Build me a new PC!

Status
Not open for further replies.
The KV8 Pro uses the VIA K8T800 Pro... and by looking on their site turns out that the big difference between pro and non-pro is that the pro has an asynchronous bus. *shrug* I think if you're not overclocking it probably doesn't make that big of a difference... maybe I shoulda went with the non-pro, oh well, it's just a $10 diff.
 
I was just browsing Anandtech and it looks like they recently reviewed a bunch of 754 motherboards. They didn't like the Abit KV8 Pro. :(

I went with the MSI "K8N Neo-FSR" NVIDIA nForce3 250GB which they gave the Silver to. It's pretty close in price to the Abit board so I figured, why not.
 
Giga-Byte K8NNXP has been great for me so far. All problems i had to begin with have been fixed. It's also loaded with extra's. NF3-150 board...
 
The Shadow said:
I was just browsing Anandtech and it looks like they recently reviewed a bunch of 754 motherboards. They didn't like the Abit KV8 Pro. :(

I went with the MSI "K8N Neo-FSR" NVIDIA nForce3 250GB which they gave the Silver to. It's pretty close in price to the Abit board so I figured, why not.
Click to expand...

That MSI board doesn't have firewire and the sata connections are in a really bad spot. Not sure if it matters to you. The MSI mobo I listed above is only $20 bucks more and has gigabit lan.
 
crumbs said:
That MSI board doesn't have firewire and the sata connections are in a really bad spot. Not sure if it matters to you. The MSI mobo I listed above is only $20 bucks more and has gigabit lan.
Click to expand...

I don't have any firewire devices at all but I do have my Audigy 2 that I'll be transfering over so I'll at least have one port just in case.

The SATA connections don't bother me. I can just tape the wire down with electrical tape so it's not in the way or dangle on the video card.

And the one I selected is also a Nforce3 250gb (ie, gigabit lan)

I'm too cheap to pay $20 for a better SATA connecter. :)
 
The Shadow said:
I don't have any firewire devices at all but I do have my Audigy 2 that I'll be transfering over so I'll at least have one port just in case.

The SATA connections don't bother me. I can just tape the wire down with electrical tape so it's not in the way or dangle on the video card.

And the one I selected is also a Nforce3 250gb (ie, gigabit lan)

I'm too cheap to pay $20 for a better SATA connecter. :)
Click to expand...


Cool, just thought I'd give you a heads-up. I almost bought the FSR version without realizing its lack of firewire (which I needed). Anyway, I think you'll be pretty happy the MSI , good luck.
 
shadow are you sticking with the 939 chipset? Let us know you're final build bro. I will be upgrading in sept/oct before school starts. :)
 
Poody said:
shadow are you sticking with the 939 chipset? Let us know you're final build bro. I will be upgrading in sept/oct before school starts. :)
Click to expand...


Naw. Switched to a 754 3000+. The 754 chip and motherboard combined will be cheaper than the 939 CPU alone that I was originally looking at.
 
the 939 chipset will become cheaper along the way that is if you're not in a hurry to build a comp.
 
Ok. This is what my "wish list" currently looks like.

(x5) ENERMAX Thermal Control 80mm Case fan, Model "UC-001B-TC"

MSI "K8N Neo-FSR" NVIDIA nForce3 250GB Chipset

eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800GT Video Card, 256MB

COOLMAX 400W CX-400, SILVER, Taurus CX Series Silent Power Supply

AMD Athlon 64 3000+

(x2) Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200

Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive


All that for just under $1000. Any further comments or advice? How does that RAM look? I'm really out of the loop there.

Poody said:
the 939 chipset will become cheaper along the way that is if you're not in a hurry to build a comp.
Click to expand...

Probably, but that could be said of many things. I was ready to upgrade at the beginning of the year but decided to wait for PCI-Express. :)

You can get stuck waiting for a very long time if you decide to wait for this thing or that thing, etc, etc. I just want a capable PC that'll last me a while. My 1.333ghz served me for quite some time before I finally decided to upgrade.
 
rc213 said:
Looks good for some serious Far Cry/Doom III/Half-Life 2 play.
Click to expand...

rock.gif


Excellent. Well, if there aren't any objections I think I'll order all this tomorrow morning.
 
*cough* ATi x800 *cough*

J/K :)


Let me know how those thermal control fans work, sound like they might be worth trying.
 
Sorry, I don't have time to read the entire thread, but i'll shoot anyway.

I'd go back to AMD 64 S939, or wait until a 3500+ is more reasonably priced.

