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College student - new system, need input.

R

Roid Joe

n00b
Joined
Dec 23, 2004
Messages
30
I'm building a new PC and have a pretty good idea of what parts i'm using. I'm going to OC a bit and would like to be provided some constructive criticism on my selection of parts. My use will be internet, some gaming: probably hl2, cs2 (does it exist yet?), world of warcraft, maybe some doom or something. The main focus is not explicitly on gaming, but for an overall good system.


Case: ANTEC Life Style Series Black Case With 380W Power Supply, Model "SONATA"
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-127&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE
100$

Motherboard: CHAINTECH NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU, Model "VNF4/Ultra" -RETAIL
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-152-049&DEPA=0
119$

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 512K 90nm (939)
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merc...ode=M&Product_Code=120422&Category_Code=AMD64
179$ - free shipping

Heat Sink: ZALMAN CNPS7000B-AlCu -RETAIL
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-118-112&depa=0
37$

Ram: Patriot Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MB x 2) DDR PC-3200 w/ XBL Technology - Retail (2-2-2-5)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-033&depa=0
220$

Graphics Card: XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card, 128MB GDDR3, 128-Bit, Dual DVI, PCI-Express
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-150-078&depa=1
186$

DVD-Rom: NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Black - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=27-152-032&DEPA=1
64$

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160827AS 160GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer ***Free 2nd Day***
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101559
112$

Floppy: SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=21-103-116&depa=1
$7

Monitor: BenQ FP931 Silver 19" LCD Monitor -RETAIL (16ms - dvi etc)
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=24-014-063&depa=0
360$

Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech Cordless MX Duo Elite Keyboard
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=211086
55$

Speakers: Logitech Z-2200 (refurbished)
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/justdeals/9701010403.html
65$


The total is about 1550$ with shipping. I'd like to keep it around that price range.

I'm not sure if I need a dvd-rw, a 160gb hd, or a 3200. I could go the msi neo2 ultra route and get a 3000+, a 80gb hitachi, a 16x dvd/cdrw for 40$ along with a 6800nu. This would be about equivelant in price, and probably provide me more performance at the moment, but i'm not so sure how upgradable it would be in the future with agp. That's why i'm leaning towards this route and just upgrading my video card in about a year or so.

Also, do i need to buy any cables since most of the parts are OEM? Sata cable, power cable, etc?

Please post any comments / suggestions about the system.
Thanks
 
See if you school offers educational software, like windows xp and office 2003. Mine were only $5 a piece...
 
Interesting read. The items were very similar to the ones i chose for the most part.

I'm not worried about windows xp or microsoft office, but thanks for the tip. I'm just looking to get some pointers on the hardware i chose for my new rig. Do you think it's a good overall system or can i change a few things here and there?
 
darktiger said:
See if you school offers educational software, like windows xp and office 2003. Mine were only $5 a piece...
Click to expand...
Damn. $5. I would actually buy that.
 
Roid Joe said:
Interesting read. The items were very similar to the ones i chose for the most part.

I'm not worried about windows xp or microsoft office, but thanks for the tip. I'm just looking to get some pointers on the hardware i chose for my new rig. Do you think it's a good overall system or can i change a few things here and there?
Click to expand...
I'm putting together a buyers' guide, put it that way. And I just made that one today. :p I'd buy it if I had the money!

Note that a PCIe 6800 is about $340 or so; a 6600GT can be overclocked to performance levels similar to vanilla 6800s, but 6800s can be overclocked too. Your call.
 
you can save some money on the cpu. if you go to a 3000+ just overclock a slight bit. newegg raised the price to about 160.00 over the past couple of days :rolleyes: may go down after christmas
 
stpstrn said:
you can save some money on the cpu. if you go to a 3000+ just overclock a slight bit. newegg raised the price to about 160.00 over the past couple of days :rolleyes: may go down after christmas
Click to expand...
I'd recommend that too. Exactly what I did. But was much more expensive when I bought mine.
 
Well the 3200+ is 179 from monarchcomputer.com, a 3000+ is 155, and a 3500+ retail is 317$. They're all pretty much cheaper than newegg in prices. Free shipping too.

