Thoughts on a new PC...

[Parm]

My current PC is well past its sell by date...the ol' P3 1Ghz just doesn't cut the mustard anymore. Lasted me a good 4-5 years though!

Anyhow, the time to build a new PC has come, oh how exciting!

Here's what I have in mind...

Intel P4C 3.2Ghz EE (Anyone have any idea when the Extreme Edition is due?)
Coolermaster Aero 4 heatsink and fan
Asus P4C800 Deluxe-E
Corsair 1GB DDR XMS4000 Pro TwinX (2x512MB) CAS3
Asus 256Mb ATI Radeon 9800XT (I believe this will be hitting the shelves very soon)
Plextor PlexWriter 52x/24x/52x CD-ReWriter
Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB SATA (Is there a release date for the 74Gb version?)
2x 80Gb Maxtor 7200rpm ATA133 Hard Drives. - I'll be moving these over from my current PC.
Coolermaster Aerogate 2 Fan Controller
Coolermaster ATC 201 ....something, I cannot work out how these models work now, there are so many variations!
19" Sony Trinitron Monitor (have this already)
12x Creative DVD Rom Drive (have this already)
1.44Mb Floppy (have this too)
460W Enermax ATX Power Supply (Are Enermax still the best power supplys, and should I be looking for a paticular model?)
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX
MS Natural Keyboard Pro (have this already)
MS Intellimouse Explorer (have this already)

...I think that would be everything.

What do you think? Feedback please
What would you change, and why?
I'd like to keep it < £2000

Oooh, another question would be; Do you think now is a good time to build a new PC?

Thanks!
Parm

[Lexeus]

Well we have been discussing this, but mainly because we are all AMD enthusiasts , well..... most of us
Since AMD has gone 64 we aren't sure whether to buy 32 bit still or wait and see more 64 bit.
BUT, since you are going for an Intel, I got no idea lol, as I dont buy Intel, but, seriously , I dont see any major why not, apart from the normal year to year reason that Computer companies buy up parts in mass for the christmas computers, and the best prices come in January/February, after christmas
Hope this helps some

[chrisf6969]

Sounds like it would be a bad ass system. I doubt you'll be able to find a 3.2 EE. And they are going to cost like $900 US.
I'd buy a 2.6C, 2.8C, or even 3.0c and overclock to 3.6Ghz+

Why buy a new harddrive when you already have 2 to put in a RAID 0 array.

But this is what I would recommend:
P4 2.4-3.0 overclocked (cheaper and faster when overclocked)
Abit IC-7 Max3 (best IMHO)
Corsair XMS4000 PRO (activity lights)
Radeon 9800XT (expensive, but if you have the money go for it)
Vantec Aeroflow P4 heatsink (low noise, but high performance)

Click my signature picture and see my system specs, etc.

[evildoc614]

from what i understabd the Extreme Edition is going to be about 700USD and in short demand... Yea i think its a good time to build a new pc beacause intel is droping their prices. i not sure your or any of use need a 3.2EE... not for the preformace to price ratio unless you have a unlimited budget..

[Trickle]

I'd like to keep it < £2000

Short of going on a mad Athlon FX / Dual Opertron spending spree you arnt likely to be able to hit that figure without buying a new monitor. Seriously consider getting yourself a 2nd TFT to compliment your existing 19 inch. It makes more sense than wasting $$$ on high end cpu's, 3rd hard drivers and largely useless Audigy's. If you need to buy a new desk, then include that on your list.

Do as Crhis said and overclock one of the P4C processors rather than waste money on the extreme editions. Sure, they do have give a genuine performance boost, but you are still going to be throwing £££'s in intels lap for what still equates to about 10%. Go do your inner chi a favour and give £200 to charity instead.

You have a CD RW drive on your list, but not a DVD writer. Why?

[Kezzer]

Errr under £2000 and you're going to get a P4 3.2 EE? They're very costly.

[Trickle]

I thought they were listed at 700US? I'm probably miles out, though - but Intel will no doubt restructure its lineup when they are available in numbers and you will find that they wont be much more than the currently top of the range - i.e <£600

[TooNice]

There is a couple of ways to go above £2000 without getting a new monitor:
- Go SCSI.
- Phase cooling

I can definitely see the point of a third HD though. Not counting high-end 10k/15k SCSI drives, the Raptor is faster than other options. Okay raid 0 (not a big fan of) of two IDE drives will (almost) double the sequential read/write.. But that operation might not happen very often depending on how you use your PC.

[Merlin]

can't you find something else to spend the money on?? Taking into account everthing that's been said, you could get yourself a nice system for £1500 and spend £500 on something else. Go on holiday maybe?

[dgr]

IMO:

your monitor doesn't really cut it any more, you will get far more of a productivity boost out of an extra monitor than another 100mhz out of your processor.

either OC a lower end cpu or if you care about noise (like me), spend less money on a slower and quieter cpu...

oh and why would you want the 9800xt? my 9700pro runs everything at full res. - far better moneywise (and overall performance wise) to upgrade it in a years time. don't forget nvidia are working on a 6 month product cycle.


