Building Computer

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by JJJIrish05, Jul 5, 2004.

  1. JJJIrish05

    JJJIrish05 Sergeant

    hey, im new here, a friend told me to come here, so im building a new computer, and the first thing i gotta do is decide if i want to go for a 64bit processor or not? i havn't really read much about them, havn't heard much, never really cared till now, so can you guys give me some suggestions? should i get it? is it worth it? or should i wait for a couple years? or is that too long? cause im young, dont got to much money, and this will be my computer for a couple years at least, so should i go for the 64 now? i use it mostly for gaming, but i will also be using it for video edity, programing, and who knows what else, so ya, thank in advance for all the help
     
  2. InYearsToCome

    InYearsToCome MajorGeek

    the best way to decide this is with the amount of money you have to spend right now.

    if you've only got around $500-$700, you're likely going to want a Pentium4 or an Athlon XP, both 32-bit.

    if you have about $1000 or more, I would say definetly go Athlon64. You can build a nice system now with a mid range video card that will still play all of the games for a year or two, and after that you could always upgrade the video card.
     
  3. JJJIrish05

    JJJIrish05 Sergeant

    ok, i got the money, but when it comes to this stuff, i dont really know the differences, if i got the money should i just go for the most expensive one? or what?
     
  4. InYearsToCome

    InYearsToCome MajorGeek

    well there are a lot of things to look at.
    the most upgradeable for the next few years that you could buy right now is an AMD Athlon 64 processor with a 939 pin socket, and a compatible motherboard.

    AMD plans to make that their high end processor, and keep the socket 754 for their lower end. this may mean nothing to you right now, but its something to read up on.

    Big changes are also going to happen in the near future, so either way you go (32-bit or 64-bit) you're goin to be limited in how much you can upgrade without changing your motherboard. (PCI Express video cards, BTX form factor, DDR2 RAM)

    what do you think your price range is? a rough estimate will help us give you an idea of what you'd want.
     
  5. JJJIrish05

    JJJIrish05 Sergeant

    i got enough, a good 2k or so, so ya, so i should get one with a 939 pin socket, but like ya, i was looking at these 2, they were exactly the same except different core, what does the core do? which kind of core should i go for? does it matter? what other things do i need to look up and into? cause most of these letters and numbers dont mean anything to me
     
  6. InYearsToCome

    InYearsToCome MajorGeek

    the cores you are reffering to are Newcastle and Clawhammer right?

    Clawhammer is in the Athlon64 FX series, which are meant to be server chips and run with ECC (Error checking) RAM.

    The Newcastle core is in the standard Athlon64 series, starting with the 3500+. this is the chip I would likely go for as for now its the best price/performance for an Athlon 64 939.


    I am a pressed for time right now, i'll get back to you some more later, but now that i have a price range, I can help a lot more.

    maybe make a new post in this hardware forum asking what others would build with near $2000... people love to make dream machines and you'd be sure to get a number of responses.
     
  7. techgrl

    techgrl Private E-2

    Hey there-

    First I want to give you "props" for building your own system. I am an advocate of just that. I would love for you to take a look at www.a-r-stechnica.com. (take out the two dashes when you are entering the URL, there must be a filter in this forum that assumes that I was trying to swear, so it wouldn't let me type that web address without placing the dashes between a few letters...giggle). When I was building my current box, I found information there that made sound sense. It gives you different systems built for different purposes. Fabulous site to learn about 64bit advantages, and also can give you insight as to what to expect in the future where technology is concerned.

    I guess if you are looking to upgrade this box for some time to come, you have to think about your needs. You are a gamer. That maybe is your first consideration. The ever-changing base of components and peripherals from which to choose from will inevitably cost you money whether you go 64 now or later. By all means, if you have the money and want to experiment, go 64. I mean, why not?!! I would if I could stomach the price tag for a new technology- but I am AMD XP all the way, backed with a fabulous board and a powerful Graphics Card. After all, it's not JUST the CPU that is the work horse here- it is just part of the bigger picture. You have 2K? Knock yourself out. I made my current box for around $500 bucks. You have more resources to blow, go crazy kid!

    Good luck!
     
  8. JJJIrish05

    JJJIrish05 Sergeant

    wow, i like that site!!!! i like those premade ones!!! ill probably just do the hotrod with a couple tweeks, thank you very very much, i think that site will be very helpful and hopfully ill get to build it soon, thank you all very much, and anymore help would be greatly appreciated, and thanx again for everyone that did help, if i have more questions ill ask, thanx, bye!!!!!!
     
  9. a-rob

    a-rob Private E-2

    i would highly suggest the 64 bit processors being a person who has one. i would also like to say that i have a gig of memory and that i'm running CAD programs, Adobe Photoshop CS, Maya, 3d Max, and a bunch of other very resource hogging programs. with my Athlon-64 3000+ i haven't run into any problems. but if you only play games and stuff i would save on the processor and get a bad ass video card, and a mid-to-high range processor depending if you have a monitor or how nice of a monitor you're going to get.

    you have to take into account which components cost the most:
    CPU
    Monitor
    Motherboard
    Video Card
    Sound Card
    CD/DVD Burners
    Memory

    are some of the more expensive things but the list could go on.

    really i think you'll end up having to go on what you like we can only give you opinions on what we like. go to best buy or something and test out some of the Athlon-64 systems and then test out some of the P4 systems and go with what your comfortable with.

    and with $2000 to spend you can have one pimp ass system. mine only cost me $1300 including a 19" CRT monitor.
     
