Okay, Yule left my new PC fund below usefulness, so I didn't end up getting a new computer. I did however get a Palm PC with a mini keyboard for it and a Cannon i850 printer to help with home-office work. (By the way, that printer just plain rocks!)

My PC fund is now at about $300. However, maybe once tax returns come around I'll do better because I've now officially owned my house for a year and may get a nice tax break there. So I'm looking back at the range of $600 USD for a new PC. (Money for monitor is seperate from this and I already have keyboard, mouse, floppy, and completely unused Win license as well as the Mandrake 9.0 CDs.)

Here is what I'm thinking about at present. Comments and suggestions that help me tweak my bang for the same buck are not only welcome, but appreciated. All prices that I list reflect cost of product AND S&H combined, taken from Pricewatch.

Antec SLK1600 Mini Tower w/300W PS = $50
(retail)Leadtek WinFast K7NCR18D-Pro, nForce2 = $116
(OEM)AMD Athlon 1700+ ThoroughbredA CPU = $57
Vantec Aeroflow VA4-C7040 heatsink/fan = $29
256MB Corsair XMS PC3200 CAS2 = $87
ATI Sapphire Radeon 9000, 64MB = $62
(retail)Creative Modem Blaster DSI V.92 D/V/F = $33
WD 800JB, 80GB, 7200RPM, 8MB cache = $104
Lite-On IDE 16X DVD-ROM/48X CD-ROM = $35

Unless I screwed up at basic addition, my total comes out to $572, which leaves me about $30 to spare for tweaking. Here are my thoughts: I want an nForce2 mobo. I want firewire. Getting them both together only seems logical. I can (hopefully) OC the TBredA 1700+ to a 166Mhz FSB. I know the Vantec heat sink is kind of expensive, but it's also supposed to be quiet. I know I'm not using my the dual-channel feature <i>yet</i>, but my first upgrade to the system will probably be a second identical stick of RAM and then I will be. I like Creative's modem software and have had really bad luck with crap modems in the past.

So again, thoughts, suggestions, comments, etc. are appreciated.


PC Repair-Vol 1:Getting To Know Your PC.
PC Repair-Vol 2:Troubleshooting Your PC.
PC Repair-Vol 3:Having Trouble Troubleshooting Your PC?
PC Repair-Vol 4:Having Trouble Shooting Your PC?

all looks good but i would get a different nforce 2 mobo.The leadtek ones seem to be a bit limited in features and tweaking potential according to the anandtech 6-way nforce 2 review.I would recommend epox EP-8RDA or one of the Abit NF7-S.Both are probably bit more expensive but you could fit that in your spare few dollars.
As for the radeon 9000 64mb i would try to find something else in the same price range.I have the 128mb version and its performance is not really up to scratch even for a reasonably cheap card.R8500LE is apparently better for example.Even the gf4 MX440 isn't really much different performance-wise and it is cheaper (i used to have one of them too).Have a look on Tom's VGA charts.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

Skip the 1700+ OEM.....

If u pick up the CPU RETAIL (which i can get $99 CDN) it will come Factory Unlocked......i picked up an 1800+ retail and its factory unlocked and is doign 2000+ at 1.50VCore (Default)....

as for the Motherboard......go for the Abit nForce 2 board......great overclocking features.......
Now as far as the ram...its good.....will be even better once u get ur 2nd stick for dual memory support.......
That case is pretty good.....it comes with 2 80MM fans too doesnt it???

Now the video card.......from experience and even according to TOMS latest VGA Charts.....the ATI Radeon 8500LE Is faster than a Radeon 9000 OR 9000PRO and is Cheaper too!!! Pick up the 128MB Version......very good card for the price...and most of them can overclock to RETAIL Radeon 8500 Speeds.....

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>

Thanks ad_rach and MeTaLrOcKeR for guiding me to the ABIT NF7-S. After reading up a bit more (which I suppose I should have done in the first place, silly me) I like the sound of it considerably better than the Leadtek.

MeTaLrOcKeR, maybe I'm missing something, but from what I can figure, if I up the VCore of the TBredA 1700+ to 1.65, I should easily get it up to 1.83GHz. (Which is the speed of a 2200+, but with a 166MHz FSB.) So why would I want to run a TBredA 1800+ at 2000+ speeds(1.67GHz)?

And you're partially right about the ATI Radeon 8500LE, but I'm guessing that since you're in Canada, your prices are in no way reflecting mine. I just checked Pricewatch and the 8500LE with 64MB of RAM actually costs me $3 more than the 9000. The VGA charts did (usually) put it in a better light (sometimes MUCH better, which leaves me wondering how accurate the AMD - Jedi Knight II results were) than the 9000 though, so I'll spend the extra $3 for it.



That puts my current configuration at:

Antec SLK1600 Mini Tower w/300W PS = $50
(retail)ABIT NF7-S (nForce2) = $133
(OEM)AMD Athlon 1700+ ThoroughbredA CPU = $57
Vantec Aeroflow VA4-C7040 heatsink/fan = $29
256MB Corsair XMS PC3200 CAS2 = $87
ATI Radeon 8500LE, 64MB = $65
(retail)Creative Modem Blaster DSI V.92 D/V/F = $33
WD 800JB, 80GB, 7200RPM, 8MB cache = $104
Lite-On IDE 16X DVD-ROM/48X CD-ROM = $35

For a total of $593.


