Building A Computer and Need Some Help!

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Spic_tacular26

New Member
Hey whats up? I just joined up here because i saw that there were a lot of helpful people and kind to noobs such as myself to the "building aa computer area". I have been needing a new computer for school but also want to be able to do other things on it too such as gaming and other things like that. I have written down the Specs that i am thinking of having, was wondering if i could get some feedback from someone with more experience, i do understand the prices my seem high but in Canada, its hard to find deals.... anyways here goes. I included a link (when i could) and beside it the price that would be equivelent to USD Dollar :) Also, quick question, but for the video card, i was a little interested in the All-In-Wonder, is there a down side to getting it? Thanks for anyones help!!!

Motherboard --> $76
  • P4P800S 848P 800/533/400FSB DDR400@800fsb Lan SATA Audio
CPU --> $227
  • Pentium IV-3.0EGhz 800FSB 1M HT (box) !!!New!!!
RAM --> $168
  • 2x256MB PC3200EL Dual Channel Kit CL2 Platinum Edition
Floppy --> $15
  • Panasonic 1.44M floppy drive Black
Hard-Drive --> $96
  • Diamond Max Plus 9 120G (SATA150, 8M, 7200)(3 years Manufacturer Warranty)
CD-Rom --> $30
  • 52x32x52 CDRW int. IDE w/SW Oem Black
    Pic
DVD-Rom --> $35
  • 16X DVD int. IDE Black
Video Card --> $181
  • Radeon 9600XT 128M (box)
Case --> $111
  • SONATA LifeStyle w/True380
Keyboard --> $30
  • Multimedia Keyboard
Mouse --> $30
  • MX310 Corded 6-buttons Optical mouse New
Sound Card --> $27
  • Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (oem)
Speakers --> $42
  • X220
Monitor --> $219
  • E90f+SB 19" .21h 1600 Flat screen Silver/Black E220 21" .22 2048


For Grand Total of $1287 USD or... $1647 Canadian, so with tax here thats just under 2 Grand sitting at 1925.
 
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Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
1. From the tax im guessing you're in england with the value-subtract-tax but if not and you're in canada the total comes to $1895 (unless i cant multiply :p)

2. A few points
- You'll note the mobo runs on the i865 rather than the i848 so that wont need any switching
- You should consider the P4C2.8 or P4C3.0 as opposed to the Prescott you've got there because (a) the Northwoods are much more efficient clock for clock (thus if you want to get a Prescott, make sure its a lot faster) and (b) they dont have the heat dilemma
- Dont buy a floppy unless you seriously see yourself needing one -- you can probably find them in dumpsters or even for like $5 in small computer stores
- As for the burner, everything LG made after their 16X burners has been crap; mostly one-sheep burners (dont worry about what that means, it's essentially a rating of the accuracy of the drive, 2-sheep being the desired and 1-sheep being not-so-desireable) that have no endurance (i myself have toasted out two LG 48x24x48 drives in less than a week each). Grab something like the LiteOn 52x32x52 because (a) its for $30 to (b) it's 2-sheep burner and (c) it's got proven reliability
- With the DVDROM, it not such a big deal as LG makes decent ones (i myself run a pair of LG 16X 'roms)
- For $181 you can get a GFX5900XT ($170) and its a much superior card to the 9600XT
- I'd get a normal IDE (aka non-SATA, PATA etc) as you'll be saving money, most likely saving hassle and certainly not sacrificing noticeable performance (ok maybe your boottime is a whopping 1 second longer heehee)
choice on the display unit

3. If you are in canada, consider going to the computer show (Novemember, 24-26 i believe, Toronto) ... and while you gotta be a bit more careful (as not to get ripped off), if you are careful you might just nail something for 30% off street price (or hell 60% as it sometimes is on the Sunday)
 
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Spic_tacular26

New Member
Praetor said:
1. From the tax im guessing you're in england with the value-subtract-tax but if not and you're in canada the total comes to $1895 (unless i cant multiply :p)
Click to expand...

