Z-Dreamer Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 Ok, my desktop PC took a dump, (mobo fried) and I need to build a new one! I use my desktop as a home/office PC, I run biz appts, Auto Cad 2000 and I like games with cutting edge graphics! I have about $800 to $1000 bucks, a full tower with new 350 watt power supply, NEC 17" monitor thats about 3 years old, 52X CDROM, USB modem, Windows XP Pro and a IBM PS2 keyboard. I need help in building a FAST system!!! ps. I'm using an old notebook= SLOW/SUCKS Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akeizm Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 My pc just died also and I got the mobo+cpu replaced with an Amd64 3200+ ($430) Asus K8v ($200) 450watt Psu ($65) Mind you that was in Australian prices and would be a little cheaper for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phailure Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 Here are a couple articles you can read to get a sense of what you can get for around $1000. http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MVGSBG/article.php/10708_3345381__1 http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=2034&p=1 http://arstechnica.com/guide/system/hotrod.html But I would probably get: All prices from NewEgg P4 2.8C (retail) - $179 free shipping Asus P4C800-deluxe Mobo - $169 free shipping Crucial 256MB PC3200 x2 - $116 free shipping Western Digital SE 120gb HD - $91.75 free shipping ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128mb - $229 free shipping Turtle Beach "Santa Cruz" OEM - $36 $4 shipping Total is $825 with shipping Something along those lines would be very good performance wise and not too expensive. With any left over money, you might consider a high end 400+ watt power supply, a new crt monitor, upgrading video card/ram/hd, or something of the sort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HolyLlama Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 You could do like I did and buy a Mac. When you hear someone complaining about the cost of anti-virus software or the latest virus that hit their computer, you can let a chuckle because you don't have to worry. I've got an 800 mhz iMac, and an 800 mhz iBook and although the speeds of the iMac and iBook don't seem cutting edge, most people who have used them don't believe me when I tell them the processor is 800 mhz. They've relegated my 2 ghz Windows computer to IRC and music downloading, while there are programs for both on Mac, I like mIRC and Kazaa more than Fire and Limewire, though and you can get most popular games for OS X (I've got Halo for Win and Mac and it runs faster on the Mac). You can get a 1.25 ghz eMac (think old iMac) for $800 and $1000 and I guarantee after a couple of days getting used to OS X you won't miss Windows a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phailure Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 I used some G4s in an artclass I took last year and they didn't seem amazing in performance. I know alot of people who do design and what not like to use macs because it is the prefered format and macs are supposed to offer better performance. I was using Photoshop on the G4s but while using the simple burn command, the G4s would actually slow down and start lagging... It was probably because my art teacher doesnt know anything about computers and somehow managed to mess them up but that just goes to show that even macs can get corrupted perse. On the other hand, the huge LCDs were great to look at =D. You should get some of those. You should get a Ti book though... those things are swanky hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Juday Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 Mac. You'll never go back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 I hope you didn't lose any data. I have...a couple of times, So I finally gave in and bought Promise Fasttrack RAID card and have two 160GB HDDS mirrored Works great for video editing too, IDEs are so fast nowadays SCSI is useless. Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akeizm Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 Who needs hdd's when you have enough memory to store the rendered video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phyte Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 Another vote for the Mac I'm getting a new G5 when apple decides to upgrade the line again. Phyte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phailure Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 Only problem with eMacs are the mediocre radeon 9200 (32mb) video cards. 