Last point - get 2 raptors and raid 0 them - they are hella fast and 2 would be even better .




oh to the site admins - have you tried using this site under mozilla? its broken .

hope i'm not the only guy round here not using IE...


dgr

[praetorian]

Personally I would go with this setup (I'm a big AMD fan but still keep up to date on the Intel stuff)

Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail
Abit IC7-G Max-2 Advance "Canterwood" (Socket 478) Motherboard
OCZ 1GB (2x512MB) PC4000 Dual Channel Series EL-DDR
Pioneer DVR-106 4x DVD±RW - OEM
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Retail
2x Western Digital Raptor 74GB Serial ATA 10000RPM - OEM
Coolermaster Aero 4 Lite (Socket 478)
Antec TrueBlue 480W PSU
Arctic Ceramique Thermal Compound (2.7g)
2x Akasa Rounded Ultra ATA133/100/66 IDE Cable (0.45m) - Black
Creative Inspire 7.1 T7700 - Retail
Coolermaster Wave Master TAC-T01
2x Coolermaster 5.25" Aluminium Front Bezel - Silver

Should cost around £1,600 ex delivery but you can probably get that down as well by shopping around.

There is no point going with a 256mb GFX card as nothing is going to be able to fully use it at the moment. In the future yes, but by then most of the cards available today will be in silicon heaven Besides there no point in going for the XT versions cause they are only more slightly overclocked and the same can be achieved out of the standard pro models with slightly uprated cooling.

You have 2 74gb Raptors that in RAID 0 will absolutely fly and give you a lot of storage space.

Enermax are IMHO not worth their money any more. The new king of PSUs in Antec and the 480 Trueblue version will be way enough for you in the future.

The Intel 2.6ghz CPU will easily overclock to 3.6ghz on air and will be a lot faster than any 3.2ghz EE's except when placed into a phase-change environment.

Have chosen OCZ over Corsair cause unfortunately you know pay through the nose for the brand name. OCZ PC4000 has been specifically developed for the Canterwood chipsets and have a very high success rate and overclocking ability

The fan controller I deemed unnecessary cause with the Antec it automatically adjusts the fan speeds when you use them on the fan only dedicated connectors.

Plus I gave you the two Coolermaster bezels so that you can stealth your drives when they are in the case. Done that with mine and it looks absolutely fantastic

Hope this helps your decision

[TooNice]

I don't think the 74Gig Raptor is out yet...

And on a side note.. Am I the only person here who doesn't take into account the possibility of Raid 0 when building a system?

[dgr]

i think everyone else has already used raid0?

btw obviously make sure you back up ANYTHING you put on a radi0 array - even with the 5 yr warranties, i don't trust my raptor...


had 3 hdds go in the last 2 months. don't know how...


dgr

[Platty]

I had a RAID array but one drive died and I lost everything so I didnt bother with it again. When building a new machine I would just consider 1 raptor and then a storage drive, or 1 79Gb raptor. Overclockers have the 79 Gb arriving late November.

[Parm]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. The major plus point to this forum is you don't get the much talked about 'fan-boys' ruining each thread.

The AMD 64 looks like it has a lot of potential, but I honestly don't foresee things changing to 64 anytime soon.
By the time things do start to head that direction, I think they'll be better mobo's and cpu's from Intel and AMD at much better prices.

The P4 3.2EE looks like a no no, firstly it doesn't look likely to show up anytime soon, secondly it looks like it would break the bank.
If you cancel out the 64's and the EE, out of the remaining CPU's I see the P4 3Ghz 800FSB to be the best choice. The price is spot on at around £200. I don't want to do any overclocking - 3Ghz should be plenty.


The Monitor.
Well, I always did like my 19" Sony...but then, it is around 4-5 years old now. Its a 19" Sony Trinitron Multiscan G400 (0.24mm Aperture Grille Pitch and an Ergonmic Resolution 1280 x 1024 @ 101hz).
Is that not good enough nowadays? I was hoping it would be as Monitors cost a fortune. I've heard that TFT's aren't as good as CRT's, is that the case?
Although a 21" would be nice, its well expensive.
How badly do I need a new monitor, if at all?


The Hard Drives.
You've all totally thrown me here LOL.
Firstly, to raid or not to raid?
Performance is obviously nice to have, but security is always a must for me, I just hate losing the data on my PC.
Storage is also important, I have 200Gbs worth on my current PC, and about 6Gb's are free.
I'd have my two 80Gb Maxtors from this PC, and was considering buying one additional drive to be my new system drive.
Which setup should I go with, with/without raid?


The PSU.
Enermax or Antec seem to be the words on the tip of people's tongues still. I'm a little confused by the Enermax range though.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Products.ASP?CatID=33
If you look at that Scan page of PSU's, you see a few Enermax ones, but the prices are just plain odd. Some lower wattage PSU's are way more expensive then those a bit higher in wattage. Hmmm
Whats the difference between those models and which one should I be aiming for?
Do all these PSU's now support SATA?

[chrisf6969]

Let me get this right... You have 194GB of your 200GB used? Maybe you should get a DVD burner instead of a 52x CD burner. Lite ON DVD+RW are like $110 USD. May be worth it to back up some of your harddrive junk that seems to be piling up!

IF you have that much junk and security is important. Skip the RAID option.

As for TFT's I just got a 19" Planar (samsung) TFT moniter and it sucked for gaming, so I got my office to buy it from me (so I can use it at work) and bought a 21" Trinitron the 2 screens are almost the same size. (because of viewable space) I'd stick with your 19" Trinitron.

You say now that you wont overclock. But once you get a nice mobo with good OC'ing options. You're going to try it out... and bam you're hooked. Just crank up the FSB a little an instant performance. Nothing too risky. Lets just say FSB of 214Mhz to get you to a 3.2Ghz SUPER EASY with a 3Ghz chip and that PC4000. Then before you'll know it you'll be at 3.75Ghz maxing the ram out at 250Mhz (DDR500) like its supposed to be run!