alright guys... im about to get my college anytime now and was wondering what you pimps think i should get. i have about $800 to work with btw. im gonna be using it for mainly music, movies, and games so that ought to help narrow some things down a bit.

thanx

A few things...

I think you should get one of those WD 80 gig drives with the 8 meg cache and a nice expanbdable case for modding and stuff. I would also reccomend the Audigy 2 Platinum with the live drive....and some sort of dvd drive. Other than that, the hardware is up to you. I would reccomend an AMD processor of some kind, and a 9500 or a ti4200.

are those wd 8mb caches a lot better than maxtor 80's with 133ata? for the processor i was thinking about probably something like a xp2200. ive got a dvd drive already but im looking to get a cdrw. as for video it between a gf4 4200 and a 9500. which one do u guys think is better?

really what i was looking for from you guys was a mobo and any other things that you guys may have to say i should do with the cash.

p.s. i forgot to say that the 800 doesnt include monitor or speakers... thatll have to come from some other cash.

As a student judt thought i'd throw in my two cents. If you can swing and don't mind get a flat panel monitor, lugging a really nice tube around for every time you move and the space it will take up in your tiny dorm room are a huge consideration. As for MoBo's, I've had great experiences with mulitple MSI KT series boards, check them out. Also, trust me, you will want more than 80 gigs, college networks rock!

on $800 a audigy platinum is gonna kill your budget

heres what i would go with

a Asus a7n8x mobo Deluxe....its onboard soundstorm soundscard with doubly digital decoding is just as good as a audigy 2....in fact i decided not to buy one at all after hearing its performance.....mobo costs about 120-150 if your frugal

you can pick up a ATI 8500-9500 for 100-150$, or a Nvidia Geforce 4 4200 for around $99-150.....The Msi Geforce 4 Ti4200 sells for $99 at alot of places...and it has been raved its the best 4200 out there *at least from reviews on toms hardware and anandtech*

You can score a Maxtor Ultra Limited edition, 80Gb, 7200, Ata133, 8mb cache for $119 at best buy (i know best buy blows, but hey, cant beat that price) or elsewhere if your frugal

DEfinately want to go with a AMD chip since your limited in budget....they will save you a fortune without sacrificing performance....i got my xp 2400 for 150$ off pricewatch.com

if you do all your shopping at Pricewatch.com when you purchase all above your looking at$550- 650 depends on which places you purchase from.....leaves youa margin or memory and a CDROM/DVD drive.......

Another course of action i like to do for people i build computers for......is you can order one of those already built systems they sell on pricewatch.....xp2400 system with 512mb ddr memory for like $330....they put a CRAPPY mobo in it, but everything else is A-ok.....i order a differant mobo seperately, and when i get the full system in the mail, i take out the crappy mobo, strip the CPU and memory and anything else on it....and throw it on the better mobo and there ya go =)....sometimes its price effective....sometimes its not....just gotta be frugal

Go with pricewatch.com tho....youll save the most money there....but before you buy from anyone listed there, check reseller ratings, or the BBB website to make sure they have no complaints against them......good luck on the system building

EDIT: hehe i forgot about a monitor....800$ is steep for a budget if you want quality parts......i would say to go to a local shop and buy a refurb monitor....locally here i can get refurb 19" monitors for $50, warrantied and everything, a new one would really put a dent in your budget

get a K7S5A Pro mobo = $59
xp1700+ = $50
512 mb stick of pc2700 or lower... = $70ish

80gb 8mb cache hdd ata133 = $70 at comp usa right now

gf4 ti4200...or radeon 9000pro =$140 for gf, $110ish for radeon

then just get sum case and stuff, and ull be under 400$

Nice rig for the cash Clown - good advice!

You'll definitely want to mod a beer kegerator into the case.

i think K7S5A Pro is the best board for the money

ddr and sd ram support
onboard lan
onboard 5.1 sound
alot of usb 2.0 ports

can be oc, using unoficial bios

and right now i have 2 of them in the mail ...building a rig for this kid, and for mi bro using it

thanx for the advice guys... now tell me what you guys think about what i had planned on getting (didnt change all that much)

MSI K7N2G-ILSR NVIDIA nForce2 - 144
MSI 48x16x48 CD-RW - 55
AthlonXP 2200+ OEM - 105
512MB PC3200 400MHz - 97
Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB - 100

i know that i could get some better deals in there but i dont want to have to go and pay s&h for 5 diff websites, or drive for like 2 hours to the nearest compusa. as for that maxtor i wish they had those on sale at our best buy

p.s. as for the video card i know that gf4 440mxs arent that good but a. its better than my gf 256, b. it comes with the nice mobo, and c. i may go and buy a Ti when it comes closer to the time i leave for college

not to shabby.....

my opinion on the geforce MX series varies from most people, the MX series cards in the GeF4 line arent that bad, i had one in my lan rig for a while cause i couldnt afford much better, i mean there only $50 and they perform pretty well......the only time i ever saw a game not perform well on my MX was when i tried to play a Lan game of UT2K3....i got to see alot of artifacting cause the card just couldnt handle it totally....it never crashed or locked up once, it was a soldier and stuck it out....but it wasnt pretty lol

If you dont do any heavy gaming, like lanning bf1942 or ut2k3 i dont see a problem with it.....it handled quake3 very well also.

