Sieg Gott!

[Scorpiоn]

The time draw nigh.  For Christmas, a new computer receives I. However, I'm lost in a sea of products.  My logic in purchasing is to use a process of elimination:

• Pick a brand.
• Pick a type.
• Sort by price.
• Choose best compromise in price and features.

In practice, it would be like: NVidia, GeForce, [sort list] Ti2800.  Of course, that's just an example.

I need to know what brands I should generally lean toward.  The budget for this rig isn't stringent nor in the thousands.  Don't worry about speakers, because I'm just going to use my stereo's auxilary channel.  Question is: What brands should I look for for:

• Processor/chipset and motherboard (I'm putting the most focus on this.)
• RAM
• Audio card
• CD Drives (I'm looking to burn some stuff)

I have a general knowledge in all these fields, and if I do have trouble I check Cnet (or just come back to jolly ol' Simviation!) if I get confused.

I'm currently biased towards:

• Processor: Pentium
• Video: NVidia
• All others:

[ATI_7500]

Wenn du schon einen deutschen Titel f

[Scorpiоn]

Thanks Exploder, I strangely understood most of that, even though I'm only in German II at a level where I can only putter around with words. Although, mainboard: $1000!? Sheesh!  I was thinking more along the lines of $600 for the whole thing USD. For the sake of our Kameraden, lets speak in english, Einstein, Bach, Hans and meister is enough German for them!

I might skip out on the video card and update it later, to divert funds.  A GeForce4 Ti2800 should hold it's own for the time being.

[ATI_7500]

sorry,typing mistake.

the mobo costs about 125 US $.

if those things really cost more than 1k, i'd refuse to upgrade...

[Scorpiоn]

OK, that's better.  Things are looking good, this might be "cheap" enough for my dad! Although, the video card question is on my mind.  Fo $200 bucks, what's the performance difference between the 9800 and the 9600.  Seems like a lot. Also, what's the difference between NVidia and Radeon cards?

Schuss

[ATI_7500]

euh...get a radeon. i've made only good experiences with them and they're relatively cheap.
hey,if you could find an "old" 9500pro, get one of those! they gotta be quite cheap at the moment and easily outrun the 5600ultra and even the 9600pro!  :o

-edit: typing mistake in "schuss" ? shall it be "schluss" or what?

[Scorpiоn]

OK, if I get problems I'll just go back to NVidia.

Oops, it was suppoesed to be tschues. I usually just say Auf Wiedersehn (unsure on capitalization, I'm just copying you. ) but this German book uses it a lot, but I swear it must have been made just a bit after the wall fell.  Yeah, it's that old.

Another question, what are all the different types of RAM?

[Scorpiоn]

I've done some shopping, so what about AMD processors?  They seem to be a lot cheaper.

[ATI_7500]

you seemed to want a P4,so i had picked a suitable mainboard for it.

okay,here we go (the AMD solution):

Mainboard:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe (ca. 120 US $)

Processor:

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (ca. 155 US $)

RAM:

512 MB PC 2700 (DDR333 ) RAM (ca. 70 US $)

and don't forget to buy a suitable processor cooler.

as for the RAM,there are the following variations:

• PC 1600 DDR-Ram (DDR200) ;much too slow for up-to-date-systems.
• PC 2100 DDR-Ram (DDR266) faster ,but a bit outdated.
• PC 2700 DDR-Ram (DDR333); up-to-date.
• PC 3200 DDR-Ram (DDR 400) should be faster than the DDR 333 ones,but they aren't. they don't work on every board.
• RDRAM; on P4-systems only ,very fast ,but extraordinarily expensive.

there's SD-Ram,too,but it's just out-of-date.

hope,i could help you.

Auf Wiedersehen/Tsch

[Daz]

yeah AMD processors are cheaper than the p4's...id go for at least the XP2500+ (now be careful here its not the clock speed the 2500 so its not 2.5 gighz its roughly about 1.8/ 1.9) but dont let that put you off its the equivalent of a p4 2.5 ghz cpu....i have the xp2800 and i love the thing..i can play fs on full settings etc and play mp3's at the same time and cpu usage is only about 40 percent.. i have never used pentium i am a strict AMD fan lol the fan that comes with the xp2800 is enough to cool it down.

as for graphics card a nice quality card at relatively cheap price would be the geforce FX5600 seems to boast good specifications at a relatively cheap price get your hands on teh ULTRA version as this boasts more power....

thats in the 150-200 price range but if you have got a more leniant allowance on the graphics card id suggest the fx5900 one of the most powerful graphics cards out at the moment..

just a note: ATi have caused a few glitches with fs2004 for some poeple espec flickering of the screen...not sure if it has been solved yet and the latest ati drivers CAT 3.8? i think have caused a frame rate drop on some machines.... not to put you off ati but nvidia have worked flawlessly for me throughout the past and id recomend them.

just another thing (sorry to be blabbing on here) but if you decide to go with AMD processor make sure the motherboard has NFORCE 2 chipset as these work well with AMD.. also check to make sure the board will work with PC3200 as some boards dont when they say they do - as with mine it is currently at PC2700 although its PC3200 ram but not too much difference still works well.

the EPOX board i have below works well with my system and just another thing make sure u have plenty of fans for an amd based system they tend to get quite warm

hope this helps

[Scorpiоn]

Blech.  Don't like the heat because it's bad for the compooter and my house is already hot enough. Think I'll go with the Pentium.  I've got another question, but I think I'll make a new thread for that.

Thanks guys.

PS: Exploder, tell my school district that.