Building new pc NEED HELP

[xc1]

Hey guys,

I have wanted to get a new computer for a while and finally the money came in. At first, I thought I would be better off just getting a Dell (customized) and save me some time, but I realize that I’m really better off building it myself.

That said, I need some or a lot of help in deciding the best components that I can get with my budget and that would suit my needs.

Use: the computer will be used mostly for encoding, media, and light gaming but, most of the time I’m multitasking. I always have my browser open, my TV tuner running, Photoshop open,a video dvd running, etc…bottom line I always have around 3 to 4 progs open at time.

Budget: I want to spend no more than $2100 for the system including a 19” LCD monitor and taxes

From the Dell website I can get this:

http://ecomm.dell.com/dellstore/bask...CFG&~tab=1info
Now I know that AMD is the favorite of most of you guys but from what I see in their comparisons, the Pentium D is really doing much better in the situations where I would be using my pc mostly for (multitasking).Also, AMD won in most categories but, is it worth the money for someone who isn’t into gaming?
Here are some of the comparisons I looked at:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2005/08/26/intel_p4_670_pd_820/1.html

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1820772,00.asp

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/pentiumd-820/index.x?pg=1

Another thing to keep in mind: will I be overclocking it?? at first no but, I would like the ability to do so in the future and I want to get something that I won’t have to exchange for at least a couple of years, so getting a good processor /motherboard with the ability to OC in the future would be nice.



Thanks for the help in advance!!!!

[Yawgm0th]

Your Dell link doesn't show anything. You'll need to just list the main components... RAM, HDD, CD drives, CPU, monitor.

The Pentium D is not doing better than the Athlon 64 X2 in multitasking. It is doing better than single-core Athlon 64s, but dual-core Athlon 64s are much better for their price. Given the few applications you mentioned, the Athlon 64 would certainly be a better choice. The only applications where Pentium Ds even remain competetive are video encoding and a couple office-type applications, and even there they only tie or just barely fall behind. Even the links your provided showed the X2s winning in almost all of the non-synthetic benchmarks and semi-synthetic benchmarks.

Your budget is pretty high, so I'd say get something around an Athlon 64 X2 4400. That'll overclock nicely down the road and perform pretty well now. Granted, with your budget you could probably get the 4800, but I'd say save your money and get something with more bang for buck. That said, the 4800 may be necessary to be comparable to whatever system you tried to link to.

There are a lot of good motherboards you can get. The best overclocker would be a DFI nForce 4 Ultra motherboard, but there are cheaper options that will still overclock well, if you want to save the money.

With that budget, I'd say go with dual 1GB sticks of RAM. Hell, it wouldn't be bad to go with RAM that has a CAS latency of 2, even though that makes a considerable difference with 1GB modules.

With a budget like that, you should be able to go a little overboard on the magnetic media. Get either big hard drives, fast hard drives (WD Raptor 10000 RPM), or both. Consider using RAID 0 or 01. The increased speed from all this can help a lot in multitasking scenarios.

Get whatever case you like (on eof the advantages of building your own), but don't go for one just because it has a PSU built in. You'll probably need something at least 480W, but over 500W is even better. There are lots of good companies to stick with, such as Fortron or Antec.

Go with a retail processor and retail cooling if you want to save money. If and when you do overclock, you can worry aobut cooling then. If you want to prepare ahead of time, though, go with a Thermalright XP 90 and a 92mm Panasonic Panaflo. You'll have to make sure the XP 90 fits whatever motherboard you get. That particular combination provides great cooling with next to no noise.

When choosing your monitor, I'd suggest you look through Anandtech's reviews. They go extremely in-depth and will allow you to find the monitor best for you.

[xc1]

Hey, thanks for the fast the reply and tips.

Here is what the Dell system had on it:

XPS 400	Pentium® D Processor 830 with Dual Core Technology (3GHz, 800FSB)
Operating System	Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition
Memory	1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs
Keyboard	Dell USB Keyboard
Monitors	SAVE $80!! 19 inch Ultrasharp™ 1905FP Digital Flat Panel
Video Cards	256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800
Hard Drives	160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Floppy Drive and Media Reader	No Floppy Drive Included
Mouse	Dell® 2-button USB mouse
Network Interface	Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Modem	56K PCI Data Fax Modem
Adobe Software	Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
CD or DVD Drive	Dual Drives: 48x CD-RW Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ double layer write capable
Sound Card	Sound Blaster® Audigy®2 ZS (D) Card w/Dolby 5.1, and IEEE 1394

and the final price with taxe and all was 1905.64 !!!

