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Comments about my soon to be computer


Jet2k5
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So, as I read in forums this is one of the topics that people try and get help on their computer that they are going to build. Well some of them don't to research , but I did. For quite a long time now too :) I'll try to make the best out of this. Keep in mind that I'm on a budget of about $1,000 US dollars, and I'm upgrading some of these parts once Xmas comes around.

 

Here we go:

 

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

Price: $146.00

Concerns: What distro I'm going to run, so far Ubuntu, Mandrake, and Fedora are on my list. Hopefully I can stick to Ubuntu.

Link:Click Here

 

 

Mobo: Albatron K8X890 Pro Socket 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard

Price: $105.00

Concerns: Just pretty much the Audio and LAN chipsets. Also I don't know how the VIA K8T890 work in Linux, but I've heard nothing bad about them. The sound chip which is the Realtek ALC655, seems to have some success. The LAN chip Marvell 88E8001, seems to work but people complain it drop connections very often. This isn't a problem since in about 2 weeks I should be getting a Wireless PC Adapter.

Link:Click Here

 

 

Memory:CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200)

Price:$87.85

Concerns: Nothing much here, I hear that corsair is good. I think that's good memory right there. 1gb is good.

Link: Click Here

 

 

CD-ROM: LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE DVD-ROM

Price: $24.99

Concerns: Nothing much, I understand that IDE would be detected in Linux, lol. Just hint me if you have bad experience with the maker Lite-On. Might switch this for an LG

Link: Click Here

 

 

Hard-Drive: Seagate Barracuda 160GB 7200 RPM 8M Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

Price:$91.00

Concerns: Nothing here, just hope that Ubuntu or all those other distros picks up the SATA 150 drive. I hear some people have trouble with them.

Link: Click Here

 

 

CaseSPIRE X-Navigator ATXA8NW-BK/500 Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply

Price: $155.00

Concerns: Nothing much, looks like a good case. Not to mention how good it looks. 500W PSU is really good. Get good reviews from it.

Link: Click Here

 

 

Monitor ViewSonic G71f+B Black 17" CRT Monitor 0.25mm Dot Pitch 15-Pin D-Sub

Price: $158.00

Concerns Just the maker, I hear that they are good makers. This is a part that might be upgraded when Xmas comes around. I'm very paranoid, and I don't want to deal with deal pixels for the first time!

Link: Click Here

 

Video Card: eVGA 256-P2-N383-TX Geforce 6800 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card

Price: $244.00

Concerns: Nothing :). Nvidia is all that matters :) Good good :).

Link: Click Here

 

 

So that's it guys, the system that is awayted to be build by me. So I'd really appriciate your help on this. This takes the price at around 1,031.00. With shipping + tymes recommended tool kit, it should even out at about $1,100.00. Which is not bad, my mom has already agreed to givng me the extra 100.

 

so any rants about the parts, makers qand your personal view point will be very great. Thanks

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Bought these parts few weeks ago:

 

Chip: I got the 3200+. It was around E180. Don't safe money on the processor.

 

mobo: I got the Asus A8v-deluxe (E105). It has the VIA K8T800Pro Guess thats close enough to yours that I can say expect no problems. For sound I have VIA8237. Everything works except the frontside audiojacks. It has a Gigabit ethernet port that I don't use because my router only does 10/100 :(

 

Memory: 2x512 Kingston (E110) No problems with it.

 

CDROM I used my old one. It still works

 

HDD: WD raptor, for Mandriva (E100) and Samsung (for my films and tv recordings)(E100) (both sata drives). Works pretty well both.

 

Case: my old Antec Sonata

 

Monitor: old TFT

 

Videocard: my old agp card :)

 

(totall cost somewhere around E800)

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I like the board lay-out. The connectors won't crowd the agp in case you need to work there in the future.

I like Maxtor hard drives. But I really have had no trouble with any, including generic no-name drives. The Maxtor utilities are really nice.

Check out the monitors. You may be able to save 30 bucks there and apply it to the processor. Veiwsonic is a good brand. But Samsung is a huge electronics company and are some of the actual producers of picture tubes in Korea. They are kind of the GE of the Orient. Their stuff is really good, and is more reasonably priced for comparable product. B)

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I am always wary of power supplies that are included in the purchase of a case. 500W sounds good but wattage isn't everything. Can you buy the case without the power supply and separately purchase a Fortron or Antec or other name brand?

 

Just my $0.02

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Thanks, I just want everything bundled together. The thing is that I like that case. I've see up close and I absolutely love it, and I wasn't able to find it without one.

 

How come everyone is saying that the processor is bad? Will upgrading it to a 3200+ be better or what?

 

As for the monitor Ix, it has a .25mm dot pitch. Which is Uber for games :). That's the cheapest that they have.

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I read a review/test/comparrison about a year ago on the top hd's. It was mentioned the Seagate Barracuda was prone to data corruption and the final word was that it was really only good (the best) for gaming. I don't have any personal experience with it though, and it was a year ago.

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Thanks bvc. Well here it's different, everyone says that Maxtor is really good, and then everyone is #musb says that Maxtor is bad. So I'm in a tight lock here. I hear good things about seagates now ... I don't know but it seems that way.

 

WD is a bit pricy, and haven't heard good stuff about their SATA drives.

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I have a seagate SATA drive here, it works but not very well. It reads the wrong size, it's a 200GB sata drive and it gets read as a 140GB HD, so i'm losing quite a bit of space, almost considered going back to windows at one point because of this, but i never. Asus are good boards, but i've had some trouble with my nforce4 chipset, linux just doesn't like it.

Edited by Lowe
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A few years ago, I would've picked Maxtor no question, especially since they use Quantum components as part of their buyout (now Quantum imo is the best hd maker ever).

Now, I am not sure, Maxtor seems to dip quality wise. The two maxtor hds I bought were experiencing click of death after one month or so. On the other hand, the seagate I bought is still running pretty.

 

Also, upgrade your DVD-ROM to a DVD-RW. I mean.. DVD-RW is really cheap now (probably under 50 dollars). Seriously, you gain tons of capabilities for only a small premium.

 

Anyway, I notice you are using newegg for your shop. If I were you, I will look for motherboard/cpu combos from Monarch Computer instead. They will be cheaper since you don't pay for separate shipping and everything is pre-tested so it works. I like newegg, but I find that the tax is quite high if you are living in California.

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Ok I just got done placing the order for something:

 

Case

PSU

Hdd ( Stuck with the Seagate )

Monitor ( got a different one )

CD ( Did upgrade to the DVD-RW for about 45 dollars )

 

I changed a lot of the stuff that I just mentioned. If you want links just tell me I'll post them up later, I'm too tired and lazy right now.

Edited by Jet2k5
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I also changed the case, and got a seperate PSU like some of you suggested ( rosewill ) to be exact. Also found a heck of a lot better deal on the CRT. 97 dollars! It has all I need the .25mm dot pictch.

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You could think about buying two 512 MB sticks of RAM, it might save you a small amount (also check prices on crucial - always had good service and mem from them). Additionally some motherboards prefer pairs of RAM, I'm not sure how much real-world difference it'll make but if you're trying to squeeze very last oz of performance out of it I'd at least take a look.

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