General system buying advice

[Dogdaysdude]

Hi, all. I don't usually ask for general advice or help. It's usually specific to a problem I might be having. But this time I'd like to ask if you could recommend parts to build a system. I'd really like to build it myself. Kind of a middle of the road to high end PC; I'm not much on gaming & no overclocking. A general all around machine...easy to upgrade. I'm not too worried about price if it falls around $1000-1500 range (not including a monitor) or so. I hope this is not too generic. I have no idea if it would be better to have Intel or AMD cpu, nor what mobo to use with it. I just want to get some input on this.
Thanks for your suggestions. :)

[saphalline]

Oh boy, this is a job! :eek: This is also where Firefox comes in handy with tabbed browsing. ;) Many tabs of Newegg open at once...

Ok, I'll assume you want a whole new machine and don't have any parts laying around that you could use for this build. So, you're looking at buying everything, right? Except the monitor, so I'll leave that out. First, let's start with an Intel machine, since Intel usually comes first to most people's mind (but not around here, tho, so hopefully nobody will get mad at me for paying Intel its due for owning the largest market share :p). As always (from me), prices come from Newegg and include shipping, rounded up to the nearest dollar (USD).

$285 - Pentium4 550 3.4GHz LGA775 Prescott retail
$156 - Intel "BOXD915PBLL" retail
$206 (2 x $103) - 2 x Corsiar ValueSelect 512MB DDR2-533 retail
$102 - Gigabyte GeForce 6200 128MB PCIe vid card retail
$135 - Hitachi 250GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive OEM (#14R9464)
$64 - LiteOn dual-layer DVD burner "SOHW-1633S" beige retail
$86 - Antec Super LAN Boy no PSU retail
$85 - Enermax 460W Whisper II retail
$72 - Logitech Cordless MX Duo keyboard & mouse retail
$56 - Logitech X-530 5.1 speaker system retail
$149 - WinXP Pro w/SP2 OEM

Total = $1396

A few notes on this Intel system. First, you'll notice I picked an Intel mobo. Intel makes really good mobos and it doesn't make sense to go with anything more if you aren't necessarily into games and/or OC'ing. But I did go with a more expensive model that supports Intel's Matrix RAID for the 4 SATA ports and has up to 3 Firewire ports. I also went with full DDR2 on this one because I figured, why not? For a totally new Intel-based system, go for DDR2! If you had a gig of PC3200 sitting around, I might say wait on DDR2, but if not, go for broke! I also gave you a dedicated vid card here. A cheap one, but a dedicated one. I first considered going with a mobo based on Intel's 915G chipset with onboard video, but for an "all-around" system onboard video isn't a good idea. You never know what you'll be doing, and having a dedicated vid card if you have the money is always a good choice. I also gave you a large 250GB hard drive, again because you never know. But in this area, you can mix and match hard drives to your heart's content. Maybe you prefer two 160GB hard drives in RAID? Or a 10,000rpm Raptor with a 200GB storage drive? Hey, whatever you can fit into your budget!

Also, in order to give a complete package and spend that budget, I picked out several personal items here: case, keyboard, mouse, and speakers. These are all examples of computer parts that are wholly personal preference. Feel free to mix these up as you see fit. As such, I used these same parts for both the Intel and the below AMD system. Actually, in order to emphasize only the core differences between Intel and AMD, most of the non-core parts will be the same. Sort of a rough price/performance guide here.

Onto AMD!

$275 - Athlon64 3500+ Socket 939 Newcastle retail
$134 - Chaintech VNF4/Ultra retail
$148 (2 x $74) - 2 x Corsair ValueSelect 512MB DDR400 retail
$102 - Gigabyte GeForce 6200 128MB PCIe vid card retail
$135 - Hitachi 250GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive OEM (#14R9464)
$64 - LiteOn dual-layer DVD burner "SOHW-1633S" beige retail
$86 - Antec Super LAN Boy no PSU retail
$85 - Enermax 460W Whisper II retail
$72 - Logitech Cordless MX Duo keyboard & mouse retail
$56 - Logitech X-530 5.1 speaker system retail
$149 - WinXP Pro w/SP2 OEM

Total = $1306

The AMD system came in a little cheaper. I had to configure it that way to make a good match in terms of performance and features. There was an Athlon64 mobo that I really wanted to include because of all its features, but to be fair, there are also many other good P4 mobos with more features, too. So I took the lesser road, not knowing if you want or need all those extra features. The AMD-based system has more raw CPU power in most cases, but in content creation apps that favor the P4's SSE1/2/3 prowess the P4 will come out on top. A pretty good match, if I do say so myself, and the price difference between the two is only about 6.5%. The Intel system would have been closer in price if I had picked a similarly equipped non-Intel mobo, but on the other hand, the Intel system with the Intel mobo is much more likely to be stable in adverse conditions. It's always a trade-off, blow for blow, between Intel and AMD these days, so take whichever one you want.

In any case, this post is getting long again, so I'll stop here. :cool:

[Deagle]

Wow, you put a lot of time into making those lists huh. Let me make a few suggestions if I may. Get a 6600GT instead of 6200 even though he said he's not into gaming. You never know when a new game come out and it's your kind of game but your system prevent you from playing it. :D For HDD I'd take Western Digital or Seagate, they have better track record than Hitachi. Sap, why not an Antec case that comes with a PSU instead of buying 2 separately?

[saphalline]

6200, 6600GT, whatever floats your boat. That's the problem with leaving everything open-ended, we all have our own ideas of ambiguity! :p

Actually, Hitachi and Samsung are becoming my favorite HDD manufacturers in the SATA era. I have a nice 120GB Samsung in my machine right now, and I must admit it's a lot quieter than my old 80GB WD800JB, which is still one of my favorite IDE HDD's. Now I keep seeing reviews that say WD's current line of SATA drives are just as noisy as their old IDE drives, and that makes me pause to think. I can't hear my Samsung drive above the din of fans that cools my OC'ed monstrosity, so why would I want to add to the noise? Hitachi and Samsung seem to have fluid bearings and quiet motors as standard on all their SATA drives now, so I'm sticking with what works. Darn good performance and no added noise - those are my new friends. Of course, what I really want is a Raptor! :D Western Digital makes the highest performance HDD around, even if they don't do so well in the main market anymore. RAID 0 Raptors - now that's a sight I'd love to see in person...

As for the case, I don't know. I just picked something at random; and I recently saw a Lan Boy case in action, and it was really cool! I want one now for a secondary system. Very lightweight and easy to move, unlike my solid steel Antec server case that I have now. Heaven knows I love this case, but it's a $&*%# to move!

[Dogdaysdude]

Thanks again. I'll print this out and study it for awhile.

[Dogdaysdude]

Ok, now you have my curiousity going...any suggestions for 19" LCD monitors?

[saphalline]

any suggestions for 19" LCD monitors?No specific models pop out at me, but I'm sure if I dug around my pile of mag/online reviews I'd find one for you. General advice: stick to the big names. While an off-brand AOC monitor will be fine, a nice Sony, Samsung, or Sharp will be a much better monitor. The good ones don't go on sale very often, and they often cost 25-50% more than the cheapies, but they are worth every penny! They have thinner bezels, brighter screens, higher contrast ratios, faster pixel response times, wider viewing angles, and an all-around better display experience.

If you're going to spend the money on a 19" LCD monitor, spend it once!