First Computer Build!

[Aiken Drumn]

Howdy folks, i'm looking for a bit of help!


Having been home for Christmas i have got back into playing Morrowind. This is a yee oldee game (2002) but still has a thriving mod community. I am completly hooked on this game!

My current computer collection is a laptop that overheats, and a PC so old Its HD's 10GB! Because of this i am looking to build a PC


Now i have no real desire to play the lastest games, im still hooked on the ones from years ago. Because of this i have set a plan.. looking through old mags, i am building what was then the mutts nutts, and so will cane Morrowind, but be cheap on my Wallet.

Current plan is:

Windoze XP
Athlon FX-55 (Was £600, now £20 :D)
Radeon 9800 XT // Geforce 6600GT (Which is better? or are there better old cards that are now dirt cheap (these were £350, now £30 :D)
K8T Neo2-F V2.0 Motherboard (For the Athlon i presume)
2GB Ram DDR400 (Morrowind mods need 2GB)
??? Harddrive (unsure on size, speed, connection type!)
??? Powersupply


---------------

So appart from you guys picking out perhaps alternative or better dirt cheap parts, the next bit of fun is the case.

Now i plan to do things a bit differently to the cases i have seen highlighted here, but i certainly want to do something different.

I'll know better when i see the mother board, but I want to build this PC in something Silly... an old Radio, a lunch box etc i dunno.. but something different!

I think an article in a gaming mag about building in an old ammo box set the idea off, and cruising this website didnt help!

So erm, yeah. Please all dive in to help the newbie! :bunny:

[Aiken Drumn]

Would this fit into a fat PS2?

[DZ469]

Umm no offense but why build a computer with 3 or 4 year old parts when you can build a fairly cheap computer with modern parts that blows it out of the water? Here is a list of specs that i came up with. It is pretty good, and if you overclock the CPU it will smoke the FX-55 anyday.

Intel Pentium E2160 1.8GHz - $80 or ~£40
MSI P35 Neo combo-F LGA775 - $85 or ~£43
A-DATA Value Series 2GB DDR2-800 - $35 or ~£18
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB - $70 or ~£35
Lite-ON CD/DVD drive - $25 or ~£13
Thermaltake PurePower 500W PSU - $60 or ~£30
Diamond Radeon HD 3850 - $170 or ~£85
Windows XP Home OEM - $90 or ~£45

Total: - $615 or ~£309

[Aiken Drumn]

Admittedly it is temping, but honestly Morrowind is the extent of my PC needs. As much as you could advance a hell of a lot, i have no need to spend in this way. I spend more time jus pratting on the internet or on my consoles. Also something inside made me like the idea of having what was considered a few years after Morrowind as cutting edge.

I know little about how that processor would compare to the FX-55..I believe you it would do better. Its so bloody hard to keep track with no obvious way to compare! (short of trawling websites)

BUT ~£300 While seemingly a little for a computer, is more than a months rent to me! An it seems very silly to spend that much for one game alone.

Aslong as it will play Morrowind, i want to scrap this together for as cheap as possible. What will make it exciting will be the case i make for it.


So, if you could tell me, what have been the "daddys" of graphics and processor over the years (eg, the FX-55 in 2005) i might see what my buget can do.

Out of the two g-cards i have picked.. which is better?

[mtekk]

If you need shader model 3 support (e.g., Direct X 9c support) you should go with the Geforce 6600GT as the Radeon 9800 is only a Direct X 9b card. Really, unless you are an ATI fan boy, go with the Geforce, I have played with both and they were descent in their day. One thing to consider is that my Geforce 6600GT with shader model 3 support makes games look much better than the Radeon X800XL that my brother has with the same game video quality settings.

[Aiken Drumn]

Thanks mtekk.

Should i be bothered by which company produced it.. there seems so many variants..

[DZ469]

Well, not really, although ive always liked nVidia better. And another thing, I was looking around for the parts that you specified and found them to be more expensive than the newer stuff. If you have a better place to get these for cheap thats great but this is what i found out on google.

Links:
AMD FX-55 (http://www.google.com/products?q=Amd+Athlon+FX-55&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd)
ATI Radeon X850XT PE (http://www.google.com/products?q=Radeon+X850XT+Platinum+edition&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd&scoring=p) (The best ATI card when the FX-55 was around)
or
nVidia Geforce 6800 Ultra (http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=Geforce+6800+Ultra&scoring=p&sa=N&lnk=next&start=10) (nVidia's best card back then)
K8T neo-F V.2 Mobo (http://www.google.com/products?q=K8T+Neo2-F+V2.0+Motherboard&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd&scoring=r) (This is actually cheap. 3rd from the top)
Even the 6600GT (http://www.google.com/products?q=Nvidia+Geforce+6600GT&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd) is almost as expensive as newer better alternatives, but like i said if you can find those parts cheap then go for it

[Spawn-Inc]

[QUOT
Umm no offense but why build a computer with 3 or 4 year old parts when you can build a fairly cheap computer with modern parts that blows it out of the water? Here is a list of specs that i came up with. It is pretty good, and if you overclock the CPU it will smoke the FX-55 anyday.

