Derek's Upgrade Thread

kcnychief

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Only a tower is needed, I already have a 19" LCD/Keyboard/Mouse/Speakers I am happy with.



Case: Antec P180 ATX Case
Motherboard: ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Processor Socket 939 Retail
RAM: CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) PC3200 DDR400 RAM
Video: JetWay X3LE-ED-256C Radeon X300 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card
Primary Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
Storage Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200JD 320GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
Backup Hard Drive (External): Western Digital My Book Essential 320GB
Sound Card: Onboard 8 Channel Audio
Optical Drive 1: LITE-ON Black 16X DVD±RW DVD Burner SHM-165P6S
Optical Drive 2: LITE-ON Black 16X DVD±RW DVD Burner SHM-165P6S
Power Supply: COOLMAX "EZ Wire" CU-600T ATX 600W Power Supply
Custom 120mm Fan: Akasa Amber Series Fan - 120mm 1400 R.P.M. 44.8 CFM 18.0 dB(A) (QTY x 3)
 
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You're deciding to build one, just for the sake of building one? Damn, I wish I had money to burn :p Have fun though.
 
Not building just for the sake of building, but I have caught the disease.

I'm putting some stuff together, and then I will look at the cost of it. If it's worthwhile to sell my Dell I just bought, and then get this one, then I will :)

Building is fun, and I regret buying vs. building.
 
everything looks great. i havent read great reviews for that plextor drive you got on the list. I read that the sony 810a out performs it in recording time.
i believe there is a samsung or toshiba ranked above it.

i was all ready to go out and get that drive because i hear its super quiet.. and an SATA, but then i saw the review and was a little thrown off by it.

i wish i could find the link. i think i saw it on a slashdot article
 
I'd drop an LG GSA-4167 in place of the plextor to be honest. and the 4200+ isnt much slower than the 4400 so you can save yourself a ncie 100-200$$ :) towards a geforce 7800GTX :)
 
Thanks for the advice guys. By no means is this list final, I was just poking around last night. I want to find some benchmarks comparing the 4200 to the 4400, and see if the performance gain is marginal or more worthwhile.

I also read good things about the Sony 810a, and may look into that as well.
 
Derek, have you looked at the CoolerMaster Stacker cases?
 
Nick M said:
Derek, have you looked at the CoolerMaster Stacker cases?
I have, but only lightly. Seemed as they may be overkill for what I need both in features and in price. Was there a particular case you were thinking of?
 
Looks like I may go with these for RAM:

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3746086

If I have them shipped to two different places, I can grab both rebates :D

The only downside to that is I can't have 2x1GB, but I doubt I would go above 2GB anytime soon anyways.
 
In regards to hard drives, what do you guys think?

The WD2500KS is a blazing fast 7200RPM HD, with 16MB of cache. The WD740GD obviously is 10,000 RPM of blazing speed.

Any thoughts on which one may be better, throwing storage out the window and looking only at performance. In regards of how the drives will be used, it will be a stand alone drive, not RAID.

EDIT: Wow, found this benchmark : http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?showtopic=20478

Looks like the WD2500KS kicks butt, cheaper too :)
 
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Being an abject coward I'd go with the 7200 RPM with the bigger cache. 10,000 RPM screams short life to me.

As for the 4200 vs the 4400 benchmarks. Why bother? AMD already did it for you. The AMD naming system is the relative performance of the various CPU's based on a synthetic benchmark.

200/4200 = 4.7% faster, so if the 4400 is more than 5% more expensive it's a waste of money.

PS Just to be a trouble maker... Why not wait until the AM2 stuff hits the street? By then you will either have forgotten the upgrade bug or will be able to jump a generation in RAM and CPU improvements.
 
LeeJend said:
Being an abject coward I'd go with the 7200 RPM with the bigger cache. 10,000 RPM screams short life to me.

As for the 4200 vs the 4400 benchmarks. Why bother? AMD already did it for you. The AMD naming system is the relative performance of the various CPU's based on a synthetic benchmark.

200/4200 = 4.7% faster, so if the 4400 is more than 5% more expensive it's a waste of money.

PS Just to be a trouble maker... Why not wait until the AM2 stuff hits the street? By then you will either have forgotten the upgrade bug or will be able to jump a generation in RAM and CPU improvements.
Quite simply because I don't want to wait :)

I am leaning towards the 4200, as I highly doubt will notice the difference. I had a 3500+ not too long ago, and that thing was blazing fast as it was. Right now I am probably about 70/30 in favor of the 4200, but I want to spec everything else out first.

I am definitely going with the WD2500KS, that is an amazing drive.

Currently I'm searching for cases, the Coolermaster CM 830 is sooooo fecking sexy, but a bit pricey. Amazing amazing features, including support for ATX and BTX
 
make up your mind. Why do you go through computers like i go through toilet paper? Your nuts.

Just buy a NEC dvd-R RW, plextors are nice but overpriced.
 
wwwdjrcs said:
Yeah, I was looking at that one too. But man, that CM 830 is soooo sexy I can't get it off my mind :D

Seriously, though - do you look at your case and admire it? :yowch: After a while I know it absolutely has to get old, and that's when the practical factor of 'should I really have spent so much $$$ on my box' kicks in. Save and by an extra stick of RAM or something.

Can't ever have too much of that!
 
Nick M said:
Seriously, though - do you look at your case and admire it? :yowch: After a while I know it absolutely has to get old, and that's when the practical factor of 'should I really have spent so much $$$ on my box' kicks in. Save and by an extra stick of RAM or something.

Can't ever have too much of that!

That is a good point, and pretty much what I was thinking before...

celticfan11 said:
make up your mind. Why do you go through computers like i go through toilet paper? Your nuts.

Just buy a NEC dvd-R RW, plextors are nice but overpriced.

Because you change TP every few months? :p
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

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