Rate My Possible Buy

[the100thballoon]

Just as a reference (dont know if you care or can use it):

I am saving up to get a new computer (parts and then I will build it) and I am going to get the absolute best of the best gfx/video hardware, a 4000 chip (AMD), 2 GB of RAM, new (fastest) DVD-RW drive, DVDROM, about 160 GB, and all the other essentials for less than $1700. I figured if I was going to upgrade, why not upgrade enough so that I dont have to do it again for a few years.

 

[Zelig]

It really isn't cost-effective to get the best of everything, you could save large amounts of money by getting slightly slower gear and overclocking it.

There's also no chance of you getting that gear for less than $1700, a top of the line cpu, video card, mobo and ram will definately push you over $2000 without anything else.

 

[Zakharov]

@CIVPhilzilla, you should be looking at a SATA hard disk, not the IDE version. I would also recommend that you get the fastest cpu you can afford if you do not plan to overclock it. I think the 3500+ is the best cpu on the price/performance scale at the moment. Even the 3800+ has come down in price quite a lot recently.

I'm sorry to have to say this but your video card is bad. The entire 5x00 range is an embarrassment to nvidia, with the 5200 being the worst of the lot. The 256MB of RAM on that card is irrelevant as only the first 64MB is used. The only cards that can make good use of that much vRAM are the 6800 and X800 series. I would also advise you not to buy the 6200TC. Turbocaching will be an interesting technology for laptop gaming, but it really hurts desktop performance. Having said all that, your 5200 may be adequate depending on what games you play (eg. Civ3). What do you intend to use this new machine for?

nb. For future reference, do not judge a graphics card on the amount of vRAM it has. You should pay attention to the model number instead.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I'm sorry to have to say this but your video card is bad. The entire 5x00 range is an embarrassment to nvidia, with the 5200 being the worst of the lot. The 256MB of RAM on that card is irrelevant as only the first 64MB is used. The only cards that can make good use of that much vRAM are the 6800 and X800 series. I would also advise you not to buy the 6200TC. Turbocaching will be an interesting technology for laptop gaming, but it really hurts desktop performance. Having said all that, your 5200 may be adequate depending on what games you play (eg. Civ3). What do you intend to use this new machine for?

nb. For future reference, do not judge a graphics card on the amount of vRAM it has. You should pay attention to the model number instead.

Some of the games I play are The Sims 2, Black and White, Command and Conquer Generals, Counterstrike, Civilization III, and will propably be looking into newer games as they come out. When I upgraded my card from a TNT Model 64 32 MB card it made a world of difference. I was able to increase my graphics setting and speed considerably. The only things that were still lagging me was when there were tons of units or actions on the map, which would be more the ram than vide card. I guess I'll look into other cards; however, I am easily able to overclock this over 20% faster than its default without it even flinching.

Would this be a better choice of hard drives?
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=0-N82E16822144357

 

[Zelig]

Stick with IDE if you want... they're usually a better buy, and all motherboards still support them, and adaptors are available anyway.

That being said, I only buy sata drives myself, mostly because I like the cables better.

Check out these benchmarks comparing your graphics card to many others:
http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/index.html

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Well that was a lousy $100 investment.

 

[MarineCorps]

Would this be a better choice of hard drives?
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=0-N82E16822144357

Looks good to me.

I belive the advatage of SATA is that it reduces bottlenecks in data flow or something like that.

 

[Zelig]

Yes, in theory, but consumer level hard drives aren't fast enough to saturate their ata-133 data-path, so it doesn't really matter anyway.

IIRC only SATA drives get NCQ, which can give a nice performance boost though.

edit: fixed to make more sense

 

[MarineCorps]

Yes, in theory, but consumer hard drives aren't fast enough to saturate their ata-133 data-path, so it doesn't really matter anyway.

IIRC only SATA drives get NCQ, which can give a nice performance boost though.

Consumer HD?

 

[Zelig]

As in non-SCSI drives.

