Help Me Pick My Components
Premise :
I am to construct a soul-less hulk of metal to compute, within the price range of 800-1000 USD sans monitor. It shall not be misappropriated for GFX intensive applications, so a civilian graphics card willl be entirely sufficient.
It requireth <b>fast as freaking possible Hard Disk access, 2 GB of RAM, a CPU in the range of 3GHZ (denomination, not actual clock speed) and a CD-RW.</b> All for <b>between 800-1000 USD</b>.
Note this machine is not for me, so inquiring as to my sinister motives for its application bear no fruits (aside from me thinking you're a fruit).
Rules :
- Provide at least one reason per component, even if its short like "Good, cheap case"
- Price reference to either Best Buy, Frys, Circuit City, Comp USA or newegg.com - in the case of newegg, extra points for a link.
- Any type of CPU, Athlons or P-4s is fine. But no Cyrixx please.
I am to construct a soul-less hulk of metal to compute, within the price range of 800-1000 USD sans monitor. It shall not be misappropriated for GFX intensive applications, so a civilian graphics card willl be entirely sufficient.
It requireth <b>fast as freaking possible Hard Disk access, 2 GB of RAM, a CPU in the range of 3GHZ (denomination, not actual clock speed) and a CD-RW.</b> All for <b>between 800-1000 USD</b>.
Note this machine is not for me, so inquiring as to my sinister motives for its application bear no fruits (aside from me thinking you're a fruit).
Rules :
- Provide at least one reason per component, even if its short like "Good, cheap case"
- Price reference to either Best Buy, Frys, Circuit City, Comp USA or newegg.com - in the case of newegg, extra points for a link.
- Any type of CPU, Athlons or P-4s is fine. But no Cyrixx please.
Comments
They are supposed to be the fastest SATA drives available.
Won't happen. You need to raise your budget or lower your requirements.
Also - don't ask for advice here. Go to the forums at www.arstechnica.com.
the 2gb and 3g processor is probably what will cost the most
if it happens be sure to PM me so I can go build one for this price range
uncritical gets a nod for correctness, also saltz, ask .stacle he is good with these kinds of things
[edit]
clarified my dubiousness
[/edit]
Quality processor that will last for years based on your low expectations of usage.
Mobo: <a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-469&depa=1' target='_blank'>MSI "K8T NEO2-F" VIA K8T800 Pro </a> $109.00
MSI makes stable boards.
RAM: <a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-030&depa=1' target='_blank'>PDP SYSTEMS DDR Memory 184-Pin 1GB PC-3200</a> $165.00 x 2
Lowest price 1gb sticks I could find. Wouldn't normally recommend it but your asking a lot for a little.
Hard Drive: <a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&depa=1' target='_blank'>Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive</a> $182.00 (not including mail-in rebate of $25)
10,000rpm. Nuff said. (good eye Uncritical <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
CD-RW: <a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-151-049&depa=1' target='_blank'>Samsung Beige 52X32X52 CD-RW Drive</a> $26.50
I have a Samsung and it works great.
Video Card: <a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-127-103&depa=1' target='_blank'>MSI nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Video Card, 128MB DDR, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP</a> $57.00
One of the lowest priced cards that are directX 9 capable. Not sure if you need it but better safe than sorry.
Case: <a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-118&depa=1' target='_blank'>ANTEC Beige Performance II Mini Tower Case with 300W Power Supply</a> $60.00
Antec makes quality cases and power supplies for good prices.
Total: $969.50 (not including OS, tax, shipping, etc because you didn't mention them <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
EDIT: revised hard drive
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-157-033&depa=0' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-157-033&depa=0</a>
Cheap as hell, has tons of features including RAID support, rave reveiws.: $45
2* Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&depa=0' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-144-160&depa=0</a>
Take 2 of these and put them in a RAID array....yeah, not going to find much faster
times 2: $320 after mail in rebate
4* Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-026&depa=0' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-145-026&depa=0</a>
Nice reveiws, good price and speed.
Times 4: $320
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ "Barton", 400 FSB, 512K Cache Processor
Great price for the speed, great reveiws
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-394&depa=1' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-103-394&depa=1</a>
$134
Thermaltake EXTREME VOLCANO 12
Your processer doesn't come with a fan, lets fix that...Add a few hundred mhz to the processer because of the overclocking you can do with this thing....
