Help me build a Monster PC system...

[Big Rick Rock]

I'm going to put together a new PC from scratch... I need your Input on components....

Mother board, Processor, memory, Hardrive(s). ect..... (I'm even considering putting in some Cooling Hardware, maybe a water cooling system..... Not sure yet, since, Most of the water cooling systems I've seen are a little bit awkward and big. I’m not really feeling the idea of having extra shit hanging out of my PC everywhere...)


I will be running Windows XP... The goal is to put together a PC that I can use for EVERYTHING! from Graphic Design, Burning and Making Music! Games, using 10 different applications at the same time if I wish and not have that thing slow down or skip a beat.

I’ll be putting the PC together myself with the help of a friend. So the link to a good place to source out parts at a good price would be appreciated.


-On a second note..... I'm also considering Putting a Removable hardrive on it and doing the same on my PC at work, Either that or just setting up a wireless network at home like we have at work, that way I can just use my lap top at work(it has a docking station) and then take it home and be able to share files.

 

[NoDaddyNo]

http://www.pricewatch.com

Don't bother with a cooling system, they only allow you to overclock it a bit more - but the added cost doesn't really matter.

Get the AMD 64bit chip and it is faster with 32bit stuff due to an enlarged cache and then you will be able to use 64 bit shit too.

Or get a dual system with the highest P4 you can get. They are "hyperthreaded" which means that they are like dual processors within themselves.

Put in at least a gig of RAM.

Get the top NVidia card.

Put in multiple HDs - SCSI can be a pain in the ass, get high RPM IDE drives. Out the OS on one and your data on another. Anything that caches out to disk, put on the non-system disk (the one that just holds data).

 

[manny78]

ASUS FSB motherboard DDR

Lian Li PC75 Case

Antec 550W power supply

Vantec 80mm Tornado fan

Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinium sound card

ASUS AGP GFX-5900 Ultra 256M video card

Promise PCI Raid Supertrak IDE controller

SATA 250.0 Maxtor 7200 8M Hard drive

Maxtor Atlas 4 10k 146GB SCSI hard drive with Adaptec controller

Panasonic DVD-R

Samsung LCD screen 21"

Sony CD burner

Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHZ 512k chip....

 

[ZKaudio]

^ ouch, my wallet hurts.

 

[NoDaddyNo]

If you are going to be doing gaming or 3D design - don't get an LCD screen.

 

[Lestat]

I hate LCDs...

 

[Big Rick Rock]

If you are going to be doing gaming or 3D design - don't get an LCD screen.

why is that??





By the way... I meant to keep it reasonably priced, if I planed to invest 3 grand into this i would not be posting it here I would just go out buy what I really want........ I'm really asking for components that would give me more Bang for my Buck

 

[Dial_tone]

I hate LCDs...

I hate you for dating Ceebs....what's your point?

 

[breathinbleedout]

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe : $191.00
Zalman Copper Heatsink : $48.00
Kingston Hyperx ddr500 : 187.oo
P4 2.4c : $171.00
AIW 9800 pro retail : $385.00
Antec 1080amg w/430watt ps: $123.00
Dual SATA seagate 120gig drives in a raid 0 setup: $260.00 (bestbuy sale, no url)
Lite on 52x32x52 retail : $40.00
Lite on 16x dvd : $33.00
Floppy : $12.00(no url)
2 case fans to occuppy open slots: $15.00(no url)
Audigy gamer : 75.00
Samsung 19in 1200x1600 flat screen : $209.00
Klipsch 2.1 75watt speakers : $130.00
Total: $1780.00

I am in process of building a new pc too, here are my current specs, all the prices are from newegg.com

 

[Big Rick Rock]

http://www.pricewatch.com

Don't bother with a cooling system, they only allow you to overclock it a bit more - but the added cost doesn't really matter.

Get the AMD 64bit chip and it is faster with 32bit stuff due to an enlarged cache and then you will be able to use 64 bit shit too.

Or get a dual system with the highest P4 you can get. They are "hyperthreaded" which means that they are like dual processors within themselves.

Put in at least a gig of RAM.

Get the top NVidia card.

Put in multiple HDs - SCSI can be a pain in the ass, get high RPM IDE drives. Out the OS on one and your data on another. Anything that caches out to disk, put on the non-system disk (the one that just holds data).

Ok well..... I know what you mean about the water cooling sys... I guess I'm concerned about overheating and not really over clocking... I just want to make sure my shit stays cool all the time.... but I think some xtra fans will do the trick for a fraction of the cost.
I did read on a thread Code talking about putting a, icepak in the place of his battery on a lap top. Can't remember the whole thing but I think it was because the heat would slow it down...

About the multiple hardrives.... should I have a single Hdrive just for the OS and a second for Data and aplications? or would a few partitions on a 100G give me the same effect...
Plus.. what do you consider to be the optimal RPM I find these 7200's all over the place.

