Building a PC

[GHP]

Yall are right spending almost 3 grand for a nice computer is bullshit, Its probably a better idea to get the parts and throw one together myself, I'm kinda trippin on missing some key element that will make the thing not work though. What am I going to need? I'm gonna have to check out Frys, unless you know of a better place for price and specialty items from DAWs.

 

[Carnage187]

all ya need is this,

AMD Athlon64 3700+ $230
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819103539

Epox EP-9NDA3J $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813123230

Corsair XMS 2x512mb $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820145450

Asus Geforce MX4000 $30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814121181

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250gb $105
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16822148065

awesome and complete for under $600 mine was 670 cuz i upgraded 2 gigs of ram.

and ya need an operating system, i just used my work places windows xp professional. I havent had a problem with it since. Trust the amd shit they got good cpus if u didnt no.

 

[Carnage187]

buy at monarchcomputers.com to avoid taxes if u want, but ul only be savin 20 bucks, lol u dont no how much i researchd this shit.

 

[GHP]

how does an AMD compare with a Pentium specwise? I don't understand their numbers? I've heard AMDs are better at running audio programs but when I preconfigured the PC I was talking about in the other thread I chose a pentium 4 cuz I know their numbers and what they can do

New Egg is a cool site from what I heard, My friend built his through there for like a G and it was loaded. Thanks for the info

 

[Doberman]

how does an AMD compare with a Pentium specwise? I don't understand their numbers? I've heard AMDs are better at running audio programs but when I preconfigured the PC I was talking about in the other thread I chose a pentium 4 cuz I know their numbers and what they can do

New Egg is a cool site from what I heard, My friend built his through there for like a G and it was loaded. Thanks for the info

Whatever you do. stay away from the Pentium 4 . especially P4 Celeron. And most AMD's . The reason I say this is not because they are bad processors..(.well the Celeron is straight Doo Doo) I say it because Dual-Core technology is on the market and performs much, much, much better than regular processors. Do a google on Dual Core and you will see what I mean. And AMD Dual Core processors are much faster than Intel's Dual core.

 

[GHP]

I heard AMD processors have trouble communicating with some audio software though

 

[Doberman]

Which software?

 

[GHP]

it just said that on the site i preconfigured a pc at but didn't buy cuz it was 2500 before taxes and shipping.

They said AMDs are faster but are buggy with some softwares while pentiums are a little slower but more compatable

I have no experience with AMD processors so i don't really know. I wonder how those intel powered G5s are gonna be like? I don't want a mac though, their support is total bullshit for the money you have to spend to get one.

 

[HERESY]

If I were you I would go with an amd dual core (x2 +4200 or +4800.) If you do not have the money to purchase one go AMD 64 (+3700 or more).

The tests done on the DIGI DUC show AMD beating intel and mac computers when it comes to pro tools. My belief is if you can build a stable computer capable of running pro tools without a problem all other programs will work as well. I base this belief on building two computers to run pro tools but actually using cubase to do most of the work. Pro tools NEEDS a stable computer in order to run effectively and the program and hardware act very funny when specific parts are not use.

Aspire X-Dreamer II case with 420W PSU 54.00

Asus A8N-SLI Premium Dual Core Motherboard 166.99

Athlon 64 4800+ Dual Core Processor 635.00

Corsair Dual Channel Ram 1GB = 79.00

ATI Radeon X700 256Mb DDR 16X Dual Video Card 129.99

Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM 8MB CACHE Hard Drives 58.00 x 2 = 116.00

Lite-On DVD/CDRW Dual Drive 39.00

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat....page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1#360675

 

[Carnage187]

i was gonna go dual core but at the time i didnt wana pitch n any more money. I set a budget for my self and i abided by it, if u can afford one, do it. Stick with amd, they are a LOT better then intels, benchmark tests confirmed this. Intel has a better name cuz dell n all them got contracts with intel i assume.

