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New PC Time!

blizz

blizz

New member
OK,

I need new PC, the current beast is that bit too slow for me, doesn't like pushing WoW at the native res of my tft and it's too big for the room I'm in now.

first off, the case/mobo the Shuttle SN85G4V3 because it's small and has a card reader :D

Processor: Athlon 64 3400
1GB Ram (Oh god do I need that much ram...)
250 GB HD, Barracuda SATA
Sapphire ATI, 9600XT Ultimate 128MB (worth it?)
Pioneer109BK DVDRW
XP Pro (is it worth going 64bit?)

so anyway, comments and views appreciated.

Also, anyone know what is a decent case to put a ATA133 HD into to use it through USB?
 
DarthDazDC

DarthDazDC

An Alright Guy
I'd say for the graphics card get the geforce 6600 or if you want an ati card go for the X800pro, as the new geforce 7800 is goin to be released next month the prices on the 6 series are goin to drop, so i'd say get a 6600 or if you want to play WOW on its highest settings along wiv othe games, the 6800.
 
ScottJC

ScottJC

At your service, dood!
Yes you do need that much ram, standard is pretty much 1gb for good performance now. I assure you it makes all the difference.

Don't get a 9600xt, it will be your bottle neck, get a ATI radeon 9800 pro if can't afford an x800pro or geforce 6600gt, the 9800pro with 128mb ram isn't too expensive.

I am not sure whether its worth getting a 64bit windows xp, i think drivers are a problem with it, while i'm on the subject i don't know if its worth having a 64 bit processor, either. :p
 
Martin

Martin

Active member
Administrator
Looks like a great setup, except for the graphics card, I'd spend some extra on that personally. A 64 bit processor is totally worth it, this 3500+ is speedy as hell. :D
 
ScottJC

ScottJC

At your service, dood!
As is my 3.2ghz Pentium 4, also speedy as hell. Only thing I really think makes the amd 64 more appealling is perhaps the future-proofness of it. Depends on the price, too. How's 140fps in half life 2 sound? ;)

Personally i'll probably replace this pc again within 2 years so future proof doesn't really matter to me. ;)
 
Clements

Clements

Active member
Moderator
Nice setup, although you could get a better gfx card such as a 6600/6600GT. I'd consider the NEC ND3540 drive over the Pioneer 109 drive as well.

Athlon64 is a great choice, socket 754 is fine for a Shuttle (looks to be no socket 939 boards anyway for Shuttle according to ther site anyway), 1GB RAM is great (make sure it's Dual Channel, so buy a DC kit, even though S754 does not support DC), hard drive will do you fine. I'd stay on 32-bit for the time being.
 
Last edited:
Clements

Clements

Active member
Moderator
Martin said:
*cough*

I have a Shuttle SN95G5, which is a 939 board. :p
Click to expand...

Cool, he could pick up this board instead for the Dual Channel and have more choice with processors. (You can see that I don't know much about the small motherboards :D )

If so, Venice is a good core to buy right now and would fit in your price range. 90nm, cool and has SSE3 instructions (you never know when an emulator may use them, a lot use SSE2 already inc. Saturn and PS2)
 
OP
blizz

blizz

New member
I ought to say that unless something breaks I won't be upgrading this rig too much. (All I did to the current one was drop a DVD Burner and an extra HD in it)

Well I already have a gig of ram in this rig, from when that was a lot of RAM. Yeah I know it's worth it :D I'm not too chuffed with the idea of Dual Channel, I thought we'd taken a step forward away from matching pairs of RAM... I'll bite the bullet on that one anyway. (hrrm 2x1Gig sounds interesting...)

Thanks for the advice on the GFX card, I haven't been able to keep uptodate on the state of the market. I'll probably go with the MSI Nvidia 6600GT, which will be my first Nvidia card!
 
smcd

smcd

Active member
I wouldn't go to XP64 just yet, not everyone has drivers out for their products in it.
 
Doomulation

Doomulation

?????????????????????????
A gf 6600 gt is probably one of those cards that will bring great performance to a low price! Getting a 64-bit processor will probably help for the future, eh? I haven't used a 64-bit os myself so, well... but microsoft is allowing you to switch your 32-bit xp to the 64-bit one for free. Not for home editions, though I think...
 
OP
blizz

blizz

New member
I've abandoned the Shuttle PC idea due to cost and issues with the actual piece of kit...

I'm now going for:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra PCI-Express Motherboard
1GB Dual Channel RAM (I was tempted by 2Gig...)
250GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus SATA HD
Leadtek nVidia GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-Express
NEC ND3540 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
Hercules DigiFire (from the current rig for sound)
 
Stalkid64

Stalkid64

Citizen(sixty)four
Don't bother with Windows XP x64 Edition by the way. I tried for three weeks to use it day to day and it just wasn't having any of it. To make matters worse, my modem wouldn't cooperate so I was reliant on a wireless link via my laptop. There is also no decent firewall or AV stuff yet. Don't even be tempted to go near Tiny Firewall for it, it causes so many conflicts. IE64 is also next to useless since 32-bit plugins won't cooperate with it, even Windows Update doesn't like it. All round not the experience I was hoping for.
Still, throw 32-bit Windows at it and you'll love it. I know I do. :)
 
OP
blizz

blizz

New member
I've got a seagate and a maxtor in my current rig. I just go for the one that had the best spec at the best price. ;)
 
Martin

Martin

Active member
Administrator
blizz said:
I've abandoned the Shuttle PC idea due to cost and issues with the actual piece of kit...

I'm now going for:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra PCI-Express Motherboard
1GB Dual Channel RAM (I was tempted by 2Gig...)
250GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus SATA HD
Leadtek nVidia GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-Express
NEC ND3540 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
Hercules DigiFire (from the current rig for sound)
Click to expand...
That's a great setup, go for it. :)
 
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