08-21-2004, 08:11 AM
I'll be upgrading mine in about two months, and this is basically what I've outlined for my box. I'll explain why, and anyone can comment on what I'm going to get and offer suggestions. ESPECIALLY on harddrives, since I have no idea how SATA works or wtf omg he;lp
Athlon 64 3400+
The 2800 / 3000s have the best price, but I always like to go a little past the price/performance mark.
MSI Motherboard based on the VIA chipset
I like nVidia just fine but I think VIA is the way to go. The nVidia boards look a little slower, have a little more features and seem to be about the same or more for the price.
Normally I'd get an Asus board as Asus is the "premium" board but it seems like the gap between Asus/ABit and the other board manufacturers has closed. MSI has gotten really good marks on their mobos for the A64's in the reviews I've read. In fact. www.motherboards.org recommends them ahead of the others, but who knows where to stand on their words.
I'm probably going to get a K8T Neo - MSR, but I might shell out the extra money for the more feature ridden board, just in case.
nVidia GeForce 6800
But probably not an Ultra, maybe a GT. I don't know if I'll have enough money for a $600 video card. The Magic card collection can only make me SO MUCH money, heh. I have no idea what brand to get. I can't seem to find good round ups. People talk about feature sets and the blinging of some cards (no joke, the Chaintech card is bright blue and has golden trim). Anyone know what brands are now good? When I bought my old computer, I got a Creative.
They don't make those anymore.
LE SIGH!
I'd like to get an Asus but the impression I get is that most of the board makers are on the same level.
Anyone got any thoughts on those?
( http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q3/gefor...ro/index.x?pg=4 for the blinging Chaintech card zomg)
Memory
I'm just going to get Geil, Micron, Crucial or whatever DDR 400mhz RAM with the lowest CAS timings I can buy. A gig of it, too. This is one part of the computer I am absolutely blowing as much money as possible on. I might go to a 1.5 gig config. That would be kinda nutsy.
Harddrive
This is where I'm confused. I hear talk of a new interface, but I haven't really read much on it. Anyone know what that's all about? I'm going to read up on it when I can, after all, I was confused about RAM last week and now I feel confident in what I'm going to purchase. Only takes a couple articles to get a good idea.
But if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.
I'm not going to get a sound card yet, since I hear onboard audio is pretty good and sound cards are cheap enough nowaday that the don't even take up a single pay cheque, which is fine with me. I'm thinking I finally need to buy some speakers, which I've been without for four years. For no reason I can figure out. I'm getting the feeling Soundblaster is basically the only real high end option for cards.
For monitor, well, I'm just gonna read reviews on newegg.com and figure out from there. I'm thinking ... big, real big. But no LCD screens, don't see the point.
Anyway, any thoughts welcome!
Athlon 64 3400+
The 2800 / 3000s have the best price, but I always like to go a little past the price/performance mark.
MSI Motherboard based on the VIA chipset
I like nVidia just fine but I think VIA is the way to go. The nVidia boards look a little slower, have a little more features and seem to be about the same or more for the price.
Normally I'd get an Asus board as Asus is the "premium" board but it seems like the gap between Asus/ABit and the other board manufacturers has closed. MSI has gotten really good marks on their mobos for the A64's in the reviews I've read. In fact. www.motherboards.org recommends them ahead of the others, but who knows where to stand on their words.
I'm probably going to get a K8T Neo - MSR, but I might shell out the extra money for the more feature ridden board, just in case.
nVidia GeForce 6800
But probably not an Ultra, maybe a GT. I don't know if I'll have enough money for a $600 video card. The Magic card collection can only make me SO MUCH money, heh. I have no idea what brand to get. I can't seem to find good round ups. People talk about feature sets and the blinging of some cards (no joke, the Chaintech card is bright blue and has golden trim). Anyone know what brands are now good? When I bought my old computer, I got a Creative.
They don't make those anymore.
LE SIGH!
I'd like to get an Asus but the impression I get is that most of the board makers are on the same level.
Anyone got any thoughts on those?
( http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q3/gefor...ro/index.x?pg=4 for the blinging Chaintech card zomg)
Memory
I'm just going to get Geil, Micron, Crucial or whatever DDR 400mhz RAM with the lowest CAS timings I can buy. A gig of it, too. This is one part of the computer I am absolutely blowing as much money as possible on. I might go to a 1.5 gig config. That would be kinda nutsy.
Harddrive
This is where I'm confused. I hear talk of a new interface, but I haven't really read much on it. Anyone know what that's all about? I'm going to read up on it when I can, after all, I was confused about RAM last week and now I feel confident in what I'm going to purchase. Only takes a couple articles to get a good idea.
But if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.
I'm not going to get a sound card yet, since I hear onboard audio is pretty good and sound cards are cheap enough nowaday that the don't even take up a single pay cheque, which is fine with me. I'm thinking I finally need to buy some speakers, which I've been without for four years. For no reason I can figure out. I'm getting the feeling Soundblaster is basically the only real high end option for cards.
For monitor, well, I'm just gonna read reviews on newegg.com and figure out from there. I'm thinking ... big, real big. But no LCD screens, don't see the point.
Anyway, any thoughts welcome!
My other mount is a Spiderdrake