I'm Canadain, perhaps i made a error in the calculation :p

- You should consider the P4C2.8 or P4C3.0 as opposed to the Prescott you've got there because (a) the Northwoods are much more efficient clock for clock (thus if you want to get a Prescott, make sure its a lot faster) and (b) they dont have the heat dilemma
Click to expand...
I'm a little new at this, not sure wat u mean by the P4C3.0, i thought thats what i have listed

- Dont buy a floppy unless you seriously see yourself needing one -- you can probably find them in dumpsters or even for like $5 in small computer stores
- As for the burner, everything LG made after their 16X burners has been crap; mostly one-sheep burners (dont worry about what that means, it's essentially a rating of the accuracy of the drive, 2-sheep being the desired and 1-sheep being not-so-desireable) that have no endurance (i myself have toasted out two LG 48x24x48 drives in less than a week each). Grab something like the LiteOn 52x32x52 because (a) its for $30 to (b) it's 2-sheep burner and (c) it's got proven reliability
Click to expand...

I might just take the floppy from the old computer and put it in this one, I've also been thinking of adding in a DVD-burner as well, should i do a combo drive??



- For $181 you can get a GFX5900XT ($170) and its a much superior card to the 9600XT
Click to expand...

The site that i'm acually looking to buy the parts from has that video card listed at $275 canadain and the 9600Xt is at $259, is that card worth the extra 16 though?
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Processors
P4C-3.0 = P4 Northwood 3.0Ghz with 512K L2
P4E-3.0 = P4 Prescott 3.0Ghz with 1MB L2

DVDBurner
Get something like the Pioneer 107 and you'll not have to worry (it's not a 2-sheep drive but its reliability more than makes up for it)

The 9600XT shouldnt be priced that high (even in CAD) ... closer toe $230. The 5900XT is a superior card compared to both the 5700XT and thr 9600XT
 
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Spic_tacular26

New Member
oh alrite, and thanks for the quick replies :)

the website i'm buying these off are www.infonec.com

My friend has bought from them and it all went smoothly. Anything else i should be aware of? do u know any other sites that i'm better off with that will ship to Canada?
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
YAY infonec ... crappy website, decent store :p Been there a few times ... shipping i duno... i buy from the store directly.
 
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Spic_tacular26

New Member
thats wat i plan to do too, they are located near my work. the one i go too is pretty small but they seem to be pretty professional. Where do u usually get your stuff?
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
I get my stuff from a couple of retailers in 'loo (bout an hour west of Infonec). Been goin there about ten years now
 
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grimloch

New Member
the ram youve picked, youd be better getting ram with looser timings but faster ie.pc 4000etc, the ram you have down would be great for an a64 system
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
the ram youve picked, youd be better getting ram with looser timings but faster ie.pc 4000etc, the ram you have down would be great for an a64 system
Click to expand...
Damn thats what ive been telling people for ages... whats the point of tight timings if you're not gonna loosen them up and OC :p
 
Praetor

Praetor

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LOL its true .... timings are only important for people interested in sheer transaction speed ... but then again those people are usually running serious rigs with registered memory (i.e., multi-CPU/clustered servers) so its kinda moot point there :p
 
Praetor

Praetor

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They do...how do you figure? (btw EB = enhanced bandwidth, not EL = enhance latency = tight times :))
 
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grimloch

New Member
maybe the guy im referring has el not eb, not quite sure, works a charm though

mushkin seems to do the best job,

either way the tight timings from my view do not do too much for the p4s
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Tight timings dont do jack for most people ... if you stop and think about it:
- CPU final clock: 2Ghz
- Board Clock: 133Mhz (NorthwoodB)
- Memory A: 166Mhz (2,3,3,7)
- Memory B: 220Mhz (3,4,4,7)

Analysis A
Net Latency: 113ns (226 cycles)
Transfer: 5312MB/s
Instant (internal) Response Time: 60ns

Analysis B
Net Latency: 121ns (242 cycles)
Transfer: 7040MB/s
Instant (internal) Response Time: 40ns

It becomes painfully obvious that for most people having looser timed, higher clocks results in superior performance (especially when you factor in burst mode where you fire one clock-pass but you grab 8 memory blocks... the higher clocked sticks will dominate that). Now this is not to say that lower timed sticks are no good -- there ARE configurations that benifit from more tightly timed ram (typically stuff measured by transactions/sec but most people dont deal with that ... either that or im really out of touch with humanity which is quite the possibility). For average users, tight memory is a guarantee of overclockability because it means they are guaranteed a certain amount of OC because they can always loosen up their times

:)
 
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