Upgrade nightmare!!! Help please!!

[phill9700]

right, now im frustrated!!
ive just sold my pc that was 'going to get me through' not having a good pc till i upgraded around christmas time to a mate that badly needed a machine (i cant not help my friends, im just to kind hearted for my own good apparently )...
anyway, i have sorted out for two setups, they are as follows...

ThermalTake Xaser III Silver Aluminum Case (V2000+) c/w 7x case fans +USB/Firewire + LCD temp diplay NO PSU
ThermalTake Xaser III Blue Case (V1000C) c/w 7x case fans +USB/Firewire + LCD temp diplay NO PSU - whats the difference between these two cases? apart from steel and aluiminim.. would one cool better than the other?
Antec 550W True Power PSU
Abit NF7S nForce2 Socket A 8xAGP +RAID +Firewire +Serial ATA +USB2 +6 ch. audio (up to DDR400)
Geil® Golden Dragon 1.0GB PC3200 Dual Channel DDR Kit (2x512MB) 400MHz (5.0ns Cas 2 6-3-3 1T) low latency - For my girl friend (id get my corsair memory back)
AMD Athlon XP 2500 (333MHz) Barton core

Intel Setup

ThermalTake Xaser III Silver Aluminum Case (V2000+) c/w 7x case fans +USB/Firewire + LCD temp diplay NO PSU
ThermalTake Xaser III Blue Case (V1000C) c/w 7x case fans +USB/Firewire + LCD temp diplay NO PSU - whats the difference between these two cases? apart from steel and aluiminim.. would one cool better than the other?
Antec 550W True Power PSU
Abit IS7G Pentium® 4 Intel® 865PE 800FSB 8xAGP +Serial ATA +RAID +Firewire +Giga LAN +USB2 +6 ch. Audio DDR400 ATX - cant find the is7.. many differences?
Geil® Ultra 1.0GB PC4200 Dual Channel DDR Kit (2x512MB) 533MHz (3.5ns Cas 3 8-4-4 ) low latency Copper heat spreader
Intel® Pentium® 4 2.4GHz (800MHz )512K cache Retail inc.Fan (3 yr warr.)
Intel® Pentium® 4 2.6GHz (800MHz) 512K cache Retail inc.Fan (3 yr warr.) - i feel this is best value and can be overclocked the best for the money
Intel® Pentium® 4 2.8GHz (800MHz) 512K cache Retail inc.Fan (3 yr warr.)

now i realise one is more expensive than the other but i dont care.. im looking for lastability and wanting to keep it for a while not just for christmas!! id prefer to get the most from the cpus as i could ie overclocking, so which one would be better for the overall speed, stabilty and lastability? i have heard the p4 800fsb models to be great overclockers.. please help!
a graphics card will need to be bought as having a geforce 2 ultra or GTS in this system is going to bug me, so im looking at the 9800 pro 128mb's or the next gen card that would hopefully be many times faster
money aint such a problem, as i would buy it all at once.. please help me out here guys, i really need som advice!
thanks for the help!
look forward to the replies!
ps. remember im using a duron @ 733 mhz at the moment! Sorry for the long post!

[Since87]

For the video card I'd recommend a Sapphire R9800 Non-Pro.

The 9800NP's with Samsung memory (as the Sapphire cards have) are reliably overclocking well above 9800Pro speeds.

That's my advice. I'm not touching any AMD vs Intel issues.

[MadHacker]

ThermalTake Xaser III Silver Aluminum Case (V2000+) c/w 7x case fans +USB/Firewire + LCD temp diplay NO PSU
ThermalTake Xaser III Blue Case (V1000C) c/w 7x case fans +USB/Firewire + LCD temp diplay NO PSU - whats the difference between these two cases? apart from steel and aluiminim.. would one cool better than the other?

no difrence realy...
it doesn't cool any better, or if there is a difrence is in not noticable.
most of it is look... and alluminum is a lot lighter.

do you plan to water cool the system? or air cool?
mine curently is air cooled .. but is loud....
guna water cool it (eventualy) just to make it a lot more quiet.

[airspirit]

Look dually opteron, or wait and see if the Athlon FX chips can be run in SMP on an opteron board before making a decision. I stand by the Athlon XP platform over the Intel one just from my experiences all-around, but you want to know all of your options before shelling on an immediately outdated box.

Can you wait until the end of the month? If you can, you'll then have a good picture of the playing field. If you can get a dually AMD64 platform up you will probably be using it for many years to come and it will be on a platform that is maintainable into the usable future (unlike socket A which is getting canned and the intel selections which change every six months or faster).