 

[GHP]

Base Price - What's this? Computer $150.00
CPU AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ Dual Core $510.00
Motherboard Soltek SL-K8TPro $135.00
Memory 1GB DDR400 2 x 512MB $135.00
VGA Card ATI Radeon 9200SE 128MB Dual VGA $65.00
Optical Drive 1 Plextor 16x Dual Layer DVD+/-RW 2MB $90.00
Primary Hard Drive 80GB EIDE $75.00
Audio Hard Drive 250GB SATA II $135.00
Floppy Floppy Drive w/ Multi-Card Reader $40.00
Modem No Modem $0.00
Operating System Windows XP Professional $160.00
Case Elite Black Desktop $55.00
Sound Treatment Level Quiet Operation 450 $120.00


Total Price $1,670.00

Is this spending too much on a preconfigured AMD system? I'm probably gonna take my crack at building my own though, I just hope I do it right

 

[Carnage187]

compare all those items on newegg n see if its spending too much on a preconfigured one.... i dont no if ul need a video card that good n u aint gonna need a multicard reader right, unless ur mpc uses it...that motherboard is kinda pricey too...i dont know anything bout motherboards tho, thats one thing i dont know bout, i just heard nforce4 ones were having compatibility issues that arnt solved yet.

 

[Carnage187]

im gonna let u know tho, u gotta make ur pc in a unstressful environment a clean one with HELLLA light, man, i had to have my lil sister hold a flashlight over me when i was pluggn in the case wires into the motherboard, i dropped my cpu on the carpet, i dropped my mb in the case, alotta shit went wrong for me, i meen i thought they went wrong, but they didn't, n plus i pluggd my floppy disc drives cable in backwards n i was wondern why it wasnt workn lol, but i figured it out, just read everything before u get started. Its a good experience u no. People say u need wrist gaurds, but i just put my hand on the metal part every 5 seconds.

 

[GHP]

You think getting the parts at new egg would be less than getting them at somewhere like frys?

 

[Carnage187]

hell yea, but this is what i did, i ordered all the light expensive stuff at www.monarchcomputer.com cuz they dont charge tax, i ordered the heavy stuff stuff at newegg cuz monarchcomputer.com charges alot for shipping. But in the end, like i said, youll be saving maybe 30 bucks, depends on how expensive ur stuff is, if its like above 400 bucks for ur cpu then get it at monarch but what ever does u. Newegg is the way to go tho if u got patience, n it usually takes like 2-3 days anyways for shipping. But definitely cheaper then frys or anyother store for that matter.

 

[HERESY]

jayda650 did you hit the link I gave you? I know the thread is over 200 PAGES long, but the first page and the last 50 on out have a gang of RECENT info.

 

[MKB]

Whats the best intel processor and why the hell are the operating frequencies on AMD's so much slower than the intel ones? Also has anyone overclocked their PC I am going to make one and I was thinking about doing this and I could get an intel processor up to 4 ghz.

 

[HERESY]

please refer to the link I posted.

you can also hit overclockers.com for more info. Amd is the choice for overclocking not intel (according to both links)

 

[Doberman]

Whats the best intel processor and why the hell are the operating frequencies on AMD's so much slower than the intel ones? Also has anyone overclocked their PC I am going to make one and I was thinking about doing this and I could get an intel processor up to 4 ghz.

To do that with an Intel you would still need a 3.X ghz cpu and you still wouldn't notice much of a difference from your original settings. And invest in a cooling system. And cpu's are at the point now where frequency DOES NOT matter. It' not about the speed of the chip it's how it stores( caches )the data it's processing. If the data has to leave the chip to be cached , then it will take some time to do this, depending on your cpu. It also reads from the cache to caculate the current job. So, if the cache is located on the chip ,like a dual core, guess what happens ZZZOOOOOM! Much faster than a cpu that has the same frequency that uses the mother board's RAM for it's cache.
I pretty much summarized this article here. The title says intel but it mentions details about AMD also.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/02/HNintelshare_1.html

 

[EDJ]

JAYDA,

TRY TOM'S HARDWARE SITE @ www.tomshardware.com THEY DO ALL KIND OF BENCHMARK TESTS AND COMPARISONS. HELL, THEY EVEN HAVE THE HISTORY OF EVERY CHIP EVA MADE. AND BY THE WAY, LISTEN TO HERESY, HE KNOW WHAT HE'S TALKIN' BOUT. HE HELPED WHEN I BUILT MY OWN.