Need help with PC parts...

[///M]

Haha, you misunderstood me. I meant back in the day it was real simple, 1 > 2. Anyways, fuck ATI and nVidia, 3dfx were the shit .

[bigfoot1942]

Originally Posted by Kip_6666

939 offers dual channel. Thats the biggest difference. It makes memory reads and writes a bit faster.

The price differences lay within the different motherboards. To be honest I myself don't thing the difference is that huge to be so important.

If your really into games, then thats going to be the most demanding item. A beter gfx card will pay off more than a good cpu.


ps, post some online canadian shops. I have no idea what the prices are like.

I would definately go for a 939 CPU instead of a 754 one, dual channel makes reads and writes to the memory go almost twice as fast, so loading a game (and stuff like that) would go way faster.

[swek]

Originally Posted by ///M

Anyways, fuck ATI and nVidia, 3dfx were the shit .

Hehe, so true. I remember when I bought my Voodoo 2 card with 16 MB (?)
I thought the graphics were so good that nothing ever could look better. How wrong I was.

[Dark_Templer_102]

Buy ur stuff from Newegg...not sure if it ships to Canada though

[CanBacon]

Originally Posted by Dark_Templer_102

Buy ur stuff from Newegg...not sure if it ships to Canada though

No they do not.

When registering with newegg, under the shipping info section they say, "Please note: Newegg.com does not ship to International Addresses or P.O. Boxes."

I've heard good things about tigerdirect even though I have never bought anything from them.

If you live near Markham, Ontario you can even go to their outlet store. http://www.tigerdirect.ca/retailstores/markham.asp

Personally I use http://www.NCIX.com They are a Vancouver based store and for BC customers they will price match.

[///M]

That's were I'm going to buy the stuff from, Markham. If not, I know alot of people that can get deals for like OEM stuff.

Anyone from Ontario know any reputable online stores? I might find something.

[dooT]

I bought a case from this store. It was on special order. They got it in two days and I got it the day after they shipped it.
http://genitechcomputers.com/

Here's one that has been recommended to me(never tried it though)


http://www.bytewizecomputers.com

and finally a list of online retailers in Canada

http://www.computers-canada.com/top100/index.html

[///M]

I got another question.

Is S-ATA alot better than IDE in terms of HDs? I found a place that I can get S-ATAs for pretty much the same price as IDEs. Worth it?

[Kip_6666]

They are better, but nothing noticeable. I'd go for tha sata ones if possible.
The biggest step in harddrives these last few months is NCQ, but check that your motherboard (or sata controller supports it).


When installing windows you will need a floppy with the sata controller drivers if u wish to install it to a sata drive.

[TechZ]

sata are definately noticeable over IDE, esp. the new SATA2 drives, hd are the biggest block to pc performance, everything else changes and gets better, its hd's that are lagging atm, but with SATA2 and newer stuff, its getting a lot better now.

[Kip_6666]

Most sata drives are actually normal p-ata drives with built in bridge chips. The difference would be about 1-2 mb per sec, i don't care who you are, your not going to notice a difference.


But the very latest sata drives are native i believe. But I haven't read the difference being that huge. NCQ will offer a bigger advantage than the whole sata vs pata situation..

[bigfoot1942]

Originally Posted by Kip_6666

NCQ will offer a bigger advantage than the whole sata vs pata situation..

i totally agree with you 8)

[Andrew911tt]

The best think in the world is for you to go to www.hardforums.comand ask these kind of questions there. I am not saying that the people on this site don't know what there are talking about but the people at harforums are just amazingly smart and very very very very helpful. DON'T GO TO OVERCLOCKERS.COM they are mean and not helpful they don't listen they just say the same thing to everyone.

My recommendation would be to go for a
CPU:
aaabudget = A64 3000+ or 3200+ Venice
aaagood budget = 3700+ San Diego
aaano budget = AMD X2 4400+
Motherboard:
aaa939 nForce 4 Ultra or SLI (which one depends on the money you want to spend
aaaaaaIf you go SLI (hard core gamer) go with one 6800GT now and one later
aaaaaaIf you go Ultra go for a X800XL (amazing card for the price)
aaaaaaaaaif you want cheaper you could go for a 6600GT in either set up (very good card but not as future proof because it is only 128 bit. But a great card for
aaaaaaaaathe non or very occasional gamer)
Hard drive:
aaawhatever
Case:
aaaWhatever
Power supply:
aaaI love the Enemax EG565P-VE FMA2.0 great money vs. performance but it might be out of your price range if you are on a budget build
Memory:
aaaget at least a gig of PC3200 DDR400 not the most expensive but not the cheap
TV Tuner:
aaa hauppauge is one of the best TV tuners

if you need more help ask

[bigfoot1942]

one way i agree with you, but if you want to get value for money with this stuff, you should definately overclock. I don't know if the TopicStarter is into that, but if he isnt i would suggest a cheaper motherboard with less options (and less overclockability).

If the TS doesnt want to risk his hardware on overclocking there is no point in spending lots of money on overclockability (like with a 3000+ venice and a 939 nForce 4 SLI) and a 3400+ with a standard 939 motherboard would be smarter.

[Andrew911tt]

if no overclocking i would still go with something like a 3200+ and a nForce Ultra because for one thing you would want to make sure the the board can use the duel cores for future upgrades. And I am sure that the nForce Ultra can s939 can accept the Duel cores

One think for me when building a new system is to make sure that it is upgradeable so the next time I want a new system i don't have to build a new one. I can just upgrade this one. Thats kind of why I like the SLIs. One card now and later when its not enough and all of the driver upgrades and bug fixes you can get the second one and then you just got a better system.

[Andrew911tt]

to the Topic Starter what is your
aaabudget
aaaoverclocking or no
aaawhat you want to do with the computer
aaaaaa-gaming
aaaaaa-encoding/programing
aaaaaa-media
aaaaaa-web/e-mail/word

[///M]

My budget depends on how much I can save up, but so far all the suggestions have been great. Like I said, I'm not going to be doing much gaming. The main reason is the lack of space in my room for a TV, so I'm just getting a tuner card. I will be doing some programming, but it's really simple stuff. I have messed around with OCing before, but I'm not too interested in that stuff anymore.

I'm also not too hyped up about upgrading and all that. I usually just get a nice case, drop alot of cash upfront, and I add bits and pieces as needed until I need a while new system. If I ever have to get a new processor, I'll just shell out the cash and get a whole new system.

[Andrew911tt]

Big spender jk

If you want to get the best deal you really need to overclock

[///M]

I only spend when my computers get desperately slow.

*looks accross the desk at my Compaq with a Duron and on-board graphics*

I don't want to go OT, but since you brought it up, how many precautions do I have to take before I think of OCing?

[Andrew911tt]

here for the single tunner
here for the dual tunner

the duel is so you can watch two different shows at once or watch one and record another stuff like that