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Alright, so me and Tain need to make a decent PC. We'll need a motherboard, a processor, a video card, and ram, and it'll all need to be roughly $400.
Tain's thinking of a Radeon for about $150, 512 DDR RAM, and a 2.4 ghz processor.
Now, whether it's Athlon or Pentium has yet to be decided, so give me suggestions. Tain knows a hell of a lot more about this than I do.
AMD is cheaper and most people will try and push it like crack, but I'm an intelhead myself. I've had no problems whatsoever on my P3, but my sisters Athlon XP has had numerous (and at times it seems her computer (athlon xp 2ghz, 256mb ram) is slower than mine (p3 750, 128mb ram)). Just get whatever you can afford.
All prices from newegg.com. The best I could do is $454. You could swap the Athlon 2500+ Retail for the OEM and cut out the Vantec fan, but AMD's stock fans are known for being kind of cruddy, and I like the Vantec model (it's what I'm using on my box).
Athlon XP 2500+: $75
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600XT 128MB: $153
DFI nForce2 Ultra 400 NFII ULTRA-AL motherboard: $77 (you can go with a refurbished board for $25 cheaper, link includes refurb link)
Geil Value Series 512MB PC3200 (DDR400) RAM: $95 (one day sale! ends 4/20 4PM PST)
Fotron 350W power supply: $29
Vantec AeroFlow VA4-C7040 CPU fan: $25.05
cka, your sister probobally has her computer clogged with a bunch of spyware or something because there's no way your system is faster than hers. Any problems she's encountering are likely software-based unless she's overclocked the thing with shitty cooling, but even that happens with Intel processors.
Nomi, this is the best I could do for around $400. It comes out to $416US with current exchange rates.
Soltek 75FRN2-L nForce2 Motherboard
Great value with tons of features and customizability. There's built-in Audio and Ethernet along with support for Dual Channel memory and a 400MHz FSB. Really solid board all around.
1.8GHz AMD Athlon XP2500+ Processor
Best bang for the buck, especially if you plan on overclocking it. You can get XP3200+ speeds by simply bumping the FSB. I'd suggest getting better cooling before doing that though.
128MB Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro Video
I'd personally wait until ATI brings out their new stuff and pick up a 9600XT when the price drops, but this is a great card either way. You could even save a few bucks and go for a regular 9600 but anything less will start to really suck, the 9600SE included.
512MB PC3200 Samsung DDR RAM
Samsung doesn't make the best memory but you can't beat the price. If you run your processor at it's default speed than your RAM will automatically run at PC2700 and perform just as well as the expensive stuff.
Hope this helps, be sure to give Far Cry a play and check out all the pretty graphical effects.
By any chance, is she using a VIA motherboard? Also, Athlon XPs run really hot. Maybe the motherboard is trying to reduce CPU speed to reduce heat. Is she using a stock AMD cooler? Or like Johnny said, it could just be filled with software related garbage.Quote:
Originally Posted by cka
Yeah, and at one point she was having mad problems with a GForce MX 440. I already applied the AGP bug fix thing on it. But now she's got a old Radeon 7000 in it.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Bastard
Radeon 7000?!?! Hopefully she don't like video games. Yeah, VIA has compatibility problems occasionally. I couldn't get an Audigy to work with one of me motherboards. I smashed that thing good......
id go with one of the mobile xp's myself. they use lower v-core and overclock like hell. MANY 2400's have 1.8 on the v-core and are well past 3200 speeds. i just got a new p4 2.6c today myself. still need to get a mobo tho. the guy i bought it from said he got it up to 3.2 easy on stock cooling.
They're on a budget. I don't think they can risk it all for some Mhz Dyne. :D
What is the difference between the mobile XPs and the regular ones? :chick:
the mobiles are about the same price if not less expensive. they run cooler and at a lower v-core (since theyre made for laptops) but work fine in a desktop. because they run at a lower v-core (1.45 instead of 1.6) you can put more juice thru them. more juice and cooling are main factors in getting a good overclock. and besides most desktop xp's like the aforementioned 2500 have their multipliers locked so you rely solely on upping the fsb for overclocking. with the mobiles you can adjust both the fsb and the multiplier.