I've built plenty of systems, but not for a few years. Everything has changed, nothing is compatible with anything I have anymore except maybe my PCI IDE addon card The main PC which I used for web browsing/downloading/file dumping ground has died. Don't know what, but as it is a 1.3duron, GF2MX, 1/2gig and old MSI133 motherboard I don't reckon it is worth investigation. It got sluggish, then froze, so after rebooting it just cycles upto the XP loading screen then goes round again. Different times it will boot to different degrees, nothing has been software or hardware updated recently apart from windows updates. Occasionally it will BSOD. Even safemode with networking fails and cycles round. I have a decent 450watt Tagen PSU, that is a keeper, and even though it is a bit narrow for decent cooling, I might be able to do something with the full tower case. So, for a budget build, no fixed money because I don't know what things cost anymore CPU: AMD Quadcore Phenom or Intel q6600? Price v Performance. Mobo: Which one still has the most legacy IDE support for either processor (1tb of IDE storage spread over 4 drives, plus a DVD and a DVD RW). Memory: 3gb DDR2 budget because I'm going to stick with 32bit windows (don't know which flavour for now) HDD: 1 SATA drive for booting then my old drives on the PCI card. GFX card: Which budget PCI-E? NVidia or ATI? Which family? We usually stick 7600GT or 76/7800GS in the Linux workstations in the office when speccing them up. Onboard sound and network is going to be fine. I'm keeping my 19"widescreen TFT and that has VGA and DVI inputs so graphics option is cool, except my KVM is vga only. I could maybe ditch the kvm and vnc/remote desktop to my little webserver box. Any help, I want to order today/tomorrow to get it built during the week. Any links to special offers accepted, otherwise I might end up the CC at Bowlers computer fair on obsolete tat again
Just a little update, what is the opinion of 1. MSI K9A2 Platinum 790FX Socket AM2+ 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard 2. AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition Socket AM2+ 2.5GHz 4MB L2 Cache 3. Gecube HD 3870 XT Overclocked Edition 512MB GDDR4 256bit Dual DVI PCI-E 4. Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* 5. Crucial 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered 6 Xion Stacker Black Full Tower Case With Alu Front Door - No PSU All from Ebuyer Total: £507.29 I will use my old Tagen PSU, Hannspree New York TFT, Logitech keyboard and Maplin cordless mouse.
You're after a budget build for undemanding duties with a basic GPU, so why the quad? Seems OTT. Save a few quid on a good dual and make life easier on the PSU and cooling. Forget legacy IDE support, there are older boards with two channels but recent decent boards just support one channel, 2 IDE drives. And rushing - researching = rubbish
I keep my PCs pretty much as they are for a couple of years. Hardware doesn't get upgraded apart from maybe more Ram, and HDD space as needed. I fancy playing games at a decent resolution for once, instead of just playing them on minimum detail like I have been for a while. I have looked into this. Just wanted some ideas of whether for medium term longevity I'm on the right track. Graphics cards usually have some upgrade time, it is usually mobos sockets/memory standards that change.
I should add, budget build means not the very top end gaming components, £300+ for a graphics card etc. And I've been building PCs for so long that prices for lower end stuff seems so low I sometimes question the ability. When I started a 4meg 72pin simm, and a 500meg hard drive would cost more than that entire list, and you needed a drive overlay installed first before windows 3.11/dos would install and boot.
Unless you're going for the likes of an nForce 650i Ultra or SLI (hard to come by now and with no/little 45nm CPU support) you won't get two IDE channels. The EVGA 750i SLI I've got sitting next to me here only has 1 IDE socket. Anything with an Intel chipset and those won't be native IDE channels either. Buy a new SATA drive for the OS and it'll be a LOT faster than your old IDEs - buy since a 500GB drive is all of £50 these days you might as well take the opportunity to drop a couple of IDEs in the process? SATA DVDRW drives are all of £15 now - take the opportunity to upgrade, buy another later. For the price of a PCI IDE card you can buy a SATA optical drive. 4GB of memory will still give you 3.5GB on a 32-bit system, and 4GB kits are often cheaper than fishing for a 1+2 and these won't work that well together in some systems. You can buy a new CoolerMaster case and 500W CM PSU for £55 now iirc too.
For the GPU wait a week or so and see how well the 4850's and 4870's to be fully avaliable as they are very very good for the money.
I'd be inclined to bite the bullet a bit more and convert everything to SATA. Go for a P35/P45 motherboard (maybe Asus P5Q Pro?) with at least 6 SATA (P5Q has 8), get a couple of 640Gb WD drives for your data storage and a 320Gb for the OS and programs. With your applications an E8400 may have the edge on the Q6600 and it's a fiver or two cheaper. And after your last system you'll need a seat-belt. Has it got all the extra connectors for modern boards?
All good cheers advice. Regarding IDE/ATA I already have the PCI ATA133 card installed with one drive on it thanks to filling the onboard IDE on the old Mobo. If there is one IDE header on a new motherboard, then I can run the DVD and the DVDRW off that, IDE = 2 devices per mobo connector thank god, not one like SATA. And yes, the Tagen was only installed last year when my old Enermax packed in on a Sunday and I couldn't find anywhere to get one from, has a 24pin ATX and a 12v 4pin.
