Building a new tower, need advise

J

Justzen

New Member
Looking at this forum, and at some of the users, I'm quite shocked that many of these people are around 13-16 years old.

I'm 14, and I'm getting a new PC, which would be generally used for gaming purposes.

Reading a quite a handful of these helpful topics in this computer forums, I've found out that AMD processors are better than Intel processors for gaming purposes.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

I was comparing prices between computers, as I've visited a computer mall today, and got many flyers.

I'm from Singapore, and it's a pleasure to be on this forum to discuss computer tower building.

First of all, Singapore uses SGD, Singapore Dollars, and it would be wonderful if you all can convert the currency I'll be using at this thread (SGD) to your currency and compare prices.

Well, here are some of the infomation I've gathered, and I'm planning to purchase this tower by next week.

A few points to note :
-I dont need a monitor, speakers, or modem/router
-I dont need those really fancy stuff, just enough to support massive online gaming, on games such as Maplestory, or Gunzonline.
http://www.maplesea.com
http://www.gunzonline.com/main

Here's some of the computer tower types I've taken note of, taking into consideration my $600 budget, or around there, and the good specs of the towers, and of course, the warranty, which is usually "lifetime" warranty : -


Choice 1
AMD 64 3000+
ASUS A8V-MX
52x32x52 CDRW
400W ATX CASING
256MD PC400 DDR Ram
80GB/7200 rpm Hard Disk
10/100 LAN + 5.1 Channel Audio
Up to 64MD VGA (+ AGP SLOT)
4x USB 2.0

SGD568

And with the following upgrades,

DDR PC400 1GB +SGD110
Nvidia 6200A 128/256MB AGP +SGD80/90
Windows XP Home (OEM) +SGD138
Windows XP Pro (OEM) +SGD239

Possible upgrades :

AMD 64 3200+ SGD51
AMD 64 3500+ SGD231

I was wondering if this system would come with any other stuff that I would need to operate the PC, other than those items I dont require, as I already have them, such as the monitor, etc (look above).

So the total for this tower would be about..
SGD886 with the basic upgrades, without the possible upgrades also.

There are some other choices avaliable, and I have to go to sleep.
So I'll post them tomorrow, meanwhile you all can help by telling me the difference between PCIE and AGP slots, as I think Choice 1 doesnt come with PCIE slots, or maybe it does, I'm not too sure of the usual standards.

Is is worth the money? to upgrade?
Or maybe I could use other parts to subsitude, either for better performance or cheaper pricing.

I'm new to this PC tower building, and will appreciate all the help I can get from you guys (:

Thanks once again!
 
PCI-E x16 is basically a replacement for AGP. Modern, high end graphics cards all use PCI-E. PCI-E graphics cards also tend to be cheaper than their AGP counterparts. In terms of upgradeability, it would be well worth getting a motherboard with a PCI-E slot.

The integrated video in that system is really unsuitable for gaming. Adding the 6200 helps, but it's still a budget video card, and wouldn't play modern games at above low settings.

That seems reasonably expensive for the system in question. What are your other options?
 
Well, I've come up with new choices and towers.

My mum said that I can bring my budget up to SGD750, so that's the good news for me and my new tower :)

Firstly, I want to clarify something.
Uh, is an Intel PD (which is a dual-core right?) 2.66GHz better than a AMD Athlon 64Bit 939 3000+?

The cost is around the same, so I was wondering which one would be better for online gaming, or maybe general use, in future.

Okay, here's choice two, which is the most likely choice I'll take.

Choice 2
AMD Athlon 64Bit 939 3000+ (warranty 3yrs)
AMD MSI Nvidia Neo4 2000FSB 939 OCI-Ex SATA x4 Dual Core 64 Bit Support Mainboard (warranty 2yrs)
512MB DDR400 PC3200 Kingston Ram (warranty lifetime)
80GB SATA2-3.0 8MB Hard Disk 7200RPM (warranty 3 yrs)
CDRW Writer - 52x32x52x Drive w/ Nero
256MB ATI Radeon X300 HM PCI-Express 16x Graphic Card w/ TV+DVI (Up to 6600/256 - $95) <- I dont know what this means
10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Lan <- is this necessary? what's the use of /1000?
3D 6CH Sound Device
8 USB 2.0 Ports (2 in front)
ATX 450Watts Tower Casing
Comes with a slim keyboard, optical scroll mouse, antivirus + free office software link <-- whatda hell is this and free assembly, testing, formatting, extra cooling fan, mic/spk headset.