 

[Zakharov]

Would this be a better choice of hard drives?
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=0-N82E16822144357

This seems to be the equivalent SATA version of the IDE drive you listed earlier. One difference I can see is that the SATA drive has an 8MB cache whilst the IDE one has 16MB of cache. This may well balance out the difference in transfer rates between the two. It is tough to recommend one over the other as they are virtually the same price. I think it would probably be best to go for the SATA drive for the sole reason that it is a newer technology.

As for your graphics card, looking at the games you list it is probably adequate for now. I would only be worried if you were trying to play things like Doom3 and Half-Life 2 with it. You should probably stick with your decision to get an AGP mobo. If you need to upgrade in future then I am quite confident that the next generation of cards will have an AGP option, though they may be slightly more expensive than their PCI-E equivalents due to the need for a bridge chip. You could also pick up a card from the current top range when they are cheaper.

 

[Zelig]

It wouldn't balance out, the higher sata transfer rate offers no actual performance benefits. It won't be much of a difference though... I'd still get the sata drive, because like I said, I like the cables.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I think I am going to get the AGP Motherboard, I will try it out with my current vid card, if it proves to be a problem I'll upgrade. I found a pretty good one for $170, 128 MB with a 1000 MHz clock, versus my current 350 MHz.

 

[Zelig]

Clockspeed isn't a good comparison between video cards, as the architecture, amount of pipelines and vertex shaders, and other things create large performance differences between different cards.

A 6600 GT card would probably be your best buy if you end up gett one soon, you should be able to find one for near that price.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Something like this? http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127150

$194, the $170 version is the PCI Express.

 

[Cedric Greene]

Well if you dont mind refurb, http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150080R . Same brand I have, and I love mine. 60fps in WoW with 1600x1200 and almost everything cranked up is fantastic.

 

[Zakharov]

If you are going to be upgrading your video card soon, you should probably go for the PCI-E mobo and card. You should only go AGP if you intend to stick with your 5200 for a while.

Btw, the 6600GT is an excellent choice.

 

[the100thballoon]

It really isn't cost-effective to get the best of everything, you could save large amounts of money by getting slightly slower gear and overclocking it.

There's also no chance of you getting that gear for less than $1700, a top of the line cpu, video card, mobo and ram will definately push you over $2000 without anything else.

After hearing that I went online and priced everything again. I can get the following for $1690:

4.0 GHz AMD Processor
Motherboard to work with that

2 GB RAM (fastest)

160 GB HD Space (fastest)

Best of the best Video Card (256 MB+ and the best reputation, etc.)
New sound card

New mouse
New case
New keyboard

DVD-RW
DVD-ROM


I might have left something out but all those listed are (cumulatively) definately less than $1700. Maybe I have good sources.... or maybe you havent looked around. I have a low income and as such I am an incredibly frugal person. I will find the cheapest possible anything (as long as not too much quality is sacrificed in the process. on computers I take only top quality.) The only thing I need apart from that list is a new monitor but that is going to jack the price up about 200-700 more US dollars.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

If you are going to be upgrading your video card soon, you should probably go for the PCI-E mobo and card. You should only go AGP if you intend to stick with your 5200 for a while.

Btw, the 6600GT is an excellent choice.

I may do this. It makes no sense to buy something that will be harder to upgrade to temporarly use an older vid card.

 

[Zelig]

the100thballoon:

Okay, these prices are off Newegg, I don't buy from US sites, so can't price as well as you probably did, but Newegg is generally pretty close to the lowest prices available.

Athlon XP 4000+: $542.99
Motherboard: $120 (Am lazy and lowballing this instead of finding a price)
RAM: $650 (OCZ PC-5000 platinum, found a low price on a Canadian site, converted to US currency and then rounded down, so it might be more expensive)
Hard drive: $80 (You don't really want the fastest 160Gb hard drive. That would be a SCSI drive, and would require a seperate controller to run.)
Video Card: $500 (Again, I got lazy and estimated low, for an X850XT PE)
Sound card: $60
Mouse: $5
Keyboard: $5 (Nice mouse and keyboard, eh? )
Case: $30
PSU: $100
Optical Drives: $70

This is over $2150, care to point out where you're cutting any corners?