Finally Time For a New Setup

M

Munkeymobile

Geek Trainee
Hey guys, I've recently restarted researching into a new system to replace the aging box (thats really starting to show its age) that I'm using now:

AMD Athlon 1.2ghz
256mb ram
30gig Hard Drive
ATI Radeon 9250
Cd-burner & dvd drive

Note that all prices I list are in Australian Dollars, about .75 $US and about .4 UK Pounds

About 20 months ago I did some serious searching for a few weeks after my old vid card died and inspired me to look for a new pc and with the help of you lot here I was able to pretty much settle on this system and did everything but actually buy it:

AMD 64 3000+ $218
Western Digital 120gb SATA HDD $119
Gigabyte K8NSC 939 $155
1gb Dual 3200 Kinston RAM $139
Jetway 6600GT PCI-E $269
Samsung DVD-RW $75
Gigatech 8870KL MIDI ATX P4 500W Silver Case $86

Total Cost $1060 ----> Now = $500ish

All of the adventure can be viewed here: http://www.hardwareforums.com/compy-upgrade-time-6438/

Anywhoo, I'm starting the 3rd year of my engineering course and will have to be using some programs that require too much juice for the old fella such as NASTRAN, Hypermesh, Matlab, Solidworks and others. My brother also recently started a uni course to do with media/arts so he'll atleast need to do some small amount of photoshop work. In addition we both still like to get into a bit of games (I'm still running older FPS's like counterstrike, battlefield 1942, even doom and wolfenstein), but we'd play newer ones if it were possible (Doom3, Half-Life 2, even Supreme Commander one day).

What would be best is to continue using this old machine one a wireless network upstairs so internet can still be used while new machine is occupied (we're on 512 ADSL).

I just began looking around yesterday, in these forums and one or two local websites. One had some packages that I thought might be a good starting point. Here's similar options, some AMD and some Intel:

ASUS M2V VIA PCI-E Chipset -Multi-Layers Socket AM2 940 Motherboard
1GB DDR 2 RAM
250GB 8MB Cache 7200rpm HDD
256MB ATI X550 PCI-E VGA (OR 256MB Nvidia 7300GS)
16x Dual Layer DVD RW Drive
“SHAW” 550Watt PSU
Deluxe ATX Medium Tower Case

Choice of CPU ---> AMD Athlon 64 3500+ = $660
---> AMD Dual Core 3800+ = $700
---> AMD Dual Core 5200+ = $860

Or

ASUS P5PL2/C Conroe Support Motherboard
1GB DDR2 RAM
256MB Nvidia 7300GS PCI-E VGA
250GB 8MB Cache 7200rpm HDD
Dual Layer DVD-RW
“SHAW” 550Watt PSU
Deluxe ATX Medium Tower Case

Choice of CPU ---> Intel Dual Core 3000 CPU = $730
---> Intel Core 2 Duo (Conroe) E6400 CPU = $880

Now they don't really state the maker of the parts such as ram or HDD so I'm guessing that its generic stuff. I don't have any particular preference to brands (also AMD v Intel). Also I assume that it all should work together as these are being sold as packages.

I can choose to add in all extras such as monitor, mouse, keyboard etc etc and windows xp home for an extra $600 but we're not sure if we will just use the old stuff on the new box.

Now after all this essay I'm just wondering what areas should I improve here (for a start I'm suspecting the vid card) without going overboard beyond what needs I stated above. If I'm going for performance in maths and engineering programs do I want intel rather than AMD?
 
ok well, if you want to play newer games then the 7300 isn't going to work. yeah the 5200+ is pretty sweet, but rate now any conroe is better. I don't really know about now, but Intels used to be better suited for what you were doing.
 
I agree with Swansen --- you should really think twice about getting into one team with the 7300GS (those 256MB won't be any good). Maybe take away/down one or the other part and put in a tick higher card (something like X1600ish or 7600ish).
 
yeah, i would say at the very least, minimum, a 7600. You would be better off, honestly, with ATI's X1900XT, best performace, for a really good price, but then again, at that range you might as well go with a 8800 GTS.
 
Thanks guys, I picked those CPU's out of a line up of 10 AMDs and 10 Intels (they go as high as the amd 5200+ and conroe e6700). I don't think we need to spend the extra cash to get bleeding edge anyway. At this stage I'm liking the look of the conroes, maybe with e6300 or e6400 around where we'd want to be. To save a bit of money what do you think of the intel dual core 3000 or 3400? The dual core 3400 is only $20 cheaper than the e6300.

well at this particular place (which is supposed to have the best prices in melbourne) i can get a 7600GT for between $150 up to $180 depending on the brand or a X1600pro for $95. 7600GS is going for $130-$140. They seem like the right area, not too expensive but probably good performance.

What do you guys think of the mother? will it do alright? 1gig ram ok too?
 
