My (modest) new PC parts are now ordered!

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:17 am

You'll all probably laugh at me, but I'm on a very restricted budget. Regardless, I've been trying to build my first WinXP PC for two years now, but never could get enough money together. Some of you may remember a while back (possibly on GG) when I started a thread in which I was contemplating the purchase of an eMachines just so I could play Thief 3.

Well, I passed on the eMachines and instead saved my money to order the following from Newegg:

GIFT ITEM|NEWEGG BLACK HAT
N82E16800999140
1
$10.00
MB ASUS A7V880 VIA KT880 RTL
N82E16813131501
1
$59.50
VGA CHTECH GFFX FX5500 256MB RTL
N82E16814145076
1
$80.00
CPU AMD|2600/333 ATHLON XP BARTON %
N82E16819103507
1
$89.00
DDRAM RSWLL|512MB PC3200 RET
N82E16820223009
1
$66.00
CD MS|WIN XP HOME w/SP2 %
N82E16837102151
1
$92.00
Items Shipping From: TN FedEx Tracking Number: CASE ROSEWILL|R114A SILVER RET
N82E16811147005
1
$59.00
Discount For 37-102-151&00-999-140
N82E168COM
1
$-10.00

Subtotal
$455.50
Tax
$.00
Shipping and Handling
$14.71
Total
$460.21

My credit card has a $500 limit, so I'll be getting the rest of the stuff locally.
I already have a 160 gig HD that I bought 6 months ago for $100.
A buddy is selling me a new-in-box TDK DVD burner (nothing fancy) for $65.
And a few other odds and ends I'll need should come in under another $100.

I realize this is far from a cutting-edge PC, but do you think I have a chance of getting Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 to run decently with this rig?

Rich in KCK · Post by **Rich in KCK** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 3:32 am

What made you decide to pick a VIA chipset over the Nforce Ultra chipset? I know VIA kept trying to knock Nvidia off the socket 7 platform but as far as I ever read they never succeded even with their last late entry.

It will probably be just fine and fast and stable I was just curious as to how you ended up picking the VIA?

Quaro · Post by **Quaro** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 3:54 am

Via chipset is fine.

The 5500 is the only problem. If this is gaming PC that's going to really limit you. You would practically be better off picking up a used Geforce 4 Ti4X00 card for ~ 50 bucks, and eventually upgrading to a 9800 pro when they come down a bit more (dropping to 150 as soon as the 6600GTs are more available, I would hope).

In an ideal world you should have spent the extra 20 bucks or so to get an XP with a 400 bus, since you have the RAM to support it anyway.

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:49 pm

Quaro wrote:Via chipset is fine.

The 5500 is the only problem. If this is gaming PC that's going to really limit you. You would practically be better off picking up a used Geforce 4 Ti4X00 card for ~ 50 bucks,

I'm not up on my video cards, so I had worried about that.
I had read NOT to get a 5200, since a 4200 would be faster, so I went with the 5500, hoping to up it a notch.

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:53 pm

Rich in KCK wrote: It will probably be just fine and fast and stable I was just curious as to how you ended up picking the VIA?

Ummm...Because I didn't do enough research?

I suppose I should have checked here first, but I got all excited and wanted to do it right away so I'd have a project to work on this week on my vacation.

Ironically, since I chose Fed Ex Express Saver and ordered it late late Thursday (like 3:00 am Fri), and it looks like if it gets here this week at all, I'll be surprised. Haven't even got a shipping notice yet.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:43 pm

Board looks good, CPU is good. Video, as has been said, is a bit underpowered but will work for any game out there. Won't be playing at 1280 with 4XAA and AF though.

You might keep an eye out for more RAM too. XP is a bit of a hog in that department and while 512 should work for you, 1GB will work better. Not urgent, but something to consider down the road.

Doom 3 and HL2 will run on that rig. HL2 probably a bit better I have a feeling. You may have to go down to 1024x768 or even 800x600 and turn down options, but they'll run.

I have HL2 running on XP Home on an AMD XP2600+333, Radeon 9800 Pro, 1GB dual channel and it's at 1024x768, 4xAA, all options on high. Averaging around 50fps I think. Doom3, IIRC at the same settings was probably getting 20-25fps. I had to turn down some options to get a decent frame rate.

Quaro · Post by **Quaro** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 3:34 pm

The KT880 is newer than Nforce 2 and in some areas outpeforms it. The bad news is that the 5500 is barely better than the 5200. Nvidia puts out these DX9 cards that can't actually run any game at playable rates with those features enabled. Has your order shipped out yet? Can you cancel just the card?

Here's some random benchmarks -- in a lot of them the Ti4200 beats even the 5600. http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphi ... ts-09.html

If you must get something now for about the same price, look around for a 9500/9600, practically any model.

At least a video upgrade is an easy upgrade later. Keep an eye out for cheap Radeon 9800 Pros. The best bang for the buck in the under 50 is still a Ti4200, and when the 9800s come down a bit they will easily be the best in the 150 range.

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:43 pm

It's too late to change the order the site tells me.

A 512 more ram upgrade is definitely gonna happen.
Also I will upgrade the video around Feb. when I get my tax refund.

Question though: You guys have given some good video card recommendations for a budget card. But IF money were less of a problem, what would be the ideal card to go with that set-up? I want my rig to be as balanced as possible. What's the best card I can get that won't go to waste in that system? ie I don't want a $400 video card if the processor can't make use of it. I'm GUESSING something in the $200 range might be ideal?

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:48 pm

Right now the 9800 Pro is the best bang for buck in the sub $200 range. As mentioned above, it will probably drop in price quite a bit in the next few months.

SquireSCA · Post by **SquireSCA** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:16 am

The problem is that those cards are slow, but they put 256MB of RAM on them and so people buy them thinking they are better cards.

Putting 256MB on a 5500 card, is like putting 200mph rated tires on a Yugo. It is misleading. Any game that you could run that could possibly benefit from 256MB of RAM, will run like a slideshow on that card due to the slow video processor.

You are better off buying a faster 128MB card than the slower 256MB card. And you are paying for that extra RAM, so you can often get that faster 128MB card for a comparable price.

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:30 am

LawBeefaroni wrote:Right now the 9800 Pro is the best bang for buck in the sub $200 range. As mentioned above, it will probably drop in price quite a bit in the next few months.

Well then, come February, I'll be picking one up. Thanks!