Hey guys, i'm goin off to college this coming august, so i have a choice. Build a New PC or get a Laptop. I'm more inclined to build b/c i play a lot of games . My budget is under 2000, or as cheap as I can make it. I'm using ZipZoomFly and Newegg.

So, here is a parts list i have for myself. Any feedback is welcome.

P4. 3.2 Ghz Northwood
ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe
128 MB Radeon 9800 Pro
SB Audigy 2 ZS (Gamer or Plat?)
1 GB Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PT
120 GB Seagate Barracuda (or 160)
16X DVD
8x Dual Layer DVD-RW
Lian Li PC-65
Antec TruPower 480W

So a few more questions:
SATA or EIDE for the Hard Drive
Do I need to WaterCool?

Thank you for your consideration.

For under $2000 you can do much better than what you have listed.

Instead of that 3.2 Ghz Northwood, you might wanna check out an Athlon 64 3500+ Socket 939. That processor gives you some room for the future. As for the motherboard, there aren't many choices for Socket 939, so just go with a reliable manufacturer (ex: Asus).

Instead of 9800 Pro, look into a 6800 GT or a X800 Pro. Both of those cards are twice as fast as the 9800 Pro.

Don't bother getting an Audigy gamer or platinum. The base Audigy 2 ZS is great.

Instead of a 120 or a 160, look into getting two 80 SATA's in a RAID 0. Insanely fast load times in games.

Did you want two DVD drives? One for burning one for reading? If you did, don't bother with that. One drive is sufficient.

SATA is a bit faster than IDE, and no you don't need to watercool.

Yeah, on a 2000 dollar budget I don't think you could do better! Actaully you should be able to get the best of the best for that money unless you want to save some for college beer money!!!!

You may want to look at the other "build my pc" thread going. http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread.php?t=19366
Half the price of your budget = more beer and pr0n.

Actually, cheaper for me is better, and i have the price for all those parts at around 1400 right now. The SATA drives i'm looking at are 7200 RPM as are the EIDE Drives. Iv heard that they are essentially the same.

I take that back. SATA is faster than IDE. Noticeably faster.

You could keep most of the stuff on that list, but you'll be really happy if you get a better video card.

Quote: Originally Posted by Bane Hey guys, i'm goin off to college this coming august, so i have a choice. Build a New PC or get a Laptop. I'm more inclined to build b/c i play a lot of games . My budget is under 2000, or as cheap as I can make it. I'm using ZipZoomFly and Newegg. So, here is a parts list i have for myself. Any feedback is welcome. P4. 3.2 Ghz Northwood ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe 128 MB Radeon 9800 Pro SB Audigy 2 ZS (Gamer or Plat?) 1 GB Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PT 120 GB Seagate Barracuda (or 160) 16X DVD 8x Dual Layer DVD-RW Lian Li PC-65 Antec TruPower 480W So a few more questions: SATA or EIDE for the Hard Drive Do I need to WaterCool? Thank you for your consideration.

Those are pretty good choices, I would go Sata, I have a WD Raptor SATA drive that I realy like.
You do not need to Watercool, it is nice, but in not necessary. The main benefits are quiet operation, and more headroom for Overclocking.

I would seriuosly think about one of the new generation X800/6800 series Video Cards though, they are about double the performance
(But are also double the price)
It would be more "Bang For the Buck" to upgrade to the next gen vid card than going water cooling

If it helps at all, the college i'm going to has an average outside temperature of 110 F . Also i was told that the new Prescotts have heat problems and have been outperformed by the Northwoods.

I was thinking about going ATI, but the prices of the AMD 64 3500+ seem to be a little high. Remember I haven't added my monitor, and that is undoubtedly going to be a 17" LCD. With that included it has to be under 2000. But since my parents are gonna foot a lot of this for me, I need it to be decently priced. I want to go SATA, but then again, the price is a little high. If I do, which company of HD do you guys suggest? I was thinking about the X800 lol, but i dunno if the extra 200 dollars would be too much of an issue.

A lot of the time, the onboard sound is every bit as good as a sound card (unless maybe you're super-picky AND wearing headphones). That'd be $88 you could put toward the X800, which'd make a much bigger gaming difference than an Audigy.

If you're going to be gaming on your LCD, get the lowest response rate you can, maybe 12 or 16ms. And (as we were just discussing in another thread) buy one with a native (max) resolution that's the same as the resolution you plan to use.

The advantages of SATA are that it uses the new connector, and it lets you use the mobo's onboard RAID controller. Doesn't add much, speed-wise (sure, it raises the theoretical speed limit from 133 to 150 megs per second, but most modern drives can only sustain 30-50 anyway). As others mentioned, for a real speed increase, go with two drives in a RAID 0 setup, or a Raptor, or even two Raptors in RAID 0.

Since your rig's gonna run hot, budget for the best heatsink you can (read: Thermalright SLK or SP-94/97). Should be able to get one for $35-$45 without a fan.

Damn...where are you going to college at? Southern California or Arizona area???? Thats hot for an average of 110!!! The Middle East??? LOL

Quote: Originally Posted by Im_gumby You may want to look at the other "build my pc" thread going. http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread.php?t=19366 Half the price of your budget = more beer and pr0n.