I'd grab a 9800 Pro, slap a full size heatsink on it, clock it to the moon, and be done with it. Or, watercool it and your CPU if you have the urge.

[phill9700]

Originally posted by Since87

That's my advice. I'm not touching any AMD vs Intel issues.

well to be honest, im either ways about amd and intel. both have good points, both have bad points.
id just really like to hear people options, i dont want a flame war, just people speaking their minds to what they feel is better and adding their 2p in what i should consider.

[phill9700]

Originally posted by MadHacker

do you plan to water cool the system? or air cool?
mine curently is air cooled .. but is loud....
guna water cool it (eventualy) just to make it a lot more quiet.

oh well at least i can save a little money when buying my case then! i prefered the blue colour anyway
depending on cpu that i choose could make me decide differently. for amd cpu's that i have had, my girl friends xp1700 @ 2.2ghz (11x200) seems to be fine with a full load temp from 40c up to about 48c possibly 49c... nothing really out of the way nor to bad. i only have a falcon rock cooler on the cpu, nothing really exciting either. i dont think that the vcore is near 1.6v, it could be at 1.55v..
depending on what i might or could benifit from water cooling, i could be tempted into it..

[phill9700]

Originally posted by airspirit
Look dually opteron, or wait and see if the Athlon FX chips can be run in SMP on an opteron board before making a decision. I stand by the Athlon XP platform over the Intel one just from my experiences all-around, but you want to know all of your options before shelling on an immediately outdated box.

Can you wait until the end of the month? If you can, you'll then have a good picture of the playing field. If you can get a dually AMD64 platform up you will probably be using it for many years to come and it will be on a platform that is maintainable into the usable future (unlike socket A which is getting canned and the intel selections which change every six months or faster).

I'd grab a 9800 Pro, slap a full size heatsink on it, clock it to the moon, and be done with it. Or, watercool it and your CPU if you have the urge.

do you think that the gaming side of this might be let down a little or not really? im looking mainly for gaming, but i might be able to loose a couple fps for some good old fastioned power.. something that is never a miss with much of my other stuff!
i dont have the money to get it right away, so its probably going to be a little easier for me to have to wait for getting this upgrade! either way tho, i do want something that is going to be smokin'ly fast and it going to do what i need it to do, but just very quickly.
im unsure as to what i really want to get, but i just want something that im going not to have to upgrade within 6 months and hate having because its not fast enough and overclocking it dont help either..
oh i would ideally like something faster than a 9800 pro anyways, it was just a graphics card that i saw that i liked.

[iroc409]

honestly, if you're going to wait a while to build this system, then i wouldn't even fret about what you're going to put in it now.

seriously, the market horizon will be much different then. just wait it out until you're closer to being ready, keep your eye on the market and the toys, then decide based on the available equipment when you're there.

i'm not saying don't look at the toys and keep up on everything, quite the opposite.

but there's no need to make a list for a mainboard and processor and such for something that you're going to buy in 3 months. just my 2cents.

[phill9700]

Originally posted by iroc409
honestly, if you're going to wait a while to build this system, then i wouldn't even fret about what you're going to put in it now.

seriously, the market horizon will be much different then. just wait it out until you're closer to being ready, keep your eye on the market and the toys, then decide based on the available equipment when you're there.

i'm not saying don't look at the toys and keep up on everything, quite the opposite.

but there's no need to make a list for a mainboard and processor and such for something that you're going to buy in 3 months. just my 2cents.

and i thank you for them
im just getting all nervous and also excited but im worried that i might make the wrong decision and end up wasting hard earned cash.. i just like to plan so i know what i can buy and just go out and get it, hopefully at a lower price than what i was looking at previously..
i was looking on pcworlds (dont ask) web site and i noticed that they had a xp3000 setup for £610.. i though it was good, nice graphics card (i think it was a 9600 pro) 512mbs of memory and i though would it be worth buying that and then selling all the parts i dont want? i answered.. no!! i figured i would have to spend out another £250 on it to get what I wanted! no good what so ever!!
you see what i mean tho??? looking at stuff like that.. i must be going mental...
but thanks for your advice.. i know what case and psu i want anyways, its just the cpu, motherboard and memory that im not sure about! but thank you

[iroc409]

