Buildong My Own

[Kwisatz]

Hi guys. These are the components I need to
Build my new PC:
Motherboard
Processor
Memory
Case/power supply
Vid Card.
Having trouble making up my mind.. Not sure
if I should go K-6 or Pentium. Want a good
system, but don't wanu spend over $600.
What's worth it? what's not.. Read too many
reviews.. lot's of Bull.. Help me out!

[ENVY]

Well both chips perform on almost the exact same level,I myself use an AMD setup.
If you are a beginner,And not totally familiar with PC's and their little quirks I would reccommend going with a Pentium system.You get the highest compatibility with the intel based systems.
A celeron 366,128mb of ram,6.5gb or more hard drive,a good solid videon card(lots of options on the market here),at least a 24x cd drive,and a bx style motherboard should fit right into your price range.Soundcards are a dime a dozen and then a modem.(do not get a winmodem!)A good place to look to get an idea of prices is WWW.PRICEWATCH.COM.
When you select some of your hardware go ahead and post it here and these guy's will let you know if it's a deal or a ripoff.
The guy's here are pretty knowledgable and friendly.

[Kwisatz]

Thanks Envy, but aren't the bench marks for the k-6 III and the Intel PII simliar?? How much does Floating-point-variable come into play? The AMD seems much cheaper than the Intel!

[ENVY]

Well,the k6-3 is a super chip.The floating point is lower than the intel side and most k6-3 chips show much better performance in business apps than the p2 or p3.I assume you are going to be using this for gaming?You will be very happy with the AMD chip.
My only reason for suggesting an Intel setup is because the setup is much easier to deal with compared to the AMD setup.The reason for this is because the chipsets found on the super7 boards are still not as good as what the Intel chipset offers.For example,You must patch the via mvp3 chipset with 4 different patches just to get the chipset to function "properly".You must also have USB enabled and the USB drivers installed to get proper support for the AGP slot.
Don't get me wrong,I am a big fan of AMD and own 3 systems with AMD chips in them.Also the price is hard to beat.The performance differences cannot be seen with the naked eye.Usually needs a good benchmark utility to make this obvious and even then its minimal.
Price,performance=AMD
Compatibility,performance=Intel
Amd is working hard to make sure that the compatibilities of the supported chipsets will be resolved so this may not be an issue for long.
With the k-7 chip these types of problems may altogether disappear.This is just speculation though as this product is not on the market yet!

[BBA]

I think one major attractor to the Intel side is your concern around keeping the cost below $600. I see where you are slanted to the AMD side, but I dont think you can build a comparable AMD sys to the Intel sys on a dollar per dollar basis, the K6-3 is not the least expensive cpu to be found.

BBA

[JRS]

Much depends on what you plan to use your PC for. If you are heavily into gaming and want to save $, go Celeron. I myself have a K6-III and use my PC for many different things, including games. I have found no game which I cannot run or play smoothly, but have heard of others who have had problems with AMD and getting games to work. As far as non gaming computing, I have never seen a faster chip than the K6-III. Dont think you could build an entire K6-III system for under $600, but you could do a K6-2 for that price. Good luck whatever route you choose, and dont buy super cheap memory or hard drive, you will regret it.

[ANTONIO E GUERRA]

I guess you have found the answer:
If you want to build a system for less than $600.00 and don't want to get into compatibility problems get a Pentium 2 (Celeron) 333 with 128k of cache.
I loved AMD but I had found some many problems with certain chips that it is really a headache for a first time builder. Too many patches and problems with motherboard and some multimedia applications.
If Amd develops the 200 mhz motherboard, then we are going to see a new speed limit in this highway.
By the way, stay away from proprietary design such as Compaq, IBM, Packard Bell or Hewlett Packard. You will regret when you try to upgrade them.

[This message has been edited by ANTONIO E GUERRA (edited 04-25-99).]

[ThiDK1]

Kwisatz, I totally agree with ENVY and Antonio, I have both AMD K62 366 and the first system I built an Intel Cel 366A overclocked to 458. Building your own computer is a self satisfying project.....but one that can be full of heartache, if not properly thought out. You are on the right track, the people in these forums are very knowledgable and have helped me a bunch. My vote is for the Intel.....that is until the arrival of the K7, then who knows. Good luck to ya

[Kwisatz]

Thanks for all your help guys. Just to let yah know.. I already have many of the components that I need for now, like HD and CD-Rom and cooling fans. My old PC is A gateway P-120 16mb ED0 pipeline starburst chache 512k(I think). Which when I got it was a kick *** system. I was interested in the AMD and socket7 chipset, but I'll probably need to ask you guys lots of questions if and when I build it. Thanks for all your help so far..

[This message has been edited by Kwisatz (edited 04-26-99).]