CDIH

yes

i was thinking of getting a Dell but thought i could get better parts seperately for less.

Screen Savers to the rescue!...

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Good find. I was gonna suggest looking to several sites and see what they say. Such as Arstechnica.com

Heres a lower priced alternative system to build here that i found on the Tech TV site...

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Keyser, do you have the technical skills required to put it all together or are you going to be coming here asking for all sorts of help when it doesn't work?

Yeah.. properly configuring a motherboard is a bitch.

i just got a 200 gig seagate harddrive for $100 after rebate on tigerdirect. i don't think its there anymore. its sweet.

but you should look to spend as close to 50 cents a gig as possible

Bottom line, if you are thinking about building your own system, do it. It affords you a lot more flexibility than buying a boxed system like one from Gateway or Dell. Sure, Dell makes good machines, but they are better suited for business than for upgrades.

Personally, I never buy the latest greatest because the shit that's three months old is usually up to snuff and about 30% cheaper at least.

IMHO, anything over a 3.0 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM is overkill.

Yes, get a good video card, but as mentioned, the 9800 card for $230 is plenty, no need to go for the 9800XT for $500.

For hard drives, go to best buy every week and wait till you find the 120 GB hard drives for under $100 after rebate. They seem to have these sales every other week, so it shouldn't be a problem. Just be sure to get drives that are 7500 or better RPM and have 8 MB cache.

For your mainboard, get something reputable with plenty of expansion slots and be sure it has an 8X capable AGP slot. You should plan to pay about $150 or better for a decent one, and make sure it doesn't have onboard video or audio. Some mainboards that have onboard audio are OK, but one's with onboard video are definitely shite. I think it's also typical for mainboards in that price range to have support for USB2.0 on onboard slots as well as expansion for extra ports.

Finally, for your case....

Be sure to get a flexible case with easy install drive bays. Most Antec rip-offs have this. Also, be sure to get one that has a 450W or better power supply. This will give you plenty of power to support multiple hard drives and disc drives (CD-R/W, DVD-R/W, etc.)

As an encore, I'll post my current system...

ThermalTake Xaser III case w/ 7 ball bearing fans, 450W power supply and fan speed controller/temperature monitor

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Soyo Dragon Lite Mainboard -

On-board 10/100 Mbps Ethernet function by Realtek controller
Embedded CMedia 8738 audio chip to provide 4-channel hardware audio (6-channel ready with the addition of an SPDIF audio connector)
Supports high speed USB 2.0 ports
Adjustable CPU FSB, core voltage & multiplier via BIOS setup
Adjustable DIMM voltage
Adjustable AGP voltage
Advanced Management Capabilities: Software power off control, Power-on by keyboard, Power-on by Alarm, Modem Ring On
Supports ATX 12V power supply only
Supports on-board Hardware Monitoring and includes Hardware Health Utility to streamline your PC management
Supports WOL (Wake On LAN) function to simplify network management
Suspend To RAM, Suspend To Disk
Chipset Type: VIA P4X400
Chipset Description:
VIA P4X400/8235 chipset
Supports 533/400 MHz FSB
Supports Hyper-Threading technology
Form Factor: ATX
Memory Type: DDR400 SDRAM
Memory Description:
Three DDR 2.5V DIMM sockets support up to 3GB (DDR 266, 2GB for DDR 333/400)
184-pin PC3200/PC2700/PC2100 non-ECC, unbuffered DDR SDRAM memory
Expansion Slots:
Five 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI slots (V2.2 compliant)
One AGP slot (support 8X/4X mode up to 1.5v)
Expansion Slot Types: Five 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI slots
IDE Type: UDMA 66/100/133
IDE Description:
Two independent channels for four IDE devices
Supports up to PIO Mode 5 and UDMA 66/100/133
Two PCI bus mastering ATA E-IDE ports


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Pentium 4 2.4 GHz Processor, 533 MHz Bus, 512KB L2-Cache

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RAM - (2x) 512MB PC2700 DDR RAM

Video Card - ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 128MB, AGP 4X (Not the greatest, but it works for me and it was <$150 at the time.

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Hard Drives -

(2x) Western Digital WD1000JB 100GB, 7200 RPM, 8MB Cache

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(2x) Western Digital WD1200JB 120GB, 7200 RPM, 8MB Cache

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CR-RW Drive - Norcent Model RW521 (52x24x52)... I think I paid like $79 after rebate for this like 6 months ago.

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DVD-R/RW Drive - Pioneer DVR-A05U ($159 after rebate)... 4X DVD Write, 2X DVD Re-Write, 16X CDR, 8X CDRW

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I'm not sure that all of this would come in under $2K at the time, you could surely find similar equipment for less than $2K today. The key for me is that this is like the 5th system I've built, so I alway have shit to use from my old machines. Typically, I upgrade in increments of under $200 at a time. This theory goes out the window when buying a new mainboard, processor and memory, of course.

The best advice I can give is that building your own system, while frustrating, can be very rewarding. Use your old equipment (CDR/RW, etc.) to stay within your budget. Don't scrimp on your key components such as mainboard, processor and RAM. Don't be afraid to take advantage of rebates, just be sure to mail them in immediately with all the required paperwork. Also, check out <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcshow.com">http://www.pcshow.com</a><!-- w --> and <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.marketpro.com">http://www.marketpro.com</a><!-- w --> for the upcoming computer shows in the NY/NJ area. You can find great deals there if you know what NOT to buy.

the cdrs and dvdrs are a lot cheaper now

Kid, thanks for your extensive recommendation and for posting your own spec.

I've heard the AMD Athlon is faster than the current fastest pentium, is this true? Do you think its worth getting the AMD over the Pentium?

definitely check pcshow.com, I go to almost all of their shows. The thing is, you gotta work the vendors, even lie to get their prices down. Most times (lately anyway) they're only a few $$'s cheaper than retail so you gotta haggle them down. NEVER let them sell you a complete system and then build it for you there, they do it chop-shopish and fast, and then you gotta hunt them down for repairs.

I just bought from Dell the new Plextor 708A 8x DVD-R drive for $180 flat. It burns some 4x media at 8x and is pretty much the top-rated DVD burner available right now.

im hoping to get that same plextor dvd-r drive for under $150 soon cause i know someone that works at best buy and they get awesome discounts

I don't know about AMD being faster, but they are at least comparable to Pentiums. I've just always used Intel and never had problems, so I'm not switching.

This is what i've decided to buy...

Case: Cooler Master Wave Master $152.00



Motherboard: Micro-Star International K8T Neo-FIS2R $124.00



Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ $403.84



Memory: Corsair TwinX1024-3200LLPro $283.00



Video Board: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro $118



Hard Drive 1: Western Digital Serial ATA WD Raptor $243.00



Hard Drive 2: Western Digital Caviar SE $140.00

check MSI web site and make sure the memory has been checked with it.
Corsair is great, and i have it, but there can be finicky stuff- especially wiht new tech, and you dont want to hassle.

its the same memory and motherboard combo that TSS is using for their perfect gaming machine.

i just noticed, keyser, where did you get half those prices? alot of them are like 100 dollars less then some of the low prices i've seen

his radeon price is a typo. theres no way around it

My company gives great discounts on DELL computers, I can get Dell XPS 3.2Ghz w/800MHz FSB , 1 Gig RAM, 19 inch flatscreen, Radeon 9800 Video Card, 250 GB HD, Dual 8x DVD-RW and 16x DVD-ROM drives for just $2,400

Should I just buy that instead of building my own?