[DeathOutdone]

I am thinking about building a new computer with different parts. I've learned some about hardware, here is what I am thinking about getting:

AMD Athlon 64 3200 (or I might instead get a Pentium 2.6Ghz, saw a good deal on one) not sure right now..

How fast does the 3200 run? I've heard it runs as fast as pentium 3 gigs only its actually about the speed of a 2 gig, is that true?

2 512MB Corsair memory sticks (1024 mb total)

Jetway Motherboard (supports athlon64's) (or a different one if i get the pentium 2.6)

ATI X700 Graphics card

I plan to play a lot of games on my computer

Also I want a new computer case, the one I have is very large but I would like a cool one, like an alienware or something...with eyes on the front...however Im trying to keep it budget, I can get most of the stuff I listed for like 400-500 dollars I believe, according to newegg.com, which I foun prices on for a lot of the stuff.

What do you recommend, should I keep my old hard drives? I have a CD drive, floppy drive, and total of 50 gigs memory roughly. I dont download a lot of music or movies or anything, just games and anti-spyware tools mainly.

What about a heatsink and fan, do I need those, or do they generally come with the case? For my power supply, my friend said my old one might work, but im not really sure...he said get a 500 watt one, cause if i got an 1000 watt it would be overkill and my parents would kill me for the electric bill...

But the thing is, I dont want to fry my computer, because the ATI X700 connects directly to the PSU rather than to the motherboard, so that might require additional power, not sure how much.

Also I'm still a sorta newbie when it comes to hardware, and i probably wont be able to put it together without help of friends, and others, since I just started learning about all this recently.

Which is better, Pentium or Athlon, AMD or Intel? ATI or NVIDIA? For gaming that is.

Is the Athlon really the best type of AMD, what about Sempron and Celeron and all those other crazy types? There are so many out there I just dont know which one to get, Im only considering everything listed abouve because my friend who's good with hardware recommended it and it looked good, he read good reviews on it.

Can someone help me out?

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For gaming you want AMD, they 3200 is as fast as a 3.2Ghz P4 of the same generation thats because they rate then in intel equivalency speed. STI would be the best bet for your budget although for your budget youll get a decent gaming rig but dont expect it to be mind blowing like a newer powerful system would be. PSU they dont make a 1000Watt PSU as far as i know, maybe enermax might make them for the super high end crowd but expect to pay your whole budget on one of those. PSU you want at least 450W from a good quality brand.

When buying computer parts you get what you pay for so you have to go for the decnt brnads otherwise performance and reliability is sacrificed. Mobos go with MSI abit or asus.

memory i would reccomend 1gig of corsair value stuff, and a new 200 gig SATA hard drive if you need the space or the one you have is a little too old.

[warriorscot]

For gaming you want AMD, they 3200 is as fast as a 3.2Ghz P4 of the same generation thats because they rate then in intel equivalency speed. STI would be the best bet for your budget although for your budget youll get a decent gaming rig but dont expect it to be mind blowing like a newer powerful system would be. PSU they dont make a 1000Watt PSU as far as i know, maybe enermax might make them for the super high end crowd but expect to pay your whole budget on one of those. PSU you want at least 450W from a good quality brand.

When buying computer parts you get what you pay for so you have to go for the decnt brnads otherwise performance and reliability is sacrificed. Mobos go with MSI abit or asus.

memory i would reccomend 1gig of corsair value stuff, and a new 200 gig SATA hard drive if you need the space or the one you have is a little too old.

[DeathOutdone]

Here is the link to the processor (AMD Athlon 64 3200) that I was thinking about getting (its 167 dollars):

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103535

Apparently NewEgg doesn't cover the manufacturer's warranty for that product however.

Here is the RAM I'm thinking of getting (2 X 512 MB 184 pin DDR SDRAM)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820145440

Apparently you have to buy a 1-year warranty for 14.99 from NewEgg? or is that just the extended warranty? Apparently they promise a free 1 -year warranty, Im not sure? I know my friend said its reliable and it has lots of reviewers who say it is, so Im sure its safe to buy from them, however, Im confused on the waranties.

This Jetway Mobo http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813153029 is only 68 dollars and compatible with AMD Athlon 64 therefore I was thinking of getting it but you still recommend the MSI, Asus, or abit? Which of those 3 are the best?

I'm not sure if my hard drive is too old or not, how can I find out? It has 50 gigs of space overall, 40 gigs free space.

So the difference between AMD and Intel is that AMD measures in MGh while Intel measures in Ghz?
So 3200 megahertz= 3.2 gigahertz...in theory.
However, my friend said that the 3200 is more like 2 gigs in reality, although it outperforms a lot of higher intels..what do you think of that?

