TR Forums

Radeon 9550 includes hardware acceleration of DirectX 9.0b features (pixel shader 2.0). Radeon 9250 has essentially the same DirectX 8.1 feature set (pixel shader 1.4) as Radeon 8500 had. Your GeForce2MX 200 is a DirectX 7 part, is extremely slow, and is crippled with puny memory bandwidth, to boot.

The Radeon 9550 (for less than A$100) should do a better job at 3D and even include a few everyday 2D benefits like better acceleration of Windows Media and DIVX video. Do look for the 128-bit version as dragmor warned, rather than the much-slower 64-bit version.

Although the hardware 3D features are there, the slow clock speed (250/400 MHz VPU/RAM) of the Radeon 9550 makes it too pokey for many newer 3D games. Step up to a Radeon 9600 (325/400 MHz for about A$150), 9600Pro (400/600 MHz for less than A$180) or 9600XT (500/600 MHz for less than A$200) if you want to do some 3D gaming on this system. I would not purchase an NVidia-based card below the GeForce 6600 (300/500 MHz for less than A$200).

This doesn't offer the huge selection that we can find in Europe or North America, but it may give you a few more sources in your native land:
http://www.pricewatch.com.au

The Aus pricing engine of choice is http://www.staticice.com.au/

< $100 9550
> $100 XpertVision GF 6600 ~$160

Those look like reasonable suggestions to me, dragmor.

I do see a number of RS480 chipset motherboards offered, if the socket-939 option is at all within the budget. With the limited need for gaming, that would forego the cost of the graphics card for the initial build, but provide a PCI-Express X16 slot for a possible future upgrade.

Socket-754 can provide very good performance for a reasonable price right now, but the future upgrade path doesn't look as good as it does for socket-939. If you are going to buy a new video card now, then I would definitely suggest PCI-express.

Sorry didnt read about the Aussie prices mah bad

My goodness, thanks for all the comments and suggestions!

A system like this looks reasonable to me:
Western Digital 80GB IDE $73
HIS R9550 256MB 128bit $85
Kingmax 512MB PC3200 $69
ASUS K8V-X $89
Antec SLK1650 $115
and
S-2800 $119 / S-3000 $138 / S-3100 $155 /A64-2800 $189

I wouldn't go for the s939 solution bcos it seems a bit too complicated at this stage to get something together. Besides, how many more posts do you want from me?

These prices come from Umart, in Brisbane. As you can see, they seem to be the cheapest, and I've heard good things about them too. And they're on my way home!

Umart is trustworthy, and will probably put it together for you for free.

My vote is S-3000 for the CnQ.
I think the black version of the case (SLK1650B) looks better.

Yep, I just found info that confirms that Semprons below 3000 don't do Cool n Quiet.
About the case, it comes down to how it looks given that everything else is beige.
At the moment Umart only has the SLK2650BQE, black and with a door thingy.

Ill be honest, I stopped reading the other replys after seeing Lickety's first reply.. I found myself like that golden Retriever with his head stuck out the old Ford Truck following the strips in the middle of the road *Head Spins*...

Im going to throw my two cents in while im at it

If your looking for a music/surfing/general purposes computer and your looking to save some cash then I would suggest getting ahold of an MSI K7N2-Delta2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130475

Provided that you can find one at a local shop. My area is much like yours, im stuck with whatever the local shops have to offer OR pay out the arse for shipping. Im currently gaming on that motherboard, its as stabile as they come, and ive even overclocked without any issues. All around one hell of a board. Its based on the popular nForce 2 Ultra chipset (Popular awhile back) Im using a 2600+ Barton, you can get ahold of that or faster ones for much under 100 bucks. you can score some budget ram for about 50 bucks as well. I wouldnt suggest getting the semprons, they seemed like a great thing when released but generally you can get a slower clocked CPU of regular XP Athlon and compare it to the faster clocked with less L2 Cached Semprons and the XP Athlon will win it out, for around the same price. So you might as well have the extra L2 cache at your finger-tips.

If you want to use on-board video then look at the same board but non ultra and its called the IGP version of the chipset. Has a Geforce 2 MX400 onboard I believe. I didnt get that one as it was a non ultra and I was getting an AGP card anyhow. These boards have onboard 5.1 sound, which I use and dont complain. I was told that my Creative SB 5.1 Live is a bit better, but I didnt notice a bit of diffrence. Hard drives... Im using a Maxtor but in all honesty I dont have any preffrence over any company anymore.. WDC, Maxtor, Seagate all good companys even though ive heard about alot of seagates failing. I have a 160gig Barracuda, no problems so *Shrugs*

Id go with the person who said recycle your old optical drives and such. But if you feel the need for faster ones, and newer ones you can pick them up for realativly cheap. 2 years ago I got a LG (Made on Lite-On) that can burn CDs at 48x, and Read DVDs. Works great, no errors in any of my burns.

I still have a floppy irraguardless of all of the flack my friends give me about it lol. But one day I might just need it for some off the wall reason and its good to know its there. My next rig wont include one though

Moving thread to General Hardware...

I feel so grown-up, having my post moved!

Yep, Socket A was always an option, but in the end when the difference was around $100, I might as well go the extra bit, I thought.

