New Computer

[duherman]

I'm getting a new computer and I have no idea if this purchase order is good or not.
The info is
Description                            and                    Price

ASUS k8v-MX (bulk) SKt754FOR ATH64 VIAK8T00 W/AUD         $112.00
AMD RET-ATHLON 64 3200 SOCKET 754 W/HSF                        $232.99
MAXTOR 0EM 120 GB IDE 7200 RPM 10MS ATA133 8MB            $88.88
VDATA DDR NON-ECC PC3200 CL2.5 512mb 400 MHZ              $69.88
DVDRW-OEM BENQ DW1620 BLACK16+/- DBL LAY                   $68.88
PANASONIC 3.5" 1.44MB Black                                               $12.00
Microsoft DSP Windows XP Home w/Hardware OEM                   $105.00
ANTEC SLK2650BEQ CHASSIS ATX CASE BK ATX12V 350W P   $99.99


TOTAL PRICE: $832.89 (This is all in canadian dollars)

[SwiftSpear]

Where the heck are you finding these prices?

Most of it looks about what I would expect, but I could have sworn that 512 mg of PC3200 ram costs more than 70$

At very least I can tell you it doesn't look like you are getting ripped off.

Just out of curiousity, what are you doing in terms of a vid card?

[Dubbilex]

I was gonna comment on how expensive that the processor seemed, then I remembered that processors are goddamn expensive.  

Still, realize that an Athlon 3200 is likely going to run at 2.7 or 2.8 ghz.  The 64 bit aspect is still rather worthless; Have you looked into a newer Pentium 4?

[Malevolent]

You are getting ripped off on your processor. I bought an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ for $190.00 flat. It was at ZipZoomFly.com.

Swift, you can easily buy 512 PC3200 RAM for $68.00. I found it somewhere for that, but the shipping jacked up the price a bit, so it was cheaper to buy more expensive RAM at another place with no shipping.

Your power supply is kind of expensive. I bought a 400W Antec PSU for $80 at Best Buy. They have huge markup (but I got a $30 mail-in-rebate). Anyway, one store around where I live is selling 430W Antec PSU for $70 or so. Definitely look around more for a better price for your PSU.

Everything else seems good, although you can get some really good deals on hard drives if you look around (although the price for yours now isn't that bad).

EDIT: @ Dubb: The Athlon 64 3200+ runs at 2.2GHz, but is of course, comparable to a 3.2GHz P4 processor. And of course, the AMD is cheaper than the 3.2GHz P4. Now a 3.0EGHz P4 is basically the same price as the Athlon 64 3200+.

EDIT2: And now IR states it is all in CAD. v_v Now just figure in all your exchange rates. It would help if the prices were in USD, since most of the people here recoginize that more.

[2_of_8]

Maybe if I post my specs and how much I got it for, maybe we'll be able to compare. Might be interesting. I made this purchase less than a month ago, so I doubt prices have changed much.
P4, 2.4 Ghz Processor
P4PE2-X Motherboard
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (256 MB)
256 MB DDR300 RAM (not sure about type)
Antec Sonata Case ($160)
Optical Corded Logiceth Mouse ($12)
Total Price (yep, Canadian): $704.12, + tax = ~810.
I posted 2 prices of the things I know for sure. The rest, you can just guess at!

[sonic]

Bump the processor up to 939 pin, and get a 939 pin mobo.

[duherman]

I already have a graphic card. I'm going to use the one I already have on my current computer. A ATi Radeon 9800 PRO, So it's worth getting a p4 or should I just stick with this purchase. Yeah and my friend just bought a amd too himself the exact same one and it only shows 2.7 and what is a 939 pin. Explain this to me please.

EDIT

I don't really like AMD. My whole life I've never touched a AMD. From the sounds of my friends they don't like it aswell. My old P4 1.6 was able to run cs:s very smooth. I'm looking forward to buying a P4 but doesn't that mean I would have to get a different mobo aswell.

[2_of_8]

I don't really like AMD. My whole life I've never touched a AMD. From the sounds of my friends they don't like it aswell.

I totally agree. For some reason, I don't like AMD at all. I've never bought one, and I don't plan on doing so
Don't ask me why.

[duherman]

But yet if this deal is really worth it I might go for it, but just change the socket to 939 and maybe 1gb of ram.

[SwiftSpear]

Myself, I like AMD... call it an underdog story or whatnot.

I wouldn't recomment AMD chips to non-gamers or people who are likely to do more computer development then they do gaming, since pentiums bench higher on most non-realtime functions; but the benches don't lie, your average gamer get's more for thier money buying AMD than pentium.

[Hopelessness]

As for upgrading with a pentium 4, a 1.6 chip would most likely use a different socket, and besides that there have been so many upgrades that it would be a large hinderance to not get a new motherboard. So if you get AMD or Intel, you'll have to get a new motherboard in either case.

Basically, because of architectural reasons (Shorter pipeline, better floating-point unit) Athlon 64s end up being a decent amount better than Pentium 4s for games. As for stability, my current Athlon 64 system is rock-solid. Really, at the current time, AMD is barely any less reliable if at all.

And if you do go with AMD, you might as well go with socket 939 (The newer one). One main difference between socket 939 and socket 754 at the moment is that socket 939 supports dual channel memory, which is a bit of negligible boost in performace. In addition, in the future, socket 754 will only be used for budget 32-bit CPUs, while 939 will be where new 64-bit CPUs are released. Oh, and in the same sence, when daul-core CPUs start coming out next year, you'll find them on socket 939. Also, of greater use, is that socket 939 has 90nm CPUs, while spcket 754 has only 130nm CPUs. The difference here is that 90nm ones end up putting out less heat.

Oh, and for those curious: (In real dollars now)

ASUS k8v-MX (bulk) SKt754FOR ATH64 VIAK8T00 W/AUD $93
AMD RET-ATHLON 64 3200 SOCKET 754 W/HSF $193.58
MAXTOR 0EM 120 GB IDE 7200 RPM 10MS ATA133 8MB $73.85
VDATA DDR NON-ECC PC3200 CL2.5 512mb 400 MHZ $58.06
DVDRW-OEM BENQ DW1620 BLACK16+/- DBL LAY $57.23
PANASONIC 3.5" 1.44MB Black $9.97
Microsoft DSP Windows XP Home w/Hardware OEM $87.24
ANTEC SLK2650BEQ CHASSIS ATX CASE BK ATX12V 350W P $83.08


TOTAL PRICE: $692.00

So yeah, I'd go for socket 939. A 3200+ on socket 939 is $225, but read above for an explanation. As for a motherboard, I'd go for something based off NForce3. I've heard good things about the MSI K8n neo2 platinum, and I've never had any issues with the neo1 platinum I have. Also, I've heard decent things about Gigabyte's board. If you're going for socket 939, then you might as well buy a pair of matching memory sticks, so you can take advantage of dual channel. Oh, and I'd recomment at least a 400W power supply for your system, just in case. 350W might be adequete, but it's sort of iffy.