Planning to buy new pc, need some help

[Timenn]

That's right, I'm planning to buy my own pc this summer (in the northern hemisphere that is) for I could probably use my own pc when studying next year. And I'll need it for games too.

So I want a modern computer, with good system specs. But with a low price (remember I'm a poor student :))

Now I found a basic set of a store from which I know they are good.

But I need some help with some options.

My current specs are these (I bolded the ones which I need help with):

- Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 333 fsb so-a & cooler Yes AMD! And I'm sure about this one, because the faster processors are too expensive

- Motherboard: Albatron kx400-8xv pro via kt400 ddr400 I don't know anything about motherboards, so I'll stick to the (store) default one for now.

- Memory: dimm 512 MB pc2700 DDR

- Harddisk: wd 80 GB udma100 7200 rp/m 2mb

- CD/DVD Dvd rom 16x 48x ide lg There a no real other options

- Videocard: Asus Geforce 4 Ti4800 SE 128 MB DDR Vivo AGP 8x I need a good card, but not too highly priced.

- Soundcard: Creative SB 4.1 Digital OEM I don't know much about sound cards

- Network: There is a network card on board. But has it a entrance for a HUB network card connection?

- Monitor: 19" monitor Iiyama ls902ut

- Speakers: I don't know anything about good speakers. But I want one with 2 speakers, volume, bass, and treble control. No super quality, and nice price

Note: No OS required.

Well, this it is. If you have a better idea about something, it will be appreciated, and I will give the list of possible options then.

Anyone familiar with Dutch: You can try:

www.paradigit.nl

select Computers, from menu computers.

And choose the option: Flex AMD pc (black) for adding additional stuff

I'm sure there are people who can help me :)

Thanks for any help

[Nyarlathotep]

1) Motherboard => I'd go for an Asus, MSI or Gigabyte. I've never heard of the barnd you posted. Look for some good AMD - nForce2 tests here, or the new VIA KT400 chipset.

When you choose one of the newer boards, be sure to check if it has dual DDR ram. If so, you need 2 dimms of 256 to achieve 512mb.

The onboard LAN connector can be connected directly on a LAN or internet, but can also be used to connect to a hub. It's either, not both though.

2) Soundcard => I would choose the Sound blaster Audigy 2 (platinum version if you want the best sound experience, but it'll cost more).

3) Harddisk => If the motherboard has Serial interfaces, choose a serial drive, which ensures faster data transfer. If not, try to look for the Maxtor 80gb with 8mb cache.

4) Video card is okay, I wouldn't change anything there.

5) CD/DVD => Try to see what the price is for a Plextor. This is an excellent brand and hasn't let me down as of yet.

6) Make sure the case has enough power supply (300 watts minimum)

Side note => To bad you choose AMD... If gaming is going to be a big part of the use of this PC, I would suggest to rethink the processor choice and if you can, change it an Intel 800FSB processor...

[DukeLeto]

Bah, AMD is fine. I have an AMD Athlon 1800 XP, and it runs Generals and EF2 without a hitch.

As for the graphics card, a lower-model card like the GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB or MX440 ought to be fine, and it would less than half the price. (You said you were going for economics.)

And I would go with PNY if possible, my old GF2 was Asus and I had no end of problems with it.

[number6]

About the motherboard. I read a review of it and you should know this much about it:

If you're looking for a new budget Athlon motherboard you should definitely take a look at the Albatron KX400-8XV Pro, it's one of the least expensive motherboards on the market and comes with 8X AGP. If you burn the midnight oil playing games, one of Albatron's other motherboards may be a better option, but for budget minded folks who aren't obsessed with FPS games, the KX400-8XV Pro could be a good compromise.

Here's the link to the review:

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1361

If you want a decent game machine I would suggest taking Doc's advice on motherboards.

[Nyarlathotep]

Bah, AMD is fine. I have an AMD Athlon 1800 XP, and it runs Generals and EF2 without a hitch.

As for the graphics card, a lower-model card like the GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB or MX440 ought to be fine, and it would less than half the price. (You said you were going for economics.)

And I would go with PNY if possible, my old GF2 was Asus and I had no end of problems with it.

Duke, by now you should know that I'm a "hardcore" fan of Intel ;)

As for your advice on graphics cards, you do know that the MX440 is a degraded GeForce Ti version, or one that didn't passed all the tests a normal GeForce Ti would do you ? I wouldn't recommend any MX cards, especially if you're going to game frequently !

[DukeLeto]

Yeah I know, but he said he wanted something inexpensive. :-

I would reccomend something better though if you play a lot of games, certainly. I have a Ti4200, and it works great.

