Help with building a PC?

[Norrec]

Originally posted by accord 4 me

but i'd say this is a really bad time to buy a computer. with pci express video cards, btx form factor and 64 bit chips. you're gonna get left behind if you buy a p4 2.8. i'd wait till at least june then re-evaluate it all.

*edit: almost forgot, why do you have an nvidia card listed? lol radeon 9800 xt > *

Well, i need a better pc anyways. I wont be able to get the latest things because of money, and i dont want to keep up with the latest technology, just get a few steps closer.. if you knew my current computer, you'd buy a p3 1.3 ghz and be happy.

and i never really thought of ATI cards i might look into that.

[hawkster]

Originally posted by Dmitry M. (Lazer)
AMD 64 is ahead of our time, Windows does not support 64 bits and it only supports up to 2gb of ram.

Longhorn will change that, Longhorn will support 64 bit and it will support up to 8gb or Ram, which i say about time!

Just read this morning that Longhorn maybe delayed by up to 4 years due to security and they are going to release Windows XP Reloaded in the spring.......
Dont flame me if its BS but it was in the paper this morning

[Norrec]

Well, things might get a little easier now, i just got a job that pays $7.50/hour under the table, so i dont get taxes taken out (says that i work as an independant contractor)..
Basically i goto St. J and do data entry for 10 hours a week.
only problem is that i can only work a max of $25 a month.
But its better than nothing..

[Dmitry M. (Lazer)]

Originally posted by accord 4 me
he wants a cheap pc and you tell him not to get amd because it "ONLY" supports 3 gb of ram? and have you never seen liquid nitrogen used on a athlon or what? i dont know what youre trying to say here, sure a p4 will clock a lot higher then the athlon, but as we all know clock speed isn't everything. as for 64 bit ahead of its time? there's been like 10 different linux operating systems out since day one. windows xp 64 bit is in beta form and will be out by years end. along with at least 5 games i can think of right now. and thats just what's been announced. i'm not sure why everyone is afraid to get this 64 bit chip. just because its 64 bit doesn't mean you HAVE to run 64 bit operating systems and programs on it. it does 32 bit better then any chip out right now. it'd be dumb to get any other chip

anyways, for 30 bucks more then the p4 2.8 you can get the athlon 64 3000 which will just kill that 2.8.

but i'd say this is a really bad time to buy a computer. with pci express video cards, btx form factor and 64 bit chips. you're gonna get left behind if you buy a p4 2.8. i'd wait till at least june then re-evaluate it all.

*edit: almost forgot, why do you have an nvidia card listed? lol radeon 9800 xt > *

Please do not start assuming things, i just layed out the differences, i did not say to go ahead and buy a p4 over an amd. I told him if he wants a gaming pc to go buy an AMD processor. Yeah i guess if you want a cheaper machine you can also go with AMD.

And about linux, he isn't going to be using linux so please you know better then to mention something that is not going to be used. And Windows XP will only have a beta of 64 they announced they will not release a full 64 OS until Longhorn, and now apparently with what hawkster said not until so called Windows XP Reloaded, they are doing this to force the sales of their next OS.

[Dmitry M. (Lazer)]

Originally posted by Norrec
Well, things might get a little easier now, i just got a job that pays $7.50/hour under the table, so i dont get taxes taken out (says that i work as an independant contractor)..
Basically i goto St. J and do data entry for 10 hours a week.
only problem is that i can only work a max of $25 a month.
But its better than nothing..

I think you mean 25 hours and month.

Anyways if you're an independant contractor, like me, then you will still have to pay taxes for this year, you'll have to pay them next year, unless this guy is paying you cash.

[Norrec]

lol. yeah.. 25 hours/month.
Well, the listing for the job says that its an independant contractor thing, but he told me he was just going to pay me with normal checks and stuff.

[Dmitry M. (Lazer)]

Originally posted by Norrec
lol. yeah.. 25 hours/month.
Well, the listing for the job says that its an independant contractor thing, but he told me he was just going to pay me with normal checks and stuff.

Yeah exactly, you get paid by checks that don't take out taxes from you. Next year around February you should get a 1040 form which will indicate how much money you have made during your time of working as an independent contractor for this year. From there you will have to pay the taxes yourself by April.

What's cool about this is that you can take out a few things as expenses for example, i need to travel to work so i can take out all of the Metrocards i buy, also i put down half of my internet bill, since my job requires me to have the internet to submit a report everyday.

Basically by the end of the year try and hold some money because you will have to pay taxes.

[Prime]

The AMD 64 3200 which is there new card gets better benchmarks than the pentium 4 3.2 extreme which costs almost $1000 dollars. But I wasnt even talking about that prossesor.

You can get a AMD Athlon 2500+ which may only run at only 2.1 ghz gets better benchmarks and runs faster than a pentium 2.8 ghz. You can get a AMD Athlon 2500+ WITH A MOTHERBOARD for $100. I recently orded an AMD athlon XP 2800 and motherboard for $140. I saw a 2200 for $75 with a mobo. Which is decent.
The "2500" is the way AMD rates it which comes from bunch of different marks. Intel goes by just ghz.

AMD's get way better gaming benchmarks along with other things for MUCH cheaper price.


EDIT: Oh and Athlons have a 333 bus on the Athlons vs intels 800. But a FSB is in use like 5% of the time and is usually never fully in use.

[Norrec]

Just a short update on my pc plan.
I'm getting the money from taxes, I should get $67.50 a week that i work 9 hours, like this one, and my girlfriend basically made me let her buy me the case i wanted for my birthday. Well, she's giving me the money and i'm going to have my roommate use his CC if he's still willing.
But after talking to my friend Tony, who is another student here, intern in IT, and the leader of the schools LAN party club, He found what I should get, but it would cost me about $630 total.

He convinced me that I dont need to get such a high processor, because it wont affect much that I'll be focusing on, he suggested an AMD Athlon XP 2000+, but I'm opting for the XP 2400+, a Maxtor 120G 7200 rpm HDD, an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128M DDR 8xAGP, Samsung 512m DDR memory, and a MSI KT4VL VIA KT400 Chipset Ultra ATA133 ATX Form Factor 1xAGP(8X)/6xPCI/1xCNR/3xDDR W/ LAN & Audio Motherboard.
Still the same case I want, but with 550W now.

Also, for aesthetics, I'm going to get some round LED lit IDE cables for the harddrives and cd rom, and a plain round for my floppy.

Without the cables i just listed, its gonna run $630. I'll probably work on the main parts before i worry about upgrading my cables, because i have a bunch of normal IDEs, but when I get extra cash beyond that, it should cost another $30 total.

[Dmitry M. (Lazer)]

If you're getting samsung ram you might as well go wiht crucial. If you want performance ram go with Corsair.

As for motherboard i would choose either the new Asus AMD mobo or an Abit mobo.

Enermax makes the best power supply, they might be a little pricey but they run much better and they are silent.

As for case i would go with a Lian-Li pure aluminum case, i have never seen a case that is fully Aluminum except the one's Lian-Li makes.