Will re-use the floppy, CD reader, DVD/CDR combo, possibly sound card, keyboard, monitor and mouse. I even think the keyboard has an old AT plug, using a PS2 adaptor

Anyway, will let you know how I go
Thanks again!

Well Good Luck with all of your build Hope the otherhalf is pleased and sooo pleased infact that she lets you go all out on your new system

Alright. So I have all the bits that I need to build up the system. They're all sitting quietly in their boxes until I return home tonight to put them together.

Of course, I've had a look at all the boxes and had fun looking at all the pretty colours. Anyway...

I got a Sempron 3000 retail. It comes in a pretty looking box with a heatsink and fan. There is a little bit of paste material, very thin light-green, about the size of the CPU attached to the bottom of the heatsink. Now, here's a silly question... Would this be all I need? Or do I need to get some gooey stuff to spread over in there? Bear in mind I won't be overclocking.

Thanks

It will do fine, If your not overclocking you wont NEED anything else. I perffer not to use the cheapo stuff they send and would grab for a 3.5 gram tube of AS-5 (Artic Silver 5) It has the highest thermal conductivity on the market, with a few others tailing very close. Its silver based, and will help alot with cooling whatever you send its way. Infact the ratings for its cooling are rated up to the 300*F I believe. Funny that they should even test it that high given that if a CPU is getting that hot... Run for the hills.

Like I said though, you dont need it. But if you want the peice of mind that its going to get all of the TLC it needs and live a long prosperus life..... Then I would suggest you get some. Its only like 7-9 bucks and will last you for tons of little cooling projects . It makes me want to rip off the stock HS for my north bridge and just go crazy with the stuff. Would be much funner if I could monitor my temps for those componant though

Well, to add a twist to the tale... while I was explaining my last question (posted above) to a person who shall remain nameless... this person decided to feel what the thermal pad I was describing was like and a 'small' scratch was left on the thermal pad thingy. See below:



Now, is this a terribly bad thing? Should I head out tomorrow morning to buy some Artic Silver 5? I know I'd have to remove the pad before applying anything else. I also know it's not expensive (A$12), but if it's not necessary, I could just build tonight.

Anyway... thanks

Moved to System Builder's Anonymous

Well... to be honest I dont care for the thermal pads that are included with CPU's. Generally cheap stuff. Unless that actual part of the HS is going to be right over the actual core, then no you dont need to replace it. If that part will not be over the core then you havent anything to worry about. But keep in mind that air in-between your CPU and heatsink is a bad thing. Air houses heats and acts as an insolator. You dont want to insolate heat near your CPU .

In my opinion, if you want to be on the safe side, Id use this as a good "excuse" to get some of AS-5 on it. Peace of mind and for only a 11AUSD ... sounds like a deal to me.

*Edit* If that pad is merely laying on top of the HS and its not bound to it just remove it. But if when you take it off and it leaves a residue of the stuff on the heatsink, get yourself a little bit of rubbing alcohol and a cotton swap and rub it off of the Heatsink. When I put my AS-5 on my chip, I had to remove the crusted thick cheap crap that came with my proc. Used a very very slightly damp with rubbing alcohol to clean the residue off of the core itself. Then applied the AS-5 right onto the top of the core so that I knew I didnt miss any of it by putting it on the Heat-Sink and trusting it to make contact.

Read Artic Silver 5's recommendation for the application proccess of their product. Some people suggest a "Haze" of the stuff, meaning hardly any, just enough to 'Haze" it a little bit. I wouldnt suggest that, you dont want to go cheap on it... The thing with apply paste is that if you put to little you risk the HS and core not making contact, which could result in hardware failure. The otherside of the coin is apply to much where the heat has an extra amount of compound to travel through in order to reach the HS. Of course your only other option is to be somewhere in the middle.

If you have to do either to much or too little, go with too much. Most of the thermal pads you get are very thick and made of less thermal conductive matierals. So using thermal paste that has much more thermal conductivity at about the same thickness is better than the Thermal Pads.

If you need any help with how much, and how it should look... Just ask, I would and most anyone in here would be happy to help.

Ended up getting some grease to replace the one that came with the retail CPU, and no worries.
I just followed the instructions, supplied with the thing and also here, and it all worked ok. I plugged things in, things looked ok, turned it on and off it went.
The only 'problem' I've encountered is the Radeon program that launches at start-up pops up an error to which you clock OK and can't run.
I might post a final update when I've finished it. At the moment the case is still open.

So thank you very much to everyone, you've all been very helpful!

The not-so-budget system build is coming soon

If it starts up and then just turns off after a few seconds, then its likely that you dont have the CPU fan plugged in... ALSO know that you can have it plugged in and it will spin up and it still wont work. You actaully have to have the CPU fan plugged into a specific 2 or 3 pin connector on the motherboard so that it will recongnize and know that the CPU fan is plugged in. If it finds that the fan isnt plugged into that port it will not allow the system to run as it doesnt know that you have the fan running. Which of course would be dangerous not to have it running.

Check that and make sure its plugged into the right one.

Welch, I don't understand.
The comp is working fine, it was just the Catalyst Center software that wasn't starting.
I installed those off the CD and then re-installed the latest. And it worked!
Everything on the comp is working
... well, apart from the internal modem working only whenever it wants...

My bad, I mis-read. Thought you were saying that the computer would start up and then turn off ..

Well congrats on the build