yes i got the 200 gigs for free from dell. i bought the 120 from dell last year for 140s when it was cheap . i bought the 20 in Canada when i was on vacation. I also have a 60 unused right now, dunno what to do to it, give or sell it to someone or ebay it.

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quote:

Originally posted by yujie__ i would get the p4p800(865) or abit IS-7(865) instead of p4c800(875) to save couple of dollars for the same performance, if u used the bios/optimization. heres a good big article on intel mobo's http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1831 . at the end they pick the abit is-7 for Editors Choice Gold Award for best overall Pentium 4 motherboard , p4p800 for best mid-range Pentium 4 motherboard getting 2 different HD for OS and other stuff is safer. I got a 20 gig for OS/appz, 200 gigs 7200 rpm 8mb cache for mp3s, and a 120 gig 7200 rpm 8mb cache for other stuffs/appz/vidz/stuff

Yujie is right, the p4p800 has a bios update which enables PAT, usually only found on the 875 boards, so save your money and don't get the 875. The Abit is also a good choice, if you pick either one you won't go wrong. As for memory you should always use 2 DIMMS in a dual channel mobo. Get the pre packaged Low Latency modules from corsair, the lower latency makes a diff.

so this is what i have so far.

Pentium 4 2.4C GHz
Abit IS-7 motherboard
case and power Antec SX1040BII with 400W PSU
DVD-ROM drive
CD-RW drive
floppy drive
GeForce 4 Ti4200 VTD8X
M-Audio Revolution
two harddrives 40 and 80 gigs with 8MB cache (best price combination)
2 x 512MB memory (Low Latency)

what do you think?

get the antec1080 amg case, very nice case..comes with an Antec trupower 430 w psu (very low noise and no voltage flux)..

As for the hard drive, if you want silent get the seagate (very stable), otherwise u can go for the WD raptor, still pretty silent, not as much as the seagate, but fastest HD besides the scsi, and if u get 2 or more hard drivers make sure u get a mobo that can support raid 0. Also i dont recommned the maxtor, they are very unstable

as for the graphics card, if u want top of the line, get the ati radeon 9800 pro retail 256mb

oh yea..do u plan to OC? if u do u might wanna get the 2.4c oem and get a slk hsf, and the arctic ceramique thermal paste

Last edited by stk on Jun-25-2003 at 22:23

antecs are over price some places. i got a chieftec atx case with clear side panel, 450 watt PS for ~100. the chieftec & antec is basicly the same thing with different prices

as for graphics, i wouldnt get the geforce4's. its last years technology. get the radeon9700np or the 9500pro for around the same price as the ti4200. if cant find it get the 9600pro. it is still better deal/performance than the ti's and FX's

i get almost everything off of newegg. cheap and free shipping

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Originally posted by yujie__ i get almost everything off of newegg. cheap and free shipping

not so cheap for canadians.

quote:

Originally posted by StereoPrincess not so cheap for canadians.

good point, since we don't think about that too much....it's where I got most of my stuff

As far as "getting last years technology" over what's brand spankin new...just remember what the purpose of your machine is. Once your delivery arrives it will already be obsolete, since bigger better items hit the market everyday...so don't spend an extra $100+ just for 1 notch up...lest you really need it...since "last years" stuff will do the trick for a lot less cost. (i.e. you don't need the top graphix acclerator for auto cad and music recording...it'd be nice for Doom 3 though.)

JMO

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"I'd like to buy a techno song."

you dont need top speed/high performance parts, all you need is 2nd or 3rd performance and whats the best bang for the buck. then overclock it to almost the top depending on what u have. my athlon xp 1700 was $55 but i OC it to at 2600 with a great mobo, never get cheap ass motherboards if u want to tweak. my radeon9700np was clock at 275/270 but i OC it to almost 9800pro speed at 360/299, it can do 392/300 stable and it only cost me 232. and never skip on cooling if u want to tweak. i have 7 fans in my pc

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