[Timenn]

Thanks for all the advice.

I have made some choices.

I will use a Asus motherboard. Althought Albatron scores good, it is not adviced for much gaming. And although I don't play much FPS, I still take Asus I think (That is the only other option)

I've had no problems with LG so far. And since there isn't much choice available there, I'll keep that one

DukeLeto, you are right about economics. Those cards are indeed very expensive. But it is the videocard I want to make an exception for (I'm sure about that since Nyar advised me a very good (GF4 Ti) card. No 4200 available in the store though :(

But for something like that soundcard Nyar adviced I don't want to spend much money. Because my ears are not so well as my eyes :)

I think I will stay to the current soundcard.

Nyar, the network card, do you mean that is has 1 plug that you can use for either Hub or LANor both.

Or do you mean that the network card can have 2 different types of plugs (but only 1 of them is applied)

I couldn't find the brand of the Harddisk. But there are no other options for brands.

I believe that this store chooses good brands, because we have at home already 1 computer of this store, and it works perfectly.

Again, thanks for all the advise :)

[gryphon]

Think the below will do as an image of an onboard-LAN adapter.

The big black hole on the left, at the right of the green and blue mouse and keyboard PS2 connector and above the 2 USB ports is the onboard LAN adapter. And it's the same as one in a regular network interface card. You can connect it with an UTP cable directly to another computer [ using a crossover cable ] or plug it into a HUB or switch by means of a straight UTP cable.

In short, it's one plug. Not a HUB, although you can connect the onboard LAN adapter of a motherboard to a HUB [ or switch ] directly.

The onboard LAN connector can be connected directly on a LAN or internet, but can also be used to connect to a hub. It's either, not both though.

Isn't a direct connection to a LAN always done by means of a HUB or switch ? Else it's a dial in connection, serial variant or just one pc connected to another [ P2P ] and not a network.

[ not going into details where several hosts in a P2P configuration could pass as a network in some cases ]

probably just a technicalety but that would mean that you can connected it directly to a LAN and a HUB at the same time. Just wondering thought. :)

[Nyarlathotep]

Gryphon is right. I just wanted to point out the possibilities of connection. There's no option for both, you can only use it for one thing.

[Navaros]

despite what Nyar says, do not go with a Maxtor hard-drive. Maxtor makes crappy hard-drives that will fry on in you in no time. mine fried in 1 year, 2 months worth of use. i know *MANY* people who have had the same thing happen to them and their Maxtor drives --- I am not exaggerating either. the hardware gets permanentely damaged to the point where Windows literally takes 2 hours just to boot up, and you get errors like "Unreadable ECC" when you run Maxtor's own diagnostic tool on them. take it from someone with experience, Maxtor hard-drives become a NIGHTMARE in the long-run.

note: formatting can not correct such hardware problems. basically, when it happens you're screwed. you could very well lose all data on your system due to this sort of problem if you go with Maxtor.

you list your drive as "wd". that probably stands for "Western Digital" - which is EXACTLY what you want. that is the most reliable brand out there.

about Sound Cards, I recommend you boycott anything by Creative Labs such as Audigy. I have an SB Live, and the latest driver for that hardware is from the year 2000 even though Creative Labs was still selling it as their top-of-the-line card until well into 2001. My SB Live would not perform properly with GTA 3. The voices would play at 20% of the volume of everything else in the game, which made the game entirely un-fun and unplayable to the point where I had to demand a refund from my Retailer. All Take 2 Tech Support could tell me was "update your drivers for your sound card" --- but I already *HAD* the latest driver installed. If Creative Labs didn't abandon their hardware like EA abandons their games, maybe I could have enjoyed GTA 3 like I was supposed to be able to. Note: this happened in 2002, well-less than 1 year after SB Live was still the best card Creative Labs had to offer.

There are other sound card makers that probably support their cards better, such as Turtle Beach, Hercules, Philips.

[Nyarlathotep]

Nav, I have a soundblaster live and enjoyed GTA to the fullest, no problems there.

[number6]

Timenn I think your last post was posted in the wrong thread?

navaros,

About Maxtor hard drives. I have used them and never had a problem. Maybe it's where you get your components from that is selling sub par parts.

[gryphon]

@ Navaros

I have to agree with Number6. I have been using Matrox disks for longer then I can remember. Still have a 40MB one just for fun that is still working as the day my friend bought it [ it's a used one and still working, go figure ]. Besides that I had a few running 24-7 for about 5 years. [ started running just when the first 10 gig disk could be bought in stores here ] Still no problems with it. Even the Seagate disks I have [ that always crash on me ] are still usable upto some part after they have crashed. And then there are people having no problems with Seagates at all.

