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Thread ID: 46581	2004-06-28 11:27:00	New Pc Help	nalla (1386)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
248244	2004-06-28 11:27:00	Hi I have F1 people to thank for their help in replacing my 115W PSU in a 2001 PC Company PC. It was a 1400 Athlon and I was not in the position to replace the choked MB and spiking CPU. The case and 400 PSU are still sitting in the box at the moment as I have retrieved $2300 from my Lotto investments. Wow new PC Here I have to say that I have thought that some people did not do the research I thought they should have with their--TELL ME-What MB- CPU-graphics boards should I buy? When I found I was in the position to buy a new PC I pulled out all My PC Mags. The Aust. PC User and PC Authority with their massive resources all recommend MB,s and CPU,s with different code numbers, even though the brands are available in NZ. I went to the "build PC" sites and was blown away with the choices. I want a fast PC with a reasonable video card (no online gaming) with the potentional for upgrading, I do not do video editing at this stage. I do not need monitor etc. I need somewhere to start. Any help would be appreciated.	nalla (1386)
248245	2004-06-28 11:38:00	I would say for that amount of money Top end asus nforce2 board 9700/9800 PRO/XT video 512mb CAS 2, Dual Channe ram 8x DVD writer 80gb Sata drive AMD 2800 CPU Modem an un-ugly case. And still have a couple hundred left over.	metla (154)
248246	2004-06-28 11:44:00	Thanks metla	nalla (1386)
248247	2004-06-28 11:46:00	first choice is to select the CPU... Intel or amd?? I would go for AMD because you get more go for you $$ an athlon64 is more then you need at this time so any of the faster athlons would be good... a graphics card? ATI or Nvida?? either are good, any AGP card for about $250 would do what you want. RAM?? more is good, too much is better :-) 256Mb would be the least i would even think of, 512Mb would be good. motherboard must fit the CPU you picked, must have AGP and NOT onboard graphics, onboard sound is fine for most users, onboard lan is almost standard and thats cool. 3 or more PCI slots are a good move. modem? a $30 PCI modem is fine in windows, if you think you might be doing lnux at some time then look at an external modem for about $100 hard drive? as with ram, big is good, 120GB is easy to get and at a good price, you can get IDE/ATA or SATA(serial ATA). SATA is better but only if you motherboard supports it, most do but it pay to check. CDrom/DVD/CD-writer?? an all in one combo drive, is only about $90 and will read DVDs and CDs and can write CDs too, if you want to write DVDs then thats extra $$$. I have kept this as a genral overview of stuff with out pointing you at a brand or product because this can vary depending on who you are buying from. any other questions just ask.	robsonde (120)
248248	2004-06-28 12:20:00	>I want a fast PC with a reasonable video card (no online gaming) with the potentional for upgrading Thought i may as well elaborate on a few items here seeing as no other threads are active apart from another chapter in the growley saga..... A question,what is your idea of a fast video card?,something that can run old games at 100fps or something that will be able to run games that come out in the next couple of years at high settings?,Presuming you would want your new comp to be able to play current and future games i would not suggest getting anything lower then the 9700pro,Doom3 and half-life2 are just around the corner...sure would be a shame if the new comp couldn't run em because you went for a $250 video card....infact any card in that price range can be bought to its knees and made to bleed by many games already on the market. As for upgrading,Apart from AMD's 64-bit cpu's the proccessor lines have stalled,we are at the limit of the current range and the "next" generation either don't exsist(intel) or are built to an as yet unused standerd(AMD),besides a 64-bit cpu would put you in a much higher price bracket. So if you went with an AMD solution the largest cpu you could use on the board would be a +3200 with 400mhz fsb What upgrades that would be available would be ram(up to about 3gig),video card,harddrives,audio,video etc. If you went for the Intel solution,You would get much less for your money.	metla (154)
248249	2004-06-28 12:53:00	Metla Yes I will take your idea on the video card and go 9700 pro or higher. How important is fsb?. Should I squeeze a bit extra and get something higher?	nalla (1386)
248250	2004-06-28 13:04:00	how importent is fsb? The only importent aspect to worry about with fsb is that you buy a cpu,motherboard and ram that all run at the same speed. if you purchased an AMD 3200 cpu with a 400mhz fsb then you would need ram and a motherboard that are compatable. If you purchased a cpu with a slower fsb such as the 2800(333mhz fsb) then it would still pay to purchase ddr400 ram and just let it run at the slower 333mhz speed,then in the future if you slotted in a 3200 the ram would upscale to 400mhz just fine. Hopefully thats clear enough,im getting tired and have rewritten it a number of times,ill probally read this again in the morning and not be able to understand it myself.	metla (154)
248251	2004-06-28 13:09:00	Yes it is a bit difficult buying new CPUs these days for upgradeability. The Socket A's have been exhausted and thats the end of the line. If you want upgradeability you have to fork out for the premium and get a Socket 939 Athlon 64, or get one of the new Intel LGA-775 socket chips. You might also like to wait for a PCI-Express capable motherboard as AGP will be phased out quite quickly I imagine over the rest of the year. But all that costs a bit of money and I'm not sure all new stuff is available in NZ at the moment.	kiki (762)
248252	2004-06-28 13:15:00	agp wont be phased out for years,and even when it is cards will have a fitting on em to fit agp slots. pci-e is a bigger scam then the 4xagp to 8xagp fiasco. Its all about the marketing.	metla (154)
248253	2004-06-28 13:59:00	and i predict by this time tommorow this thread wil be full of so much conflicting advice and opinions that the thread starter will be totally lost and wishing they had never bothered	metla (154)
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