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03-11-2003, 06:42 AM | #1 |
Not Vanu
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Building a new rig...opinions?
I've got about 1300 or so to work with and am building a new rig for PS...thought I might ask for opinions here. AMD or Intel?? GeForce 4 Ti or ATI 9700 Pro. I'm all set on the other components, but would be happy to here what YOU think are the pro's and con's of AMD/Intel and NVidia/ATI (and I already know the ATI's don't play nice with T2). Lemme here from ya!!
-shark |
03-11-2003, 09:38 AM | #2 |
XMEN - CO
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I'd go with the Nvidia Ti4600 or 4800. The gain you get over the Radeon 9700 with the GeFoceFX isn't worth the cash, unless you NEED to have the biggest badest Vid Card out there. And the Athlon 2600-2800+ are really nice too, they actually perform better than the 3000+.
My $.02 |
03-11-2003, 10:38 AM | #3 |
Not Vanu
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Thanks Spinning...do you know anything about the overclockability of those AMD chips?
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03-11-2003, 11:47 AM | #4 |
XMEN - CO
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I've been told by a couple that with the right Mainboard and RAM, it's nice. SouP Sidewinder has a 2600 and he's got his OC'ed up the wazoo.
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03-11-2003, 01:06 PM | #5 |
Not Vanu
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Hmmm...have a guy in KY who says the same thing...but the trick is getting the right mobo. Was thinking 2700+ or 2800+...guess it's off to the hardware sites for me
-shark |
03-11-2003, 01:11 PM | #6 |
Registered User
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Sidewinder does have a water cooling case though so... that kinda facilitates OCing a little more
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03-11-2003, 07:59 PM | #7 |
XMEN - CO
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Not really, with the right fans LSD. With a good mainboard, good fans, and the right airflow in a case, you can OC with the best of them.
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03-11-2003, 08:10 PM | #8 |
Registered User
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I'd say go with an ATI card. The 9500 Pro is the best deal on the block as far as I'm concerned. I like AMD best too, I have a 1900+ that I got a year ago and it still does me fine.
Regarding overclocking, if you're not a techie kind of guy, I wouldn't do it. I know a lot about computers but I never bother. I can see the kind of overclocking you do by flashing your BIOS or just changing a CMOS setting, but the stuff where you're installing fancy cooling systems and rewiring circuits is just not worth losing your warranty for, IMO. Every new rig I've ever built was plenty fast without it.
__________________
I like to drink in bars. |
03-11-2003, 08:18 PM | #9 |
Registered User
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actually, the gf4ti is seriously outdated these days.
the 9700pro IS worth the money, hands down. And if its a little pricey, the 9500 PRO (NOT the non pro version) wipes the floor with any nvidia card, and costs less, too. hell, you could put an athlon 2200 on an Nforce 2 board for under 200 bucks. |
03-11-2003, 08:39 PM | #10 |
Registered User
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I just got a 2100+ Thuroughbred B Core from newegg. Supposedly these are great overclockers; will let you know.