  10. JJJIrish05

    JJJIrish05 Sergeant

    ok, do u think it would be smarter to go for 32bit now then upgrade to 64 in a year or 2 when PCI Express video cards, BTX form factor, DDR2 RAM, and all those other new things come out? when 64 bits could actually be used well? i mean, when do they think 64 bit processors will be necessary for some programs? what and when will be the first program to really use 64bit???

    :confused:
     
  11. JJJIrish05

    JJJIrish05 Sergeant

  12. InYearsToCome

    InYearsToCome MajorGeek

    well its not as important to have a program running 64 bit as it is for a whole operating system running 64 bit to emerge.

    so far, some distributions of Linux support AMD64, like Fedora Core 2, but even they are not "full" support yet--of course some bugs and compatibility are being worked out.

    Windows XP 64 bit edition is available as a public Beta, which still is not completely compatible or extremely reliable. i'd expect in 3 or so months Linux will be on top of it, and MS will be soon to follow.

    so yes, waiting a bit to move to 64-bit would mean more compatibility and reliability... but on the other hand, the Athlon 64's are still GREAT at performing 32 bit operations and (i believe) rank higher than p4's do in all but on-fly video encoding.

    if you are going 32 bit and planning an upgrade to 64-bit later... dont spend more than $600 IMO.
     
  13. Snuffles

    Snuffles Private First Class

    I too am building a system currently, and my thoughts on the 64 bit technologies right now are that its going to be a loooooong time before game devolpers are going to push it in their games, and seeing how processors are becoming less and less important in gaming than things like the graphics card, I don't see a reason to have the latest and greatest CPU. I can definetly see the advantage when it comes to graphic design and video editing, but I have always kept the PC world completely seperate from these tasks because it is my opinion that the Apple system do an infinitley better job at these things than a PC where a PC does a better job of gaming. So, what I am going to do, is hold off on the 64 bit until the game industry is ready to use, at that point it will be cheaper, and instead get a G5 (Apple) for the graphic art work I need to do.
     
  14. krazykrl

    krazykrl Sergeant Major

    The box said Windows 95 or better, so I bought a Macintosh.
     
  15. JJJIrish05

    JJJIrish05 Sergeant

    what a good athlon XP processor to overclock with? i know i probably should post this in that section but ya, can anyone tell me really quick? ill post it there later if i dont get replys on it, thanks, bye
     
  16. InYearsToCome

    InYearsToCome MajorGeek

    still? have you tried a high end PC lately? Adobe, maker of high end editing products, recently benchmarked Apple's G5 vs a Dell system running a p4 3.2C. Running real life situations, hit for hit, PC outperformed the Mac, in audio encoding, video encoding, and graphics rendering (bot systems used the same video card).

    thought a large amount is based on user preference... so its not to say PC is 100% better. The point is... even if you like Mac better... you cant slam PC on performance when it at least matches that of the Mac all around.

    unfortunately... it seems the higher up you go in the XP's, the less overclockable they are... but not by much so its not all loss.

    if you're working for a low cost system, try a 2800+. Its only about $80 now OEM, and paried with a good heatsink like a Thermalright SP-97 (or the new Thermalright XP-120) you should be able to hit 2.4-2.5ghz with some work.

    if you're deciding to spend a bit more, try the 3200+. It's already at a 400mhz FSB @ 2.2ghz and there is still some room for OC'ing a little bit.
     
  17. JJJIrish05

    JJJIrish05 Sergeant

    ok, i was told the 2500 is really nice and overclocks very well, and its cheap, so i think ill just go wtih that for now, but what kind of motherboard should i get? does it matter? i know it has to be for socket A, but i mean what else should i look for other than number of slots??? i mean i only need a couple PCI and 1 AGP right? i mean agp for graphics, 1 pci for sound, id probably get the onboard lan, what else do i really need? what else should i look for when buying a motherboard??
     
  18. InYearsToCome

    InYearsToCome MajorGeek

    i would go for an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe. you can get one for around $100 and its a solid board with great features.
     
  19. InYearsToCome

    InYearsToCome MajorGeek

    darn 3-minute edit rule...

    --continued

    things to look for in a motherboard:

    the Chipset: the A7N8X series runs the nForce2 chipset, a known champion for athlon XP's.

    Dual-Channel DDR support: if you use 2 DIMM's of RAM, you can take advantage of dual channel, giving you much greater bandwidth.

    on-board SATA w/SATA RAID: this will allow you use the newer Serial-ATA hard drives, which are faster than the standard Parallel-ATA hard drives of the past. If you run 2 identical SATA drives, you can RAID them for performance or stability (RAID 0 or RAID 1)

    Giga-bit LAN: the A7N8X-E Deluxe has onboard Giga-Bit LAN, capable of 1000Mbit/s, ready for the new generation of networking

    those are just some good features of that board. Most boards now are AGP8x and many have the same features, however Asus is a very trusted name who make quality boards.

    also, PCI slots are becoming less and less necesasary.

    this board has on-board LAN, and on-board sound... so you really dont need anything for the PCI slots except extra goodies
     

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