Here is the system I came up with following your advices from this post and another one similar.*prices include taxes and shipping*

Case--Antec Life Style SONATA ($129)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129127

Motherboard--ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ($122)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131530

Video Card--Geforce 6800GT 256MB ($389)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143029

Processor--AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ ($569)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103546

Memory--OCZ Peroformance 1GB (2 x 512MB) ($137)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146950

HD--(not really sure yet but this should be enough for now since i have another 72 GB HD, it will depend on bugdet but I'd like to go higher)
Seagate Barracuda 7200 160GB ($100)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148034

Optical Drive--LG Beige IDE DVD Burner ($55)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136064

Sound Card--Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS ($107)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102162

Cooling--THERMALRIGHT XP-90C ($74)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835109122

Cooling 2 -- Panasonic Panaflo 92mm ($20)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835180088

Monitor- Dell UltraSharp 1905FP ($418)

Total price $2241

The AMD system is much more expensive; I do have to agree that it's more powerful but, do i really need all these??

To answer my own question, I think it would be a wise idea to go with the AMD system because it would last longer than the Pentium.

What do you think??

Where would I be able to cut cost??
------------maybe with the case and probably the fans since i don't plan on overclocking it right away.

Please give me suggestion on where to improve ( i would like more HD and maybe more ram so i don't have to buy them again and i don't think i will have this much money laying around for A LONG TIME!!! )

Thanks Again!!

[casecutter]

You can save over $100 by getting this video card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161141

ICEQ X800 XL. It has 16 pipes and can match or beat the 6800GT in performance. Unless you have to have a Nvidia based card, this card is a MUCH better deal. It also comes with a far superior stock cooler than most video cards on the market.

You can save almost $50 more with this motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130491

MSI K8N NEO4-F. It is a rock stable motherboard and it will overclock better than the ASUS motherboard. Plus it comes with onboard 8 channel sound so you can do away with the Audigy ZS soundcard and save another $107.

Just with these 3 suggestions, I can save you $250.

Plus, I would also downgrade the CPU a notch and get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103562

The AMD 64 3800 + X2 dual core processor. It will easily overclock to the levels of performance of the CPU you have chosen, especially with the XP-90 Heatsink you have chosen. And unless you are doing some agressive overclocking, the stock heatsink/fan of the AMD 64 CPUs work excellent and even allow for some good overclocking results. You could also save another $100 by going with the stock heatsink/fan combo. You could easily overclock this CPU to 2.4GHz with the stock cpu fan/heatsink.

Now I have saved you well over $600 and it would SMOKE that Dell Pentium computer. Do not forget that Dell uses many propriatary parts that force you to buy Dell parts for upgrades, while this computer you put together with Newegg parts is easily upgraded.

Now, I would seriously upgrade the ram to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227210

OCZ Platinum 2GB (2X1024MB) 2-3-2-5 timings

Now you won't run out of ram and with the timings these offer, you will get optimum performance for your dollar. And you would be able to upgrade to 4GB with 2 more sticks as the memory controller on the X2 CPU will allow you to run 4 DIMMS at full speed. THis costs you another $125 on top of the ram you picked.

I saved you at least $500 and you get a Dell killer! This computer is highly upgradeable and very overclockable. It will do everything you want and then some. Just my humble opinion and suggestions. Oh yeah, NEVER EVER EVER BUY A DELL! They are expensive to upgrade and until Intel puts out a better CPU, they are just not futureproof yet.

[Yawgm0th]

I'd rather have an actual nForce 4 Ultra board for the same price than an MSI nForce 4 board. If you do want one of the best overclocking boards out there, Asus isn't the way to go anyway. DFI makes two nForce 4 Ultra boards under $120, one of which can be modded to be an SLI board (any nF4 Ultra board with two large PCI-E slots can do this, in theory).

Don't get the copper XP-90, and you might have to get it somewhere other than Newegg. The aluminum one is almost as good and will cost half as much. You can also just go with stock as we've both suggested. It will overclock pretty well on stock (though I wouldn't count on 2.4GHz with a 3800, it's quite possible)

The 3800 won't smoke that Dell system, but it will be comparable. If you want to OC now, go for it. Otherwise, you'll want to spend the extra on a 4400 or 4200.

I wouldn't bother with 4GBs of RAM, as 2GB is overkill for the vast majority of all applications. However, I would agree that getting dual 1GB sticks is a good choice. That particular RAM will perform very well.

I don't know what made you think you needed to spend nearly $400 on a 6800GT, but here's one for under $290. It outperforms the X800XL in all of the benchmarks that matter (with the major exception being Battlefield 2, where it's more of a tie), and is more future proof as it has Pixel Shader 3.0.