The new sockets have double the memory controllers (like the FX series have) and perform quite a bit better than the S754s, especially in multitasking and applications.

As for the HDD, wait a bit and pick up a 200-400 GB SATA HDD with 16 MB cache and NCQ tech. I'm not sure if these work with the standard SATA 150 port, so you may have to look that up.

Here's one that's available now. Supposedly they perform on par with 74 GB Raptors (which are faster than the 36 GB one you plan on getting). But it actually has decent capacity:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-359&depa=0
 
I"m actually in no hurry to upgrade. I think i'll do that when the 939 chipset price goes down and when ati introduces there AIW x000 line
 
teh_pwn said:
Sorry, I don't have time to read the entire thread, but i'll shoot anyway.

I'd go back to AMD 64 S939, or wait until a 3500+ is more reasonably priced.

The new sockets have double the memory controllers (like the FX series have) and perform quite a bit better than the S754s, especially in multitasking and applications.

As for the HDD, wait a bit and pick up a 200-400 GB SATA HDD with 16 MB cache and NCQ tech. I'm not sure if these work with the standard SATA 150 port, so you may have to look that up.

Here's one that's available now. Supposedly they perform on par with 74 GB Raptors (which are faster than the 36 GB one you plan on getting). But it actually has decent capacity:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-359&depa=0
Click to expand...


I read this post at Anandtech a few minutes ago...

However, if you (like me) want a good comp for 2 years or so, socket 939 doesn't really make any sense. Its upgradeability is advertised and preached but the truth is that at current pace of PC market and tech, it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to do anything reasonable with your 939 mobo in 2 years (DDR[?], SATA [?], PCI-E, etc.). That's why I think that socket 754 is a very good choice if you want a solid comp for a longer time. For many people, socket 939's "future-proofness" is an illusion.
Click to expand...

It was in response to a guy who was looking at a similar upgrade that I'm going for (though he was going for a 3400+ and not 3000+). Like him, I simply do not upgrade all that frequently so getting something that's more expensive now just so it'll be easier to upgrade in 6-12 months doesn't mean much to me. I very likely won't be replacing the CPU or motherboard at least 18 months but likely longer than that.

There was a similar post that said something very similar. IE, If you upgrade frequently, get a 939. If you don't, pretty much any high end CPU will work for a good 2 years.

Like I mentioned before, I'm still running a 1.3ghz CPU. When I bought it, it wasn't the best of the best at the time either but rather the best price/performance, not unlike the 3000+ I'd like to get now.

So I think I'll stick with the 754 for now. I may read up a little more for the next day or two though before I put an order in.

As for the HDD, the 36.8gb will basically serve as a "system" HDD as I already have two 120gb drives that serve as data storage. I just need a really, really fast system drive and !~40gb is all I need. A 200gb+ primary is probably a little excessive for me. :(

Btw, would you happen to have any benchmarks that compare 939 vs. 754 CPUs?



*edit*

Just a quick thanks for all the advice everyone is giving. I may not follow it, but it's still pretty valuable to me. :)

*edit x2*

God I hate you. I thought I was pretty firm on what to get but now I'm not. :(
 
Yup, for the next 2 years socket 754 is all you're going to need. Then in 2006/7 Unreal 3 will be the new engine on the block and parallel processors will be more common, Longhorn will be out, and there's going to be a MAJOR industry push to get all new hardware, just like there was in the switch from 3.1 -> Win95. No point in paying double the price when you're only going to recieve 20-30% improvement.
 
RAIDMAX Yellow Aluminum Gaming Case with 420W Power Supply, Model "668WYP" -RETAIL
$84.00


NEC 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Model ND-2510A SILVER, OEM
$71.99

Corsair Value Select Dual Channel Kit 184 Pin 1G(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - OEM

$159.00

SOLTEK "SL-K8AN2E-GR" NVIDIA nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL


$99.00


AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail

$172.00


Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack SP1a - OEM
$90.00



Logitech Z640 5.1 Speakers -RETAIL

$49.00




SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP

$193.00


Total (Before tax): $ 917.99


Not bad???? I'n sure you wouldn't need XP and speakers.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Transferring app data from old PC to new PC?
21
407
Tams replied
which would cost more to build
33
1K
Hawk The Slayer replied
America should build more giant bronze statues
2 3
110
6K
AJUMP23 replied
A new year, a new Netflix price hike
2
60
4K
EverydayBeast replied
A new color has been created
31
510
Redneckerz replied
Top Bottom