If you had $900

[brown007]

Hey all, Merry Christmas! Hehe guess what...Its that time of year again, time to get a new computer! But this time im straying from my Mac, and Im heading onto the PC bandwagon. Yeah, Ive spent countless hours reading about CPUs, overclokcing, mainboards, blah blah...I'm gonna totally skip the PC newbie stage and build and overclock my first PC. So heres my question for ya...I got 900 bucks to build my dream PC (possibly more if I get christmas money), and its primary use will be games. What components would you guys pick (barring a hard drive and CD-Rom drive)? Thanks,

Matt

[jad1097]

Well this is what I have spent building my new system.
Case ,Mobo ,32 meg pc 100 sdram ,Cd-rom ,Cdrw ,floppy , SIS 6326 8meg agp card (used $5),keyboard ,mouse,sound card (used $5)and an AMD k6 3-400 with another mob(used $75),8.4 gig hdd.
Yes, I am cheap! Someone has to buy all the used stuff. I spent around $500 for all but the monitor another $200.SO about $700 in all.
If I had $900 I would get an 550 or 600 Athlon ,not sure what mobo,128meg pc133 sdram. The BOSS (I mean wife)just said it's time to wrap x-mas gifts for the kids. I will try to finish this latter!

[Chainsaw]

Well, if it were my $900, I'd try planning ahead to be sure that I allowed for upgrades when I could afford them. If I didn't already have a good monitor I'd be getting one that I'd be happy with for a long time, that could take a chunk out of that 900 $ca-ching$. If I were a gamer, a high end video card would be essential, there goes another chunk $ca-ching$ (dang that stuff goes fast) That leaves just about enough for a cutting edge mobo and a not so cutting edge (but very overclockable) CPU $ca-ching$ (dang), hopefully I’d be getting a few more bills for Christmas and I’d get a generic power supply and case and maybe even a decent sound system $ca-ching,ching$. Now, fans are cheap insurance, so I better get about 3or 4 of those $ching$, now a real surge suppressor to protect my investment $ching$. Now, have I forgotten anything, oh yea, software... OS, Virus protection, Utils $ching$, (dang, I just spent $1400). Now add the HDD & CDROM that I’ve already got. Looking back, maybe I should have just bought a system..., na..., more fun to put it together myself.
Good luck in building your system, it can be most rewarding, but be forewarned, it’s not necessarily a lot cheaper than getting a good deal on a screamin’ system.
Best of luck in all,
Chainsaw

[brown007]

heheheh, Ca-Ching! Thanks for your replies guys, but I forgot to mention that I already have a nice monitor, an OEM copy of Windows 98, mouse & keyboard, and a halfway decent soundsystem. So the necessary components are as follows:

Mobo
CPU
Ram
Video Card
Cooling System
Case

What should I get? The number of options available are overwhelming when compared to previously shopping for Apple computers, where I could choose from...an apple or an apple..

P.S. - Is it possible to overclock Athlons by modifying their FSB settings? That 600 mhz Athlon at 385 bucks looks might tasty...But If I couldn't overclock it what fun would that be?

-Matt

[TEK]

i would suggest you to get the best for the less, if you like gaming you could get a celeron processor(wich are good to overclock)and 64 mb of sdram pc100 (this is the standard amount of memory on the market actually), for a videocard i would suggest something good like voodoo 3 or if you want cheaper ... S3 savage 4 mb for only 30 bucks....this card is better than it looks like and is very good in openGL. You should find good overclockable motherboards at cheap prices for celerons processors and finally, a big *** hard drive to store all your games ! oh i forgot the soundcard, sound blaster 16 os cheap and it perform good, everything support sound blaster 16

if it is your first computer i wouldnt suggest you to overclock it......but thats my opinion...

[BBA]

Abit BE6-2--------------$135
Coppermine 500E PPGA----$240
Slot 1 converter--------$15

You decide the rest.

[Nixona]

I would go for the Abit BF6 if your running low on funds. They only difference between the BF6 and the BE6II is the BE6II has UDMA66, which is really a pain in the ****, and isnt all that much faster than the current "standard". BF6 ryns around $98-100

[Nixona]

I would go for the Abit BF6 if your running low on funds. They only difference between the BF6 and the BE6II is the BE6II has UDMA66, which is really a pain in the ****, and isnt all that much faster than the current "standard". BF6 runs around $98-100

[jad1097]

As for video here goes some replys I had. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/Forum4/HTML/001238.html
I would get the Athlon because it will overclock very well from what I have read.Do a search on athlons on this site.Athlons have been overclocked up to a ghz!At least that is what I have read. You could also check out http://www.overclockers.com
Get at least 64meg of pc133 sdram.
As for a case you should get one with a 300watt power supply for an athlon. And a few good fans will get you started.
Also check out http://www.resellers.com
I bet you can get a better price on that Athlon. Also just go through this site and read all the comments and problems others have had.
Good luck

[CMonster]

My reachable goals by next summer:

System I:

Athlon 600+

KM-7 motherboard - unless better or dual motherboard available

System II:

2)Celeron/PIII PPGA (latest and greatest hot ticket)

Latest Abit dualie or hotter

Etc for Both:

128-256 PC133 SDRAM

UW SCSI II- HD/DVD/CDR

TNT2 or better w/TV tuner module

All the usual pair if in ale ya http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[BBA]

My reachable goals by next summer...

P3 Coppermine @ 1Ghz plus (Ummm...with $900 I could do this now...)

BitBoys Glaze 3D card or better!

[NavyDood_ F/A18_Mech]

Just my .02 cents.

IWill BD100plus or Iwill VD133 Mobo. $99
Celeron 366 PPGA $40 o/c it to 550 or PII 450 $135
Iwill Slotket2 $20 (for celeron PPGA/Coppermine)
128 meg PC-100 RAM Generic price $125 Micron brand $150
Voodoo3 2000 $85 2D/3D Accelerator AGP 2X 16MB or TNT2 32 meg $85-$150 (depending on what brand of TNT card you want)
Mid Tower Case $50
Extra Fans/heatsinks $50-$75

That puts you in a price range of $470-$660. Shop around on www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) and see what you can come up with.

Jim





[This message has been edited by NavyDood_ F/A18_Mech (edited 12-25-1999).]

[brown007]

Hey BBA,

That 500 Mhz coppermine FCPGA looks pretty cool...how far do you think I could overclock it? Do you know if celeron cooling systems would fit on it? And one more thing - it would be compatable with an Abit BF6 board and a slotket, right? Thanks,

Matt

[RobRich]

Expect good overclocking results with the coppermine 500's. I've seen a CuMine 500e at 775mhz stable. These are great cpu's, but are still somewhat rare in th retail market. As for what m/b, they will run fine with several mainstream BX chipset boards. Most of Abit's newer boards will work perfectly.

The only thing to needed is a slightly different slocket. Iwill's new slocket2 is probably the best bet, it has support for both celerons and coppermines through the use of jumpers that reassign certin cpu pins. The coppermine's pin assignment is slightly different than the celery, but this slocket solves this prob.

[This message has been edited by RobRich (edited 12-26-1999).]

[KillerBug]

I found a combo of 2 450mhz 2mb xeon p-2s, a motherboard for them, and a case for the whole setup for $1000.