Building or Purchasing A New Computer. . .Any Suggestions or Comments?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Pride

Pride

New Member
Ok, this is my first post, and I have a couple of questions. I'm in the process of purchasing a new destop system, mainly for gaming and multimedia. I haven't made up my mind, to whether I will build it myself, or configure it online, already assembled. However, I have narrowed it down to a handful of computer manufacturers, if I assemble it online. (Alienware, Sony, Dell, Gateway/EMachines & HP/Compaq)

As of right now I have an HP, with some upgrades I have made:

HP Celeron 2.1 Ghz
40 GB Hard Drive (95% full)
512 RAM
Panasonic CD-ROM Drives (CD Burner - CDROM) & 3.5" Floppy
nVidia GeForce 2
Creative Soundblaster w/ 6 speaker surround sound

If I build it myself here is a rough sketch or idea, of what I would want/use:

Processor - AMD Athlon 64 3700 San Diego Socket 939
Motherboard - Gigabyte Mobo 4 DDR, 2 PCI-E x 1, 2 PCI-E x 16, 2 PCI, 4 GB expandable, LAN, No integrated video
Video Card - BFG Tech GeForce 6800Ultra 256mb PCI-E x 16
RAM - 4 x 512 MB (Probably Corsair or OCZ)
Hard Drive - Western Digital Serial ATA 7200 RPM 250 x 2 HB
DVD Combo Drive - Samsung, LG or Toshiba
CD/DVD Drive - Same as above
Cooling - Probably Thermaltake, Aspire or Coolermaster fans. Not sure how many yet, depending on the case I have. Decided not too go with liquid cooling, considering I probably won't overclock anything.
Case - Not sure yet. . .I really like alot of the models manufactured by Coolermaster, Thermaltake & Aspire.
LCD - Probably will be the last of the selection. I'm prefering a 19" - 24" display.

Personally, I have never built a system myself, from ground up. But, I have dealt with computers for more than 20 years. And I have no problem building things with my hands, and assembling and connecting plenty of electronic equipment. The only thing really puzzling me right now, would be connecting everything correctly. I don't want to purchase some parts at Newegg and come to find out that it's the incorrect part, and I can't send it back. However, that isn't what I'm puzzled on the most. The case and matching componets is what I am puzzled on the most. I'm just wanting to make sure that I purchase the correct parts, instead of purchasing unmatched parts. Also, I can't quite figure out how many fans I need, to keep the system cooled. I was debating on 5 x 80mm fans, or possibly 2 x 80mm fans & 2 x 120mm fans. And how would I connect an additional cooling fan, say a Thermaltake Silent Boost?

Any suggestions or comments will be greatly appreciated and thought about. Thank you for your time, and attention.
 
loeakaodas

loeakaodas

New Member
Prettty good setup. My only comment would be on the RAM why get 4 sticks of 512 MB when you can get 2 sticks of 1 GB and probably get better performance and dual channel them.
 
R

ripken2004

New Member
he has a san diego tho, it should be able to handle 4 sticks vry well, sum1 should do some benchies for 4 sticks

and dont get a gigabyte board, get the dfi lanparty sli dr
 
L

LittleHoov

New Member
basically you should start off by finding out what makes up a computer and then assemble a list of compenents and pick out what you want, which it looks as if youve already done...you need to make sure that your motherboard has SATA ports and that it supports RAID if you want to do that, and see what sort of memory it will support and buy accordingly.

i would say that any case by those brands would be good, you need a power supply as well, usually the ones the come with cases are junk, so you will need to buy one separately, take a look at PSU 101 to know what to look for in a power supply.

as for cooling, you can ask a million people and get a million answers, some things to consider are whether or not you want your PC to be quiet? its hard to make a PC that runs quiet with 15 fans in it:) but if you asked me i would say that you needed a good CPU cooler for sure, which the stock cooling that comes with AMD is excellent in my opinion, and AMD 64s seem to run cool anyway...and then a reasonable amount of steady air-flow, you need cool air coming in and hot air going out, i would say hot air going out is more of a priority, and air will come in through the cracks and openings in the case as well, a case isnt airtight, i dont care who its made by...also remember your power supply acts as exhaust fan as well in most cases...mine personally does not, but thats because mine is just weird:)

but basically all those components you have picked out look good, just get a good power supply, of course if you are doing alot of multimedia, its proven the Intel does that sort of stuff better than AMD, whereas AMD owns the gaming world...so which one are you doing more of? and just how hardcore are we talking?

also hooking up the components is downright foolproof, almost everything inside that computer can only be hooked up one way, its almost impossible to screw it up, the smaller connections for power LEDs and reset buttons and things like that can be a pain at times, but they usually are easily troubleshooted....or would that be troubleshot? not sure on that...for example i wired up my power switch wrong at first, its a 2 pin connector and the manual was unclear as to which way it went, but i knew which two pins it went on, so all i had to do was turn it around and it worked fine
 
Last edited:
Pride

Pride

New Member
LittleHoov said:
as for cooling, you can ask a million people and get a million answers, some things to consider are whether or not you want your PC to be quiet? its hard to make a PC that runs quiet with 15 fans in it:) but if you asked me i would say that you needed a good CPU cooler for sure, which the stock cooling that comes with AMD is excellent in my opinion, and AMD 64s seem to run cool anyway...and then a reasonable amount of steady air-flow, you need cool air coming in and hot air going out, i would say hot air going out is more of a priority, and air will come in through the cracks and openings in the case as well, a case isnt airtight, i dont care who its made by...also remember your power supply acts as exhaust fan as well in most cases...mine personally does not, but thats because mine is just weird:)

but basically all those components you have picked out look good, just get a good power supply, of course if you are doing alot of multimedia, its proven the Intel does that sort of stuff better than AMD, whereas AMD owns the gaming world...so which one are you doing more of? and just how hardcore are we talking?
Click to expand...

