VeeshanVault

I've been checking out a lot of sites lately, and I wanna build another computer .. and just wanting to get some ideas on what I should look for..

is AMD preferable against Pentium4?

and Video cards? Radeon's or nVidia's..

So far i've looked at the AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor and the RADEON 9600 256MB ..

the processor on pricewatch.com is around $200, and the video card is around $100..

What's the main difference between AMD Athlon 64, and AMD Athlon XP?

And what's the MAIN difference that i'd notice between RADEON 9600 256MB and RADEON 9800 128MB? they're within a $30 dollar difference, with the 9800 costing more, and I just noticed there are these XT versions that are even more expensive than the PRO's...
this is the price sheet of the radeon's that i've been checking out..
I heard to not mess around with getting the PRO's because it's just not worth it.. but with the 128MB and 256MB difference, plus just the different versions, what am I going to see? What should I expect?

I have a budget around ~$500 give or take a 100-200 dollars more, IF i really need to do that...

I just need RAM, CPU/Mobo, and Video...

Anyone just recently put together parts, or know what the exact difference between what i've stated?

Thanks..

k, this is what I was looking at tonight..

Motherboard & CPU Combo w/ Athlon XP 3200 (400 FSB)
MSI S04K7N2D-L (3 DDR PC3200 - 8X/4X AGP - 6 CHANNEL AUDIO - 6 USB 2.0 - LAN - ATX)
Heavy Duty Fan/Heatsink w/ Easy Attach Clip (70mm)
Arctic Silver Thermal Compound
CPU Copper Shim
Pre-Test Combo - Install CPU Fan - Set CPU FSB
3 Year Warranty

$349.05


Only thing i'm really concerned about is the Motherboard?.. is that fine? Are there better ones i should be looking at?

what are you going to do for RAM?

update~

ASUS nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "A7N8X" -RETAIL(New Version, now support AMD Barton 400MHz)

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ "Barton", 400MHz FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail

1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Dual-Channel Optimized Kit

And i'm looking at RADEON 9800 Pro 128MB, or the RADEON 9600 XT 256MB

and that's a MAJOR problem atm, i have NO clue on which vid card to get.... i'm stuck, atm im just looking up reviews, and talking to other gamers and seeing which is the preferred..

Anyone got comments about these items? things I should be concerned about, or think about before jumping into investing this much money?
I'm not sure where to get from,

Do you really need 256 for video card? 128 should tide you fine

The general opinion I've seen and read is that right now a 128mb card will actually perform better than a 256mb card, due to the fact that no game utilizes the extra memory effectively.

I don't have personal experience with these cards but I've read that many many times on a number of different boards.

Also, the nforce2 chipset is the fucking win, can't go wrong with it. Apparently the new revision of the a7n8x supports dual channel ram, whereas only the deluxe version used to. The main difference with the deluxe version now seems to be that it has SATA ports, which the non-deluxe doesn't have. You might be interested in that, depends on your hard drive(s.)

As always make sure you have a good case with good ventilation, and a power source strong enough to support all of your components. I recently bought a retail version of an XP 2500+ Barton and used the provided heatsink/fan/paste. If might be a good idea to go with the OEM processor and buy your own heatsink/fan/thermal paste for better heat dissipation.

Good luck, upgrading is hella fun.

You know I was a big fan of AMD for quite awhile, and stilll love thier cpus, BUT, in my new system i decided to go with a p4 prescott (2.8 oc'd to 3.26) and I'm quite pleased. With hyperthreading I can now run 2 instances of mmorpgs and both windows will run full speed. With hyperthreading off/AMD cpu I had to consantly tab between the windows so the background one didnt lag behind or just lag out of the game period.

Also if your going for a Radeon 9800 pro. Might want to look at the HIS Excalibur listed on newegg (was 249$ when I bought mine) has a huge fan + heatsinks on the mem.