| The New Tido PC Project! | |
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Tido - Student  |
It's been long overdue... Way back when in 2001, I bought a computer: a Dell Dimension 8100. It was quite the rip-roaring machine for it's day. It's specs go something like this: 1.3Ghz Pentium 4 (Socket 423, 400mhz FSB) 256MB PC800 RDRAM (2x128) 40gb Maxor HDD (EIDE 7200RPM UDMA 100) GeForce2MX 32MB Video Card (With TV out, whoa!) Dell 250W PSU 56K V.92 Modem Creative Soundblaster Live! Value DVD/CDRW 3.5 Floppy Drive 1 80mm fan with one of those cheap scoop things. Oh yeah, it came with Windows Me...ahahaha Also got a Dell Keyboard, mouse, speakers, and 15" LCD, which was pretty hi-tech in '01. Little did I know I was making a huge mistake for games. Upgrades: 1.3Ghz to 1.5Ghz (people are starting to throw away computers like mine) An additional 256MB of PC800 RDRAM so now I am 4x128=512MB GeForce2 to GeForce FX 5200 128MB (another give away) Linksys 802.11g Wireless PCI Card It's had it's share of problems. It's been fried by lightening once, and also the PSU once caught fire, which was exciting to say the least. I think it cost me somewhere around $1,600. Right now I know what all of you are thinking: "how can you play jk3 on that thing?!" The answer is very carefully. I tweak the hell out of my CFGs so my jk3 resembles an Atari game. It's ok as long as you don't have more than 3 people in a room, then it gets bad. Whenever I play, I stay at 100% CPU without flinching. And don't ask me about Doom3 and HL2, I've never seen them and never will on this machine. It's time for a new rig. But the Dell beside me now is the last computer I will ever buy from someone. This time around I'm going to venture into a new world and build my own. While I have plenty of experience taking apart and putting back together computers, having my bros at the JA on my back would help alot. Goals for the new system: Can run anything currently out there, and run it well. Hold it's own for a couple years. Be very upgradable. Cost no more than $1000USD. ################################################# Concept 2 ################################################# Case Antec SuperLANboy :$79.00 (ordered!) This case gets good reviews and I also like how it has 2 120mm fans. I've worked on a few computers that had 120's and I've been a big fan (no pun intended, couldn't resist). Also I don't need 4 bays for optical drives so the savings on height work for me. Motherboard ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe :$154.00 (ordered!) The idea here was build for the future. I'm a bit bittersweet about my Dell in how quickly it's motherboard became the laughing stock of standards. This mobo should be spiffy all the way up to Athlon X2 processors, PCI-E (SLI if I wanted), and SATA2. The Deluxe has gotten mixed reviews but after talking to way too many people on the phone, I've confirmed that Asus has fixed all it's issues and the Deluxe is a solid mobo. Processor AMD Athlon64 3500+ Venice :$219.00 I'm unable to put down the fat cash for a FX-55 or an X2, so this seems good enough. The Venice core has cool things going for it (ok I'll quit with the puns already). It was built with a new process that makes it run better and cooler...also means it's very overclockable. I'm not sure if I want to take that route or not, but it's nice to know it's there. RAM 1GB (2x512) CorsairXMS PC3200 :$124.00 Going a little thin on the RAM here to save $, but the hope is to upgrade in the future and occasionally I get some amazing deals on RAM from work. Hard Disks WD Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM :$183.00 Damn I want to get 2 of these and RAID 0 them, but problem one is $ and problem 2 is risk. With RAID 0, if one of these puppies die, I lose the info on both drives. That might still be peachy if I only have stuff like the OS and programs on it and none of my personal files, but problem 1 still lingers. Seagate 300GB 7200RMP (freebie) :$0 I can get Hard Drives (other than raptors) at rediculously low prices, if not for free. No dirty dancing required. GFX Card XFX GeForce6800GT 256MB :$55.00 (ordered!) For $55, this is a no brainer. DJ-Sith is selling me is 6800GT since he is getting an OC version. The GT will last long enough until cards like the 7800GTX or even better ones are more affordable. Soundcard Creative Audigy2 ZS Platnium Pro :$55.00 (ordered!) Another card from DJ-Sith, this soundcard should be more than enough for me. Power Supply Aspire 520W :$54.00 Power supplies scare me. I hope this has enough power and enough quality that I don't have a repeat of the Dell incident. I'm still not sure on PSU's. Optical Drives DRV Dual Layer DVDRW 16x/CDRW (freebie): $0 Freebies rawk! Misc 3.5 Floppy Drive (freebie): $0 I've got piles of these, anyone want one? Total: $923.00 This is my second concept idea and is very close to what I'll end up with. Your suggestions are always welcome! This post was edited by Tido on Aug 25 2005 07:38pm. |
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| Comments |
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Tido - Student 
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San Diego's are based off of the Venice core except they have a larger L2 cache (1meg). Some folks have done some testing on the SD vs Venice and the SD only got about 3% performance gain across the board: not nearly enough to make paying the high price worth it. I'd rather just go with the more economical Venice and use the motherboards on-demand overclocking. |
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Johnnyrico - Student 
