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+--- Thread: recommend me a motherboard/CPU combo - your insights are appreciated (/showthread.php?tid=5631)
- Goatweed - 03-16-2003
So the time has come for me to seriously start working on building my new system. I know nothing of motherboards, but I know there are hundreds out there to choose from. I'd prefer an Intel CPU over an AMD, but I wont totally rule one out. The machine will mainly be used for gaming, so ease of setup and CPU speed and RAM speed and cost are all factors - I'm looking for the "best bang for my buck(s)".
so....any suggestions?
- Weird NJ - 03-16-2003
Dude. Get a Dell. :lol:
- Goatweed - 03-16-2003
I have a Dell - It's 4 years old, and I love it but I wanna be a little more "hands on" with my next machine.
That dude was cool, too bad he got pinched. What the fuck, they wanted a stoner-surfer guy to sell their machines, and then the fire him for living the part?
- Weird NJ - 03-16-2003
Click this link.
- Jack - 03-16-2003
Soyo KT-400 Platinum
AMD Athlon XP 2400
DDR333 (PC2700)
Geforce TI 4600
= Awesome system.
- Luna - 03-16-2003
Quote:Dude. Get a Dell.I'm getting a Dell :banana: It's coming on Tuesday. :banana: :banana:
- Goatweed - 03-16-2003
I checked Weird's link, they seem to like Athlon CPU's - as does Jack. Why do I hear so many bad things about them then?
- Kid Afrika - 03-16-2003
With AMD, you get "supposedly" equal performance at a much lower cost. But, I've seen horror stories about their chips breaking when you install them. I've also heard that the performance varies depending on the type of application.
I've always used Intel processors and never had a bad experience with one, so that's what I'm sticking with for now...
As for motherboards, get one that supports everything you want to do. I've never been extremely concerned with frontside bus speed and all that shit, I just get a board that matches my processor and has the slots I need. I try to stick with ASUS because I've had good experiences with them and they are reasonably priced.
- 2 tired 2 give N F - 03-17-2003
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- LyricalGomez - 03-17-2003
Quote:<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.alienware.com">http://www.alienware.com</a><!-- w -->
Ripoff central
- 2 tired 2 give N F - 03-17-2003
really? I've never gotten one...but it looks good...the price is rather high...but the products look good...
- LyricalGomez - 03-17-2003
They do make high quality computers, but you really are paying about twice what the computer is worth.
But they're acctually not as bad as some other companies out there, Falcon Northwest and their fucking insane 1000 dollar paintjobs come to mind, not to mention Voodoo who charge you 500 bucks more just because they put a little piece of plexiglass in the side of the case so you can see the computer components.
- Arpikarhu - 03-17-2003
get one without a scuzzi. they seem to cause alot of problems
- Weird NJ - 03-17-2003
Quote:I checked Weird's link, they seem to like Athlon CPU's - as does Jack. Why do I hear so many bad things about them then?It's not so bad performance-wise. The reason they get bad hype is because they are delicate chips like K1d said. I chipped one of mine by accident but thankfully all is well.
Athlon XP's are excellent chips at half the price of a Pentium 4. Only a year ago were Athlons top dog in regards to speed. Now the difference between the companies' chips are marginal.
- Jack - 03-17-2003
Athlons also get a bad rep because a lot of people judge how fast the processor is by its Mhz rating. While that used to be the best way to judge the chip, it no longer is true. The front side bus and memory bus speeds are the biggest factor in how the chip performs. It won't matter if the chip is capable of doing 2.5 or 3 Ghz if the FSB or Memory Bus can't handle that kind of data transfer. The Athlon XP chips are designed to maximize the use of those busses while Intel chips are more concerned with the Mhz still because in the consumers eye, Mhz is still better.
My recommendation is to go with the board and processor I recommended above. I am using them both currently and my system is smokin'. Get your memory on crucial.com (a little bit more expensive, but well worth it as they will be guaranteed to work). The video card is up to you. Want the best? Then get the ATI Radeon AIW 9700. (It's only $400.00).
- LyricalGomez - 03-17-2003
But if you really want to save money on the video card, the Radeon 9000 is an amazing deal.
The new Geforce chip is supposed to be very, very disappointing from what I've read, they promised this revolutionary chip. kept pushing the release date back further and further, and now that it's released it still got beaten in a few tests by the 9700
- Goatweed - 03-17-2003
I'm not too trusting of ATI boards, although I hear their driver issues have gotten much better, most people say they're still quirky. I've been running Nvidia boards for years without any problems. Right now I'm running a Ti500 - slow by today's standards, but it handles all my games just fine right now (even UT2K3). The vid board is kinda low on the priority scale now, mainly because even the ATI9700 - while it might be the king of the hill now - really is overkill, as there isn't one game out that will take full advantage of what it offers and by the time there is a game (like Doom 3, I'm guessing) this board will no longer be the best, and hence more affordable (and it'll give ATI more time to really get their driver issues totally ironed out).
I'm more concerned with motherboard stability, flexibility (ports), and RAID, though I'm not toally sure exactly what it is, but I hear it's the shit - as well as an affordable CPU with decent clockspeed. And yes Jack, Crucial is my best friend (next to Newegg) :-D
I went to a PC Show this weekend and I started looking around, but I know nothing of what a really good deal is in regards to boards/CPU's, that's why I'm asking. I also saw cases, wtf - I saw one with a fake fishtank on the side (where the window normally is, for those uber-cool LAN-party type geeks - going for the cool price of $200. Mind, you, it was a FAKE "tank" with fake fish - for that $$, I could buy myself a sweet REAL tank :crackhead:
- 2 tired 2 give N F - 03-17-2003
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:thumbs-up:
- Jack - 03-17-2003
The board I recommended comes with two ATA 133 Raid ports as well as two standard ATA 133 ports.. (this allows you to have up to 8 atapi devices instead of 4). It also has USB 2.0 and allows up to 3GB of memory. Its the best board for the bucks when you are buying AMD.
Soyo KT400 Dragon Platinum.
You can get it at CompUSA for $169.99 so I am sure you could pick it up online for probably around $100.00.
If your not concerned about the Video then just get a standard Geforce 4. Ti4400 or Ti4600 can be had for under 200 Bucks.
- Goatweed - 03-17-2003
Jack, if I go AMD and it breaks down, can I send it to you for repair? ;-)