OT: Building A New System

[Atrocities]

I have come to realize that this HP (POS) is just not meeting my needs and my BLUE BoX, (AMD) is just to unreliable for continued use. So I must now consider building a new system.

The system will be Pentium 4.
Any suggestion on Mother Boards, Ram, and Such would be greatfully appreciated.

I will be buying most of my parts from http://www.enuinc.com/ or Fry's Electronics in Wilsonvile.

(I already have a GeForce FX 5700 card.)

[Fyron]

ASUS makes good motherBoards. ATI and nVidia are tied for video cards. Onboard sound card with the motherboard is quite sufficient in most cases.

I suggest you just cannibalize the old systems and buy as few parts as you need.

[hicksz]

Atrocities

How much money are you planing to spend on your new system? Also, do you have anything special in mind like a RAID 0 configuration? Are you going to have a 800MHz FSB setup with the P4? This will affect how much RAM you buy.

I would also look at www.newegg.com for computer parts too. They have a good reputation.

For MotherBoards, like Imperator Fyron said, ASUS is good. But I believe Abit is good too. I'm personally thinking about getting the "ASUS 875P P4C800-E Deluxe" when I upgrade. It will be awhile before the Athlon 64-Bit FX-51 comes down in price so I'm going to stick with P4 for now.

For Ram, I like "Corsair", "Crucial", and "Kingston". I feel they're all about the same in quality unless you want to overclock or buy a high-end RAM stick. I would recommend RAM Heatspreaders.

If you use on-board sound, I still recommend buying a cheap 20 dollar soundcard a month or two later in case it goes out.

Knowing that Valve Software used an ATI card for their Half-Life 2 presentation was enough to convince me to want one. I currently have Nvida.

Hope that helps.

[ March 20, 2004, 06:38: Message edited by: hicksz ]

[Fyron]

HL 2 would look the same on an equivalent nVidia video card...

[hicksz]

I know, but it's the fact that Valve choose ATI to show off. Isn't that enough to convince you? Of course their have been issues and conflicts with games working better with either Nvida or ATI drivers. Diablo 2 and System Shock 2 actually play better with my 3dfx Voodoo 2 than my Nvida card. I have also notice that current games have been choosing sides with a certain vendor. Nvida is the offical card of Deus Ex 2 or something like that.

[ March 20, 2004, 07:09: Message edited by: hicksz ]

[Fyron]

That is only because nVidia and ATI give those companies money to do so. It is just like all sorts of logo sponsorships in all sectors of advertising. It doesn't actually mean that those companies really think nVidia or ATI is so much better than the other.

[hicksz]

I believe what happen was Nvida offered Valve software a video card but it had to be liquid cooled. I don't remember why though. But ATI was able to offer a card at that time that didn't and that's why Valve went with ATI.

[Atrocities]

Thanks guys. Here is what I want to do.

I want to buy a new case, one that has bette cooling and such.

I would love to run dual 200 GB Hard Drives. My blue box is raid, but I could never figure out how to take advantage of it. Now it is just to old to use. (And unreliable)

I know nothing about the new motherBoards or the FSB features and such. Hence I am asking.

Ideally I would like to set up the new system to be:
P4 2.5 (or higher)
1 gig (or more) Ram
GeForce Fx 5700 Card (Already have)
2 200 or 180 GB Hard drives
DVD Burner/Player/CDRW/CD Recorder Rom
(May be one of each, DVD Burner, and a CDRW/CDR drive)
Lots of cooling and a quiet system.
I have considered buying a premade system, less all the troubles of trying to get a new system to work well. But the cost is an issue. Additionally the cases they offer SUCK.

I will be running XP on the system as the OS. That is going to be spendy unless I can use my extra HP OS disk. (For some reason I got two of them when they sent me this replacement PC Last year.)

I mainly want the system for video and photo editing. This system works well, but it lacks the HD space. I am running an exteranal HD with it now and still both HD's are full. Video takes up a lot of space. Ideally what I need is a good DV - Video deck that will communicate with my system as well as my Sony Digital Cameras do.

I could spend the big bucks and buy the Alien PC, but I would rather pay off other bills first.

[Fyron]

If you want lots of cooling and you want it to be quiet, you will want to get liquid cooling. Better cooling than fans, and makes no noise.

[Atrocities]

Humm, I had not considered that. Thank Fyron, I will check it out.