Upgrading in time for Christmas. Need some advice.

H

Hylian

New Member
Hello! I was wondering if I could get some advice on making a decent, upgradeable gaming PC (sorry, I’m sure you get these threads all the time). By Christmas/New Years I would like to buy a new computer with the $2000 (Canadian) I’ll have saved.

From my current computer, I can salvage the case, the soundcard (Audigy 2), DVD Player, CD Writer, and my Monitor. Later on I’ll eventually get a DVD Writer and save a port, yet probably not for awhile.

So here’s what I think I need to upgrade, and suggestions of other options available, or parts I missed would be greatly appreciated.

- Power Supply upgrade (400W, or higher?)
-120GB Hard Drive (do these come in 10,000 RPM?)
- ATI Radeon 9800 256MB (willing to go 128MB if price breaks limits)
- 1GB DDR2 RAM
- New Motherboard (I need a lot of help!)
----- Needs to support P4 2.8 - 3.4 GHz Processor (Will price change drastically between
----- a 1MB and 2MB cache? Lol…I have no idea what I’m talking about!)
----- Needs to support DDR2 RAM ~500-600 MHz (can anyone vouch this is a good
----- choice?)
----- RAID (I’m extremely confused on what this is exactly, yet I heard it’s “essential” for
----- gaming PC’s)
- And anything else you would recommend to increase performance.

Any help is appreciated, especially on how safe overclocking is (I don’t have any idea on how to do it, yet that’s all I hear when it comes to increasing performance)

PS – Yes it’s okay if you assume I’m a little retarded…I just need a lot of help! Oh yeah I guess you can assume the prices may drop in 4 months when I’ll actually buying this stuff
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
I would like to buy a new computer with the $2000 (Canadian) I’ll have saved.
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Are you in the vincinty of TO in Novemeber (most notably the last week or two)? You can save a lot of money if you can make it (computer show)

Power Supply upgrade (400W, or higher?)
Good call on the quantity, you'll also want to make sure its not some no-name PSU :)

120GB Hard Drive (do these come in 10,000 RPM?)
They certainly do :)

New Motherboard (I need a lot of help!)
Something like this would be great: http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket775/p5ad2-d/overview.htm although it'll be a pretty penny; if thats a bit much, grab something like this: http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket775/p5gdc-v-d/overview.htm

Needs to support P4 2.8 - 3.4 GHz Processor (Will price change drastically between
Since you're dealing with DDR2, that will mean Prescott and the thing about the P4E is that, without insane clocks it'll have a difficult overcoming the super-insanely-long 31stage pipeline (as compared to the already insanely long 20stage on the P4C) ... so I wouldnt reccomend anything short of 3.2Ghz and more likely 3.4Ghz) ... the price WILL however be quite noteably higher as you increase the clock.

a 1MB and 2MB cache? Lol…I have no idea what I’m talking about!)
You wont have to worry about this as its included in the CPU

Needs to support DDR2 RAM ~500-600 MHz
Again you wont have to worry about this as its a condition of the mobo. The mobo I suggested supports DDR2-600

RAID (I’m extremely confused on what this is exactly, yet I heard it’s “essential” for gaming PC’s)
Certainly not a requirement by any means for gaming ... even if you get RAID0 (which technically isnt "RAID" because it violates the requirement for "R") ... RAID0 will give typically 10-15% performance bonus ... a far cry from the theoretical 100% improvement. Even with a pair of Raptor 36.7GB drives in RAID0 (theoretically the best non-SCSI RAID0 available), you'll notice a game loadtime improvement of a.... whopping 3-10 seconds..... whoopee. :D Odds are you wont have to worry about this however as it's more typically a condition of the mobo

And anything else you would recommend to increase performance.
Click to expand...
A good fan.

PS – Yes it’s okay if you assume I’m a little retarded…I just need a lot of help! Oh yeah I guess you can assume the prices may drop in 4 months when I’ll actually buying this stuff
Click to expand...
The prices wont drop by THAT much. Even if you do goto the computer show, you'll be hard pressed to squeeze all this into 2K CAD. Doable, but a challenge.
 
G

Grimulus

New Member
my comp was roughly 2 grand if you like it. probably build it for about 1700 or lower now. yeah...my ps is 400w but it's a no namer...i'm going to get an Antec before way to long...i will probably grab a 500w or so...
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
LOL if you ever went to one of them big computer sale/shows you'd know to always come back :p
 
H

Hylian

New Member
Wow Thanks for all the replies :)

I live in Calgary, AB, and I assume TO means Toronto, ON, so I can't really do that computer show you mentioned (although my roommate could, as he's a flight attendant for WestJet).

I have never made a PC before...heck before my current system (bought ~3 years ago) I was running off a 75MHz 486, and before that, a 10MHz 386 (both donated by a friend because I used to be quite poor lol)

Thank you for the great links and clearing up my misunderstandings on those topics. I really appreciate the form you answered in :)
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Glad I could help (yes I meant Toronto). I would suggest a few things however:
- Get a P4C (NorthwoodC) ... much cheaper than the P4E (Prescott) and without the hassle. The Prescotts wont really start pulling away from the Nortwoods until the 4Ghz barrier has cleanly been breached as the Prescotts are inheirently much less efficient chips.
- Grab an i865PE/i875 based board as opposed to a i915/i925 board because (a) DDR2 has yet to mature and (b) you'll be paying a goddamn premium for it and (c) the REAL (as opposed to theoretical) performance difference is not earth shattering
- The money saved here can allow you to get a very nice video/storage subsystems
 
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