Buying a new comp.

[a_gherkin]

ok so i am buying a new tower unit cos my current computer is crap. i want to make it a good games system without spending masses of my hard earned cash. these are the things i have decided on already:

2.0 GHz AMD Athalon
20 GB Hard Drive
512MB DDR RAM
GeForce 4 Ti4400 Graphics Card
Good Sound Blaster! sound card

but as far as anything else goes, i dont have a clue, i am in over my head. can anyone give me any tips on ESSENTIALS that i need in my computer?

thanks a lot!


John

[DVous Means]

That's a reasonable starting list. Consider getting a large monitor if you don't want to recycle your existing screen.

[yosemite]

A good motherboard (ASUS is supposed to be good, but don't take my word for it, I really don't know a lot).

Make sure you have an ethernet card, and Firewire. You won't regret it later.

Oh, and you never can have enough RAM. Never. If you can afford more than 512 (which is a very respectable amount, needless to say) then do it. Because, you know, you can NEVER have enough RAM! (I have 1.12 GBs of RAM on my computer and I love it.)

Also, 20 GB for a hard drive seems kinda skimpy these days. I'll bet you could get a 40 GB or larger HD for not much more than you'd pay for a 20 GB. I say, go for it. With MP3s and digital cameras and stuff, you can fill up hard drive fast. Oh, and make sure it's 7200 RPM HD, not anything slower.

That's all I have to offer, since I am by no means a computer geek.

[DougC]

Note: this is more of an IMHO thread.
- - - The OS---> Win98, but only if it will run all your videocard and motherboard features. -It's my understanding that Win98 is still the fastest MS OS for gaming, but there are now mobos and videocards out now that aren't fully supported in Win98 and earlier OS's.
~

[Alereon]

Definately go with Windows XP Pro. Windows 98 is not supported anymore by modern hardware, so available drivers will be outdated.

As for the motherboard, I suggest something based on the nVidia nForce2 chipset. Make sure its the new nForce2, and not the older nForce. This chipset has EXCELLENT onboard audio (Generally considered to be the best audio a consumer can buy, superior to even the most expensive Creative Labs cards), and has two onboard NICs (designed to function as an onboard router). It has dual-channel Memory, so you'll want two 256MB sticks of PC2700 or PC3200 DDR RAM. The Asus A7N8X-Deluxe looks like the board for you. It'll cost about $150, but since you won't need to buy a soundcard it will end up saving you cash, most likely.

Make sure that the case you decide on has cooling. AMD specs require a minimum of two case fans, and you'll want AT LEAST a 350W power supply. You can buy cooling equipment for a good price from 2Cooltek. I'd suggest the Thermalright SK-7 heatsink paired with a low noise 80mm fan (such as the Panaflo L1A) for CPU cooling. This will cost about $35, but keep the CPU nice and cool and be very quiet. Worth the money, IMHO.

[manhattan]

Off to IMHO.

[Urban Ranger]

You want a heavy duty supply and a solid case.

[Pythagras]

Oh, and you never can have enough RAM. Never.

At some point it becomes pointless to get more RAM... I mean if there's no conceivable way youre going to use it.

[hazel-rah]

For a computer used primarily for gaming, 512MB RAM is more than sufficient.

The price/size sweet spot for hard drives is 80GB at the moment, by Christmas it should be creeping up to around 100-120GB. Get a Seagate Barracuda IV, they're the quietest with Maxtor's quiet HDD line (forget the name) being a close second. Do not buy a 5400RPM HDD... 7200RPM is what you want. Ignore the ATA speed rating... the difference between ATA-100 and ATA-133 is trivial.

If you are getting an Athlon based system, avoid Soundblaster sound cards, they don't play well with Athlon motherboards. Go with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz... sound quality is better too.

I'll add more if I think of anything else.

-fh

[iamthewalrus(:3=]

As far as optimizing for gaming, your video card and the speed of your RAM is much more important than the speed of your processor. I'm guessing that a 2GHz AMD proc will run you about $300, as it is pretty close to the top of the line. You are much better spending half that on a slightly slower processor, and getting a better video card. I know the GeF4 Ti4600's are pretty sweet, and I've heard great things about the new Radion card, but haven't seen one in action. If budget is more of a concern, get a Ti4200 and overclock it. I'm running a stock Ti4200 with 128MB of video mem, and have yet to hit a game I can't play at 1600x1200 at a decent framerate. Sure, that'll change eventually, but I expect to have this card and play whatever I want (maybe at decreased resolution) for another 18 months at least.

Make sure you get the fastest memory you can afford, too. That's my current bottleneck (stupid SDRAM)

[iamthewalrus(:3=]

Doh. I of course meant the Radeon card, the 9700 or something.

[hazel-rah]

iamthewalrus(:3= makes a good point about the processor vs. video card budgeting. The 2.1Ghz Athlon (2600) starts around $300. The 1.7Ghz Athlon (2100) is ~$90. The difference in performance you would see gaming is not worth anything near $200. A GF4 Ti 4200 128MB is about right for a good video card... I wouldn't dish out for a 4400/4600 either, just not worth the price premium. Your Athlon motherboard should use DDR RAM and support at least a 266Mhz system bus if not 333Mhz. Also make sure it supports USB 2.0 or Firewire (or both).

If you insist on spending that extra $200-250, put it towards a nice monitor, since the monitor is something you can hang on to for years to come across many system upgrades if you get a great one at the outset.

-fh

[Toddly]

I will echo and recommend getting the best video card that you can afford. It is far important in gaming than the faster CPU. You should use DDR RAM and 512 MB is enough. My experience is that XP Pro is faster than 98 and far more stable. There are a lot of great motherboards out there. ABIT, ASUS, MSI and EPOX come to mind first.

[handy]

a_gherkin, all that stuff & then the operating system would cost you more than a new Dell, which comes preconfigured, is updateable by yourself, etc. Personally I would prefer you save yourself the time of assembly & such & just get one put together already.

e.g.: This is near your specs:

Dell P4 1.8 Ghz\256 M.B\30 G.B & it costs $340 shipped free.
You can find a coupon code to get this & other info at techbargains.com main forum.

[DVous Means]

The other item you should consider is a CD burner. Not just to copy (?pirate) software, but also to back up all sorts of data youdon't want to lose.

Most data files have expanded to sizes that make floppies totally inadequate for backing up.

[handy]

ATI has a Radeon 7500 All in Wonder. This baby (ABout $120 at newegg.com) can do it all, TIVO, tv in, tv out, svideo in & out, etc etc.

[Monster104]

A CD burner should be included anyways, because you can get a 32x burners for damned cheap nowadays. It's also a money saver, because when playing a lot of games, you're bound to have an accident in which a game gets lost or destroyed, and it's nice to have a backup copy of a game instead of having to buy it again (speaking from experience, I've had to buy 3 copies of Starcraft and 2 copies of Brood War because the first CDs I bought either go lost or destroyed).