Bloodwinter Clan

first off i would post this in the tech section but only like 2 people would read it so i posted it here hoping more people would see it and i could maybe avoid a huge problem.

so my question is
1. do you know of anything bad off the bat from these Mgf's?
2. do i need a new case for a better power supply?

as far as what i have is a ATX mid-sized case

9800xt soyo dragon board.


anyhow i want to buy this crap.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3000BPBOX - Retail PROCESSOR

Abit AV8 VIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard

yes i know they are 8xAGP i read that the abit needs a good power supply and the only thing i dont know if u need a new case to support a stronger power supply.

yeah so thanks

i know nothing about AMD. I'm an Intel whore.

i was reading reviews on the prescott and better and i guess they are bigger power suckers compared the to amd venice and better.
and they have some type of architecture that some times leads to irregularities when information is sent.

anyhow i took a look at both . for like a month of two i was going with intel but the cost plus less amount of quality from what i read on forums and such lead me to choose the amd for now

yep from what I have been reading the new AMDs are actually better... my next computer i might actually talk a walk on the dark side

i have a AMD 3400
nvidia 6800
2 gigs of ram (cosaire)
Aspire Navigator X case (fans are a bit noisey for all 8 of them)
SATA harddrive (pain to instal imo)

i love the thing to death
got an lcd also all for 1500 can run 2 accounts really well

personally, i use a pentium m 2.0ghz on my secondary desktop, and a p4-2.8 on my primary. my previous computer was a dual athlon 1.4, on the og k7thunder.

anyways, you could have justposted this on the tech board. the only person who matters that is responding is me

1) yes, the higher end p4's are gonna be bigger power sucks, because this number is usually pretty strongly correlated with the clock speed of the chip. intel chips run at higher clock speeds, thus higher power/temperature (not always the case, as the # of gates matter too, but the clock speed difference is better in the comparison between amd and intel).

2) 9800xt is an ATI video card? soyo dragon board is an athlon wonderboard? is that what you're running now?

3) nothing _needs_ a great power supply, but a good one certainly cuts back your rate of failure on your computer. I would have to say power supply failure is one of the more common failures in PCs now. And since a lot of these newer chips and components are increasing their power usage, it does force the power supply to output more power than before. a company like abit cannot put to market a motherboard that requires some high end power supply or high quality power supply if they care about their bottom line, so it would still probably work ok with whatever you got (as long as it's at least around 250W).

4) you most likely don't need a new case, unless you're buying a specialty power supply (which i highly doubt, since they're expensive and role based). with that said, new cases are pretty darn cheap, and can make your computer look cooler, and feel like a new computer, despite the fact that it might not be entirely new.

5) how powerful a power supply do you need?

If this computer is just for standard game playing and doesn't have too much shit in there (just like 1-2 hard drives, sound card, video, ethernet, 1 dvd burner, 1 cpu/mobo), a standard 300w will do you fine these days. brand? there's no definitive bests, but lots of people have preferences. with that said, just pick a name brand one and you should be fine. Deer, E-power, Enermax, NMB, PC Power/Cooling, etc..

if this computer has a ton of shit, just start doing some basic math. the high end intels probably suck up about 120W at full load. AMDs probably around 100-110W. (just numbers off the top of my head.. may be off.. don't hold me liable). Your video card runs about 30-90w depending on how powerful that shit is (if it's a 9800xt, probably around 50w). then tack on an additional 2-3 watts per fan, and like 20-30 watts per peripheral, and then get a power supply slightly bigger than that #. 300 is probably fine in most cases, some people like to be extra safe and get a 350w one. some people will completely bullshit you b/c they've been reading too much anandtech/toms hardware bullshit to tell you you need a high quality 400w+ one. bullshit.

6) i'm gonna go out on a limb here and recommend you getting a pentium M. little more pricey, but they are sweet I think abit or some company makes a pentium m (479->478 converter) for use on 875p motherboards (which are dirt cheap). they're just as fast as their desktop counterparts, run at considerably lower power levels, and because of that, you can put silent or even fanless heatsinks to cool it. that way your computer doesn't sound like fucking LAX when you're playing unreal. i'm using this paired with a lianli v1200 case + epower lion 450w silent powersupply. i also have 8 hard drives in this machine (6 in raid 5, 2 in raid 1), and the computer is extremely quiet still

Killets runs a Intel for gaming, unfortunately that hurts his credibility unless he's buying Intel to help support Lawdog.

Anandtech.com is probably the best site for unbiased tech reporting. And for about a year AMD is THE choice for gaming according to them. It's not even close. Which I like because competitiveness is good.

Come on Lawdog! Work harder. You guys should be stomping AMD!

Gorilla, dear, the way I see it is that you just dont have enough Rhia in your life.