9200s cannot offer performance anywhere close to the 9800 pros. I personally think that if your budget is under 1k, then you should look into pcs instead of macs. Macs are nice but they can get rather pricey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 Who needs hdd's when you have enough memory to store the rendered video. What kind of memory, RAM, optical disc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-Dreamer Posted May 12, 2004 Author Share Posted May 12, 2004 Thanks to all for the various suggestions, but I made my decision and the winner is... MSI K7N2-Delta-ISR DDR 400 SATA RAID 400 FSB MB $115 Athlon XP 3200+(Barton) Retail with fan $152 512 MB (2 pcs 256) Corsair XMS (TwinX512-3200C2PT) $149 Western Digital 160GB SATA 8MB Cache 7200RPM Retail $116 Sony DVD+-RW DWU18A / CD-RW $95 ATI (Sapphire) 9800 PRO 128 MB AGP 8X 4X $214 Total is $841.00 Free Shipping / NO TAX!!! Ordered it off the web from Monarch Computer Systems. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phailure Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 good choice! With that combo, you should be able to play the newest of games. Make sure the power supply you're using is a quality one because a bad powersupply will give you a world of troubles and its really hard to troubleshoot. Quality ram (which you have) and powersupply are very important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 Damn that's cheap! I'd like to see more RAM though, but good find nonetheless! Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 I can't imagine accually needed much more ram than that. I personally won't ever have 1 GB of ram till games alone take 512. I've had Unreal04, ventrilo chat server, irc, winamp5, IE, slimbrowser, IP scan 3.5, all running with only 350 MB of ram being used. When i program i only use about 200 MB of ram. And that's 3d base render programing. Level design stuff. That's a pretty good set up. I'd buy a GOOD 400watt PSU though. Something by either silverstone or antec. And make sure it's got 120mm fans instead of 80mm. MUCH quiter. I'll only use 120mm fans from now on. Right now my specs are as fallows. ASUS A7V600 SATA usb2.0 6.1 audio giga ethernet AMD 2700+ 333 FSB Corsiar XMS Low Latency DDR333 (768) Radeon 9500 9700 mod (runs great. REAL mod, full 8 piplines) Wester Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB cache Lite-on CD-RW 52X Lite-on CDROM 48X Silvestone 400W silent PSU Appox. cost of build $700 Build 1 year ago. Still runs strong. As soon as the new graphics cards come out and the prices of the old stuff drops i'm buying a 9800XT all in wonder. In levels i design in UT04 i average around 250 FPS in 1600x1200 will all options on with 2x everything on the card itself. I achieve it though card optimisation when i make my level. Nvidia users tell me that they run the levels the samea as any other, so no problems there so far. Personally, i think the only parts of your computer you need to spend a good amount of money on are your Mother board, graphics card, & ram. Everything else is negotiable. CPU power isn't required much in games, only in video/audio renderment stuff. And in that case p4s kille AMDs. But even an AMD 2000+ will run any new game. I've owner SEVERAL macs in my time. First computer i've ever owned was a performa. My town PC is an older ibook. Kool little thing to have wherever you go. But it's ALL about linux man. Linux is the future. I'm hoping that by red rat 11.0 we'll see a version that's compatible with 90% of hardware on the market, and something with a user friendly install. Linux is the only future compeditor with windoz for gamers. Last lan party i went to there were over 75 people there and i counted more than 30 people with linux running. And ALL our game's servers were linux based. The run better, cleaner, are open source, easier to maintain, and have the absolute BEST destop enviorment. But i'll probly always own a mac, windows, % linux system. Gotta have the best of all worlds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-Dreamer Posted May 14, 2004 Author Share Posted May 14, 2004 Well Monarch Computers e-mailed me to say that the ATI 9800 PRO 128MB video card I ordered was temporarily out of stock, but offered me the 256 MB version of the 9800 PRO for $70 more! So I coughed-up the extra dough and should have my components in the next 5 days. Phailure and Gollum, thanks for the advice about getting a bigger power supply. I play UT 2003, so is UT 2004 worth the upgrade ? Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zguy95135 Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 My computer died too, all kinds of viruses...about 60 of them (spyware too) Anyways... I dont really like Macs very much, we got to use them last year when our school gave them to us. I never dropped mine of anything but the hard drive broke twice for no reason. Theyre nice computers and have great programs when they work... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.