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-106-035&depa=0' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-106-035&depa=0</a>
$31
Samsung Black 52X32X52 CD-RW Drive
Cheap, good reveiws
$24
ANTEC Life Style Series Black Case With 380W Power Supply
Comes with a good power supply(You need it for the twin hard drives), good looking and fairly well priced. Reveiws say its very quiet.
$98
POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9250 Video Card
Cheap, and actully not to bad.
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-131-255&depa=1' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-131-255&depa=1</a>
$51
<b>And The Grand Total Is....</b>
$1023...plus tax and shipping, but I can't calculate that for you
So for that you will be getting a hard drive system so fast its uh...fast. 2GBs of RAM, fast CPU with good overclocking capability, decent video card.
PICK ME PICK ME!
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-157-033&depa=0' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-157-033&depa=0</a>
Cheap as hell, has tons of features including RAID support, rave reveiws.: $45
2* Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&depa=0' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-144-160&depa=0</a>
Take 2 of these and put them in a RAID array....yeah, not going to find much faster
times 2: $320 after mail in rebate
4* Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-026&depa=0' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-145-026&depa=0</a>
Nice reveiws, good price and speed.
Times 4: $320
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ "Barton", 400 FSB, 512K Cache Processor
Great price for the speed, great reveiws
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-394&depa=1' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-103-394&depa=1</a>
$134
Thermaltake EXTREME VOLCANO 12
Your processer doesn't come with a fan, lets fix that...Add a few hundred mhz to the processer because of the overclocking you can do with this thing....
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-106-035&depa=0' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-106-035&depa=0</a>
$31
Samsung Black 52X32X52 CD-RW Drive
Cheap, good reveiws
$24
ANTEC Life Style Series Black Case With 380W Power Supply
Comes with a good power supply(You need it for the twin hard drives), good looking and fairly well priced. Reveiws say its very quiet.
$98
POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9250 Video Card
Cheap, and actully not to bad.
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-131-255&depa=1' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-131-255&depa=1</a>
$51
<b>And The Grand Total Is....</b>
$1023...plus tax and shipping, but I can't calculate that for you
So for that you will be getting a hard drive system so fast its uh...fast. 2GBs of RAM, fast CPU with good overclocking capability, decent video card.
PICK ME PICK ME! <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The fast HDD's will be severly bottlenecked by the Socket A CPU on that system.
What acctual sevice are you looking for this machine to do for you? I can't think of a good reason to dump all that HDD speed into a macine without a good CPU or vidcard to back. The only thing crazy fast HDD will get you, in and of itself, is faster install times.
[edit]There is simply no friggin reason a socket A CPU needs 2 gigs of ram, I don't think they are even designed to manage with that much.
I can think of functions, but all of them are compleatly pointless without a good CPU to back. 3D rendering comes to mind, compiling code...
That's not even worth it without some serious CPU backing. RAM is compleatly bottlenecked by the max speed of your CPU.
What acctual sevice are you looking for this machine to do for you? I can't think of a good reason to dump all that HDD speed into a macine without a good CPU or vidcard to back. The only thing crazy fast HDD will get you, in and of itself, is faster install times.
[edit]There is simply no friggin reason a socket A CPU needs 2 gigs of ram, I don't think they are even designed to manage with that much.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
See, this is why you need to not be getting advice here. This is wrong. The chip has very little to do with how effective more ram is going to be (and yes, a barton can handle 2gb of RAM, argh.) What matters is what sort of tasks you're going to be doing. Here, look, rather than try to argue with swiftspear, I'll just link to an article so that he'll know what he's talking about in the future:
<a href='http://arstechnica.com/paedia/r/ram_guide/ram_guide.part1-2.html' target='_blank'>ArsTechnica RAM guide.</a> It's long, but very informative. Read the whole thing, and don't make recommendations until you have, please. Especially if you're going to be pulling random ridiculousness like "I don't think a socket A CPU can handle 2gb RAM". Christ amighty.