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Well looks pretty good... NEWEGG ship to canada!! Now The motherboard, well i had MSI for 3 years and it didnt fail once, my friend has ASUS and it had some problems so i dont know about you, but i think MSI is better. Now SLI common dont support Nvidia they are the ****, wait for crossfire to come out. BTW do u know any sites that are the same prices as newegg or cheaper but ship to canada? I think AMD 64 San diego is the best of the AMD makers, i think it was San diego(this might be intel dont remember well) 10K RPG is good, but still its pretty new stick with 7200RPM Segate Baracudda HD, they are the most reliable. Thats basically it i think. other than that its a good pc _______________ ...... This comment was edited by Johnnyrico on Aug 14 2005 04:09am. |
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Tido - Student
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this one is nforce4  also the av8 won't support a dual-core processor, which is a bummer for the future. The only thing that I'd really be losing is the onboard WLAN, and I already have a card for that anyways. And yeah that card has 16 pipelines  . This comment was edited by Tido on Aug 14 2005 03:47am. |
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JK13 /// jaws. - Student 
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bleh i am retarded >.> I was compareing the A8V with the A8N, a8v is k8t880 chipset whereas the a8n is a nforce 2 chipset. personally i prefer the via chipset. however they are both good chipsets. Asus motherboards come down to features. and the VIA chipset supports more features >_> _______________ It's a false hologram, it IS artificial... |
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Thomasooo - Student 
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Quote: Same with my GF4MX. Very reliable in KotOR and JK2/3. Unfortunately the MX series lack a number of hardware features that are necessary for today's games, like more recent Pixel Shader versions. I can't run Lego Star Wars on my GF MX420.  _______________ In the navy and LOVING it!
Recipient of comment no. 1000 and heart-warming words from Ataris! 
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JK13 /// jaws. - Student
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features >.> +chipset _______________ It's a false hologram, it IS artificial... |
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Tido - Student
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Quote: K8T > A8N mobo, period. why? |
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JK13 /// jaws. - Student
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K8T > A8N mobo, period. GeForce GT is great choice for the money, or an ATI x600 should also suit you. Just make sure you get 16 pipelines instead of making same mistake as me and paying too much for 12 pipelines >_> _______________ It's a false hologram, it IS artificial... This comment was edited by JK13 /// jaws. on Aug 14 2005 01:01am. |
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Tido - Student
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Quote: On-board soundcards are pretty much sufficient imo...as long as you dont wanna use anything fancy like a 5.1 soundsystem. Im using on-board sound myself and im kinda content. Yeah I could go with that until I see a good deal on a soundcard or just use my Live! for the time being. Except it's very possible the RealTek onboard sound is better than my old SB Live! . |
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Tido - Student 
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did a little bit of price hunting and shaved the same parts down to $1077. |
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Masta - Jedi Council 
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On-board soundcards are pretty much sufficient imo...as long as you dont wanna use anything fancy like a 5.1 soundsystem. Im using on-board sound myself and im kinda content. _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. |
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solitude - Jedi Council 
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/ampoke tarpman gigabyte have one of the best reliability records around, i highly recommend their gear _______________ Joined 16 October 2004 | Retired 10 April 2005 | Returned 05 June 2008 | Made Staff 27 June 2008 | Made Council 18 January 2009 Padawan To Odan-Wei Belouve | Adopted into the Belouve family | Twin to xAnAtOs | Owner of the 4th Quesi sexy badge Brother To Roan Belouve, Nomad, Majno, Silkmonkey, Kensei and Jarhok Belouve
Owner Of Virtue's 1000th profile comment, Mr. Doobie's 1000th profile comment, Gradius' 2500th comment, xAnAtOs' 2500th comment, Rosered's 1500th comment, Laziana's 900th comment, Scythus' 500th comment and Echuu's 100th comment |
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Tido - Student
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ok, concept 1 posted . Tear it apart! |
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tarpman - The Tarped Avenger 
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Same with my GF4MX. Very reliable in KotOR and JK2/3. Unfortunately the MX series lack a number of hardware features that are necessary for today's games, like more recent Pixel Shader versions. _______________ Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time. |
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Rinzler - Student 
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i had a gf2mx that never missed a frame in hl games, which was really the best for years, also sat around 80 in q3 games, was a very reliable and affordable piece of hardware. _______________ I fite for teh usars!1 |
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JamesF1 - Student 
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But if you can't afford a PCI-E graphics card, you'd be wiser to stay with a cheaper AGP mobo, and upgrade *WHEN* you can afford a PCI-E graphics card. Well, I don't know, maybe you want to save somewhere else and get a PCI-E graphics card, but, that's up to you _______________ Website |
