help needed putting this system together

[robin801]

i have a friend that wants a dell pentium 4.

i told him an amd was faster. help me pick the parts for the amd system that can beat the pentium 4 for about the same price.

his wants

black system
cdrw
40gig or more hdd


he wants to use this system for his mp3 and putting his albums on cdr. so sound is the most important thing to this system.

video card doesn't have to be top of the line.

robin

[Mntsnow]

What price range?

But yes dollar for dollar the AMD will normally overall give more bang for that buck....The P4 does certain things better than the AMD but the AMD is "overall" better. IE scores better in more areas.

[robin801]

price range-1000-1500 dollars.


robin

[Mntsnow]

Hmmm For that kind of money you can do just about anything you want including a nice Raid setup :)

[KenKun]

Hi Robin :D..
So do you want ready PC .. or you want suggested parts (MoBo, CPU, RAM ...ect) so your friend cab build it himself ?...

As Mntsnow said .. with this kind of cash you can build a very top quality PC ...
Anyway, consider the following in the PC:

CPU .. AMD XP 1800+
HS .. TaiSol or Volcano 6CU+ or 7
MoBo .. with VIA KT266A chipset (Epox for OCing, ASUS for stability)
RAM .. at least 256MB of PC2100 DDR ( 512 would be better /Crucial is great )
HDD .. at least 30GB (Maxtor or WD / MP3 will eat disk space sooo fast)
Sound Card .. i think you should go for Creative Audigy
Video card .. as video is not an issue you might get ATI Radeon card for its great 2D quality .. or GF2 Pro for better gaming performance ...
CD-RW .. Plextor or Yamaha .. 16X write at least
CD/DVD drive .. also Yamaha or Richo
PSU Enermax .. 350Watts should be enough for the above spec ..

Screen and case .. thats what i don't really know about in the US market .. so you have to check or wait for more replies ....


Regards;)

[Mntsnow]

And please dont forget a Top quality set of 5.1 surround sound speakers for the Creative Audigy soundcard. That soundcard is awesome but to get the most out of it you need to have top quality speakers too!

What Ken has listed follows very closely to what I would have recommended but the main thing I would change is the HD's. I personally would go with 40 to 60 gig models (not much price difference) and I would go with a couple of them (namely 4) and then I would do a Raid 0+1 setup as that gives you stripping speed AND redundance as long as the Motherboard choosen supports Raid :)


Enjoy

[MDS]

and don't forget the Klipsch 5.1's, I have the 4.1 and there they are the best spkers I've ever had just can't spend the bucks to goto the 5.1's about$300 for the 4.1's and about $400 for the 5.1's but they are worth it

[robin801]

thanks for the system recommendation. i like this setup for myself.

can i get some links or info that explains raid 0+1 setup?


robin

btw-what is this graph to my left about?::confused:


robin

[jadison]

Hey robin801: glad you could make it over here!
Welcome to XtremePcCentral! :)

Here's some info about the "graph":

It's basically an "Activity level monitor"

"HP (horsepower) drops and rises according to the member’s activeness.

MP (dedication) determines how long a user has been with the forums, and how active they are. (Length + how active)

EXP (experience) determines how close a user is to reaching the next level."

"Levels mean somewhat like the "member rankings"

There is like 25 levels or so...Maybe more Maybe less "

There ya go! :)

[robin801]

why thank you for the information.

robin

[Mntsnow]

Robin,

Here is a link for info on the Raid setups.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/

Take a look at the Single Raid levels and the Multiple (Nested) raid levels that should bring you up to speed :)

[jadison]

Well, I would go with everything KenKun and Mntsnow offered except for a couple of changes:

-- MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU (MS-6380 v2.0) (has support for USB 2.0 and Promise IDE RAID)
-- 512MB PC2100 DDR Crucial RAM
-- (2) 40GB 7200RPM IBM Deskstar or Maxtor HD's (RAID Setup)
-- LiteOn, Samsung, Mitsumi all have 24x10x40 for under $70
-- 32MB GeForce2 MX/400 (works for me, great 2D/3D performance)
-- Antec SX1030B (Top-Of-The-Line-Black-Case, I have it and I must say it is the best case I've ever used: Click Here For the Black Case (http://www.antec-inc.com/store/cgi-bin/sc/order.cgi?storeid=store&dbname=products&itemnum=23&function=add)

You said you wanted a black system...well, that case is black, and I'm sure you could get a customized black mouse/keyboard from anywhere online. AlienWare (http://www.alienware.com) has a nice setup.

As far as monitors go, I've always relied and trusted PCWorlds reviews, here's the latest Top10 Chart from PCWorld.com: Click Here for Top 10 Monitors (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,68783,pg,2,00.asp). From that Top 10 list, he should be able to balance price and performance and end up with a great decision on a monitor that suits him.

Hope this helps! :)

[robin801]

thanks jadison that is the case i was looking for.

over at another site(u know which one) they recommended the seagate barracuda VI. they say it is the fastest hdd out right now and quiet.

robin

[Mntsnow]

You can say TechIMO here :) lol

The Seagates are good drives as are the Maxtors. IBM has moved down the list for me as of late and that is mainly due to the way they handle RMA's where the Maxtor has excellent RMA policys in place and they actually follow them :)

[jadison]

For the Audio Enthused, here's a nice sound card for the Xtreme: Audiotrack MAYA Soundcard (http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/audiotrackmaya/index.html)

BTW, the fastest is 15,000RPM SCSI for the desktop consumer market...I don't know about noise level, but I'm sure the price is a little too high. Otheos would be able to help you there, as he is more proficient in that subject. :)

[robin801]

i talked to the guy and he wants

the new athlon xp2000+
80gig hdd not interested in raid.

he just started using the computer a year ago. (bought a dell pentium) just wants something that he doesn't have to upgrade again for awhile.

robin

[robin801]

my fault i know that scsi is faster. i was referring to the ide hdd.:o


robin

[Pshawn5]

sorry to butt in this thread, but great monitor link , i was looking for something like that jadison! :)

[robin801]

well bad news for me. the system build that i was going to do for a friend(the black system) fell threw. he is not getting the money from his job that he thought he was going to get.:(


but the good news is i just sold my duron 850 to another friend (didn't care about the color he just wanted something newer than what he had).

so now i build me a new system.

system specs so far:

mobo-epox 8kha+
cpu-athlon 1800+
hdd-seagate barracuda IV(2-40gig or more)
hsf-volcano 6cu
memory-crucial 256 pc2100
video-?(would like vivo)
sound-?
case-antec sx1030(beige)with antec pp403 400watt(do i need more fans?)
cdrw-lite-on 16x
dvd-?(not sure what brand)


any help with the question marks would be appreciated.

any changes to this setup would be appreciated.

if i left out anything please let me know.


robin

[FalcomPSX]

robin, if you want a vivo video card, take a look at the radeon 7500dv or 8500dv. Should be top notch cards, or if you don't want something that high end look for a Geforce 2/3 whatever with video in, MSI makes several models with vivo.
dvd I'd reccomend a Toshiba 16X, some might say pioneer, i've had bad experiences with their cdroms(24x slot model), and 10x dvd so I'm back to toshiba.

[robin801]

thanks falcomPSX. i was looking at the ati 8500dv. that one is a little to much for me to spend on a video card.

this is what i really want to do. i want to be able to put some movies that i have on vhs tape to a cdr.

if i get the radeon 7500(the all in wonder) will i be able to transfer from vhs to cdr?

i don't play games on my system.

robin

[FalcomPSX]

as far as i know, the 7500dv can do everything the 8500dv can do, only with the 7500 radeon 3d performance. If you don't play games, they there's no reason to get the 8500dv.