Another big way to save money would be to go with a much cheaper case. The PSU in that case won't do (I already said this, yet you don't list a PSU...), and the case itself is rediculously expensive. I personally never intend to spend more than $50 on a case after shipping, and I prefer to keep it close to $40.

Unless you're an audiophile, drop the sound card entirely. Pretty much all nForce 4 motherboards come with great onboard sound, and you probably won't think the difference is worth over $100 if you even notice it.

BTW, I'd pay not to have Windows XP Media Center Edition. There's absolutely no purpose to this operating system, and when it comes down to it XP Professional is downright better.

And to answer your question, yes, the AMD system will last longer than the Pentium. Socket 939 has at least a year left before it even has another AMD competitor, while Intel seems to change its sockets quite rapidly. Besides, the fact that it is a Dell basically kills a lot of upgradability as the case and PSU are essentially useless with anything but each other.

[casecutter]

Absolutely get the 6800GT that Yawgmoth found over the X800 XL. He is 100% correct saying it is better for the future, I picked that X800 XL because of performance VS cost of the card you had picked. And as far as PC cases, I always use a plain generic cheap case with decent fan sizes/locations and replace the generic PSU with a quality unit. I use the OCZ modstream 520W and it has lost of power and a very reasonable price.

[xc1]

Ok, first let me thank you "Yawgm0th" and you "casecutter" for all the help and clarifications!!

Ok, i made some modifications based on your advices and here are the changes:


case--

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144044

will the MOBO, fans and all fit properly?? (i think so but it doesn't hurt to ask)

PSU--i had already picked one but forgot to list previously

Thermaltake PurePower 560W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153015
now there is this one for less than half the price, what do you say?? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817163018

i decided to stick with AMD x2 4400+ cause like i said, i won't be able to get it in the future

I went with the video card suggested by you guys

MOBO-- the one suggested by "Yawgm0th"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813152049

Ram-- OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227210

Cooling-- decided to take the heatsink and fan suggested by "Yawgm0th"
but i didn't get this part

Don't get the copper XP-90, and you might have to get it somewhere other than Newegg. The aluminum one is almost as good and will cost half as much

so i should get another model? and in the future i might have to get it anyway?

HD--still need help here!! not sure if i should go with ultra ata or serial ata, i want to get a 300gb, please direct me to one around no more than $150

**dropped the sound card and the LG drive, cause I don't really need the card and my DVD is still good

Lastly, the OS, i have a windows home cd from my roomate that she used for her Delll, should i buy a new OS or that one would be fine?

Also, i put off buying the Monitor for a while, since my monitor still good for know and I now I can get a better deal on that 1905fp monitor so, i'll just stay on the lookout for any coupons and/or deals on it.

One last thing, is there any "tricks" for shopping at newegg.com ??like any special coupons, or combining shipping or anything??

Thanks a lot !! you guys are great!!

[Yawgm0th]

The case is fine.

The Thermaltake is okay, but since you'll be overclocking I'd recommend something better. This Fortron will handle all of that hardware plus any overclocking you do.

The Thermalright XP-90 comes in both aluminum and copper forms. The copper one costs over $70, while the aluminum is only $30. Despite the fact that copper is a better conductor, it will only mean a few degrees.

Get this or this for your hard drive. The second one is over twice and large and will be significantly faster. I just listed the first because you might not need that much space. You can also consider the Western Digital 10000RPM Raptor. The drives I linked are both SATA II and are quite comparable to the raptor, despite its greater spindle rate. It will probably be a little faster for some things, but it's a lot smaller, so IMO it's better to go with a bigger, SATA II drive.

The CD will not work on your computer at all. It is for her machine only. Even with the code on the back of her machine, it might not work, and if it did it would cause her OS to stop functioning. You'll have to buy a new OS. Get either XP Home OEM or XP Pro OEM.

Tricks? Well, some items (mostly fans, cables, and other small items) give you a volume discount, meaning you get more. Some items (e.g. a DVD burner) can be purchased with other specific items (e.g. a 50-pack of DVD-Rs) for a reduced "combo" price. Some items also have mail-in rebates, which will be shown below the price. Subtract the MIR value and you'll get what it will actually cost you in the long run. Other than that, there's not a whole lot you can do. You'd think they'd give you reduced shipping when they pack multiple items together, they don't. The shipping rates are fixed beforehand, so it doesn't matter what the actual shipping cost is in the long run.

[xc1]

Great!!

I'll try to get things going this weekend so I can have everything by the end of next week (hopefully).

Thanks for the fast replies !!!