here's what i am thinking...

zkiller

zkiller

<b>VIP Member</b>
i am considering building a new desktop for myself within the next 2 weeks or so. here is what i was thinking...

ASUS A8V Deluxe Socket 939
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Kingston DDR400 (PC3200) 2x512 MB (1GB)
NEC 16x DVD+-RW
ASUS V9570/TD GeForce FX5700 128 MB
Matrox DiamondMax 160GB 8MB Buffer 7200rpm HDD

it's nothing spectacular, but compared to what i have been using since the demise of my mainboard in my main system, it's quite a killer system. what do you think? any suggestions?
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
ASUS A8V Deluxe Socket 939
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Grab the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum if you plan to (seriously) OC. Regardless the A8V is a very solid board and OCing is quite flexible considering its a Via chipset. Another equivalent board would be the AV8 by Abit (so get whichever is cheaper)

NEC 16x DVD+-RW
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Got a model number? :)

ASUS V9570/TD GeForce FX5700 128 MB
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Hmm. You're gonna be paying a premium for the ASUS moniker and for a last generation, midrange card, i dunno if its worth it. Of course it depends on both your budget as well as your intentions
 
zkiller

zkiller

<b>VIP Member</b>
here is the model number on the dvd burner. i am not looking for anything special, it's cheap and as long as it's faster than my old 4x hp cd-writer (haven't upgraded drives in a while :p), i'll be happy. :)

NEC ND-3500A

as far as the graphics card goes, i honestly haven't doen a whole lot of gaming since the orginal half-life came out and honestly haven't looked into graphics cards since then. again, compared to the geforce 2 mx 400 i am used to, i am sure this card would scream, but if you have any suggestions for a better relatively cheap card, i am all ears! :)

the reason i decided against the MSI board is because i made a bad experience with my last one. so my choice was between the A8V from asus and the abit board you mentioned. i probably won't be doing any oc'ing for the time being, so i really didn't take that into consideration. the reason i decided for the asus, rather then the abit board is simply that i have had nothing but good experiences with asus. :)
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
NEC ND-3500A
Click to expand...
Good drive. The only NEC drive i'd ever consider :)

as far as the graphics card goes, I honestly haven't doen a whole lot of gaming since the orginal half-life came out and honestly haven't looked into graphics cards since then. again, compared to the geforce 2 mx 400 I am used to, I am sure this card would scream, but if you have any suggestions for a better relatively cheap card, I am all ears!
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Well there are a couple options here:
1. Stay with the GF2MX ... this is if you really dont intend to do much gaming
2. You can get a really really basic gaming card like a GeForceFX5200 (128bit) or a Radeon9200(128bit) both of which come in 128MB adn 256MB models. It's a waste [of money] to get the 256MB cards as the bottleneck is the processing capacity of the video chip. Other options in this category include the Radeon9600SE (not reccomended because you drop down to a 64bit memory interface) and the GeForce5500/5600/5700LE (these cards arent exactly in the same price ballpark but not really a stretch for basic gaming).
3. The midrange gaming card field has seen a fairly significant change over the last few months ... whilst it used to be a 9600Pro/XT, 9800SE(128bit)/9800 and 5700/5700Ultra market the inception of the GeForce6600 ($120USD) and the GeForce6600GT ($190USD) have since covered the sub-200 price bracket extremely well. The Radeon9800Pro is another card worth mention however the GeForce6600GT, priced cheaper, is often a better performer by significant margins.
As for a reccomendation, I'd grab a 6600GT ... it will last you a bit and allow you to play most games with most of the eye candy at max full without going too expensive.

the reason I decided against the MSI board is because I made a bad experience with my last one. so my choice was between the A8V from asus and the abit board you mentioned. I probably won't be doing any oc'ing for the time being, so I really didn't take that into consideration. the reason I decided for the asus, rather then the abit board is simply that I have had nothing but good experiences with asus
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Aye i hear ya; the MSI board, while stock-for-stock will outperform both the AV8 and A8V, the performance improvement is not earth shattering and considering that (a) you dont intend to OC and (b) the price jump, either the A8V and the AV8 make good choices.
 
zkiller

zkiller

<b>VIP Member</b>
Praetor said:
Well there are a couple options here:
1. Stay with the GF2MX ... this is if you really dont intend to do much gaming
2. You can get a really really basic gaming card like a GeForceFX5200 (128bit) or a Radeon9200(128bit) both of which come in 128MB adn 256MB models. It's a waste [of money] to get the 256MB cards as the bottleneck is the processing capacity of the video chip. Other options in this category include the Radeon9600SE (not reccomended because you drop down to a 64bit memory interface) and the GeForce5500/5600/5700LE (these cards arent exactly in the same price ballpark but not really a stretch for basic gaming).
3. The midrange gaming card field has seen a fairly significant change over the last few months ... whilst it used to be a 9600Pro/XT, 9800SE(128bit)/9800 and 5700/5700Ultra market the inception of the GeForce6600 ($120USD) and the GeForce6600GT ($190USD) have since covered the sub-200 price bracket extremely well. The Radeon9800Pro is another card worth mention however the GeForce6600GT, priced cheaper, is often a better performer by significant margins.
As for a reccomendation, I'd grab a 6600GT ... it will last you a bit and allow you to play most games with most of the eye candy at max full without going too expensive.
Click to expand...
i have looked at the 6600GT as well. though about getting it, but it was priced much higher than what you mentioned. regarding option 1, i have gone with that option for some time now and it's time to move on to bigger and greater things. it's not that i don't do much gaming, it's more of matter of not having really had any time to play games of the past couple of years. life has been crasy!

thanks for your input! :)
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Ah .. my bad. Forgot about that. You are quite correct, i completely forgot about that. My bad.
 
zkiller

zkiller

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Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
I cant, they dont ship to Canada! However they are a very well reviewed e-store so I wouldnt hesitate to buy from them :)
 
zkiller

zkiller

<b>VIP Member</b>
ok, here is a revised spec sheet for ya...

Asus A8V Deluxe Socket 939
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
NEC ND 3500A DVD+-RW
Western Digital 200GB SATA HDD
Corsair 2x512 (1GB) DDR400 (PC3200) CL2.5 DDR Ram
XFX Geforce 6600GT 128MB DDR3

should make for a nice system. but i must confess though, i just transfered the needed funds to paypal to place my order and i feel bad now. it's just so much money! (800 EUR) since i submited my bank transfer, i have been comtemplating on just transfering the money back to my bank account. :p

well, i have time til monday monday to think about it, since it takes three business days for the wire transfer to clear.
 
Cromewell

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
www.ncix.com is a good place for internet orders too, I get almost all my stuff from them. It's pretty good for pricing and they will match anything you can provide an internet source for.
 
zkiller

zkiller

<b>VIP Member</b>
i used to have numerous sources for cheap parts when i still lived in the USA. problem is, most places aren't willing to ship to APO. :(

thanks for the link though. :)
 
zkiller

zkiller

<b>VIP Member</b>
well, it's been done, i just confirmed my order with newegg.com. including paypal fees and shipping i just spent 1016 USD. it hurts to know that money is gone, but i am looking forward to my new computer. :)
 
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