New build

[gothitbycar]

I'm going to be building a new Athlon XP system for a friend and I have to say its the first XP that I have ever built but will probably be the last too :frown: . Just wanted to educate everyone in that. As a matter of fact, I have barely ever touched an Athlon XP system. I went from an original slot athlon to an athlon 64.

Anyways, heres the specs (courtesy of <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com" target="_new">Newegg.com</A>) -
Biostar M7VIG 400 (KM266 chipset, microATX, onboard video, lan and audio)
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ Thoroughbred
2x 256 mb Mushkin basic green pc2100
40gb 7200 rpm Maxtor
52x32x52x16 Lite-On DVD/CD-RW

Total plus the tower, psu, floppy and modem -
$340.73

As you can tell its a value system. I think I did pretty well for it. Any one has any changes I should make, feel free to say so, cheaper is always better.

BTW, how long does it take Newegg to ship?

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!

 

[gothitbycar]

Any one with experience with onboard unichrome graphics? Forgot to say that, can I run 1024x768 @ 85hz with it? Or 1280 x1024 @ atleast 75hz?

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!

 

[endyen]

Everyone will tell you to spend more, so let me start.
First off spend the extra $8 to get pc3200, just in case.
Secondly, I'm not a fan of Biostar, nor via.
If you are going to be dealing in onboard graphics, you should go nvidia chipset. Top of the heap would be the Abit NF7-M, but it's a wopping $89. You could save $10 and get the asus A7N8X-VM/400, or for only a few bucks more than the via board, you could get the Biostar M7NCG 400.
If I had to stay under $50, I would get the Asrock K7S41, because sis chipsets are a little better than via.

 

[gothitbycar]

You would rather have sis than via? I always thought that sis chipsets were the epidemy of cheap. I'll look into that and consider the M7NCG. I would much rather have an nforce board but I already told the guy of the price. I'll see if I can cut corners elsewhere.

As for the memory, its going to have to stay the way it is. The only way it'll be changed is if I don't go with a different mobo. It's not like it'll be overclocked, and upgrading to a FSB 333 is not likely.

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!

 

[endyen]

If he were my friend, I would talk him into an xp-m 2400, and the Abit board. Sometimes we just have to help our friends more than they want. The perf gain for $54. makes it an obvious choice. For an idiot customer, you settle, for a friend, never settle for less than the best.

 

[gothitbycar]

It's more of a family friend than a friend. Also, I'm competing with dell for a cheaper system. Some corner have to be cut somewhere.

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!

 

[Crashman]

SiS has always been superior to VIA. Yes, they had compatability issues way back in the Socket 7 days, but consider the infamous VIA MVP chipsets they compared to. And then take into account that when people reported problems with certain configurations, SiS had the guts to fess up, while VIA denied everything. If there were ever a underdog in the industry that might be supported simply for trying harder than their competition, it would be SiS.

But I'd rather just go with an nVidia chipset.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[pauldh]

I'd go with the NF2 IGP for a few bucks more. Higher performance, higher CPU Support, better/faster Integrated Video, and NV chipset not Via.

Pretty popular affordable NF2 IGP:
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-234&depa=1" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-234&depa=1</A>

As far as Dell, explain how a Dell 2400 has crappy integrated video and no APG slot. he is stuck or needs a Slow PCI video card to upgrade. The GF4MX integrated into NF2 IGP isn't all that bad for mild gaming, and it has an AGP slot for future ugrades. IMO Dell 2400's suck and are basically disposable come upgrade time. Not to mention they come with Windows XP home and 128MB of shared memory. What a winning combination and proof Dell will sell it's customers short just to have a cheap system to sell. In no way should that thing be offered with less than 256MB ram IMO.



ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[pauldh]

One other thing. Since you are competing with Dell and it's numbers game. You may want to consider a Semron 2600+ over an AXP2400+. AXP's are climbing in price. The Speeds are about the same between the two and the Sempron is a couple bucks cheaper retail than the AXP. You get that added sales pitch of selling him a 333bus 2600+ not a 266 bus 2400+. Just make sure you then buy at least PC2700 memory. Also make sure that the motherboard supports the Sempron processors. It May require a bios update to recognize properly.




ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[endyen]

You are competing against dell, and you're not going to upsell him? You think they will do that? To make the dell work, he'll need $200 worth of upgrades, just to get to post.

 

[pauldh]

LOL, and he(the customer) will be here asking for video card advice in a few weeks becasue UT2003 is a slideshow. Sorry, no AGP slot on that Dell dude.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[Spitfire_x86]

One of my friends use onboard KM266 graphics and it's horrible. I strongly recommend getting a nForce2 IGP mobo

You can get 80 GB HDD if you spend little more.

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<A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86" target="_new">My Website</A>

<A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/myrig.html" target="_new">My Rig</A> & <A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/benchmark.html" target="_new">3DMark score</A>

 

[gothitbycar]

It's only going to be used as a internet/word machine. I'm going to try to push for the Nvidia IGP though. Other than that I could get one with just an agp port and give him my old tnt2.

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!

 

[endyen]

Pawn the TNT2, and you'll have enough to buy the nforce board. Geez, I hate the MXes but for onboard, they really are the only solution. It will even make that much of a difference just surfing.

 

[gothitbycar]

I decided to go with the nforce2. I just ordered everything and should be recieving the goods next week. Total came out to $404 with shipping and handling, not bad considering it would rape a similiarly priced oem computer. Thanks for everyones opinion. This topic is now done.

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oh, its a nice day. TO EAT CHILDREN!!!