EDIT: before you order your parts, try Newegg.com, they are often in the top 10 lowest prices in almost all the categories on pricewatch.com, and they have everything rite on there website...you can save alot of cash by ordering it all from the same place like you said.....price them out first

go to comp usa and get better hdd cheaper.,....and unless u plan on oc, u dont need such fast ram

Heres what I would do,

Best board partz for the money

These can all be found at Newegg.com, not some suck ass site you find on pricewatch with a 3 reseller rating.

$ 88 epox nforce2 onboard sound/lan
$ 68 AMD Throughbread 1700+
$ 101 WD 80 GB 8mb cache
$ 72 x(2) 256mb Samsung true Pc-2700 DDR
$ 50 52x24x52 Liteon CD/RW
$ 30 Good Copper HSF, volcano 7+ or equiv

Ok, that right there is $ 410

Get the cheapest Geforce4 Ti4200 64mb card u can, compusa has one for 80 after MIR this week.

Figure, your at 5 Bills now. That leaves you 300 to get a monitor or whatever else you want. Id suggest getting a 17" CRT for around $100.

That leaves you with $200 to get a case, PSU and whatever kind of cooling/mods/other things you need, stuff like DVD drive or tv tuner cards.

I guarantee this config will overclock and smoke anything else anyone on this thread can think of, and probably almost everyones computers now.

Quote: I guarantee this config will overclock and smoke anything else anyone on this thread can think of, and probably almost everyones computers now.

Would you like to make a wager on that?

I'll tell you your first mistake is using a 4200 instead of a Sapphire 9100 Pro. Same price and the 9100 will smoke the 4200.

the site i was getting my figures from wasnt some cheapo pricewatch site either... it was from a site called tcwo.com. i always start out there because ive had good experiences with them and they have good prices for the most part.

so, i wont get anything out of having the faster ram then? i dont plan on overclocking really. maybe if i got that config bald was talking about, but he didnt mark down that id need any faster ram either.

monitor is basically taken care of... sorry about confusing you guys on that.

so bald, you had some good experiences with that equipment then?

ive seen a few gf4 mx's in action and they dont seem like theyd be half bad to work with for a while. the only game that i really play a lot of is cs, and thats not very graphic intense.

oh yea... would it be worth it to go with the wd with 8mb cache rather than the maxtor with ata133? just wanna know which ones more important to have.

thanx for ur guys' support

Yea, i have experience, as for the Video card, Im not to familiar on the 9100, but you do have that extra $120 or so(after the case and psu) to play with, you could bump up the vid card or get a faster processor but I would recommend getting a lower priced lower marked throughbred over a more expensive XP chip. They will able to get you alot more headroom in overclocking. If you dont plan on overclocking, actually I just looked at newegg, you can get a 2000+ throughbred for $79 thats alot better deal, go with that.

yea, get the 8mb cache, it will make alot more difference.

The main things in my setup would be the WD 8mb cache(ata 133 is a joke, its really no faster than ata100)
the epox nforce2(trust me this board is the best bang for the buck and one of the highest preforming amd boards out)
The 2 256mb pc 2700 chips in a dual channel is something that will allow you to get even more in the future when a newer bios/drivers are released. and for $72 is a dam good deal.

The other things are dependant on what you really wanna do, a geforce 4 mx can be had for $50 and is a nice card for that price, cs doesnt really need much, my geforce 2 runs it fine still, if ur gonna get newer games and such, a mx4 or an ati card @ or above the 8500 is usually a nice deal card also. If u have a monitor already, try to get one of those premodded saphirre 9500s to 9700s ive heard nothing but good.

When buying ram you gotta really know what your getting, even though some stuff is labed or sold as pc 2700 or pc 3200 its really just lower speed chips able to to run faster stable. Unless your gonna do alot of Divx ripping (u said movies) you really don't need more than the samsungs.

All prices are quoted at Newegg.com also, those prices include all the shipping except the cases(which I didn't actually lists cuz its what u want; some of their cases have free shipping, most dont) This place is THE BEST online retailer. No joke, you have your product in 3 days fedex(ups is the sux) and have the best customer support out there, if something is broked you pay to ship it back, and its replaced, no bs. I do all my online pc shopping there unless something is not carried or alot cheaper elsewhere.

anyways, if I was buying a new PC this is what I would go with and will last u alot quite awile, maybe replacing with some better RAM or a barton when they get significantly cheaper and ur butter for awile man.

The N2 board is a must if buying new. You need two sticks of RAM to use the dual channel capabilities of an N2 board.

The 8MB cache hard drives give sweet performance.

I wouldn't go any lower than a Ti4200 or ATI 9100. Eventually there will be some DX9 games on the market.

as far as ur os, go cheapo at first, like win98 cuz once u get a broadband connection u can just dl win2000 pro, or xp pro. so i wouldnt suggest throwin money away on software.

Red we dont talk about software pirating here. i know Im not a site elder or one of the moderators but Ive seen enough posts from people saying the same thing and they get told what i told you.

AAARRRR,

Shiver me timbers!!!

Land hooo!!