Save as much as you can and get some good headphones, you'll get one pissed roommate if you play Doom3 late night with full volume.

try this;

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ ($226)
Asus K8N-E Dlx ($155)
2x512mb PC-3200 Corsair Value Select (cas 2.5) ($180)
Radeon X800 Pro ($400) (Compusa.com)
Sound Blaster Audigy ZS ($80)
NEC 8x DVD +/- RW dual layer burner ($80)
Fotron Source FSP530w ($75) get this one, not a higher rated one, trust me
2x 36gb Raptor 10k rpm drives ($220 for both)
160gb SATA HD ($105)
$1521 total

thats w/o a case but with $479 left in your budget I think you can get most any case you want. If you need to get a monitor too drop the 2 WD Raptors and use the $700 to get a good Dell LCD, I think you could get the 19" er for that much...

You should get a laptop. You shouldn't join the other crowd and let video games interfere with your studies.

Arkangyl's suggested system looks best and you have enough left over to get a 12ms Samsun 710N

~Bob

Don't waste your money on top of the line. It's not worth it, you're in college. You'll need money for other things like food and women.

Drop ark's two Raptors, pick up another 160 gig hard drive (you're gonna be on a college network, you'll use a lot of hard drive space), drop the proc and mobo and get a 2500+M Barton and an NF7-S. If you get an NF7-S, you don't need another sound card (excellent sound on NF7-S).

That's a good vid card, I'd drop it down a notch though, still great performance, just, cheaper, and not as great of performance.

Barton 2500M - $88
NF7-S - $92
Hitachi 160 GB SATA HDDs - $98.50 x 2 $197.00
my suggestion totals $377

-$226 A64 3000
-$155 Asus K8N-E Dlx
-$220 Raptors
-$105 160 GB
dropped $706

total saved $329.00, down to $1192.00
All prices from Newegg, my suggestions

I am not much of a gamer, however, I do have a few suggestions to make as far as general equipment goes. First, I would say you don't really need the Raptor Hard drives. I have 2 80GB SATA (Seagate brand) Drives in Raid0 on my computer and couldn't be happier. Incredible performance upgrade. I'm sure that I'd notice even a bit more of an upgrade with the Raptors, but it doesn't really seem worth it because it'd cost a lot more for only a slight increase in performance.

Next, I'd suggest you go with a Pentium processor or an Athlon64 processor. The Pentiums run cooler and the A64 processors even cooler. The Athlon XP Processors run the hottest of all in my opinion. I don't say this because I think you're going to overclock but because you say the average outside temperature is 112F. That's about how it is in my room, and I very much resent owning an AthlonXP Processor. The Bartons are supposed to be better, but I KNOW that the Pentiums are a good solution to the heat problem.

Well, anyway, don't forget speakers and a cool mouse or something like that to finish off your system. Sometimes it is the little things like the mouse/keyboard you use that make a system good rather than the brand of RAM or Video card you have.

Good Luck.

I'd actually prefer an Athlon 64 or a P4. Is the AMD 64 indeed cheaper and cooler? if so, then AMD 64 i'll go lol. I currently have a P4 2.66 Ghz (533Mhz) and i want to up the performance a little.

jcarkeys...is it really safe to get OEM Hard Drives? I try to look for retail whenever i can. In addition, Hitachi v Seagate?

Arkangyl: Corsair Value Select over TWINXL? the one i posted i think is the cheapest TWINXL 1 GB kit the 1024-3200C2PT around 230 i believe at newegg., however the rated 2-3-3-6 on newegg appears to be a 2.5-3-3 on zipzoomfly. Umm what is the Foltron. Can you give me a link to it?

PhLaKz'R: I'm goin to college in Stockton CA......prime farmland and really really hot in the spring and summer

The Athlon 64 runs pretty cool, that would be my choice, I would look at the 3000 or 3200 754 pin, the 3500+ 939 is nice, but way overpriced ATM.


If you go with the 754 pin AMD, it will have room to upgrade in the future, the 3700+ is Uber Expensive ATM, but will come down alot by the time you need an upgrade. AMD has a 4000+ for that platform on there roadmaps too.

You will not regret getting the X800 or 6800 either, they will have more effect on gameplay than any component in general, a fast CPU with a mid level video card will be stomped by a mid level cpu and a fast vid card.

I agree about the super duper HD's too, you don't need Raptors in Raid 0, it's nice, but generally overkill.

I have always used Maxtor, I couldn't say much else about the other brands, Recently I got a 36gig Raptor though, it's speedy allright, but not realy worth the money for the slight increase.

OK everyone, i have it thus far:

Lian Li PC-75 Case -Directron 198.00
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ -Newegg 219.00
ASUS A8V-Deluxe K8T800 Pro -Zip 139.99
MSI Radeon 9800 Pro -Newegg 194.00
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Plat -Newegg 166.00
Corsair TwinX1024-3200C2 -Zip 228.00
ASUS 16x DVD -Zip 30.99
Lite-On 8x Dual Layer DVD RW -Newegg 83.99
Antec TruPower 480 -Newegg 87.00
Hitachi 160 GB SATA -Newegg 93.00

For about 1474.66 sound good (with shipping)? The Lian Li is from Directron, and the rest are from Zip or Newegg. I was thinking of adding a second 160 GB as jcarkeys said. I dont think that I would have the money to go out for an X800Pro seeing as they're around 420.

Unless you're going to be doing audio work, i'd skip the Audigy altogether, or at least the platinum, as your MoBo comes with onboard 8 channel. Take that money and get 1 stick of ram instead of twinx, it'll be slightly faster and leave you more open slots for upgrade. Other than that it looks good for the guts.