 

[jnuts]

BTW, did ya get my PM?

Lots of memory - like NDN said, I'd go for a gig
Two fast IDE hard drives. Last time I looked, the 80 gig ones had the best $/mb, but ya might want to check on that.
If your a gamer... just get the best video card ya can afford.

LCDs on games will probably smear on you, unless you drop some serious cash for a serious LCD. From what I've seen, you get what you pay for on LCDs, the cheaper they are, the cheaper they are.

I see absolutely zero need to overclock, unless you are into that kinda thang... which it doesn't sound like. Just take the stock CPU and a good fan. You'll be fine.

Buy the best monitor you can afford - it's what you are staring at the whole time. Even better, do a dual monitor setup. (or triple, if ya got the $$)

 

[F117A Active Stealth]

Ok, here's what you get:

1. ASUS MB, the best one they have.

2. Intel P4 chip. Don't bother with AMD

3. The Fastest DDR or RAMBUS RAM you can buy, better to have 512mb of PC2700 than 1g of PC2100

4. A SCSI Hardware RAID card with at least 3 UW LV320 SCSI Drives, running at 10000rpm minimum. Run RAID 5 on this setup.

5. A good quality PS. Make sure it's stable output, who cares about the wattage, but the Output has to be stable

6. Nvidia TI Series Video Cards are nice.

7. Soundcard should be something professional, like a Delta Omni 1010, or similar.

Monitor should be a quality flat 19" minimum.

LCD's are no good for games or graphic editing because the colors are not as vibrant, the dot pitch is too high compared to CRT and the LCD pixels do not refresh as fast as a CRT can refresh.

 

[Optimus B]

get a G5. go to apple's website and max that shit out!

 

[NoDaddyNo]

CRTs are really cheap these days because LCDs are increasing in popularity.
LCDs are great to use - but they suck for ownership. They get burn in and they die after a few years, and they are very pricey.
Esp if you want to go to any real resolution with them.

The AMD 64bit chip is fast as hell, but the P4s at the higher end have Hyperthreading - which is more than just a gimmick.

I have built many systems in the past (can't do it here since everything here is overly expensive), and I was putting together nodes of my clustered supercomputer for $400 each.
The node was in a nice aluminum case and had noise deadening stuff in it - otherwise I could have made a single node for under $300.
It had no monitor though.

Nice aluminum case, Athlon 2200+, 256M RAM, 30g HD, the motherboard had the video and ethernet built in (and sound, but I didn't care about that).

If you want to play the best games, then get the best card you can afford - if you won't be playing games or doing 3D, then get a motherboard that has the video built into it and you will save a lot.

You should be able to make a pretty nice system for under $1K - the monitor and the video card will be the most expensive parts.

Go to pricewatch and they have it all there - they show the cheapest prices and then link out to who is selling it.

 

[jnuts]

If your are gonna order parts, checkout newegg.com

 

[NoDaddyNo]

get a G5. go to apple's website and max that shit out!

LOL

Right. He said he wanted to save money and it sounds like he wants to play games.

While Apple makes pretty stuff, they aren't the fastest, they are the priciest - and there aren't many games that run on them (compared to a PC).

Were he not on a budget, image conscious, and didn't care about speed, then it would most certainly be the way to go.

 

[Big Rick Rock]

BTW, did ya get my PM?

Lots of memory - like NDN said, I'd go for a gig
Two fast IDE hard drives. Last time I looked, the 80 gig ones had the best $/mb, but ya might want to check on that.
If your a gamer... just get the best video card ya can afford.

LCDs on games will probably smear on you, unless you drop some serious cash for a serious LCD. From what I've seen, you get what you pay for on LCDs, the cheaper they are, the cheaper they are.

I see absolutely zero need to overclock, unless you are into that kinda thang... which it doesn't sound like. Just take the stock CPU and a good fan. You'll be fine.

Buy the best monitor you can afford - it's what you are staring at the whole time. Even better, do a dual monitor setup. (or triple, if ya got the $$)

ThanX bro... I got your PM and I sent a reply, i did the tracking and it said "e-mail notification sent".

I think the Water cooler will probably be a dumb idea considering the use I have for the PC.... I'll just get some wicked Fans and call it a day.

The two 80G drives sound like a good idea.

Memory I'm definatly droping a Gig in there and will have it set up to have room for more. Monitor... I'm not too crazy about the LCDs right now, I Can get a 22inch Dell for a good price, pretty heavy but I don't plan on moving too often.

 

[NoDaddyNo]

Also, LCD monitor change brightness and color as their temperature changes.

And the reason you would want to cool your computer is because circuits hate heat. Basic physics of conductivity - if you have a cooler circuit, then it will be faster than the same circuit that is warmer.

