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Building a Quad Core on a budget $400-$500
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Junior Member
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14. April 2009 @ 14:59 |
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I want to build my first PC and was wondering if I could do it for around $400- $500.
I'm not a gamer and I'm not a programmer so I need parts that work well together without lots of problems if you know what I mean...
I listen to music, back up my movies, lots of surfing the net for my Home business stuff. I'm on the net at least 4-5 hours a day...
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I wanted to go with:
Quad core
1T HD (I have 2 500g IED HD's I will make external if they won't work in the new machine)
4G's of ram
the HD's (IED) and and DVD burners are all from and OLD Pentium 4 not sure if they can be used or not....
new case
power supply
sound card
I'm guessing i need everything
Do I need a video card if I'm not gaming?
I just want a solid machine... One I can change out the motherboard and and chipset when a new one comes out...
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Sammorris suggested this on another post... but the motherboard is no longer available... and I think that was to help out someone who is building a gaming system
Hands down the best motherboard for the Phenom II 940:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128352
This memory is also cheaper and does the same job, if not better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145214
Here's a much better value hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Same speed, less heat, less noise, less power usage, same warranty, and a good 50 dollars saved.
My recommendation for a case and power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
thanks for your help
Jigdish
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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15. April 2009 @ 10:58 |
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That mainboard was never the best around anyway (it was designed for econo-pc use)...here is the best AMD board ever made so far:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136067
That said, your budjet and needs do not require such a nice board...something in a micro-atx econo-board from DFI or Gigabyte should be plenty. You also do not need a quad core for web surfing. You also do not need 4GB memory to watch a DVD.
If you just want to surf the web, then why not keep using your current rig? It clearly has the ability to go online. Any slowdowns you are seeing are probably the fault of an old windows install or an onboard NIC (you can get a nice PCI nic for under $30 shipped)
BTW...With the needs you listed, Windows 2000 is enough for you...XP would be slight overkill and vista would be a waist.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 15. April 2009 @ 11:02
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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15. April 2009 @ 13:09 |
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Econo-PC use? Hardly. The 790GP-DS4H had a few problems, but it was always intended to be a high end board. AM3 is just forccing DDR3 on people. At least it's cheap nowadays.
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Junior Member
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15. April 2009 @ 15:04 |
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Quote:
If you just want to surf the web, then why not keep using your current rig? It clearly has the ability to go online. Any slowdowns you are seeing are probably the fault of an old windows install or an onboard NIC (you can get a nice PCI nic for under $30 shipped)
I guess my main reason for getting a new machine is how slow my computer is on the Net. I keep the registry clean, use spybot, anti malware, zone alarm and avast for a anti virus... I was using AVG but the updates stop working so I went with Avast. I use windows xp and have a Dell Dimension P4 and it has always cruised pretty good for me...
the problems I have noticed have been skipping with songs when I listen to Itunes and then try to run another program or switch pages with the net. And now it seems to take 20 seconds or so for the computer to switch pages,(like its trying to find the page) then once it gets there downloads the page fast using Firefox. I have a cable modem. Would Avast or Zone alarm cause this type of delay?
What does an onboard NIC do? and What would a nice PCI nic do for me?
As far as windows XP goes I'm not sure when I last did an update... How much of a difference would that make? I'm checking for updates now actually... it says i need to download Windows XP (Service Pack 3 (KB936929))
I was thinking maybe with the way things in the computer world evolve maybe the Net was evolving too, meaning you needed a faster machine to process web pages and make things run faster.. Am I wrong?
I haven't bought a new machine since 2000 and it has worked great so far. I have taken care of it and done a few upgrades to it... But the slow surfing on the net has been the thing thats really frustrated me...
Any advise will help....
Jigdish
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Moderator
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15. April 2009 @ 15:18 |
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To rule out internet problems you could download a linux 'live cd' (ie free). There's loads of different ones out there, you burn one to a cd and just boot up the computer with it. Presuming you don't have problems you could be booted up and on the internet in no time. When you're finished you just take out the cd, it changes nothing on the computer unless you tell it to do an install.
Some websites are slower than others, but nothing radical has happened to web browsing over the years, it's probably just that your pc isn't feeling very well. As i say the easiest way to test that is to pop in a live cd, see how the internet feels and take it from there.
No problems with AVG here, version 8.0 or 8.5, and no problems with it slowing down, i use it on all my machines whether they're slow or modern.
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 15. April 2009 @ 15:27
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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17. April 2009 @ 04:45 |
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Onboard NIC's are usualy slower than PCI nics; a my onboard Gigabit NIC is much slower than an old 100mb PCI NIC. Onboard NIC's also waist system resources. Your issue is probably a windows issue, but a good PCI NIC will help response times anyway.
It seems like you might have multiple virus scanners and firewalls running at once...this would cause a massive slow-down. Uninstall any of the old ones.
If you have been using the same windows install for a long time, you might want to make an XP DVD with SP3 slipstreamed into it, and use that to re-install windows.
Get a new nic & reinstall windows and it will be like a whole new computer with less than $40 invested.
[edit]
BTW...High end boards do not have on-board graphics. They do have two PCIE-x16 slots. That gigabyte board has onboard graphics, and the PCIe-x16 slots only support PCIe-x8 devices. The fact that he recomended it for a gaming PC shows how little he knows about AMD platforms.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 17. April 2009 @ 05:03
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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17. April 2009 @ 06:25 |
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My onboard NIC is basically as fast as a PCI Gigabit NIC, let alone 100Mbpps, not sure what's going on there.
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Moderator
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17. April 2009 @ 06:33 |
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Yeah, sounds like a duplex issue to me. Plus i can't say i've ever heard of onboard NIC's performing differently to a plug in card...
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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17. April 2009 @ 06:35 |
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The idea makes sense, but I haven't found it to be a problem in practice.
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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20. April 2009 @ 00:09 |
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The first issue is that onboard NICs are software based, and good PCI NICs are hardware based...of course you will see no improvement using a Cisco/Netgear/etc NIC, but a 3com or Intel unit will reduce latency. Sustained transfers are faster on gigabit LAN, but gigabit will not help for home internet...reduced latency helps you multiple times for ever webpage you load.
The second issue is that onboard NIC build quality is very poor. I can't count the number of systems I have found where the onboard NIC has either stopped working, or has some kind of glitch that slows it down terribly. Onboard NICs are probably the highest failure rate item of any desktop part. Things have gotten better in the past couple of years, but the system wee are talking about was made before that.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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20. April 2009 @ 06:51 |
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Perhaps, but the only time I've had an onboard NIC fail, the chipset later failed completely.
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