Building a P4 machine

Sage

Hi, I might be making a new system since my old system from 2000 is well ancient and I'm starting to need something more powerful. I don't need the super top of the line but I need something beefy that isn't over 800 bucks. If it's possible to gethis with 400 bucks that would be great. I only need a mid tower, mini would be great but there doesn't seem to be anything that fit's my needs.

What I have now is Gateway workstation runnying win 2000
2 p3 450
512 megs of ram
120 gig HD
nvidia geforce 4 titanium
dvd/cdr combo
200 watt power supply

I'm looking to build a P4 3.2 ghz 800 with at least a
gig or ram. what would be good parts for this. I was wondering if AMD 64 would be better though, but I'm concerned about 64 bit causeing problems for my 32 bit apps. All I'll be doing is makeing art in XSI, Photoshop and playing games.

I more or less think I know what I want

winxp pro
P4 3.2 hyperthreading 800 FBS
1 gig or more of ram
HD and dvd/cdr combo drives I'm thinking of reusing from old
I would like to have as many usb ports as possible and a few for the front.

What would be a good case, easy to open and mess around with, and a good power supply.

What would be a good graphics card, I need something that will work with Max, Maya, XSI and loves games.

What would be a good motherboard for this?

The devices I use are a wacom 2 usb, scanner usb, digital camara.

There used to be a forum for this before the boards went down last year. I hope this isn't a bad place to ask for this kind of advice.

Alex

Joshua Stubbles

Honestly, if you're looking for GAME performance - get an AMD system. Intel just doesn't come close, when it comes to games.

Sage

Thanks for the reply. What would be a good AMD processor?

Alex

CheapAlert

a nice athlon64 3200 is pretty much today's average computer, and those a64 3800 x2's are doing well too

or if you're feeling like a cheapy, get a socket 754 mobo and a sempron 2600 and overclock that sucker to 2ghz for performance pretty equal to that of an athlon64 3200, but with alot less price. 128kb l2 cache isn't that bad...

as for video cards, just stay away from the 6200, the entire Geforce FX series and Radeons lower than 9700 (r9500 pro is the exception), and you'll be good.

Sage

Thanks for the info Cheapy. It been a long time since I have looked for this that I feel like I was at another planet.

Any thoughts on this mini? Are Shuttle the best mini pcs around?

https://shop.msicomputer.com/App/StoreFront/ProductDetail.aspx?ID=954

• Support Socket 754 for AMD Athlon 64 CPU
• VIA K8M800 + VIA VT8237R
• Supports DDR 266/333/400
• K8M800 Integrated UniChrome 2 Graphics
• Realtek ALC658 Audio Codec
• 7 in 1 Card Reader ; IEEE 1394
• 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN
• 260W Power Supply

Alex

CheapAlert

also another thing, don't confuse socket 754 with 939. 754 is only good for the lower end Semprons. 939 is what you want if you're looking into high-end.

Sage

Thanks Cheapy for the information. I kind of got to that conclusion from looking at the stuff on pricewatch.com. By the way how important is the memory found in vid cards? I always thought the more memory they had the better. I once ask a friend and he gave me a funny look but didn't elaborate. I belive my current graphics card had 128 DDr ram in it. I have to check. I thinking of getting one that has at least 256. Thanks again.

Heh, just checked my card is a MSI G4 Ti 4400 with 128 mb DDR. I love that card.

Alex

KDR_11k

If your video ram runs out you'll see severe framerate drops. Like from 50+FPS to 3. If that happens, you need to decrease texture and screen resolutions. In my experience that's the first barrier you'll hit with a graphics card.

Oh and that Shuttle has an onboard graphics card. That means 3d performance worse than a Voodoo 1. Avoid those at all costs unless you never want to use 3d on the system.

What's the difference between mini and mid tower? One 5.25" slot?

sonic

Socket 754 sucks unless you're going with a budget system. The biggest gripe with it is you can't utilize dual channel memory. The memory on a graphics card determines how high the resolution on the textures will be. For most new games, I'd say go with 256mb at least, but 128 will do if that's the best deal you can find. Here's what I recommend for your budget (I've built about 10 of these for work, and every customer loved it):

Socket 939 Athlon 64 3200+

1gb dual channel memory (corsair, mushkin, or similar brand)

An nForce4 motherboard with PCI-e, I recommend this one : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131569

As far as the graphics card goes, if you're not going to be playing anything past battlefield2 for a while, go with something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?item=N82E16814150130 , but if you need more juice (to run obvlion and such things!) go with this : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150140

as far as the hard drive and other components go, you can figure that out, just make sure you get a 450+ watt power supply.

bearkub

Sonic, you need to give me all of your knowledge of machines. NOW.

Damn I have fallen behind in the hardware scene. =P

Michael Knubben

As have i! I'm deciding between getting a readymade dell, and getting parts delivered. but i have NO clue what to get.
If anyone wants to lend me a hand on msn or something, be my guest!
i'm looking to get a machine for around €1500, if at all possible with a good soundcard as well (good for recording etc, that is)
i'd be satisfied with a less-than-top-of-the-line videocard.

PfhorRunner

Sonic that sounds like a fairly good system. Though i might go with the higher end Graphics card, and then slowly upgrade other components as needed.

P.S. what do you think of the AMD M2 socket processors that are supposed to be hitting the markets soon? is ddr2 really where its going to be at? I havn't heard such great things.

Scott Ruggels

Anyone in the Los Angeles Area have a good recommendation of a place to build or get cheap parts to self build a PC around a new P4 Processor? (I won it, and want to make a fast machine capable of running Oblivion at Maximum Pretty and be okay with UT2K7 when it comes out.)

Scott

Downsizer

Actually the next Intel and AMD lines have been tested already, and intel is ahead considerably. The new chipset is due this fall if you can wait that long. AMD prices should plumet with the release.

I'm a systems engineer if you have any specific questions. 800 bucks wont get you much i'm afraid. Not enough for a decent gaming rig, unless you canabalize some old parts from your current machine. By gaming rig, i mean high detail at 1024x768 minimum spec on current gen games. I cant even get that in current gen games like Oblivion or B&W 2.

check pricewatch.com if you are building it yoruself.

KDR_11k

I've fallen behind, too but nothing a quick google and read couldn't solve.

Downsizer: Of course, if you cannibalize the trivial parts (that REALLY don't need replacing) like drives and case you can get away with 600-700$ for a gaming rig.

Testing Oblivion is a bit unfair, I don't think you can get a decent framerate in that without a 5000$ rig. Hell, you can't get a constant framerate on the target hardware (XCircle). I mean, it's like demanding a rig that'll never chug when playing Clonk (with lots of custom items).

Sage

Thanks for all the replies, very nice. I used to try to keep up with the hardware changes but then I graduated and couldn't get a nice paying job so no point since I had no money for upgrades. The rig is mostly for doing 3d work like 2048 x 2048 textures in Photoshop and baking them in XSI. My machine still does the job but it's damn annoying having to wait so long for it to finish.

Alex