And avowing that a <b>CPU</b> will bottleneck a hard drive!? What in the world are you thinking!? If that were the case we wouldn't need RAM anymore, since the HDD could supply data to the chip faster than the chip could process it! My god.
Saltz, get thee to ars. You are getting bad advice here and you will continue to get bad advice.
The setup I offered is in his price range and gives all the stuff he wanted. True I see no reason why he needs 2GB of RAM....
This setup right here...
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache $205.00
Quality processor that will last for years based on your low expectations of usage.
Mobo: MSI "K8T NEO2-F" VIA K8T800 Pro $109.00
MSI makes stable boards.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
is less than $500 by almost $200. The Athlon 64 3000+ is a socket 939 processor.
I sure as Hell hope I'm not wasting my time typing this stuff so that nobody reads it.
This setup right here...
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache $205.00
Quality processor that will last for years based on your low expectations of usage.
Mobo: MSI "K8T NEO2-F" VIA K8T800 Pro $109.00
MSI makes stable boards.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
is less than $500 by almost $200. The Athlon 64 3000+ is a socket 939 processor.
I sure as Hell hope I'm not wasting my time typing this stuff so that nobody reads it. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
You forgot the RAM. A gig or two of RAM isn't free.
Ugh. I give up.
Item# N82E16811164033
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-164-033&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....ufactory=BROWSE</a>
$21.00
-Regular Cheap Case
Plextor 52x32x52 CD-RW Drive, Model PX-PREMIUM-BPS, OEM
Item# N82E16827106234
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-234&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....ufactory=BROWSE</a>
$75.99
-Fast CD Drive
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only
Item# N82E16822144160
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....ufactory=BROWSE</a>
$182.00
-Fast Hard Drive
4x CORSAIR VALUESELECT 240-Pin 512MB DDR2 PC2-4200, Model VS512MB533D2
Item# N82E16820145529
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-529&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....ufactory=BROWSE</a>
$520.00
-Ultra Fast RAM
Intel "BOXD915PCY" 915P Chipset Motherboard For Intel LGA 775 CPU -RETAIL
Item# N82E16813121232
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-121-232&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....ufactory=BROWSE</a>
$112.00
-New Intel Mobo
E-POWER "Xvalue" Series 350W Power Supply, Model "EP-350XP-24" -OEM
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=17-101-510&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....ufactory=BROWSE</a>
$35.00
-PSU since your Case did not come with one
Intel LGA 775 Pentium 4 520 2.8 GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - Retail
Item# N82E16819116185
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-185&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....ufactory=BROWSE</a>
$162.00
-Fast CPU
Sapphire ATI RADEON X300 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI Express, Model "100591L" -Retail Lite Box
Item# N82E16814102416
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-416&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....ufactory=BROWSE</a>
$81.00
-Decent Videocard
Total (Before tax): $1,188.99
Ugh. I give up. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
oops sorry I thought this was the thread with the 300 dollar limit. Everybody looking for a new computer you know <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
And thanks for all your replys, been sifting through the newegg offers and seeing whats available straight off frys at the same or lower price. As for the arstechnica forums - I forgot all about it, but sure I'll go take a look.
This is the only sensical sugesstion on here so far. Putting 2 gigs of ram and hyperfast HDD's into a computer with a crappy CPU is like raising a truck putting top of the line suspention and monster truck wheels on it, and leaving the horsepower at 100. There simply isn't enough beef in such a low end machine to make use of the high end features. Spooge at least has a wide bandwidth CPU in there even if it only clocks to 2.0Ghz.
For compiling, expecially code compiling, the limiting factor is CPU speed, RAM and HDD speeds are secondary by a long shot.
I don't see why <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Explain <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
[Edit] Whoa sorry I found my mistake, I must of listed the wrong RAM.
Ma bad lemme change that.
Thx for pointing that out.
Whoa wierd newegg listed the 256 RAM i listed in the 512 section.
I don't see why <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Explain <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
[Edit] Whoa sorry I found my mistake, I must of listed the wrong RAM.
Ma bad lemme change that.
Thx for pointing that out.
Whoa wierd newegg listed the 256 RAM i listed in the 512 section. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Do you acctually save money with the 512s? Alternitively you could just skimp on the Mobo...