can get the 1000 MB with 2 modules of PC 2100 512 MB, or PC 2700 512 MB, or 512 MB = 512 x 1, or 512 MB = 256 x 2. a little unsure there.

 

Try getting yourself an Nforce2 Mother Board. Either Asus or MSI shall do quite good for you there. I have an MSI K7N2 Mother Board and it works wonders! As for having one or two sticks, that's upto you. Having two sticks will enable Dual DDR which reduces lentacy (increases the speed abit I think). Also, if you upgrade to the new barton processors later on, the Nforce2 mother boards will support them. Bascily, the Nforce2 allows you to Overclock (wouldn't suggest it for a while on anything) without stability issues, use the dual DDR feature as long as you have two sticks of RAM, has the AGP8X feature for future games (doesn't really do much for current games now), and other things.

 

If you decide to go with Intel, please by all means post (or PM) and I'll do some research on their hardware and such. I haven't worked with Pentium 4s much or built one. (I'm sort of a hardware fanatic )..

 

One last thing, check out the return policy, etc in case something goes wrong and try to see if the place (or site) is a respectable one. All I'm saying is some places can rip you off and such if you don't know much and it can be common.

[KaBuTaR]

I'm thinking I'd go with the P4 coz i do believe they're slightly better + cheaper + more stable...

 

I can only get an AOpen motherboard coz this is a university bookstore computer shop i'm getting this from...

 

The hard drive i was lookin at is a Maxtor UDMA 100 7200 RPM - seems pretty good but not sure whether if it'd fit with a non ata-133 board.

 

as fr the memory sticks - i'm not sure. is PC 2700 better than PC 2100 if it iz i mite go with the 1000 MB = 2 modules of 512 MB PC 2700 although why that is the SAME price as 512 MB (2 x 256) DDR I don't know. In this respect I don't know what to do at all!

 

hee i'm kinda a hardware fanatic as well... if you're planning to do some research pls by all means tell me the results if you don't mind!

 

If you want I can give you the link to the page that I'm customizing from - http://online.aopen.com/online/opencampus/premodel.asp

 

and click on either the p4 or athlon icons to be taken to the respective customization pages... that's basically what i'm lookin at.

[Treacherous Mercenary]

Originally posted by KaBuTaR

I'm thinking I'd go with the P4 coz i do believe they're slightly better + cheaper + more stable...

 

I can only get an AOpen motherboard coz this is a university bookstore computer shop i'm getting this from...

 

Actually, Athlon XPs are suppose to be cheaper (not sure for Canada and such however, but oh well), stability is still good, but Pentium 4s are slighty more stable. As for performance, they are abit better, but alittle more costly.

 

 

The hard drive i was lookin at is a Maxtor UDMA 100 7200 RPM - seems pretty good but not sure whether if it'd fit with a non ata-133 board.

 

Your hard drive will work on your mobo as it matches ATA100 specs there.

 

as fr the memory sticks - i'm not sure. is PC 2700 better than PC 2100 if it iz i mite go with the 1000 MB = 2 modules of 512 MB PC 2700 although why that is the SAME price as 512 MB (2 x 256) DDR I don't know. In this respect I don't know what to do at all!

 

Get yourself DDR333 RAM. They are faster than DDR266. They also work with the processor FSB aswell.

[KaBuTaR]

Athlon XP's are not much cheaper... in fact I think they're pretty close or a little more in CA... ur last sentence kinda confused me though - As for performance, they are abit better, but alittle more costly. - was that referring to P4s or Athlons?

 

Last question (and this is a stupid one!) - DDR 333 is which out of the various RAM options I posted? if it's the PC2700 option, would you say the 1000 MB with the two modules of 512 is better than 512 = 2 x 256 PC2100? THe 1000 MB option *is* PC2700 133 MHz - i'm guessing that's what you meant.