I use a Radeon 9500pro, I like it a bunch but sux for T2 b/c T2 is a shitily coded game With $1300 here is what I'd prob do, but this is just me. Don't forget I am compleatly bias to AMD and ATI AMD Setup: Motherboard: Asus A7N8X Deluxe - $149 Processors: If you would like the ability to Overclock in the future but want something that will last longer without having to bother with OCing, go with the Athlon XP 2600+ Thoroughbred. $241 Retail. RAM The Asus Board supports Dual Channel DDR, so do it Corsair Memory XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, Low Latency (Twin Pack) 1GB CAS Latency 2-2-2-6-T1 DDR 400mhz Yes this is $340 worth of Ram, but it seriously kicks ass If you think it is absolutly absurd to spend that much then you can pick your own ram, I just don't buy cheap ram ever. Video Card Best Buy: Radeon 9500pro (Saves you some cash and can perform at Ti4600 speeds for less $$) $205 However you could find the 9700pro's pretty cheap now. heard it was $300 in some places and it may be worth the extra money for just that much more power. 2nd Best Buy: Geforce 4Ti 4200, good deal for how inexpensive it is. Obviously wont last you much more then a year from now though. Allthough you can get some of the very overclockable ones but then you are talking about spending more and therfore not making it such a good deal $150 Sound Card That Asus Motherboard from what I understand has a great intergraded sound system. However if you are wanting more a lot of people suggest: M-Audio Revolution You can get it at newegg for another $100 but if it where me I'd just use the intergraded sound. From what I understand intergraded components preform a lot faster then the PCI slotted ones and take up less resorces anyhow. Hard Drive However much you need. I'd say for a gaming machine 80GB of space would suffice and for only $100 the Western Digital 800JB (8MB Cache) is a pretty nice drive. However if you want to try out something new like "Serial ATA" it will cost you about $180 for a 120GB Segate Drive at www.googlegear.com . Other Then that I'm not sure what else you'd want. Those are just my suggestions of various components in a computer that you "may" like to have but like you said you only needed a few. If you really are set all all your other components I'd go with: Asus Board 2600+ w/ a good cooling fan 1GB (Twin)Ram Radeon 9700pro Use onboard Sound Segate V Serial ATA 120GB Total Price would be < $1,300 If you want a lower price: You can get the Western Digital Drive that would lower the price by $80; that $80 may be worth it @ 150mb/s. Another way to lower the price more; you can get the Radeon 9500Pro and that will save you about $100-$150 depending on where you get the 9700pro. **Edit: I was looking at newegg and I saw the XP 2500+ Barton Core for $178. That looks like a pretty darn good deal not to mention its wooping 640KB of Cache. Good God Man it's a Xeon! That right there will probably easily preform as well as that 2600+ TB I was talking about for ~ $60 less and it may have room for even better expandability then the 2600+. Then again the clock speed is a lot lowered. Last edited by JC; 03-12-2003 at 04:43 AM. |
03-12-2003, 06:39 AM | #11 |
Registered User
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Just some quick additions to the excellent advice so far.
Keep in mind that ATI is also releasing their next line of cards at the end of the month. This is gonna effect pricing for all their cards, so you might want to wait and read some reviews of the new ones vs the old ones and decide from there. Also, the Revolution. I have a friend who bought one as soon as it came out, hoping that a new sound card would be better then the majority that are out there and are a couple of years old at this point. His opinion, if you listen to MP3's on your pc it is hands down the best for the money. For games it's about on par with everything else out there. Just some real user comments for ya. Pretty much everything JC reccomended is what I'd do if I had that much to spend. 1300 is a pretty good amount of change, I usually do my upgrades in like $300 peices |
03-18-2003, 07:29 AM | #12 |
Not Vanu
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WOW! Great advice all. I have been pricing system parts at pricewatch and of course following the news on the latest video cards. I will probably go AMD and A7N8X. Not sure what the CPU speed will be or which core...that new Barton 2500+ sounds interesting...wonder if they'll release a higher speed on it.
I'm not much for uber cooling systems and over clocking. I'm a software guy, not hardware. But I know enough to have built my last 5 systems and I always feel better when I do it myself. On the video card, I think it'll be the 9700 pro, or possibly the all in wonder 9700 pro. Just not sure I need all the features on the all in wonder. I've heard the horror stories about ATI's and T2, but I expect to transition to PS only when it releases. I was planning to keep my sb live value and just reuse it, but if the integrated sound on the mobo is good, i might go with that...will save me transfering the card from the old box. As for the HD, I'm thinking of going scsi this time. I've never had one, but I thought it might be helpful for those dynamically loaded textures and such in PS. Any thoughts on that? Again, thanks for all the advice; it'll be a great help. -shark
__________________
-shark There's a fine line between cleverness and stupidity. |
03-18-2003, 08:23 AM | #13 |
Registered User
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if you get the Nforce board with the Nvidia soundstorm sound, its EXCELLENT.
if you get one with an AC/97 codec, use your soundblaster. |
03-18-2003, 09:23 AM | #14 |
XMEN - CO
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I'd wait for Serial ATA before I did anything really big right now, and I definitely wouldn't go SCSI. The Nforce 2 boards have serial ata connectors on them, I think, and it'd be just a metter of time before the Drives were available.
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03-18-2003, 01:43 PM | #15 |
Not Vanu
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Will do...given that the release date on PS has slipped, I'll prolly wait one more month...in that time, prices should come down just a little further. Thanks again all for the advice.
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