I also want to upgrade the RAM to 1GB DDR which costs SGD75 more, so in total the tower is SGD750+75=SGD825.

Plus the XP Home SP2 which is SGD132, the total cost with the original software is SGD957, close to a thousand.

Is this worth it?
Is this compatible or at least, good for gaming purposes?

Thanks for those who have given me advice, and those who have taken the time to read all this load of junk I'm typing out.

Thanks again!

Hope you can post your views and suggestions here.
 
Justzen said:
Firstly, I want to clarify something.
Uh, is an Intel PD (which is a dual-core right?) 2.66GHz better than a AMD Athlon 64Bit 939 3000+?

The cost is around the same, so I was wondering which one would be better for online gaming, or maybe general use, in future.
Click to expand...

The PD will multitask better, but for gaming it's probably going to be outperformed by the 3000+ (that can very well change for the next generation games taking advantage of the dual cores).

Justzen said:
Okay, here's choice two, which is the most likely choice I'll take.

Choice 2
AMD Athlon 64Bit 939 3000+ (warranty 3yrs)
AMD MSI Nvidia Neo4 2000FSB 939 OCI-Ex SATA x4 Dual Core 64 Bit Support Mainboard (warranty 2yrs)
512MB DDR400 PC3200 Kingston Ram (warranty lifetime)
80GB SATA2-3.0 8MB Hard Disk 7200RPM (warranty 3 yrs)
CDRW Writer - 52x32x52x Drive w/ Nero
256MB ATI Radeon X300 HM PCI-Express 16x Graphic Card w/ TV+DVI (Up to 6600/256 - $95) <- I dont know what this means
10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Lan <- is this necessary? what's the use of /1000?
3D 6CH Sound Device
8 USB 2.0 Ports (2 in front)
ATX 450Watts Tower Casing
Comes with a slim keyboard, optical scroll mouse, antivirus + free office software link <-- whatda hell is this and free assembly, testing, formatting, extra cooling fan, mic/spk headset.

I also want to upgrade the RAM to 1GB DDR which costs SGD75 more, so in total the tower is SGD750+75=SGD825.

Plus the XP Home SP2 which is SGD132, the total cost with the original software is SGD957, close to a thousand.

Is this worth it?
Is this compatible or at least, good for gaming purposes?
Click to expand...

The X300 wont play any new games at an acceptable framerate.

Have a look at this for some ideas.
http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=26602
 
Last edited:
Would it play normal online games?
Not those massive ones though.

I dont have the money to play WoW etc.
 
by online games do you mean like games inside a browser window?
Or a actual game/clan/application ?:)
And yeah, if you're a gamer Id say upgrade the Graphics card to something like a 6600gt min or ATi equiv and probably upgrade the ram to a gig! Cos 512mb wont hack a lot of new games!
 
does msn+an online game (application)+windows media player = multi tasking?
i usually have those open with my game application.

so intel or amd?
I'm still not pretty sure =/ cos intel is cheaper, but amd is better.

AMD Athlon 64 bit 3200+ is a better choice when compared to 3000+ isnt it? L2 1MB Cache, what does that do? I'm really new to computers..
 
ceewi1 said:
PCI-E x16 is basically a replacement for AGP. Modern, high end graphics cards all use PCI-E. PCI-E graphics cards also tend to be cheaper than their AGP counterparts. In terms of upgradeability, it would be well worth getting a motherboard with a PCI-E slot.
The integrated video in that system is really unsuitable for gaming. Adding the 6200 helps, but it's still a budget video card, and wouldn't play modern games at above low settings.

That seems reasonably expensive for the system in question. What are your other options?
Click to expand...

i totally agree. you need a PCI-e capable mobo
 
Just get the cheap dual core chip and your set for both multitasking & gaming. While it's true that AMD's are a little better for gaming, you wont be able to tell a difference (especially with such low end graphics making the machine extremely GPU bound). :)
 
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