03-17-2003, 06:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-17-2003, 06:21 AM by The Luminaire.)
Ah, another [H]ard reader :). Imo one of the better PC reveiw sites out there, since they tend to cover every aspect of a given piece of hardware/software.
Now, as to the topic of this thread...
Im with Roland on this, I think a P4 is really your best bet, especially if you're a beginner. They components are cheaper right now, a little easier to work with, and they've also been around longer than the Nforce2 platform has.
Asus is really a great bet for Mobo's, as well as Gigabyte. If you've got some cash to throw around, get and MSI board, Ive had great luck with them, and they're decked out with everything you'd ever want/need. Definately go with DDR SDRAM for now. RDRAM has about the same memory bandwidth as high end DDR, but its more expensive, and the cost on motherboards rises substantially.
Corsair, and Kingston are the two big memory makers that'd Id go with. Either one is fine, though if you plan on overclocking at all, Id go with Kingston.
Video cards are really in the eye of the beholder. I still use my Radeon 32DDR from two years ago, and it runs everything great. But more power is always fun. :) Im a die hard ATI fanboy, but NVidia has got some great cards out right now, and at good prices. Whatever you do, *dont* get any NVidia "MX" card. They tend to be cheap, older chipsets clocked higher for more oopmh, but cant match the reliability and power of the actual GF3/4 chipsets. On the ATI side of the house, Id look at the older 8500 card. You can gt a 128 meg version of it for about 100-130 USD. Absolutely great card for the price, easliy runnning anything you want it to.
Hard drives are pretty basic, space and speed are crucial, brand isnt as much. Seagate, Western Digital are two good ones I can think of off hand, but there are plenty other comperable makers.
If you wanna use a P4, try and get a case with at least a 300W power supply. Other than that, whatever looks cool to you is your bag :)
Overall, if I were you, Id wait to build this computer for a little while. In the next few months, Intel is going to be releasing its 800Mhz FSB proscessors, meaning that the majority of the P4 line is going to get a big price drop. As well, the big vid card makers are bringing new products to the table in april and may, so the lower end cards will probably get a price drop as well.
And if you want to go the AMD route, I think a good few months would do good to mature the NForce 2 platform, to get some more solid equipment in the market, and at lower prices.
*Edit*: continuing with Roland, to make it easy on yourself, you could have people make a computer for you; alot of places do it cheaply, and with great work. Geekgeek has a pretty good reputation, from what I hear, but another one to look at would be Alienware. You can get a baseline P4 DDR system for around 1400 USD, and an AMD system even less. They are some of the best computers out there, expecially for gaming. You will pay the price for the name though, so be warned. The workmanship and quality of the components are worth the price however. ;)
Now, as to the topic of this thread...
Im with Roland on this, I think a P4 is really your best bet, especially if you're a beginner. They components are cheaper right now, a little easier to work with, and they've also been around longer than the Nforce2 platform has.
Asus is really a great bet for Mobo's, as well as Gigabyte. If you've got some cash to throw around, get and MSI board, Ive had great luck with them, and they're decked out with everything you'd ever want/need. Definately go with DDR SDRAM for now. RDRAM has about the same memory bandwidth as high end DDR, but its more expensive, and the cost on motherboards rises substantially.
Corsair, and Kingston are the two big memory makers that'd Id go with. Either one is fine, though if you plan on overclocking at all, Id go with Kingston.
Video cards are really in the eye of the beholder. I still use my Radeon 32DDR from two years ago, and it runs everything great. But more power is always fun. :) Im a die hard ATI fanboy, but NVidia has got some great cards out right now, and at good prices. Whatever you do, *dont* get any NVidia "MX" card. They tend to be cheap, older chipsets clocked higher for more oopmh, but cant match the reliability and power of the actual GF3/4 chipsets. On the ATI side of the house, Id look at the older 8500 card. You can gt a 128 meg version of it for about 100-130 USD. Absolutely great card for the price, easliy runnning anything you want it to.
Hard drives are pretty basic, space and speed are crucial, brand isnt as much. Seagate, Western Digital are two good ones I can think of off hand, but there are plenty other comperable makers.
If you wanna use a P4, try and get a case with at least a 300W power supply. Other than that, whatever looks cool to you is your bag :)
Overall, if I were you, Id wait to build this computer for a little while. In the next few months, Intel is going to be releasing its 800Mhz FSB proscessors, meaning that the majority of the P4 line is going to get a big price drop. As well, the big vid card makers are bringing new products to the table in april and may, so the lower end cards will probably get a price drop as well.
And if you want to go the AMD route, I think a good few months would do good to mature the NForce 2 platform, to get some more solid equipment in the market, and at lower prices.
*Edit*: continuing with Roland, to make it easy on yourself, you could have people make a computer for you; alot of places do it cheaply, and with great work. Geekgeek has a pretty good reputation, from what I hear, but another one to look at would be Alienware. You can get a baseline P4 DDR system for around 1400 USD, and an AMD system even less. They are some of the best computers out there, expecially for gaming. You will pay the price for the name though, so be warned. The workmanship and quality of the components are worth the price however. ;)
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