Building Computer, need advice, please.

Hi folks,

I'm about to start putting together my fourth build, and I'm at the point
where I can use mucho advice. The new mchine will be primarily for CPU-
intensive stuff, such as high quality audio compression and editing or
high definition fractals, and also general "house-office" stuff. I'm not
much into games or fast 3-D video, and am not planning to overclock, or
not extensively.

My present two year old machine, which is getting ncreasingly ragged
around the edges, has a Soyo KT400 Dragon and Athlon 1400. I am looking
for a decent real world speed improvement, but without the hassles of
building to the cutting edge. My highest priority is a stable and trouble
free machine made up of tried and tested components. Speed is my next
highest priority. Third priority is a quiet system. My budget can stand
some moderate upgrading of the components below, if it will mean a better
machine.

Here is my first and very tentative approximation of how to go about it.

Thank you all very much for any input and recommendations about better
alternatives, and for pointing out any bottleneck or overkill.

MOTHERBOARD:
ABIT NF7-S
or ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE Rev.2.0 ?
(or possibly GIGABYTE GA-7N400 Pro2 ?)
CPU:
Barton XP2800
(or XP2500 OC to FSB 400 ?)
MEMORY: 2x512MB DDR400 operating as dual channel,
HD: Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM
DVD WRITER: Dual Layer, 12X or 16X
FLOPPY/MEMORY CARD READER: MITSUMI FA404A
VIDEO CARD: Chaintech FX20 (GeForce 5200, 128MB)
CASE: EVERCASE E4252

CPU SINK/FAN:
Speeze WHISPER ROCK II, #5F263B1M3G (2700rpm, 38CFM, 26.5dB)
or Speeze "FALCONROCK" #5F286B (2300rpm, 28cfm, 25db)
CASE FANS:
Back: 12cm, NMB 4710NL-04W-B29 (72cfm, 30dB, will use at 7V)
Front: 8cm: Speeze FDC08025S1M, (37.8cfm, 25.0 DB)

--- already have: ---
POWER SUPPLY: Pc Power and Cooling, 410W
HD #2: Hitachi 120GB
SOUND CARD: Revolution 7.1
WinXP SP1 Pro

building to the cutting edge. My highest priority is a stable and trouble
free machine made up of tried and tested components. Speed is my next
highest priority. Third priority is a quiet system. My budget can stand
some moderate upgrading of the components below, if it will mean a better
machine.

Here is my first and very tentative approximation of how to go about it.

Thank you all very much for any input and recommendations about better
alternatives, and for pointing out any bottleneck or overkill.

MOTHERBOARD:
ABIT NF7-S
or ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE Rev.2.0 ?
(or possibly GIGABYTE GA-7N400 Pro2 ?)
CPU:
Barton XP2800
(or XP2500 OC to FSB 400 ?)
MEMORY: 2x512MB DDR400 operating as dual channel,
HD: Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM
DVD WRITER: Dual Layer, 12X or 16X
FLOPPY/MEMORY CARD READER: MITSUMI FA404A
VIDEO CARD: Chaintech FX20 (GeForce 5200, 128MB)
CASE: EVERCASE E4252

OK, you have some goals that conflict with each other, and some components
that conflict with your goals. If your power supply is fairly new and has
SATA and P4 connectors like this one he

http://www.pcpowercooling.com/produc...cers/index.htm

Then that's a good start. Otherwise, I'd suggest a newer power supply.
It's generally not a good idea to recycle a power supply into a new system,
as the power supply is the most frequent failure point, and it is the only
component that is likely to "kill" other components WHEN (not if) it fails.

Stability is your first priority, but oddly you are entertaining the idea of
possibly overclocking. You can have stability or overclocking, one OR the
other. Don't listen to the idiots who will scream that it's possible to do
both. (don't count on being that lucky . . . )

Speed is your 2nd priority, but you are looking at possibly going from
Athlon XP to Athlon XP. Generally, an increase in clock speed will not
translate to a noticeably faster system. If you're going to spend money on
an upgrade, do it in a way that will translate to a faster system.

Quiet is your third goal, but if you stick with the Athlon XP platform
(don't do it), you've already honed in on two motherboards that have really
noisy cooling fans on their northbridge chipsets. A fan on the northbridge
is not necessary, not even for overclocking (which you are NOT going to do,
RIGHT?!?), and it just adds tons of noise to the system. Choose a mainboard
that is passively cooled, you will have plenty of choice there.

If you want to accomplish your goal of higher speed, you need to set your
sights just a tad higher. Look for an 800FSB P4 processor on just about ANY
(passively cooled) motherboard that will handle it. Or if your budget can
stretch that far, jump straight to an Athlon 64 in the ~3200 ~3500 range.
Again, for the Athlon64, find a passively cooled mainboard. While your
choice of video card was a good match for the system you originally
envisioned, it would be somewhat of a bottleneck for anything faster. I'd
suggest something like the Sappire Radeon 9600 or Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT
(be sure to get a passively cooled one!). While those aren't cutting edge
either, they won't be quite as much of a bottleneck as a 5200. Plus, they
are silent. Just be aware that different versions exist, and choose one
without a cooling fan. -Dave

said:

The new mchine will be primarily for CPU- intensive stuff, such as
high quality audio compression and editing or high definition
fractals, and also general "house-office" stuff. I'm not much into
games or fast 3-D video, and am not planning to overclock, or not
extensively.

My present two year old machine ... Athlon 1400.

This was outdated two years ago.

MOTHERBOARD:

MSI K8N NEO Platinum

CPU: Barton XP2800 (or XP2500 OC to FSB 400 ?)

Bump up to an Athlon64 3000+ or 3200+
--
Mac Cool

Hey David Maynard,
are you the David I know? Do you work in the MSSG?

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heartofBruce wrote:

Hey David Maynard,
are you the David I know? Do you work in the MSSG?

Nope. A different one.

Seems there's a fair number of us too because I get calls for various other
'wrong' versions of 'me' from time to time. hehe


==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.