I want a new computer

[nashville_bill]

Hi there all you PC experts. I'm thinking about building a new computer and the computer show is in town this weekend. I am looking for suggestions on some parts to buy like a new motherboard and processor to start with. I have a perfectly good computer that I built a few years ago with an Abit KT7 motherboard and an Athalon 950 processor and am just looking to upgrade to something with a little more grunt.

Thanks in advance,

Bill

[Snow]

If you want to stick with AMD, I suggest going with the ABIT NF7 line of motherboards - I've got an NF7-S and I'm about to upgrade my parent's PC to an NF7-M (onboard Video). These boards sport USB 2.0, Firewire, Soundstorm with analog and optical audio out, 10/100 nic, and I believe up to 2 or 3 gigs of DDR. Oh yeah, and Serial ATA along with regular Parallel ATA. They can be had for around $100 US from newegg.com (I love that place )

I *highly* suggest buying a case with a high quality power supply, such as an Antec Solutions with at least 300 watt power supply and make sure it says "P4 ready" as the NF7 boards use the P4 power connector.

[John]

Hey! No speaking in tongues here.

[Bud Manley]

how much are you willing to spend?
I just built my own PC a few monthes ago. cost me about a grand but its the fastest I've ever seen.

Can I reccomend the ATI "All in Wonder" Video card to you. They're expensive buut I can now hook my cable directly to it and watch/Record TV on my PC. Also came with software for copying and burning my 8mm video cassettes to DVD format.
ATI 9800 AIW Pro

The price for it has gone down a bit as well.

[TopCatGr58]

Ditto on the ATI AIW,

I have an earlier version, but it's nice to use for importing/capturing video, that's how I've made my Video CD's and DVD's of the Rallies, since I have just a basic lowly analog camcorder! Mine has composite and S-VHS inputs, but I'm sure they have DVI now!!

I built my system 2 years ago with an Athlon XP 1500+(1.333Ghz) and it's still running strong, and does what I want it to do, I've cut back on the gaming, using an Xbox for most now, but I still like the PC version of some games better....they seem easier to play/save, vs. the ones made for the game machines and those little brats with lightening reflexes and memories!!

T.C.

[rfbatman]

I upgrade my PC every couple of years. I go to
"Tigerdirect.com" and check out their "barebones" specials.

Two years ago I got an AMD 1.8 GHZ for $200. That came with
the motherboard, CPU and case. I transfered my HD,
CD writer, memory, etc and had (at the time) a killer PC. I am
about ready to upgrade again. If I did not upgrade as often as I
do, I would probably buy a system with more high end components.
But this has worked for me for the past 10 years.

Rick

[strom]

Whats with all the people going nuts bout the NF7 series...
Probbably one of the worst mobos there is.
If you plan on using plexi glass case, get a Soltek 75FRN2-RL. It's a nice yellow mobo, nforce2 ultra chipset, serial ata and all the rest of the crap you might need. One of the few out there that reads the CPU Core temp, not just die temp. Faster than NF7-S anyway.
Currently I have a Leadtek winfast K7nCR18D Pro2 mobo. It comes with an additional card, where rear and center-sub audio outputs are located (so mic and line in are free to function), firewire ports, optical output (I think) and an additional 3com NIC on that card. There is another Nvidia NIC on mobo. Supports AGP 8x, USB 2.0, SATA, Dual DDR 400, etc.... the price is bout the same as NF7-S.
If you want a stable board for little cash that supports all the stuff (except dual ddr), there is Asrock K7S8XE+
I got one of those for my moms PC. The only negative things are no dual ddr and sis chipset. Got SATA tho, USB 2.0 and AGP8x.
As far as other ABIT boards go... no thanks. Asus... the same. Asus boards seem to be very picky bout RAM modules you put in. Especially A7N8 series.
Gigabyte... well... dont have much experience with them, but a friend says theyre OK. Better than ABIT or ASUS anyway.
ECS... ... bout as bad as ASUS, better than abit. Don't know if they even have a good mobo for AMD nowdays (sata, dual ddr etc)
As far as RAM goes, go for a dual ddr mobo and two ram modules. Either 2x256MB, but 2x512MB is a must. PC3200 (DDR400) offcourse.
Graphics cards... Forget the all in wonder series. Too much cash for something that it will cost too much to replace. Get a nice PCI TV tuner and a decent card. Radeon 9600 pro or geforce FX 5600 onwards.
Hard drives... get a western digital or a hitachi drive with 8MB of cache and on serial ata. Get two of those and make em sweat it out on a RAID stripe config.
Floppy... any would do.
CD-something... DVD-RW are gettin cheaper by the day, so get one of those.
Almost forgot the CPU... if you can get a barton 2500, it would be nice. Read on why.
Get at least 400W power supply and a nice case. Thermaltake volcano 9 works nice and quiet. Dont mess with water, its not worth it.
Displays... LCDs are too unreliable, so get a good CRT monitor, or at least a LCD with LOTSA warranty.
OK... my current config.
Leadtek Winfast K7nCR18D Pro2 mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton (overclocked to 3200+, just higher FSB from 333 to 400)
Thermaltake volcano 7+ on the lowest possible RPMs
Two Corsair XMS 256MB DDR400 RAM modules in dual ddr config
Leadtek Winfast A310 (geforce FX5600, 128MB)
LG 52x CDRW, Creative DVD 5x (yeah, old one, reads only DVDs nowdays)
400W PWS
WD 40GB HDD on SATA (Abit Serillel adapter rocks).
Adi 19" CRT monitor

All in all... I miss a faster HDD, but... gotta invest in my bike.


LP

PS: Don't expect it to be cheap.
A cheap config for you:
Asrock K7S8XE+ or K7VM4 (has onboard VGA, dunno bout SATA)
Duron 1600 (can be overclocked to 2300MHz with a decent cooler)
Radeon 9200 SE (nothing much, but it works, forget more demanding games)
512 MB TwinMos RAM
etc...

PPS: Asrock mobos rarely die on you. Excellent cheap board for office/home use. Games... dunno.