Choosing system components

[kenner]

I want to purchase a custom system from Envision Computers as I have worked with them before and been very satisfied with other items. I just don't know where to start in configuring a mid price range system, starting with the motherboard. This will not be a gaming machine but will need to handle small office apps. What should I look for? Most of the computers I have worked on or own have ABIT boards, but I have no information on the current motherboards. I would guess there are others just as good. What specs should I look for? If you have a particular board to recommend, I would appreciate having that information.

[saphalline]

Give us a budget and a link to this "Envision Computers". Then we can see what we're working with here.

[kenner]

http://www.envisioncs.net is the link to Envision Computers. I am hoping to keep this a budget system of about 700.00 (no monitor)

[saphalline]

I priced out a Celeron D system and a Sempron system, and the Sempron system was cheaper by a good $60 for comparable specs. So I figure you might want to go with AMD this round. Here's what I picked out:

Antec Sonata II case w/450W Antec TruePower II PSU
Sempron 2600+ (bottom of the heap but cheap)
additional 120mm fan
MSI K8N Neo V mobo
Corsair 512MB DDR400 RAM single stick
Western Digital 160GB SATA 300 hard drive
Lite-On combo drive CD-RW + DVD reader (black)
Mitsumi floppy drive (black)
Sapphire Radeon X550 256MB PCIe x16
WinXP Home w/SP2 (OEM)

Total = $687

This is without mouse or keyboard or speakers. I also left the warranty at the default. You can adjust these as you see fit, but for just the box this ain't bad. Difficult to stay under that $700 line, so a lot of the options were sort of mandatory. Not many choices at such a low budget, but the overall quality of the build/parts is quite good.

For $60 more, you can get a Celeron D system based on LGA 775 with the i945P chipset. This gives you DDR2 support as well as the potential for upgrading to a Pentium4 or Pentium D in the future. Be that as it may, it doesn't sound like you'll have a need to upgrade that far and the initial cost is significantly more. But just so you know, if you want to go Intel instead of AMD, it's gonna cost a bit extra for comparable specs.

[beerbelly]

Just a thought, but I priced out my recent build, and it was roughly $600 more than mine cost.

[saphalline]

Yeah, buying always costs more than building. At least, the sort of systems that I build. :p I wouldn't be caught dead with one of those OEM pieces of cr@p.

[kenner]

Thanks so much for the help. I do want a system with "generic" parts not one of those proprietary sysems. Now I have an idea where to start. BTW is Intel really that much better than AMD?

[jcnoernberg]

look at 'em like different flavors.
generally,
AMD: for gaming
Intel: everything else (data creation)

(post 512 for me, woohoo, wheres my new icon)

[saphalline]

BTW is Intel really that much better than AMD?Oh man, don't start that again! :p ;)

I don't really look at it as Intel vs AMD. When I'm looking at a system, I look at the system as a whole in terms of its capabilities in certain areas. This involves a lot of knowledge about CPU architectures and chipset interactions and bus protocols and VPU/GPU architectures and system-level platform comparisons. Granted I probably take it to the extreme, but I can usually tell you which system will do better at what if given enough info about the hardware.

In short, it isn't easy to compare things on a wide generalization.

[hockey man]

Oh man, don't start that again! :p ;)

Saphalline, you should start another sticky on this indepth subject as a reference.

[saphalline]

I might stick it on the website that Orion and I have and give a link to it. But I'm in desperate need of updating the sticky that I have now, so I don't want to start another one! :p

[hockey man]

Well you could just copy and paste all the stuff you have already written, just updating it for the current CPUs.