Intel Pentium E2160 1.8GHz - $80 or ~£40
MSI P35 Neo combo-F LGA775 - $85 or ~£43
A-DATA Value Series 2GB DDR2-800 - $35 or ~£18
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB - $70 or ~£35
Lite-ON CD/DVD drive - $25 or ~£13
Thermaltake PurePower 500W PSU - $60 or ~£30
Diamond Radeon HD 3850 - $170 or ~£85
Windows XP Home OEM - $90 or ~£45

Total: - $615 or ~£309
i would swap the video card for a 8500GT or 8600GT.

[Aiken Drumn]

Well, not really, although ive always liked nVidia better. And another thing, I was looking around for the parts that you specified and found them to be more expensive than the newer stuff. If you have a better place to get these for cheap thats great but this is what i found out on google.

Links:
AMD FX-55 (http://www.google.com/products?q=Amd+Athlon+FX-55&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd)
ATI Radeon X850XT PE (http://www.google.com/products?q=Radeon+X850XT+Platinum+edition&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd&scoring=p) (The best ATI card when the FX-55 was around)
or
nVidia Geforce 6800 Ultra (http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=Geforce+6800+Ultra&scoring=p&sa=N&lnk=next&start=10) (nVidia's best card back then)
K8T neo-F V.2 Mobo (http://www.google.com/products?q=K8T+Neo2-F+V2.0+Motherboard&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd&scoring=r) (This is actually cheap. 3rd from the top)
Even the 6600GT (http://www.google.com/products?q=Nvidia+Geforce+6600GT&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd) is almost as expensive as newer better alternatives, but like i said if you can find those parts cheap then go for it


Thanks for your effort. eBay is supplying me.. i know there is a risk with buying second hand, but a lot of stuff is for sale right now after christmas upgrades, so i am hoping to get a few "steals"

[.Maleficus.]

If you want a 939 computer (the socket type of the FX-55) then the best mobo you'll find (IMO) is the DFI Lanparty UT Ultra-D NForce4. Here's a link to some of the eBay auctions.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=1&from=R10&_trksid=m37&satitle=dfi+lanparty+ut+nf4&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1

Granted they are in the US, but if you can ship that board to the UK, you'll have a hell of a machine. That was one of the best in the 939 days. It was the board that I was going to use to build my first computer (ended up going with Intel but I did a lot of research on that board).

[DZ469]

Yeah i agree with Mal on this one. I remember seeing a lot of that board
"Back in the day" and i believe it was really sweet too. I dont agree with
Spawn though, cause the 3850 would smoke those cards for only a few
bucks more. Just my opinion though.

[Aiken Drumn]

Please forgive my lack of knowledge, but what difference is there between motherboards? An more specifically the one i initially chose and this new suggestion?

[DZ469]

Mostly Features, performance, and what it supports. There are several reasons the DFI board is superior such as:
-support for up to 4GB of RAM (the Neo only holds 2GB)
-support for 2 PCI-Express graphics cards (the Neo only has 1 AGP slot)
-support for up to 4 SATA devices and 2 IDE devices (the Neo only supports IDE)
-It's just generally better overall

Here (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3433313&body=MAIN#detailspecs) are the specs for the Neo-F
These (http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_spec_details_r_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=3471&CATEGORY_TYPE=LP&SITE=US) are the specs for the DFI board

Obviously the DFI board will set you back a slight bit more but i believe it is worth it.

[mtekk]

I agree with DZ here, you want to go pci express, the cards for it are all around less expensive and better performing (you can get a 7800 pci-express for pretty cheap on ebay, where as the AGP cards will set you back at least 100USD on ebay). So go with the DFI board.

As for brands of video cards with Nvidia GPUs evga, XFX, and BFG seem to be the big players and all three make dependable cards, others are ok as well such as PNY.

In general the only manufacture that I'll stay away from is MSI as I've had over ten Pentium 3 era motherboards go bad due to bad capacitors (they dome then either the electrolyte oozes out as a liquid or crystallizes on the top).

[ComputerGuru64x2]

I would love a FX-55 processor, Those things are Kick-Ass. How much are you paying for it?

[Aiken Drumn]

Looks like about £40-£50 looking at ended items

[.Maleficus.]

Branching from what DZ469 said, the DFI board also was considered one of the best (if not the best) for overclocking 939 chips.

Plus, it's got UV parts on it :D.

[DZ469]

Yeah DFI boards were great back in the day. i wonder why they aren't around a lot now.:?. At least i haven't heard from them in a while.

[mtekk]

DFI boards are still great, they just are more of an AMD shop (or at least their best boards seem to be for AMD systems), and well, AMD isn't doing so hot right now, so you don't hear much of DFI.