Hmmm, well after doing a bit more reading I'm thinking about saving some money on the cpu/mobo and goin with AMD, with something like the Dual 3800+ rather than an intel e6300.

With that saving I was thinking it'd be more worthwhile gettin 2gb RAM and gettin something like a 7600GT for vid.

What you think of that move? would it do ok with the number crunching as well as games?
 
ok well, number crunching, Intel has always been the leader there, AMD seems to run games better. I think by dual you mean dual core, the 3800 is kinda slow and thats a real jump down from any of the slowest Conroes. Id say the extra ram is a good idea, especially if your planning on getting Vista. and well again a 7600 is going to work, but at lower settings for everything, and DX10 is already here so its outdated. That said, it might just be a good idea to get a really nice mainboard and a nice CPU for now and then get a cheap graphics card until you figure out how serious you want to get with that.
 
Thanks for the feedback swansen. I'd say you're right with intel and the number crunching and the amd with games cos thats the way I've always heard it too. Having said that, it doesn't mean one can't do a fine job at the other anyway, so right now what I've got on the table is:

AMD Dual Core 3800+ (maybe 4200+ if its worth the extra $60)
Gigabyte M55Sli-S4 Motherboard
1gb ddr2 ram
Seagate 250gb SATA hard drive (might get 320gb)
256mb 7600GT vid card
LG DVD-Burner
Netgear WG311 Network Card (2 of them, one for the old comp)
Netgear WGR614 Network Router
Windows XP Home

I realise this isn't the absolutely most powerful system I could put together, but we only really want a mid-range kind of thing that can comfortably do what we need it to, remember that I'm still putting along on this old AMD 6 years after we bought it. Stuff like core 2 duo e6600s and 8800GTXs are not gonna be worth all the extra money.

Anywhoo that motherboard should be better than the asus m2v which was lined up earlier, and since its AM2 you'd hope that it'll stay around a while so upgrading shouldnt be too hard in a few years time if necessary.

Gone with 1gb ram since we're gonna run XP rather than vista, and we've gone with home rather than pro cos for one its doing fine for us already without the pro features.

Well hopefully we'll order within the week, assuming we go with AMD is it worth getting a 4200+ (extra $60) or 4600+ (extra $110) in the dual cores rather than the cheaper 3800+?
 
Yeah, definitely would go the 4200 route, but i have a X2 4200 and X2 4600, and i've noticed a difference in the two, the 4600 is really nice, i'm quite happy with it. Yeah thats a good midrange system should work out nicely. Oh something that i have learned recently, XP home doesn't have support for Dual cores, it was discussed on Hardware forums, can't remember the thread though, so going with XP pro is kinda of a must in that respect.
 
ok, X2 4200 it is then i think.

That xp thing can be confusing. I'm sure that xp home still supports dual core cpus like the ones we've been discussing. The thing is that xp home does not support seperate cpus or maybe at worst some sort of older dual core cpus. The AMD X2's and the core 2 duos will work with xp home.
 
Since you're going with a 7600GT, may I suggest a XFX produced one. It's a solid company and pretty close with nVidia. Brought my machine back from the undead. :D
 
Swansen, can you post the link to whatever you found out about XP Home and Dual Cores? I'm about to RMA a copy of XP Home on the assumption that it won't run a 5200+ to it's full extent.

Munkeymobile, if you're building this as a work machine for engineering you're going to either want a serious gaming graphics card or a workstation card like the FireGL or Quadro line. I think the GeForce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 is probably the way to go with gaming cards. With 24 pixel Pipelines and an effective 512 KB memory bandwidth it's as close to a workstation card as you can get without paying out the wazoo. I'm a draftsman who uses AutoCAD 2007 so I'm dealing with similarly intensive programs. You might also check Solidwork's website for a list of compatible cards. I know it's very picky about them.

-Crom
 
Thanks for the replies. If i get this put together at the shop im thinking of the 7600GT's come from either asus, gigabyte or leadtek and all cost the same. Unfortunately no XTX unless I order it in seperately or go to another shop (which could be possible, my family - inlcuding me - are very good at procrastination and changing plans).

Thanks for the tip crom, vid cards and solidworks were something i'd only semi thought of, where i just assumed a half decent card would do a fine job. The 7600 and 7900 both were listed on solidworks as tested but not recommended. The recommended cards were all the workstation cards such as quadros and fireGLs.

Due to the multi-purpose nature of this system (which will include more gaming than CAD work) i think we'll stick with a gaming card. The 7950GT would be sweet, but its a bit out of our price range. I think for now the 7600GT will be best, and if in a couple of years time when cad work really starts to get serious there isnt enough power, i can go for an upgrade.
 
Crom, no he had it right, XP home only supports 1 socket, but as many CPU's on that one socket as you can fit, so theres no issue with XP home and dual cores. It will be completely fine
 
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