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Tido - Student
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Hmm. Sure some of the 'serious' cards are pretty rediculous in price, but wouldn't getting an AGP mobo hurt my ability to upgrade in the future? There are some reasonable PCI-E cards out there that tear the socks off of their AGP brothers. |
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SaZ - Student 
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Quote: MX cards arnt purposed to be used in gaming machines in the first place. Im sure you can tell that by the specs though. even if we are too dumb to tell that by specs... we tested them so we know now _______________ playing jk3 since 30th of january (2005), member since 1st of february. [Unofficial Master to Vision and Z�diac ] If you can make a fool of yourself infront of 300 people you can do anything - Jaiko D'kana |
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Masta - Jedi Council
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MX cards arnt purposed to be used in gaming machines in the first place. Im sure you can tell that by the specs though. _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. |
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Bail Hope of Belouve - Student 
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Quote: never EVER buy geforce MX whatever it will be geforce101mx i know it will suck. that's true. Geforce MX suck. They're cheap, but terrible. I myself have a Geforce 4 TI 4200, and I have nothing to complain about really ... I can play most games that interest me _______________ Visit the Belouve Family Website! Quote: I try to have fun with my friends and try to make a difference as best I can. What does making a difference mean? Well, it can be as simple as saying hello, answering a question that seems obvious or heck, just talking. -- Vladarion
Want to know Vladarion? Read the Article about his life here. |
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JamesF1 - Student 
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Well, personally, I'd do what was suggested, and steer clear of PCI-E for the moment if you've only got $1000 to spend. Basically, go with what tarpy said - apart from, I would argue, that you may want to consider benchmarks and reviews of BOTH ATi and NVidia cards before purchasing - it all depends on what you want from your computer _______________ Website |
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SaZ - Student
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Quote: good luck, im not realy high tech with computers and stuff lol im not expert too but i can tell u this : never EVER buy geforce MX whatever it will be geforce101mx i know it will suck.so just my two cents heh _______________ playing jk3 since 30th of january (2005), member since 1st of february. [Unofficial Master to Vision and Z�diac ] If you can make a fool of yourself infront of 300 people you can do anything - Jaiko D'kana |
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Mindrith Pride - Student 
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good luck, im not realy high tech with computers and stuff lol _______________ [proud owner of talions 200th, 700th,1111th coment AND 1400th , DJK's 3001th coment! , saz's 400th coment! liso's 800th coment! Kitmitsu Aratan's 1200th comment! Cau's 100th comeent, Alexander's (aka CC) 210th, 888th and 2200th comments! Moriarti's 800th comment , Piccolo's 2000th comment! lirael's 505th comment , Quom Farlance's 120th comment, Alexander's 1800th comment , Eica's 1400th comment , Wicek's 3200th comment lady C's 999th comment, Echuu's 1100th comment, Takaru's 325th and 400th comment, Redeye's 200th comment picc's 3600th comment, Ostith's 50th comment, Elmo's 555th comment] |
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tarpman - The Tarped Avenger
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I can mention a couple things to get you off on the right track. For >$1000, you won't be able to afford a brand-new, fancy-schmancy video card. Stick to an AGP mobo until you're ready to make the leap into true hardcoreness. Oh, and for the mobo, avoid Eastern companies such as Gigabyte - you'll get better stability and a longer life out of, for example, Intel. Or, if you're really in it for the money, go for an Athlon XP or Athlon 64 processor and save clock speed. For the video card, go with nVidia. Their OpenGL performance is superior to ATI's and I've had far better customer service experiences with them. A 5600 series card is probably the best way to go. I personally recommend avoiding 3rd party video cards. I found the best deal in the universe on RAM when I was buying a new stick a couple of weeks ago: go to NCIX.com and get two sticks of Samsung DDR400 512MB for $70 CDN (they ship to US) each. You'll have a whole stinkin' gigabyte of RAM for about $120, and since they're the same stick, they'll be running on Dual Channel for a significant memory speed increase. And don't get connned into throwing away a ton of money on a monitor. I'm still using the 15" CRT that came with my first 486. If that's a little on the antique side for you ( ), go for a nice Flat CRT.One (EDIT: two) last tips: avoid Windows, and use Pricewatch.com.  Good luck! _______________ Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time. This comment was edited by tarpman on Aug 13 2005 06:58am. |
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Fire - Student 
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Nice! I've got a GeForce 5200 myself, pretty sexy graphics card Unfortunately for me, I really want to buy F.E.A.R. but GeForce FX 5200 just sucks way too much to even play the demo. So with lots of work, I hope to upgrade to something better. Good luck with your computer endeavors Tido! |
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