PC Repair-Vol 1:Getting To Know Your PC.
PC Repair-Vol 2:Troubleshooting Your PC.
PC Repair-Vol 3:Having Trouble Troubleshooting Your PC?
PC Repair-Vol 4:Having Trouble Shooting Your PC?

I'd HIGHLY suggest looking into getting a Geforce3/Geforce3 ti instead of the Radeon 8500. I've had no ends of problems with the drivers, and there's too many bad versions of the Catalyst (didn't try the Omega ones). I've had much more luck using the 29.42 or 40.41 drivers from Nvidia and my Gainward Geforce3. Was well worth the $65 I spent on it.

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

Hmm. My cousin got a GeForce3 and had no end of problems with games because of it. I've been wary of the GeForce3s ever since. I'll have to email him and find out if later drivers ever fixed his problems.

On top of that, currently the best price that Pricewatch lists for a GeForce3 of any type is an OEM Vision Tek GeForce3 (original, not TI) at $69. Anything past that gets a <i>lot</i> higher. Even the very next one up jumps to $80. So I'm not so sure that I could manage it.


PC Repair-Vol 1:Getting To Know Your PC.
PC Repair-Vol 2:Troubleshooting Your PC.
PC Repair-Vol 3:Having Trouble Troubleshooting Your PC?
PC Repair-Vol 4:Having Trouble Shooting Your PC?

I have a GF3 Ti200, don't have any problems with it. I don't use the 40.09 Detonator XPs however because they are not very stable and worthy on my Ti200, however the 30.82 are rock solid.
Your cousin was a stroke of bad luck case.


Strange, I could have sworn reading so much that programmers are one of the best paid guys in the IT sector, now you're barely itching 600$ and you have trouble paying that...

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This post is brought to you by Eden, on a Via Eden, in the garden of Eden.

It might be true, but certainly isn't in Madison, Wisconsin. There are a number of technical colleges right near here including MATC. The result is a flooding of the job market with kids who just got their degree and are willing to work dirt cheap. As a result, wages around here suck badly.

Plus I'm married. Heh heh.

It's entirely possible. He got a GeForce3 almost when they first came out. It might have just been bad hardware. It could have been bad drivers. I'm not sure. I'll have to see if he even kept it and if he did if new drivers helped. All that I know is he pretty much couldn't play any game that used DirectX, and he couldn't play <i>any</i> game that used OpenGL. (Well, he <i>could</i> play, but a lot of times it was like having multiple screens on the same monitor overlapping each other, which needless to say made playing rather difficult.)

And either way, whether I trust GeForce3s or not, they're still edging the system right out of my current price range.


PC Repair-Vol 1:Getting To Know Your PC.
PC Repair-Vol 2:Troubleshooting Your PC.
PC Repair-Vol 3:Having Trouble Troubleshooting Your PC?
PC Repair-Vol 4:Having Trouble Shooting Your PC?

What about the Ti200 price? It should be below the GF3 original and you can OC it to Ti500 levels almost each time.

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I just put together a system with the Leadtek board and things went great. It is a rock solid board with all the features I wanted (5.1 channel sound and firewire) so I didn't see any reason to pay any extra money for more. I didn't overclock though, so maybe the Abit board would be better for that. I have had several Abit boards in the past and I like them. I do like the lack of a north bridge fan on the Leadtek board though. If it doesn't have a fan, it can't stop spinning.

I was going to recommend getting a retail CPU. You can get a 2000+ retail for less than your 1700+ and extra fan. The retail fans aren't extra loud either, but that is only if you are going with the non-overclocking solution which it sounds like you aren't.

As for the video card, I just got the Sapphire Radeon 9000 64MB VIVO card. If you are going with a card that has video-in, that is the card with about the best value. If you weren't looking at the VIVO card, I don't really know what would be your best bang for the buck.

I have had bad luck with generic modems also... but not with Windows XP. WinXP seems to recognize almost any modem while that was my biggest problem with Win98. I would try driver after driver with Win98, while the same modem with WinXP worked fine without installing any drivers.

The rest of your setup looks very good, and similar to what I just put together for my in-laws.

Why not you are buying a generic winmodem? This will save about $20.

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=26708#26708" target="_new"> Go to my CPU Vendor Poll </A>

Lol, an R9000. IMO, if u gonna get that level of cards, get a GeForce 3/ GF4 Ti4200. R8500 is an unstable piece of junk. R9000 is a bad performer. GF3 has extreme stability, and I think ur friend was doin something odd or perhaps he had a defective card cause tons of my friends have GF3's and not a single problem with it. I personally own a Quadro DCC (GF3 except "pro" version) and it's rock stable, and has excellent performance.

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."
- Mario Andretti

I actually liked the Radeon 8500 in the games that it worked in, it was just that in the incompatible or buggy games, the performance was unacceptable. I'm all about my Geforce3 ti200 though, was dirt cheap and good. I think you can get em refurbed for $50 now, I saw Gainwards on Newegg.com a while back that were cheap

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

Yeah, GF3's r solid cards, and they still got life in em. If I get that freaky case tom reveiwed w/ the compressor, I hope to oc its brains out

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."
- Mario Andretti