Building my other sister a PC, need input

[Viper007Bond]

Okay, so my youngest sister needs a PC of her own as she's currently using the one I had in college (I replaced it with a PC and then that one with my current PC, so that shows you how old it is -- P4 2.4GHz, 768MB RAM, GeForce 4 Ti4200).

I'm going to donate my last PC's guts to her, but she still needs a lotta stuff.


HAVE:

Mobo: Asus P4P800-E Deluxe
RAM: 2GB PC3200? DDR
CPU: P4 3.0GHz w/ HyperThreading (no clue gen, but it doesn't matter really)
PSU: Antec 550W? TruePower


PLANNED BUYS:

Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Mouse: Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical Gaming-Grade Mouse - Retail
Keyboard: Microsoft BX1-00005 OEM Silver/Black USB + PS/2 Wired Standard Digital Media Pro Keyboard - OEM
Burner: SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q/BEBN - OEM
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
Speakers: Logitech X-240 25 Watts 2.1 Speaker - Retail


No questions really with the above, but I do have questions about the video card and monitor:

Video Card: no f'ing clue what to get. It needs to AGP and cost is a major concern here. She mostly plays WoW, but wants to be able to play Spore, Mass Effect (at decent settings, maybe even low), etc. The elder of my two younger sisters bought an ATi 3850 two months back for her PC which is nearly identical to this one that's being built. It works great, but it's like $140 on Newegg. Is that what we should buy? Or is there something like 1/2 the cost now but that's 90% as good?

Monitor: we're thinking a 19" widescreen LCD would be good. At 20" you can do 1680x1050, but that size resolution on such a small screen is a bit crazy, right? 19" monitors are 1440x900. Again, cost is an issue here, but no sense is being a cheapskate. Any specific model recommendations?


Thanks (and +rep) to all who help.

[Blayde]

Don't bother with 20" at that high a res, it's like looking at an ant farm :/

[R1000]

Video card being AGP, there isn't that much to choose from. 3850 is the best choise, but there's also GF 7950GT, GF 7900GT, GF 7800GT and ATI x1950Pro which all run on DirectX 9. For DX10, there's ATI HD 2600XT and HD3650.

In reality, 3850 and 3650 are the only newer cards on those. 3650 should also be able to run those mentioned games in decent settings, and is almost half the money of 3850, at least in Europe.

So, if you want to go for a cheaper option, ATI HD3650 would be my suggestion.

[jensked]

Will she also use it for movies and office work?

Mostly for movies: the 1440*900 19" would be great.

I don't like widescreen TFT's for office work though...you can get more of your portret A4 on a traditional 1280*1024 screen...maybe something to consider?

[MadCow809]

HD3850/HD3650 AGP


you cant go wrong with them.

[Viper007Bond]

How's this monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236027 ? Seems great to me and it's $140 after promo code and MIR. She'll be doing both gaming and homework on it and I've become a fan of widescreen and so has she.

What's the performance difference between the 3850 and the 3650? Cheapest 3650 on Newegg seems to be $60 and cheapest 3850 seems to be $90. Now of course I didn't look closely at RAM, etc. so those may be the shit versions, I'm not sure.

[matt2000]

Viper, you're far too kind. I hope you plan on making a profit out of this.

All looks good for me, but I'm not a fan of Microsoft keyboards (I'm actually using an old Dell keyboard that I dug out here at work, complete with clacky keys), and that mouse looks wierd.

[geeman]

Originally Posted by Blayde

Don't bother with 20" at that high a res, it's like looking at an ant farm :/

I don't get this. 1680x1050 is not that high, it is perfectly usable for the avarage person. Besides you can increase the font sizes and things like that from the OS, if you really can't see. It's only a about 10% difference in pixel pitch between 19" and 20" widescreens anyway. It's not like everything is crazy small like on 1920x1200 @ 12" laptop monitors.

A thing you should also remember is that 19" widescreen monitors are tiny, you may need binoculars to see it.
The height is the same 15" lcds or something, so going from a 19" crt to 19" wide lcd might almost seem like a downgrade.
Maybe go for 22" if she finds everything too small on a 20" since the price difference is like 0-5 euros, atleast here in the europeland.

[R1000]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

What's the performance difference between the 3850 and the 3650? Cheapest 3650 on Newegg seems to be $60 and cheapest 3850 seems to be $90. Now of course I didn't look closely at RAM, etc. so those may be the shit versions, I'm not sure.