Someone said not to get the motherboard because it's unproven and unreviewed. I guess i'll wait a few days till someone reviews it to finally make my decision on part lists. The reason i chose a nforce4 board was because i can save a good amount of money with a PCI-e 6600gt rather than a AGP 6600gt.
 
darktiger said:
See if you school offers educational software, like windows xp and office 2003. Mine were only $5 a piece...
Click to expand...

Damn, I thought getting Windows and Office for $40/$30 was a good deal. Geez.
 
It might be worth your while to try out Knoppix (a version of Linux). It's free, all you have to lose is time, and it makes a worthy windows replacement.
 
Like i said, i'm not worried about the software, but i am about the hardware. Does my selection of parts look good?

Also i'm kinda worried about that BenQ 19" LCD. Does anyone have suggestions for a new LCD 17" or 19" preferably 16ms or lower, with dvi.
 
Again, read that parts list, it's just a list of what I would buy at the particular price point. Including a pretty nice monitor. (Viewsonic VP171s)

19" LCDs strike me as one of the worst values out there, because they usually have the same native resolutions as 17-inchers, AND have slower response times and color reproduction to boot.

And getting Windows/Office (LEGITIMATELY) for less then $50 each is a good deal regardless; that's how much a COA costs in bulk!

That's a good point about waiting on reviews and stuff of that motherboard to come in. As for pricing, try piecing out everything at Monarch and other places; if your combined price (including shipping) comes out lower than Newegg, then go for it; I find that Newegg is usually cheapest or close to cheapest on full systems.
 
That monitor looks nice, but kinda pricey. I like it cause it has DVI, but does dvi make such a drastic difference to warrant 150$+?

I was thinking of this Sharp monitor. It has a 100$ rebate as well, and maybe i can call the dell guys and talk them down to matching buy.com's price.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...ry_id=210&first=true&page=productlisting.aspx
SHARP ELECTRONICS LL-172A-B
$298.76 (-100MIR) = at most 198.76 + free shipping
17" - 16ms
160/160 viewing angle
D-sub 15 input (no dvi)
 
stpstrn said:
you can save some money on the cpu. if you go to a 3000+ just overclock a slight bit. newegg raised the price to about 160.00 over the past couple of days :rolleyes: may go down after christmas
Click to expand...
Double ditto on that. Just about a week and a half ago, the 3000+ was going for under $150 @ newegg. Also, if I remember correct, dual-channel memory doesn't make any difference with the AMD 64's. They don't "support" it. I have my AMD 64 3000+ overclocked to 2.2GHz and it's running pretty smooth.
 
rage4order said:
Double ditto on that. Just about a week and a half ago, the 3000+ was going for under $150 @ newegg. Also, if I remember correct, dual-channel memory doesn't make any difference with the AMD 64's. They don't "support" it. I have my AMD 64 3000+ overclocked to 2.2GHz and it's running pretty smooth.
Click to expand...

You sure about that? The 3200+ is only 25$+ more but it has a 10x multiplier. People say it's the sweet spot for overclocking

I tried the cheap DVI link, but newegg isn't working. I'll have to check back later.

Anyone else have any other opinions?
 
Should I get the system above with a 17" lcd for around 1480$ shipped or this dell?

Dell - 4700 - 1335$ shipped
Pentium 4 Processor 540 (3.20GHz, 800 FSB)
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz (4x256M)
256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 PCI-e
160GB SATA Hard Drive 7200RPM
Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 48x CD-RW Drive
Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit ADVANCED HD Audio
Dell A425 Speakers with Subwoofer
Cordless MX Duo Keyboard and Mouse
17 in 1704FPT Ultrasharp™ Digital Flat Panel Display
Free Printer

Which do you think is a better deal? With the dell i save 150$, nice lcd, better graphics card, free printer, same mouse\keyboard (separately on dells accessories). The drawbacks are dell bios crap, intel and not amd, and not very upgradeable I think.

I'd probably do a full clean installation of XP right when i got it so i don't have to deal with dell installed crap.
 
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