Think that bying your hard drive from a company that is know to deliver quality hardware is better and more trusted then bying it from a place where they keep memory in wooden shelfs and take it out with bare hand that are still greacy from the fries they where eating.

[ last example, for Dutch members, go to Crazy Hans in Rotterdam and you will discover that they are realyy throuing the hard drives from one side of the store to the other, same as for the fries ;D ]

[Navaros]

nyar, you must have a different international version of the SB Live in that case. because i certainly have the standard American version circa 2000, and it most definitely does not work and can not be made to work properly with GTA 3.

also Nyar, i noticed you play Hitman 2. i've been playing that recently, and with my SB Live, i can not turn on EAX with Hitman 2. if I do turn on EAX, then the gunshots in the game barely register any audio at all; just a muffled sound. when i turn EAX off, it works fine. does EAX work with your SB Live on Hitman 2? if so, then it must be as a result of Americans getting a crappy version of the hardware. or maybe you got a better driver off a non-American Creative Labs site.

based on these two experiences, i believe that SB Live can not properly handle games that use DirectX 8.1 or higher, seeing as all my other games work with my SB Live and those 2 are the only ones that I have which use 8.1 and higher. i am sure these issues could be corrected with a simple driver update from Creative Labs, but since they're too busy abandoning their hardware, guess that won't be happening eh.

[GhostHunter]

Navaros, I have a soundblaster live 5.0 Digital (Think that's it anyways, newest soundcard I'm pretty sure, at least for the SB Live series) and I have not had any issue's (Using DirectX 9.0a, and with games that preetty much need 9.0a such as Generals, and BF1942) except the BF1942 sound which was fixed when I reformatted (Along with other things), and I have had nothing else bother me except great sound and great sound options.

Now to Timenn, everything looks good and I support you fully on your choice to go AMD (What I'm going to do considering I'm looking for something basic that'll get me through every game but nothing insanely pricey) and I can tell you the Geforce 4 Ti 4800 is a good card and quite reliable at that, play's everything really smoothly on high graphics and is a piece of hardware you won't regret (As I have it).

[DukeLeto]

I have an "SB Live! Series (WDM)" (whatever that means), which I know is a Cretive Labs sound blaster, and it seems to have major issues with some older games. I have a problem very similar to Nav's with Wolfenstein 3D, and the music just won't play in (here goes): Wolf3D, Dark Forces, SimCity 2000 (curiosly, SC Classic has the opposite problem, only music, no sound effects), Sim Ant (no sound at all), Sim Farm (no sound at all again), Sim Tower...you get the picture there, I suppose...Dune I (no sound at all), and (phew, almost there) an assortment of older Win16 based programs.

The problem with all of these is that it doesn't detect my sound card. Although it could just be an effect of XP.

[Nyarlathotep]

Nav, I played Hitman 2 on my new system, which inculdes a new Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum. I will try to play Hitman 2 on my old sytem and see what happens.

On my old system I also had games running on Directx 8.1, but with not any old, or new game did I experience any problems (neither sound or anything else).

As you stated, the only difference seems to be the continetal version.

[Timenn]

I see the problem. But I still go for Creative. This is because every type of card, how good it may be, gives always trouble to some people. It is very annoying when it doesn't work with you, but it does with others.

I'll stick to the brands which didn't dissappoint me in the past.

And Nyar, you don't have to worry about the power supply. Because this is a standard set which you can modify. But the store isn't stupid to allow you to create an unreliable system. You simply can't choose the options to overload the power supply.

Thanks for informing me about the network card. I just wanted to be sure.

Thanks for all the advice, I still need info about good (quite cheap) speakers.

[Nyarlathotep]

As far as speakers go, you might want to check out some Philips PC speakers, they shouldn't be that expesive and are quite okay. Or might look into the possibility of connecting your pc to your stereo...

[Timenn]

I saw this one in the list:

Subwoofer Philips Rhytmic Wave a2.310 (black)

But I saw at the photo, that it also has 1 huge box, but where to put that ??!

[Gobalopper]

On the floor, its a good foot rest. :D

[zamboe]

On the floor, its a good foot rest. :D

;) I put a pillow on it so it's even more confortable for my foot now.

[Timenn]

Well, I ordered the computer today. And they will have it assembled and ready in 1-2 weeks.

I will let you know how the system runs.

For now: Thank you for all the advice

[gryphon]

Wierd that it's taking them so long .. . they must be verry bussy selling PC's at the moment .. . :-

[Timenn]

They have to assemble it. And they will run tests, so that you can be sure it all works