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Best config for $2000?

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  • Best config for $2000?

    I'm gonna be building a new machine for a friend of mine. He has approximately $2000 to spend.

    What sort of setups would my fellow MURCites recommend? Athlon or P3? What MoBo? Soundcard recomends? Anything?

    *Note: Anyone who starts a P3/Athlon holy war in here will be dealt with by means of the 10 pound Iron Bar Of Retribution.*

    ------------------
    Kenlon
    "I am. All else is negotiable."
    Kenlon
    "I am. All else is negotiable."

  • #2
    If he's going the G400 route, it solves the CPU argument, mostly, and thus he should get a P3-450. If he's getting a TNT2 Ultra or GeForce and such, its a split call. Buying a Celeron and putting the difference in cost into other components can be a good thing.
    As for a motherboard, i love the ABit BE6, and the BE6-II is starting to show up (my local shop just got it in). With its 120 front side bus settings its an overclockers delight.
    I'd reccomend a stick of PC133 SDRAM, probably 128megs.
    A nice case, like the Antec KS-188 (www.ars-technica.com has a review) that is both expandable, cool, and reasonably priced.
    Thats about it for my reccomendations, get a solid case, a good motherboard, PC133 SDRAM (pc100 is fine if he's not overclocking), and a video card you'll be happy with. Then figure out how much money you have left to spend on the rest of your components and invest it in the parts you care most about (do you take a 20 gig HD and a 17" monitor, or a 19" and a 6 gig, etc).

    ------------------
    P3-450@558mhz@2.1v, ABit BE6, 128megs 7.3125ns PC133 SDRAM, SB Live! Value, G400 32meg Dualhead (@120%), Acer ALN-201 PCI 10bT NIC, 6.5gig Seagate Medalist Pro 7200rpm, 13gig Quantum Fireball CR, Yamaha 4416e Burner, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Panasonic e70 17" Monitor, Antec KS-188 24" Tower, 6 year old Honeywell-SUH 101key Keyboard, Logitech Trackman Marble+


    P3-450@558mhz@2.1v, ABit BE6, 128megs 7.3125ns PC133 SDRAM, SB Live! Value, G400 32meg Dualhead (@120%), Acer ALN-201 PCI 10bT NIC, 6.5gig Seagate Medalist Pro 7200rpm, 13gig Quantum Fireball CR, Yamaha 4416e Burner, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Panasonic e70 17" Monitor, Antec KS-188 24" Tower, 6 year old Honeywell-SUH 101key Keyboard, Logitech Trackman Marble+

    Comment


    • #3
      Let's see.. you didn't say whether you needed a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.. so I'll assume he has those already..[list=1][*]ATX Case: Enlight 7237 with 300w p/s, $59.00 from Directron.[*]Motherboard: Abit BE6-II, $143.00 from Astak.[*]Processor: Intel PIII-450 (Boxed), $213.25 from AllStarComponents.[*]Memory: 128MB PC133, $206.09 from Crucial Technology.[*]Floppy Drive: Bare Teac drive, $17.95 from NECX.[*]Video Card: Matrox G400MAX, $249.00 from The Matrox Store.[*]Sound Card: Creative Ensoniq Audio PCI, $26.95 from NECX.[*]Modem: 3Com/USR 56k, $85.95 from NECX.[*]SCSI Adapter: Adaptec 2940U2W, $215.00 from ParadisePc.[*]Hard Drive: 18.2GB Seagate Barracuda U2W, $499.00 from NECX.[*]CD-ROM Drive: Plextor Ultraplex Wide 17/40x, $110.95 from NECX.[/list=a]
      That comes to $1826.14, so you still have some cash for shipping (NECX has free shipping), cables, fans, etc. If you're brave and want to spend some more, you could get a SB Live for about $50 more than the Ensoniq, but unless he wants to get fancy, I wouldn't bother. It's an excellent sound quality card and very inexpensive. If he wants a network adapter, I'd go with the 3Com.

      BTW, don't think twice about doing the SCSI stuff. It's pretty simple, and well worth the cost. Just do it and watch it load Windows

      Good Luck

      ------------------
      Kind Regards,

      KvH



      [This message has been edited by KvHagedorn (edited 14 November 1999).]

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      • #4
        Does anyone else have any ideas for Kenlon?

        ------------------
        Kind Regards,

        KvH

        Comment


        • #5
          It's just MHO, but I'd rather have an Athlon-based system.
          Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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          • #6
            Me too.. once they mature a bit. Ask Mike (Greebe) to build you an Athlon 500 o/ced to 800 sweet

            ------------------
            Kind Regards,

            KvH

            Comment


            • #7
              Well, I'm a bit of an Intel bigot, so I'd rather build a P3 system.

              If you overclock a pIII 450 to 600, the FSB runs at 133, right? or have I been smoking drugs again?

              (I'm pondering picking up a pIII 450 and some PC133 memory myself. . . )
              Kenlon
              "I am. All else is negotiable."

              Comment


              • #8
                Yes.. 4.5 x 133 = 600.. well, if you want to go this route (I would too) several people have had luck clocking a 450 to 600. Your best shot is to go with the system I listed above (Echo|Fox lists the same mobo and processor.) The BE6 series is the best choice if you are going to overclock. Get a G400 though. Nothing else can be counted on to handle the 89MHz AGP bus stably. Micron has some of the best RAM out there, and you can get it factory direct. Check the links out (I went to enough trouble putting them there )

                If I were building a system for someone, my suggestions above are the things I would use. Best performance for the money and super stable. But again, don't scrimp on the hard drive. It's the one thing that's mechanical and always working. SCSI drives are built for server use, so they are tough as nails. better built and with higher MTBF and a 5 yr warranty.

                ------------------
                Kind Regards,

                KvH

                Comment

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