[mr_slacker]

...and yeah I'm 26 y/o.

"No not another computer thread." Oh yeah! Lets beat this dead horse...

What do you guys think about this:
CPU: AMD 2400+
Motherboard: QDI KuDoZ 7X-6A VIA KT400
Memory: 512MB DDR333
Graphics: LeadTek GeForce4 Ti4800SE
Sound: M-Audio Revolution 7.1


Are there any bottlenecks here? What about the CPU?

I would like to play the latest 1st person shooters with max everything, is this setup good enough?

Anything else I should think about?

 

[radrd]

I would get a different motherboard; I've never heard of that one. An Asus A7N8X would be your best bet.

Forget nVidia for top video cards. If you want the best video card right now, it is a Radeon 9700 Pro or wait a little while and the 9800 should be out. Either smokes nVidia's offerings.

Make sure that the M-Audio Revolution will do well with games; I've heard some less positive stuff. I would go with an Audigy 2 and sacrifice some sound quality for performance and hardware EAX support.

 

[mr_slacker]

Thanx radrd...

Motherboard: Well the difference in price between Asus and QDI is peanuts...

Graphics: OK! What's the difference between Radeon 9700 and Radeon 9700 Pro? (Quite significant price difference...)

Sound: Anyone had compatability problems with Revo?

CPU: so the CPU doesn't matter?

 

[radrd]

Quote:

Graphics: OK! What's the difference between Radeon 9700 and Radeon 9700 Pro? (Quite significant price difference...) CPU: so the CPU doesn't matter?

The CPU matters a lot, but 2400+ is pretty decent. You might look at the new Barton version; I think it starts at 2500; that's what I would get because is has a 333 Mhz fsb and the latest architecture.

As far as the 9700 Pro versus 9700 goes, I can't remember what the differences are. You might google up some reviews; that would be the easiest way to find out.

 

[bootman]

First, what's your buget?
While the AMD chips where a good buy a while back, this is no longer the case
and you can get a P4 for the same money that would be faster than the amd choice.

What boards to you have access to?
If this is your first PC are you going to build it?
While it would save you some money if you have to buy software
the price difference might not be that much than getting a pre built unit.

I'll put some suggestions together depending on your buget.

 

[mr_slacker]

Budget: I honestly don't know. I might be able to get a relatively new 19 inch screen for free (don't ask me how

). So that would give more founds for the rest of the computer...

P4 vs AMD: Well I could get a P4 2.66GHz for the same price as a AMD 2600+...

Boards: Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, MAtsonic, QDI...

Prebuilt is a requirement...

I've been checking out this swedish company called InetData for
prices:

http://www.inetdata.se/tillbehor/

even though it is in swedish I think it's kinda easy to understand. And yeah 1$=8.4SEK, I know this makes the prices look expensive but the one dollar costed about 11SEK a couple of months ago...

 

[bootman]

P4 for under $1000.
note: I only went by your listing of motherboard,
cpu, sound, mem, & video.

Gigabyte GA-8SQ800 112.00
2.4BGHz CPU Retail 162.00
M-AUDIO Revolution 99.00
FIC A97P RADEON 9700 PRO 299.00
2x512MB DDR PC2700 RAM 120.00
(For 1 gig of Dual Channel DDR)
Total: 792.00 (shipped from Newegg)

If you buget allows you can go up in CPU but I would use this
until the hypertheading P4s go down in price.

For AMD you can save some money by going this route.

LEADTEK K7NCR18D-PRO Nforce2-ST 110.00
ATHLON XP 2500 "Barton"CPU retail 178.00
NVIDIA Soundstorm Audio w/ DD 5.1 FREE (built into MB)
FIC A97P RADEON 9700 PRO 299.00
2x512MB DDR PC2700 RAM 120.00
(For 1 gig of Dual Channel DDR)

Total: $707.00 (also shipped from Newegg)

If you still want the M-Audio then the AMD will be a little more.
(The soundstorm is supposed to be pretty good for a built-in BTW)

Which is faster?
It would depend on what you are doing.
The P4 is quicker for multimedia stuff because of SSE2
the AMD is quicker on office benchmarks.
With the 9700 pro on both, games should be the same.
For web surfing both are overkill.

 

[bootman]

Quote:

Originally posted by mr_slacker Budget: I honestly don't know. I might be able to get a relatively new 19 inch screen for free (don't ask me how ). So that would give more founds for the rest of the computer... P4 vs AMD: Well I could get a P4 2.66GHz for the same price as a AMD 2600+... Boards: Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, MAtsonic, QDI... Prebuilt is a requirement... I've been checking out this swedish company called InetData for prices: http://www.inetdata.se/tillbehor/ even though it is in swedish I think it's kinda easy to understand. And yeah 1$=8.4SEK, I know this makes the prices look expensive but the one dollar costed about 11SEK a couple of months ago...

Ahh, I just noticed that you are in sweden.

Newegg doesn't ship overseas.

My recommendations can still hold some water though.
For an AMD board stick with something with the Nvidia Nforce2 chipset. (and get a barton core CPU!)
It doesn't really matter what brand as long as the chipset is correct.
If you are getting it prebuilt then you will have a warranty anyway.

For a P4 the SIS655 gives you the same performance as the more expensive Intel 7205.
All the board brands you listed makes both kinds of boards so just get the one with the features you like.
(firewire, lan, etc)

 

[raymondlin]

www.komplett.com are cheap

The differece between a 9700pro and non pro is only speed, about 10% difference. But all the features are the same, in theory you can overclock it to the pro speed and then you get the same card.

 

[bootman]

Quote:

Originally posted by raymondlin www.komplett.com are cheap The differece between a 9700pro and non pro is only speed, about 10% difference. But all the features are the same, in theory you can overclock it to the pro speed and then you get the same card.

Yes, true.
But I usually don't recommend overclocking for first timers.

 

[radrd]

Here's a comprehensive CPU benchmark:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1783

(It's not just the Barton; they compare it to a lot of different Intel and AMD CPUs)

 

[raymondlin]

Quote:

Originally posted by radrd Here's a comprehensive CPU benchmark: http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1783 (It's not just the Barton; they compare it to a lot of different Intel and AMD CPUs)

Nice and very informative read, nice to know that my 2200+ beats a 3.06 Ghz Pentium 4 in general Windwows and Office application!!!

But over all, that P4 3.06Ghz Rocks! I think I might have to go back to intel for my next computer if some of the gaps in the chart continue to widen. Although I did have 1 thought, I wonder hoe fast the Athlon/barton would be if they are match Intel Ghz for Ghz. If a 2Ghz Barton can match a 3 GhzP4, imagine a what 3Ghz Barton will do!

 

[wallijonn]

I never buy VIA chipsets. Sis & Intel only. If there's a "V" in the motheboard name, then I'm not even going to look at it. i don't have time to mess around with crap drivers. after 1 year, my SIS board came out with one bios update (1 more than the original). now that's reliability. i've heard some good things about the nVidia chipset (the latest, fastest one, anyway). i also no longer buy Abit mobos (although a lot of Abit's boards are being made by ECS (reliable)). I went through 3 Abits in 3 years. I have one ECS that's over 2 years old. I'm not too crazy about Intel mobos.

i'm not buyinga new cpu until the 64 bit'ers come out.

 

[mr_slacker]

Thanks for the info everyone!

I've got some serious decision making to do...

 

[jessica00]

bottle neck = vid card