On a side note - that same physics applies to DSL speeds - your connection will be slower the hotter the day is.
Distance too.

 

[Optimus B]

LOL

Right. He said he wanted to save money and it sounds like he wants to play games.

While Apple makes pretty stuff, they aren't the fastest, they are the priciest - and there aren't many games that run on them (compared to a PC).

Were he not on a budget, image conscious, and didn't care about speed, then it would most certainly be the way to go.

lol, i didn't read the part about saving money, just the "monster pc" part. performance-wise, they're very impressive, but ya, extremely expensive.

 

[NoDaddyNo]

lol, i didn't read the part about saving money, just the "monster pc" part. performance-wise, they're very impressive, but ya, extremely expensive.

I have one of the new Alum PowerBooks on the way - I will have it early next month.

I'm all excited about it. I love shiny things.

 

[Optimus B]

I have one of the new Alum PowerBooks on the way - I will have it early next month.

I'm all excited about it. I love shiny things.

NICE!

when in doubt, go shiny.

 

[Dial_tone]

Also, LCD monitor change brightness and color as their temperature changes.

And the reason you would want to cool your computer is because circuits hate heat. Basic physics of conductivity - if you have a cooler circuit, then it will be faster than the same circuit that is warmer.

On a side note - that same physics applies to DSL speeds - your connection will be slower the hotter the day is.
Distance too.

Talk nerdy to me, big boy!

 

[Lestat]

I hate you for dating Ceebs....what's your point?

Hahaha.. man, right now, I wish you really did hate me.

 

[RADAR]

Big Rick--also check out "Extreme machines.com" thats where i built mine,the graphics are awsome!


RADAR

 

[tuc biscuit]

This can be fun, my cpu is a neuro net processor...a learning computer.

 

[NoDaddyNo]

Slashdot has a thing up on the front page linking to FiringSquad that supposedly has a good article about this sort of thing.
That page seems to be slashdotted for now though.

 

[Big Rick Rock]

What do you guys think about the MB with Dual Processor capabilitys.... I was told that even with interlacing tech.... two pentiums runing @ 1.2G a piece will give you better work than a single P4 running @ 3.2...

I have a good idea about what I want now...
give me some brands that you recomend offer the best value.

this is what I think:
MB: ASUS / Tyan
Memory: Kingston
HD: Maxtor

and probably a Nvidia Vid card.

I have not decided on a Case yet... I'm looking at something with plenty of fans.

 

[NoDaddyNo]

I've always had good luck with Epox motherboards.

As for memory, I just go to crucial.com.

As for hard drive, I've had all different kinds and the only one that ever died was a Western Digital - but that was after 5 or 6 years of pretty much constant usage.

 

[jnuts]

Slashdot has a thing up on the front page linking to FiringSquad that supposedly has a good article about this sort of thing.
That page seems to be slashdotted for now though.

The page was back up earlier. It was a good article... But you pay some serious $$ for what they have in that box.

 

[ZKaudio]

wd's are the only drives that have failed for me as well =/. Def go w/ crucial mem... Asus mobo all the way.

 

[XBiker]

What do you guys think about the MB with Dual Processor capabilitys.... I was told that even with interlacing tech.... two pentiums runing @ 1.2G a piece will give you better work than a single P4 running @ 3.2...

I have a good idea about what I want now...
give me some brands that you recomend offer the best value.

this is what I think:
MB: ASUS / Tyan
Memory: Kingston
HD: Maxtor

and probably a Nvidia Vid card.

I have not decided on a Case yet... I'm looking at something with plenty of fans.

Tyan and ASUS both make nice boards. More people probably prefer ASUS, though.

Kingston is good memory and so is crucial as has been mentioned.

When I used to build systems, I would always buy the mainboard, processor(s), and memory from the same place. I would make sure that those three all liked each other from the get go. Nothing worse than trying to troubleshoot a machine that has a conflict or compatibility problem with the other.

I wouldn't recommend Maxtor drives, although they are better than they used to be. I have seen every type of HD fail, from all the manufacturers. Eventually, they will all fail...

Definitely get two separate HD's or do a SCSI raid config. Simply partitioning a HD is NOT the same as having a separate HD on a separate controller. As cheap as IDE drives are and with them continually getting faster speeds, throughput and $/GB, they will suffice with most PC owners.

 

[Dial_tone]

Two 1.2ghz P4 won't even remotely come close to a single 3.2ghz P4. It wouldn't even equal a single 2ghz because:

a) there's going to be some overhead while the OS decides which cpu is going to do what and
b) very few desktop applications are written to multithreaded.


I have a dual 1.8ghz Xeon w/1GB RAM. I love it but I dunno know if I'd call it faster than a single 3ghz.