Custom Computer Is the bang worth the buck?

[Zenchi 0]

Well, I had recently made a plan for a custom computer (Okay, I did it Sunday at 2 AM. Still.), and I was wondering if you guys think it's cost effecient. Keep in mind, my budget is $1000, and I already have an NVidia 256MB 5600 I plan to switch out with my old 5200 128MB Nvidia GFX card.

(As copied and pasted from notepad)

Case $124.99[/br]ThermalTake Tsunami Series Aluminum ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side, Top USB, Firewire and Audio Ports - Black[br][/br]Power Supply $55.99[br]SilverStone / SST-400 / 400-Watt / ATX / 120mm Fan / SATA-Ready / Power Supply[br][/br]Processor $299.99[/br]Intel Pentium 4 550 3.4Ghz / 1MB Cache / 800 FSB / Socket 775 / HyperThreading / Processor with Fan[br][/br]Motherboard $159.99[br]Intel D915PBLL Socket 775 ATX Motherboard / PCI Express / DDR2 Support / 8-Channel Audio / 10/100Mbps Ethernet LAN / USB 2.0 / Firewire / Serial ATA / RAID / Intel Prescott Support[br][/br][/br]Dual Ram $179.99[br]Kingston Dual Channel 1024MB PC2700 DDR 333MHZ Memory (2 x 512MB)[br][/br][/br]CD-RW Burner $37.99[br]Mitsumi 487FTE / 54x32x54 CD-RW / OEM CD Burner[br][/br]*************************************************[/br]HDD: Maxtor / 40GB / 7200 / 8MB / ATA-133 / EIDE / Hard Drive[br]$59.99[/br]*************************************************[br][/br]Statistics[br]-----------------------------------------------------------------[/br]Total Money of this system without tax, including HDD: $918.93

You can find all these things on Tigerdirect.com (Most likely not where I'm going to buy them from, but oh well.). I'd appreciate feedback, as this will most likely be a computer I use for a good two to three years.

[mrkill47 0]

what will be the computers main purpose?oh by the way, the 5600 is AGP, the motherboard you have chosen has a PCI express slot, so it wont take ityou will need to find another motherboard.i dont kno how much $1000 is in ?'s but i take it that's a tight budget? id go for an athlon XP

[Zenchi 0]

The main point for this desktop is to be a Gaming PC with decent Word Processing and Internet capabilities.

I take it that means I have to find a new motherboard, damn, and that was a nice one.

1000 USD is roughly 734.699 EUR. (I believe that's what you're talking about.. I hope so.)

My final question is, how can you tell if the motherboard is compatible with the processor completely? I only saw the 775 Socket, and I wasn't aware of an AGP. The only similar thing I'm aware of is the SATA and ATA of HDDs. Can you elaborate please? Because it says,

The Intel 915P Express Chipset supports high bandwidth interfaces and discrete graphics. It supports Pentium 4 processors featuring Hyper-Threading Technology.

[alperuzi 0]

if the socket of the mobo is the same as the cpu then there is a good chance it'll support it. For example the new intel mobos with Socket T support all the new cpu's also in the same socket T packaging. However the boards as mentioned come with PCI Express graphic card slots and most of the time DDR2 ram slots. So those components may need upgrading too.As for HDDs it is less of a concern. SATA can be easily converted to ATA (Parallel ATA actually) and mobos come with the converters already bundled.If you want to use your old DDR ram and AGP graphics cards I would go for an NForce 3 Ultra motherboard and an AMD64 3000+ cpu. Will get good performance, especially in games and they are the last generation of AGP supporting platform.

[Zenchi 0]

Well, darn! I never thought my ram or GFX card would be the problem. Looks like it's back to square one. I'll post again once I make a new set of blue prints for it. Thanks, mon ami!

Addition:

I've changed only two things, the processor, Hard Drive and motherboard. (Tigerdirect does not have mine anymore.. and it had a built in fan. )

Processor $299.99[br]ntel Pentium 4 550 3.4Ghz / 1MB Cache / 800 FSB / Socket 775 / HyperThreading / Processor[br][/br]Motherboard $109.99[/br]Asus P5P800 Intel Socket 775 ATX Motherboard / Audio / AGP 8X/4X / Gigabit LAN / USB 2.0 / Serial ATA[br][/br]HDD $74.99[br] Maxtor / 80GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-150 / Hard Drive [/br]

Well, this is not definate yet.. probably 1-2 monthes away form that, that's why I'm asking you guys. Anyway, alperuzi, do you see a better future for AMD or P4? Would that Motherboard last me 3 years? (And be upgradable at least 2?)

See, I know this isn't the best platform.. Eeeh... jebus, maybe I just need something better than my Asylum 5600 256MB NVidia card. >< It was incredibly difficult ot find a decent AGP Motherboard.

[alperuzi 0]

well, for the AMD wing, they are making new mobos that will support PCI Express and DDR2 and should arrive in the next six months. Otherwise their socket type should remain the same. As for intel, they have bigger fish to fry (pardon the pun) they are really going heat crazy and are going to switch to double core CPUs, basically two CPUs on one chip (yes, hyperthreading wasn't enough!) so we can expect a change in sockets, voltages and everything else there.

Upgradeability for 2-3 years, hard to say. But considering the past, AMD was always slower in changing form factors and sockets so you'll prolly have better chance with AMD.

here are two links for the AMD and Intel CPU roadmaps for the next year:
AMD: http://www.anandtech.com/show/1571
Intel: http://www.anandtech.com/show/1524