Originally posted by phill9700
and i thank you for them
im just getting all nervous and also excited but im worried that i might make the wrong decision and end up wasting hard earned cash.. i just like to plan so i know what i can buy and just go out and get it, hopefully at a lower price than what i was looking at previously..
i was looking on pcworlds (dont ask) web site and i noticed that they had a xp3000 setup for £610.. i though it was good, nice graphics card (i think it was a 9600 pro) 512mbs of memory and i though would it be worth buying that and then selling all the parts i dont want? i answered.. no!! i figured i would have to spend out another £250 on it to get what I wanted! no good what so ever!!
you see what i mean tho??? looking at stuff like that.. i must be going mental...
but thanks for your advice.. i know what case and psu i want anyways, its just the cpu, motherboard and memory that im not sure about! but thank you

i definitely know how you feel, yo. i just try not to get too excited about anything until i actually buy it. usually the market has changed so much the stuff i wanted 3 months ago isn't cutting-edge anymore, and whenever i make a large system purchase, i usually go for the new stuff.

or hey, for stuff like the case and what-not, that will work with anything, so pick it up in pieces

[phill9700]

well i need 3 hard drives @ 120gig each so i best get those i think as well as the case and i can leave the psu for a little while..
would you say a 550W is over the top or would that be better than a 480W?
i just want something faster than i have no (which isnt hard!!) and that will last me for a while rather than 5 minutes.
one question i was going to ask, what xp cpu would be best to get at the moment? i have been looking that the prices for xp25/27/2800 cpus and they arent to bad, but the question i was going to ask, which one is best to get? as i would overclock it, which one would be best for that as well? its a 'just incase' thing...
thank you for your help.. most helpfull

[airspirit]

For three large HDDs, the inevitable stack of optical drives, a high speed XP, and a top end graphics card, a 550W would be a good investment if you are going to be doing some serious overclocking. I have a TruePower 550W and I love it.

[Zhentar]

550W is major overkill.

I personally would recommend the Seasonic super silencer 400. Its around $100 and not available at most retailers yet... but its the most efficient PSU available with nearly 80%, with Active PFC too. In addition, its got an excellent fan control circuit, making it the quietest 400W+ unit, until they come out with the Seasonic super tornado in a 400W unit.

I love mine... but then again, I paid nothing for it, I won it but if I paid my electricity bill it would be worth the cost (and I don't mean I blow off my bills, I'm in a dorm so I don't get one)

And as for the CPUs- buy either the Athlon XP 1700+ or the P4 2.4C, they'll both be capable of as much as a 50% or better overclock at good prices.

[phill9700]

Originally posted by airspirit
For three large HDDs, the inevitable stack of optical drives, a high speed XP, and a top end graphics card, a 550W would be a good investment if you are going to be doing some serious overclocking. I have a TruePower 550W and I love it.

well i should have been a bit more in depth i think with that, as i meant i have to buy 3 hard drives for 2 other pcs..
my pc will have 2 hard drives and a dvd rom and dvd writer but i would have thought a 480w would have been enough, wouldnt it?
What does anyone think of these makes of psu..

Topwer Silent, Thermaltake Quiet, Global Win Super Silent, Enermax.

these are the psus i can get from where i normally buy my hard ware.. what does anyone recommend?

[phill9700]

Originally posted by Zhentar

And as for the CPUs- buy either the Athlon XP 1700+ or the P4 2.4C, they'll both be capable of as much as a 50% or better overclock at good prices.

i was thinking a xp2500 because of it having the barton core which at least makes some sort of performance increase over the xp1700.
i have had a few of these cpus before and i havent really liked the 'unknown' when it comes to not knowing how far they can be overclocked and having to back down sometimes.. id prefer something that i can setup and leave, but overclock to get a good decent overclock with the minimum of fuss. i dont really want the hassle of overclocking and not knowing where or what to do when the cpu dont go as fast as i would like it to.. its such a shame having that sometimes!

[iroc409]

Originally posted by phill9700
well i should have been a bit more in depth i think with that, as i meant i have to buy 3 hard drives for 2 other pcs..
my pc will have 2 hard drives and a dvd rom and dvd writer but i would have thought a 480w would have been enough, wouldnt it?
What does anyone think of these makes of psu..

Topwer Silent, Thermaltake Quiet, Global Win Super Silent, Enermax.

these are the psus i can get from where i normally buy my hard ware.. what does anyone recommend?

heheh... i hate to say it, but my $18 l&c 425w psu works beautifully. runs 3 7200rpm hard drives and 2 cd drives. i'm only running a very slight overclock at the moment, and a 9700 radeon pro.

doesn't seem to give me any problems here

buuut... if you're putting together a nice system, you probably shouldn't be like me and buy a cheap psu. although 550W is probably way more power than you need.

[phill9700]

well like i said, i dont want to have to spend out on something twice for the sake of £10 or £20, id just rather spend a lot more the first time and not worry about it, knowing that i have got my setup running as best i can
so what makes are the best then? any one?