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Looking to buy another computer. Been awhile.
JesterDev
Member Posts: 44
Just looking for some advice. It's been about 2 years since I bought a new computer, and I've been tweaking the one I have now for way too long. I figured what not ask here.
First off I am planning on buying a barebones PC. I've only done this once before for a mame project and ended up frying the CPU. I have terrible luck with this sort of thing, but I figure it can't be that hard to do! Just throw in some RAM, HD, CD/DVD (Burner), install OS and I'm done - save for tweaking the OS. Am I right?
Since I've been browsing the barebones boxes I've come across some interesting things that have brought up some questions.
First off - PCI Express 16x: What in the world is this? Man I've been out of the hardware seen for awhile, but
. Been using APG for years now. So which is better: AGP or PCI Express 16x? Is there a market for this PCI Express or is it just a passing phase? Don't want to invest in it, if it's not worth it. What are the thoughts on the:
PCI-EXPRESSx16 2D/3D ATI RADEON X200 256MB HYPER-CACHE VIDEO w/TV-OUT?
Not really a big fan of ATI cards, but then again it's been awhile.
Also looking at the Athlon64 3800.
Not sure on the MB yet. Most of the barebones systems on ebay come with cheap MB's. Any suggestions on sellers on ebay, or other locations? Looking to spend about $300, maybe $350.
Have all the extra's, 2 gigs DDR2, DVD/CD burner, 2x300gig HD's. Just need barebones system and I'm all set.
So anyway any advice is greatly apprieciated.
Comments
First off, order all yer parts off newegg.com, they have great service and the lowest prices you'll find. Building a PC yourself is definately better than buying a packaged PC.
Regarding PCI-Express, yes that is the new thing with video cards, and AGP cards are pretty much obsolete by now. I'd give you some parts suggestions but I'm feeling lazy ATM, just go on newegg and check reviews and whatnot for the parts you need.
http://www.pricegrabber.com is also another good place if you really want the cheapest.
But you'll be ordering all over the place.
PCI express is better than AGP.
It has more bandwidth so that it can communicate larger amounts of data at the same speed as your AGP did , from the CPU to the GPU.
If you buy a PCI express motherboard, you will also need to buy a matching PCI express Graphics card.
The Radeon X200 is a very very low powered Graphics card. It has current generation technology and will play all the latest games with all the latest special effects, but it will play them in minimum resolutions and still only with very slow frame rates.
If at all possible spend as much money on GFX as you can. For a gaming computer this is your single most important component. CPU, soundcard, HDD, all should be second priority to this.
I have an Athlon xp64 3800 and am very happy with it. I expect this chip to run all my games for the nest 2-3 years with optimum performance.
I'm still hanging onto my AMD 3200+ (Barton). I went from a Geforce 5900 to a 6600GT back to a 5900. Right now I'm thinking about getting myself an ATi 800GTO and modding it to 16 pipes and overclocking it like mad.
Yes, I'm still hanging onto AGP, but I don't really want to upgrade untill the prices of the Conroe goes back down and/or DX10 comes out. But I know when DX10 comes out, you HAVE to have Windows Vista. So it's going to be a major upgrade the next time.
So you can easily upgrade now, but there's new hardware/software right around the corner (Next year).