Check here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...d[2124]=on

Quickly looking, 3850 beats 3650 around 20% in performance. Don't know if those cards reviewed are PCI-e or AGP, but the performance difference should be the same either way.

[FATMOUSE]

Originally Posted by Blayde

Don't bother with 20" at that high a res, it's like looking at an ant farm :/

I have a 15.4" laptop that I'm running at 1680x1050 right now, and it looks fine to me.

[Blayde]

Maybe you get used to it, but that's how it looks to me...

[cvrefugee]

Just sell your old stuff and buy this:

Recertified: HP Pavilion A6430F(KJ378AAR) Phenom X3 8400(2.1GHz) 3GB DDR2 640GB NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE Windows Vista Home Premium

Use promo code EMCAKBJBB to get $100 off.

and

ASUS VW193T Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 800:1 (ASCR 1600:1) Built in Speakers - Retail

Use promo code EMCAKBJAE to get $10 off.

[Vette Boss]

The basic stuff you need is pretty cheap, as you've noted already.

For the monitor, 20" @ 1680x1050 is pretty good and widescreen is better for games and movies, the resolution is standard for that size. I run 1600x1200 because my monitor isn't widescreen, it doesn't look too small and the extra desktop space is nice. If you shop smartly, it doesn't have to cost your left testicle, either.

I would recommend the ATI 3650 for the videocard, unless she wants to play games at higher resolution, there's no need to spend more.

This monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824112007

[cvrefugee]

Another thing: If you already had most of the parts then it would be worthwhile to buy a few more things to make a complete system. In your case this is the exact opposite. I strongly suggest you not invest that much money into an old system when there are so many limitimg factors (AGP being the big one).

[Vette Boss]

The problem is, it can be difficult to sell your old hardware off, even if you do, it's not enough to cover what you want. I tried selling some hardware off that was 2-3 years old at the time and got maybe $100 for it, nowhere near enough.

When dealing with hardware of that age, you just do the best you can to expand the lifetime of the system. A new videocard is fine, provided it's cheap, same with everything else.

Your suggestion works when you need an entirely new (refurb here) system and have the $600 to throw away. I don't see this being the case, if it were, this thread would be pointless.

[cvrefugee]

Originally Posted by Vette Boss

The problem is, it can be difficult to sell your old hardware off, even if you do, it's not enough to cover what you want. I tried selling some hardware off that was 2-3 years old at the time and got maybe $100 for it, nowhere near enough.

When dealing with hardware of that age, you just do the best you can to expand the lifetime of the system. A new videocard is fine, provided it's cheap, same with everything else.

Your suggestion works when you need an entirely new (refurb here) system and have the $600 to throw away. I don't see this being the case, if it were, this thread would be pointless.

Yes, I agree that it can be difficult to sell old hardware and it will never be enough to cover the price of a new system (obviously). Luckily the capitalist in me caused me to make quite a bit of money by selling every single component from my old system, piece by piece. I listed stuff on craigslist, eBay, and a few forums. After the PayPal and eBay fees I made exactly $553.36. Do you know how much my new computer cost me? $843.50. That includes some new stuff I bought just to sell for profit. After all was said and done I paid $290.14 for my new system.

[Vette Boss]

Originally Posted by cvrefugee

Yes, I agree that it can be difficult to sell old hardware and it will never be enough to cover the price of a new system (obviously). Luckily the capitalist in me caused me to make quite a bit of money by selling every single component from my old system, piece by piece. I listed stuff on craigslist, eBay, and a few forums. After the PayPal and eBay fees I made exactly $553.36. Do you know how much my new computer cost me? $843.50. That includes some new stuff I bought just to sell for profit. After all was said and done I paid $290.14 for my new system.

How old was the hardware, though? Hardware in question here is probably five years old, if not more. The older it gets, it's worth less and harder to sell. It's not impossible to sell, just difficult and not worth it, in most cases.

[cvrefugee]

Originally Posted by Vette Boss

How old was the hardware, though? Hardware in question here is probably five years old, if not more. The older it gets, it's worth less and harder to sell. It's not impossible to sell, just difficult and not worth it, in most cases.

Over 4 years old. Here's my original thread comparing my old and new system:

http://forums.finalgear.com/technolo...ata-iii-28696/