The majority of the time I will playing games like SimCity 4 Rush Hour, which seems to be a RAM hog. Other games that I play are Star Wars Galaxies, any of the Tom Clancey games by Ubisoft (Ghost Recon/Rainbow 6/Farcry), and some fantasy anime games. Also, I'm a multimedia freak as well.
 
loeakaodas

loeakaodas

New Member
ripken2004 said:
he has a san diego tho, it should be able to handle 4 sticks vry well, sum1 should do some benchies for 4 sticks
Click to expand...
The only reson I suggested that is because if in the future he wants to add more RAM he won't have to trow anything away and can just add more sticks.
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
The only companies you might be able to get a computer with about the same specs as those, would be alienware, or a company that buys parts and build it to your liking. No other company that i've heard of offers 6800ultras, amd 64 3700+, or OCZ ram.

Its not incredibly hard to build a computer, just make sure that all the parts are compatible and everything. If i were you, i would build it myself and save some serious $$$.

And i would get 2x 1GB OCZ memory, instead of 4X512MB OCZ. In the future you could upgrade to 4GB.
 
Pride

Pride

New Member
Well to be honest, there's a couple of other manufacturers that add PCI express nVidia 6800 256 mb, but they aren't ultra's. (Dell XPS Gen 5)

As for AMD processors, Alienware is the only manufacturer that builds their systems with AMD & intel, with the exception of the one EMachine AMD system made.

As for RAM, I believe Dell uses Hitachi, whereas Alienware uses Corsair.

The only reason I was even considering the Dell XPS 5 system, is the fact that they are 34% off as of right now. And the system that I am wanting is remotely similar to that system, when I configure it. And it would actually be cheaper in price if I build it at Dell, instead of purchasing the parts, and building it myself. However, cheaper parts might be a consideration with the Dell.
 
R

ripken2004

New Member
loeakaodas said:
The only reson I suggested that is because if in the future he wants to add more RAM he won't have to trow anything away and can just add more sticks.
Click to expand...

but by the time that we will even need 4 gigs of ram we will most likely have a new computer, almost nobody even uses anywhere close to 1gig right now, i use 400mb at a max right now
 
loeakaodas

loeakaodas

New Member
ripken2004 said:
but by the time that we will even need 4 gigs of ram we will most likely have a new computer, almost nobody even uses anywhere close to 1gig right now, i use 400mb at a max right now
Click to expand...
That's true, unless you plan to run JAVA programs that eat RAM like its air.. not a very good analogy. But certain multimedia applications like video editing eat up a lot of ram.

I have a suggestion that you get a 10k rpm harddrive as the main one, that will speed up the computer a little... ;)
 
Pride

Pride

New Member
You guys are right. However, I would consider Alienware as a mainstream manufacturer, whereas companies like ABS, VooDoo & Falcon Northwestwould be considered custom built machines.

Prices are quite a bit different, also. The Alienware that I had configured was around the $3,000 mark. And the ABS, VooDoo & Falcon Northwest computers that I had configured were over $4,000.
 
DCIScouts

DCIScouts

VIP Member
The only comment I have to add to this is that if you are going to be using XP, I believe even after SP2, it still only can utilize 1.5 gigs of RAM. I might be wrong, but I believe that that is the case...
 
DCIScouts

DCIScouts

VIP Member
One other thing..., if you do end up getting the Dell, be forewarned that they will more than likely wanting to add a free printer to the deal. This is because, you can only buy the ink from them online! And get this..., it's a Lexmark printer! Yes, you heard right, it's a modified Lexmark so that it only takes the Dell ink, and if you compare the Dell cartridges with the Lexmark ones, their more expensive, and you also have to pay for shipping. Moral of the story: take the printer, use the ink that comes with it, and then trash it for a real printer. (or you could try to peddle it off to someone you don't like as a really good deal ;))
 
mgoldb2

mgoldb2

VIP Member
dciscouts said:
The only comment I have to add to this is that if you are going to be using XP, I believe even after SP2, it still only can utilize 1.5 gigs of RAM. I might be wrong, but I believe that that is the case...
Click to expand...

You are wrong windows xp can handle at least 4GB of ram. I have 2gb of ram and windows see all of it and I have gotten my usage over 1.5GB before.
 
DCIScouts

DCIScouts

VIP Member
Ok, like I said, wasn't sure, just something that I read once a long time ago... Not sure about the source now that I think about it, too :(
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top