And what are semprons and opterons and celerons for? Is there some guide explaining the different types of Processors made by AMD and Intel and what they do?

Should I go with the ATI X700 graphics card? Its here: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102605. Also which slots are best? My friend said AGP is best, rather than PCI express which is high end, and PCI which is outdated, is that true? Right now I have a rather outdated nVidia GeForce MX440 64MB...128MB is standard and 256 is high..

double post, sorry

[warriorscot]

PCI express is the best and really only choice AGP has been made completely obsolete they no longer make new cards for it since the last generation of cards this generation and all further generations of graphics cards cannot be found on the AGP vareity same goes for PCI which they stopped making new cards for even longer before that. So wouldnt listen to your friend on that front. 256Mb is the standard for cards now and 512mb is high for RAM on the cards.

No the 3200 runs at 2Ghz but clock speed isnt very important, its rated at the speed of a 3.2Ghz p4 using the intel equivalency rating.

As far as i know all corsair memory has the manufacturers warranty from corsair which is why its good to get corsair memory because a corsair warranty is good for it.

If your hard drive is that small its probably old and therefore probably not very fast, you might want to consider a new SATA hard drive for the system to make sure performance isnt held back.

Which motherboard manufacturer isnt the biggest concern beyond the fact that they are good reliable well known brands.Performance depends on the boards themselves most of the nf4s are generally quite similar you just have to look and see what has the features you want in your motherboard.

[DeathOutdone]

Allright, well, I know the RAM is fine then, I'll stick with a Gig since that's plenty enough even for a few years.

I'll go with PCI express then-

http://shop.ati.com/...asp?sku=2707477 shows an ATI x800 refurbished with a 3-year warranty), do you think that's a good deal? Can refurbished products be trusted?

Oh, how do I know if the motherboard is compatible with the graphics card? or does it only have to be compatible with the processor? How can I tell, and what are some good online stores to look at

Im shopping for hard drives but didnt find any SATA ones u mentioned, checked on newegg.com, there were quite a few different types...my other friend told me that it is better to shop for hard drives in stores, is this true?

I found a SATA just now, 120 GB, is this compatible with what else I'm getting and is this site pretty good to buy from? 3thousand people rated it an avg of 4/5 stars on froogle. http://www.compuplus...er-froogle.html

Here's two Athlon 62 3500 Venice http://www.newegg.co...Submit=Property

Oh, another question: WHat type of core is best out of all of them:

Barton
Clawhammer
Denmark
Dothan
Irwindale
Italy
Landcaster
Manchester
Newark
Newcastle
Palermo
Prescott
SanDiego
SledgeHammer
Smithfield
Thoroughbred
Thunderbird
Toledo
Troy
Venice
Venus
Winchester

My friend recommended the Venice (for AMD Athlon 64)

Edited by DeathOutdone, 03 January 2006 - 05:58 PM.

[warriorscot]

Well a refurbished product can generally be ok if tis from a reliable company.

The gfx card is compatibe with any system that has enough power to give it the juice and it has the appropriate interface in this case PCI-e.

Best out of all of them is toledo then its manchester then its san diego then its venice. you probably cant afford the first 3 so i would stick with the venice its a good chip.

On buying from a shop Harddrives are probably the worst thing you can ever buy from a shop, for some reason alot of shops think they can double the price and more because its from a shop. A good example, i went into PC world last year big international company you would think it would be reasonable prices. Nope 80Gb maxtor diamondmax9 ATA100 drive 120 quid thats double the price i bought a 200GB diamondmax10 SATA drive for at about the same time. And that pricing is a trend i see in pc shops alot so you can draw your own conclusions.

Newegg has stacks of SATA hard drives took me 30 secs to find 49 SATA drives on newegg.

A gigs wont last a few years maybe one or two at a push, im going to get an extra gig pretty soon.

[DeathOutdone]

Well, I'm trying to get a comp that will be able to play high-definition games for a few years at least and not give me any lag or trouble, while staying on a reasonable budget...yes I know, a high and possibly unachievable goal.

Thats why I want to stick with 1 gig ram.

However, as for the processor, another friend whos a techie (not the friend i mentioend earlier) recommended that I get the AMD Athlon 64 3500, he said it wasnt that much more than the 3200 but it was a big boost in performance...also he recommended the ATI X800 rather than X700, saying the same reason. Do you think I should do this, and would I still be able to stay within the budget?

I would need to find another motherboard that supports PCI Express and a CPU that supports it too, wouldnt i? The ones I found support AGP only. I suppose hard drives arent really compatible with that so I could just go with whatever is 120 gigs or more, or even keep my old one..50 gigs, since i dont download a lot of stuff. CD rom drive is good, and my floppy drive is good, i just need a dvd drive to buy..and a new case.