Mac guy building a budget pc

[RusMan]

You don't have to get any nForce2 board.
For $500 I'd go for AMD Athlon XP 2100+ which is about $85-90, and a geforce Ti4200.
Don't forget to get enough RAM.

[RusMan]

Oh and if you want cheap hardware go to www.pricewatch.com

[GregHess]

1) If your going AMD, you'll have to go nforce2 if you want 400 FSB Barton support. Neither Via nor Sis have chipsets on the market currently that will support these future chips. Only the nforce2 has pledged support currently.

2) If you use pricewatch.com, be sure to also use

www.resellerratings.com

To check out the stores before you buy.

I tend to purchase a great deal from www.newegg.com and have been quite pleased with their service.

But if this is your first machine, you might want to consider buying a prebuilt computer, so you can yell at people if stuff goes wrong. Then of course, with only 500 USD, you'll have to hunt deals at www.hot-deals.org, or www.bensbargains.net.

[SouthernLaw]

Originally posted by GregHess

But if this is your first machine, you might want to consider buying a prebuilt computer, so you can yell at people if stuff goes wrong.

Well this isn't exactly my first pc. I just haven't done this sort of thing since the 486 was the big processor on the block. Things have changed a good bit since then. :)

Thanks for the links! I'm getting all sorts of great sites from you guys!

[SouthernLaw]

What about eMachines? I've seen ads for several that are unbelievably cheap - is it too good to be true?

[GregHess]

You get what you pay for.

If you buy a geo metro, don't complain when something breaks.

[SouthernLaw]

I asked around a bit and I've got a friend who's going to sell me his old celeron for next to nothing. :p

I'm obviously going to dump the celeron - here's the specs on stuff I'm looking at on newegg.com

Processor:
AMD Athlon XP 2100+/266 FSB Thoroughbred Processor CPU 2100+/ 1.73GHz

Mobo:
ECS L7S7A2 SiS 746 Chipset ATX Motherboard - RETAIL
Specifications:
Supported CPU: (Socket A) AMD Athlon XP CPU
Chipset: SiS 746 & SiS 963
FSB:266/333MHz
RAM:3xDIMM DDR400/333/266/200 Max 3GB (2GB Max for DDR400)
IDE:2xUltra DMA 66/100/133

So - does that sound like a good combo?

[Wegg]

ECS!?! SIS!?! Bah. . .

Go with an nForce2 dude. The few we have here in the office are our most stable/powerful machines.

And those Shuttle cases. . . . MMMmm doggy.

[My Fault]

Wegg speaks the gospel truth, Nforce2 all the way!!! Super solid chipset!

[SouthernLaw]

Very well... I shall heed the gospel of Wegg and obtain the nForce2 of which it speaks. And surely I will see beautiful renders and good returns on the extra fifteen dollars I have laid upon AmEx.

...and the peasants rejoiced...

[elvis]

word of advice: stay away from the epox nforce2 boards. i've put together a few of these recently and the percentage of them that have had hardware incompatabilities with other hardware is pretty insane.

stick with brands like asus, abit, soltek, etc. epox had a good rep by me until the 8RDA, 8RDA+ and 8RGA+ boards.

[SouthernLaw]

Originally posted by elvis
word of advice: stay away from the epox nforce2 boards. i've put together a few of these recently and the percentage of them that have had hardware incompatabilities with other hardware is pretty insane.

stick with brands like asus, abit, soltek, etc. epox had a good rep by me until the 8RDA, 8RDA+ and 8RGA+ boards.

Hmm. I had no idea. Now that I know about that, are there any brands of GeForce cards I should stay away from?

[SouthernLaw]

First off - A huge Thank You to those who've helped me navigate the murky waters of home-brewed PCs.

Now I've decided on my components and will be making my purchases over the next few days. Here's the system, please let me know if you've had problems with any of the components listed or if you've got a better idea.

Motherboard:
Abit NF7 - nforce2 chipset (http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240111)

CPU:
Athlon XP 2200+ (http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80165-R)

Video Card:
Abit GF4 Ti4200 (http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=324013)

And of course, lots of RAM.