It's ok to be needy.

id like to spend mass money but right now im workin on savings.

and i just need something reliable cause i have horrible luck all the time.

so i think imma jump the AMD bandwagon.
and go with what works and imtired of looking at specs i just wann play

I run an intel because it was dirt cheap.

you do $$$ / performance comparison, and you'll see that my $299 p4-2.8ghz dell system was the best fucking deal ever , especialyl since I bought it a year ago.

I added on 1gb of mushkin black ram, and a video card(at the time it was a ti4600), and I had a gaming rig faster than most people who spent over $1000 building a custom amd rig.

you lose credibility for throwing money away. that's my philosophy. if you're upgrading, well, maybe buy a mobo/chip not a bad idea. but if you're buying new, you have to be retarded, or extremely biased, or willing to overpay to get AMD when dell is losing money selling computers.




my pentium m file server was expensive on the other hand. i didn't like vendor storage solution pricing, especially since they were all priced towards corporate budgets, or used jet engines for fans, so I had to build one in house. but for a near silent server with 1.5 terabytes of storage (1.8tb native) (complete with noise cages, full aluminum compartmentalized midtower case, 3 thermoregulated fans), i got it at ~$1600.

Nothing wrong with amd, and I fully support people who go that route. they make good chips. But from a purely unbiased point of view, which cares about performance, reliability, and most importantly, $$$$$$$$$$$, buying a new computer pretty much always points to Dell these days, especially towards the end of each quarter, when they run insane stackable promotions in order to bolster their bottomline sales and revenue numbers. plus, when they offer 1yr next day in house warranty for free, that shit alone is worth $200.

and frankly, you haven't built enough computers if you have never had something die on you you buy shit from newegg and it breaks, just be prepared to be without computer until you get a replacement part. they're fast, but it's not next day. or for somethings they want you to contact the manufacturer to service any parts, which is undoubtely slower in terms of turnaround.

i do my homework guys. whether its computer-building, daoc, guild wars, WoW, you know when I'm talking about shit, it's pretty solid info. not everyone is gonna agree with me 100% of the time, but the people who do without well grounded retorts or arguments are generally the people you don't want to pay attention to

p.s. .. when it comes to dual core, I dunno if the pentium d can hang, but we're not talking about that. we're talking athlon vs pentium 4, which is extremelely competitive. shop for price/performance.

but but but im laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazyyyyy

u do it

Just giving you shit, because I could.

I haven't bought a new system since my first one 10 years ago. I buy a new part for my computer, my old part goes into my kids computer, and my kids part goes into the 3rd junk computer (my wife's PC). All three get an upgrade at once that way!

But, at those Dell prices, maybe I will look at that next time. You are correct, those Dell system prices are completely insane, especially if you don't need a monitor.

oh im doing the same thing u are doing i buy shit and my friend buy off all my old shit.

i talked to em yesterday and he said he would buy my mobo processor and video card.

so now i an go with a pci express board instaed of agp 8x cause of the 9800xt

now i gotta read ANOTHER BUTT LOAD OF NEW terms daaaaaaaaaaaaaaammit

Hloden's rules for buying a PC:

1) Always buy local, unless the difference is more than 10%. Saving less than $50 on a $500 PC isn't worth having to wait on replacement parts.

2) NEVER build a PC for a friend. From then on in, you are gonna be the person they phone at 2am when they can't look at porn. Tell them to buy from Dell, they have people paid to deal with that stuff.

3) Always buy a PC preferably on a Monday. Never on a Saturday. Most PC stores are closed Sundays, and on Saturdays, they often don't have anyone in who knows anything, so if a part is bad, you are screwed.

4) Don't be brand loyal. AMD, Intel, NVidia, ATI, Seagate, Maxtor, etc. At any one time, one might be better than the other. The PC business is rapidly changing, and the brand that was clearly the best buy might be the worst on their next product. The vid card industry is especially susceptible to this. Research what is good RIGHT NOW, and buy based on that, not on the fact that the last time you had an Intel, it burnt out on you, since really, the chip for sale 2 years later has very little to do with the one you had then.

5) Don't overclock. Really, don't. Its dumb. I used to overclock when you could take a Celeron 366 and push it up to 800, more than doubling it's performance. Taking a 3.2 Ghz processor and pushing it to 3.4 Ghz might make you have a nice 3DMark score, but really, you're not going to notice, and you WILL cut the components life short.

dell also is the cheapest place to get monitors.

they make it real convenient for you.

last week dell was selling their 20" widescreen LCD (2005FPW) new for $359.
their 19" lcd was $260.
their 24" lcd was $800.

honestly, i could care less about dell, but when they offer at that price, i really don't see good alternatives.