Assistance sil vu platt!

[Galant]

I'm just about to buy (as in RIGHT NOW!) a bunch of components.

A few questions remain.

Do I buy a $160 Sapphire Radeon 9600XT or a $199 Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro?

Decent case fans - which one are? Antec okay?

Athlon XP2500+ (probably a locked one), or should I go for something higher? May O/C but completely inexperienced. Just want a decent system as am not looking to upgrade often.

Thanks for the quick response.

[Tom]

9600XT and 9500 Pro are very similar perfomrance and not worth price difference stated there.

2500+ is best clocker, u just gotta hope its unlocked lol

[Austin]

9500PRO and 9600XT are pretty close but since the 9600XT is little more than a slightly higher clocked 9600PRO it's o/c'ed speed is nothing compared to what the 9500PRO can do. Still all of these are held back by 128bitDDR, your choice really ... none of them are remotely bad choices. You shoudl also consider the Rad9600PRO as with some simple o/c'ing that can exceed the 9600XT almost every time and should be a good deal cheaper too. All good buys.

XP2500+ is a very good choice, certainly pointless going higher unless you're really scared to try o/c'ing. Even if it is locked so long as you have PC3200 and a 400FSB capable mobo (KT600, SiS748 or nForce2) it's not limiting for this CPU ... the higher CPUs generally use a higher multiplier which actually hinders you much of the time.

[BUFF]

No chance of getting a 9800 non-Pro for $199 at Fry's?

[Austin]

Don't forget the 9700 or 9700PRO if you can still find them too. They're easily as good as the 9800 series esp if you o/c. Should find them for $200ish?

[joshwa]

RE: Fans - they all work, so anything you buy will be suitable for the job - the main difference between different types of fans, is the noise levels.

YS-tech do 20dba (quiet) and 35dba 80mm fans.
Pabst (expensive) / Panaflo also do very quiet fans, 20dba, 12dba etc.
Delta are known for making noisy fans.
Vantec / Zalman also do quiet fans.

The more air they move, the noisier they tend to be. 30-35dba fans are pretty much the norm. I tend to prefer 20dba fans or less, as I like quiet PCs

[headbrace]

The antec fans I have are pretty good, reasonable airflow, and quite quiet at 7v. But theres not much special about them unless thay are the blue led ones.

[Austin]

The main problem with fans is that dbA and airflow are only really comparable when comparing products fromt he same manu, much like the Wattage rating of PSUs there is simply no independent industry standard. Much of the time the quiet fans push so little air they're practically pointless but the power fans are so noisy it can render them unusable. I'd suggest buying a fan you think is suitable and then either using a 12->7v convertor or fitting adjustable knob ... of course you could go for a fan that has adjustability fromt he off liek the Smart Fan 2 but they can be pricey.

An important thing to consider is that larger fans move more air and can do so much more quietly than the smaller fans, but you need adequate ventilation for the fan to intake or exhaust. It can often be best when you start totting up the costs to just go for the likes of the Antec Sonata cases where you get 120mm fan mounts, a 120mm fan fitted, noise proofing measures and in tis case a top notch PSU to boot. £80ish inc P&P from www.simply.co.uk IIRC.

SONATA:
http://www.procooling.com/reviews/ht...ase_review.php
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/003/c.../sonata-1.html
http://www.virtual-hideout.net/revie...e/index4.shtml
http://www.antec-inc.com/wheretobuy_...&Submit=Submit

XPIDER (Chenbro Gaming Bomb):
http://hightekpc.com/reviews/xpider.html
http://www.modsynergy.com/Review%2087.htm
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/oth...t/chenbro.html

[Galant]

Okay, at last I've ordered pretty much everything, and am awaiting the arrival of my PC, in parts!

here's what I did:

Athlon XP 2500+ - $85
MAG 17" Flat screen CRT - $50
Maxtor 120Gb 7200Rpm 8mb cache - $40
BUSLink 52x32x52 CD-RW - $5
MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR - $110
Antec SX630II w/ 300W PSU - $80
Thermaltake Volcano 11+ - $24
Corsair PC3200 256MB x2 - $86
Multimedia Keyboard - Free!
MS Intellimouse Optical - $13
Cyber Acoustics 3pc 180W speaker system - $70
APC UPS - $5
Creative Labs Modem - $13
Norton System works, Anti-Spam and Firewall - Free!
Sony Floppy Drive - $8
(Just have to buy Gfx card - either Sapphire 9500 Pro Atlantics - $199 or a Sapphire 9600XT $160)

So there we go, a PC for between $834-$874

Thinking I might have to fork out some extra for extra fans, and some thermal paste.

Oh and the free and ridiculously cheap stuff came through the Thanksgiving day sales!

[Stoo]

! $40 for a 120GB maxtor?? Those are £80 here still

[joshwa]

WHAT!?!?! those prices are SOOO CHEAP!! MAN YOU ARE LUCKY!!!

[Galant]

Yeah, the HD, CD-RW, Monitor, Norton stuff, keyboard, speakers, and UPS were all on sale.

I also picked up a video capture card and software for $50, two 100disc spindles for CD-RW for free!

Anyone else manage anything in the sales?

[evildoc614]

if you are still in the need of fans and thermal paste check out www.frozencpu.com they have tubes of artic silver 5 for 6 or 8 bucks and they have a huge selection of fans. i recommend the panaflo L1... its pretty cheap too