Alrighty... hope all of this stuff works together. :curious:

[My Fault]

Should be a damn solid, barn burnin system! :drool:

[elvis]

sounds like a good setup to me. i'll be purchasing the same motherboard shortly when i upgrade my system.

word is the asus and abit nforce2 boards are two of teh best. people have been getting mixed results with the epox boards (ranging from working well to not working at all) which is why i suggested you stay away unless you have some good mates on the sales side who are happy to RMA boards for you all month long. :)

[SouthernLaw]

Well, all of the parts are on the way!:applause:

For those who are interested, here's a list of the components and their prices. Unless otherwise stated, everything was purchase from googlegear (http://www.googlegear.com)

Abit Siluro GF4 MX-8X MX440 AGP 64MB - $73.99

Abit NF7 nForce2 Athlon(XP)/Duron SktA DDR400 ATX Motherboard - $106.00

AMD Athlon XP 2200+ 1.8GHz Processor (with heatsink & fan) - $107.00

Logitech Keyboard and optical mouse - $34.48

512MB PC3200 DDR RAM (purchased from PCMemory, Yahoo store) - $66.00

21" SGI/Trinitron monitor (purchased used from Replugged) - $160.00

Case with Power Supply, CD-ROM, floppy & Zip drive (bought used from a friend) - $50.00

Discovering I can build a good PC for half the price I expected - Priceless. :)

So the total cost of my new(ish) PC: $597.47

Thanks again to all those who've given their advice! I hope to have the last of the pieces in by Monday. Though I'm sure few people are interested, I'll report back on how everything works out.

[My Fault]

Originally posted by SouthernLaw
Abit Siluro GF4 MX-8X MX440 AGP 64MB - $73.99

Noooooooo!!!!

GeForce 4MX's are weak! I thought you were going with the 4200? If you keep your eyes open they go on sale almost constantly and can be had for between $69-$99. And they are mucho faster then the MX's.

Still, that's pretty nice for what you are paying!

[GregHess]

Bestbuy/compusa just a sale on Ti 4200's for around 70 USD. A ti 4200 will beat the living crap outta a geforce4mx. The Geforce4 mx is widely considered an nvidia mistake, as its not actually a geforce4, but merely a geforce2 with some geforce 3 features...kinda of a geforce2.5 mx.

Aka your gaming performance as well as your cg performance will suffer...especially in such a performance system...the mx would be the weakest link.

[SouthernLaw]

Originally posted by My Fault
GeForce 4MX's are weak! I thought you were going with the 4200? If you keep your eyes open they go on sale almost constantly and can be had for between $69-$99. And they are mucho faster then the MX's.


Damn... Yeah, I was thinking about the 4200 but the cheapest I could find one was for $120... and had to start trimming the cost.:annoyed:

Well, I will definitely keep my eyes open for a 4200, and then the MX can hit eBay.

Thanks guys!

[SouthernLaw]

Originally posted by GregHess
Bestbuy/compusa just a sale on Ti 4200's for around 70 USD.

Yep, Compusa... They're sold out. :annoyed:

[GregHess]

Check...

www.hot-deals.org

and

www.bensbargains.net

Both sites routinely post great deals on a variety of computer related and technology items.

[My Fault]

Also
http://www.techbargains.com/
and
http://www.fatwallet.com/

[webfox]

Yeah, I was thinking about the 4200 but the cheapest I could find one was for $120

Save money by eating peanut butter and ramen noodles.

Heck, cancel cable for 2 months and get better at what you do for a living instead of lowering your IQ.

:D

(kidding... good luck with your system. I have one like it... but with the good OGL card.)

<Nelson>

Ha hah!

</Nelson>

[SouthernLaw]

Originally posted by webfox

Heck, cancel cable for 2 months and get better at what you do for a living instead of lowering your IQ.


You ain't kiddin'! Me & my girlfriend are about to move into a new house and to save money we're going without cable tv for about six months or so. I can't wait! I'm going to have so much time now to do art and animation... it's gonna be great!

And to keep this post on-topic... I did some more searching and I found a CompUSA that still has a few of the $80 4200's in stock. I'm going to pick one up tomorrow.

[My Fault]

Originally posted by SouthernLaw
And to keep this post on-topic... I did some more searching and I found a CompUSA that still has a few of the $80 4200's in stock. I'm going to pick one up tomorrow.

And there was much rejoicing in the Griffin household as his frames per second in Quake III jumped 70% ;)

[SouthernLaw]

Well, the CompUSA cards are the 4x AGP version and I've got an 8x slot on my new board... :hmm: Naturally, I want to take advantage of the faster slot.

So, I'm going to use the 4MX card for a while until I can find a good deal on an 8x card... I'll go scour eBay now.

I have yet to be burned on eBay - hope my luck holds out!

So - does anybody have an opinion about the Chaintech cards? They seem to be the cheapest of the Ti4200's.

[GregHess]

Less then 1% difference between a 4x and 8x Ti 4200. With some tests, the 4X AGP card is actually faster. (hehe)

I wouldn't wait on purchasing a Ti 4200 just to get an 8X AGP one, you won't see any difference.

[elvis]

another victim of constructive marketing!

ahh, how it takes their money and laughs heartily.

[My Fault]

Yeah, I've always been a big Nvidia fan but the crap they are pulling with the 4800 and the 4mx cards are really weak. One of the tech heads down there needs to take a soldering gun to their marketing department! :thumbsdow

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