Building a system! Opinions???

[Apostolos]

I would like to build a system for my office PC:

Money is not an issue if something is really worth it. For example I
dont think it is worth the extra $300 to get the Athlon 64 3400 than
the AThlon 3200+.

The Pc will be for office use, however I would like it to be very good
at SETI@HOME. (8500+ units and going......:))

CPU Athlon or Intel? AS stated above I dont want to spenfd the extra
$$$ If the percentage increase is small. The cpu must be great at
seti above all since I wont be playing any games on it. (and run
office but all modern pcs can do). Toms hardware doesnt have any last
tests on seti.

Motherboard: It has to be reliable but also support overcloaking.
For my home pc I have an ASUS motherboard p4c800 that overclocks my
pentium 3 g to 3.3 g. iT IS PRETTY STABLE AND i AM SATISFIED.

Ram: 1 gig is a must!

Graphics card? I guess any will do?? Office work mostly. I have an
eizo monitor so a dvi input is an option if it makes the screen
better!

Sound card: Simple, only to hear some videos

DVD writer??? Need a good one since it will there for a long time in
terms of speed.

HArd disk? I was thinking to get the raptor sata 36 Gig for the
system and another for everything else..

Lan card: A stable one? Any ok one will do.

Fan: I need a silent one, at home I have one zalman for cpu and one
for the power supply and it is quiet:)

ANy other ideas??

THZ!!!!!!!!!!

[BP]

I am also building my own system. Got 90% of the parts here now, will start
assembly when the last few arrive in the next day or so. I also built a
machine for office use that doubles as the family puter (home office setup).
This is my 3rd computer. My first 2 I had custom built by pc builders (as
custom as you can get, anyway) My first machine was a 386 I bought in 92, my
second a PII 300 I bought in 97. My strategy was to buy one step down from
the top of the line for each component in the system, and to only buy well
recognized brands and their most popular products. This meant I was not
paying top dollar for the latest gizmo, but getting near state of the art
for the discounted price for being yesterday's news. This strategy has
served me well. Both puters were fully functional and not obsolete at the
time I traded up. I have not had a problem running any current application.
Both machines are still running and working today (although the 386 is more
of an historical artifact than a working puter it is still good for word
processing and spreadsheets). My opinions are below.
"Apostolos" <am59@ath.forthnet.gr> wrote in message
news:a49f73d0.0402181607.34d07b7a@posting.google.com...
: I would like to build a system for my office PC:
:
: Money is not an issue if something is really worth it. For example I
: dont think it is worth the extra $300 to get the Athlon 64 3400 than
: the AThlon 3200+.

Exactly

:
: The Pc will be for office use, however I would like it to be very good
: at SETI@HOME. (8500+ units and going......:))
:
: CPU Athlon or Intel? AS stated above I dont want to spenfd the extra
: $$$ If the percentage increase is small. The cpu must be great at
: seti above all since I wont be playing any games on it. (and run
: office but all modern pcs can do). Toms hardware doesnt have any last
: tests on seti.

Go to Tom's Hardware Group. www.tomshardware.com\ . There were a couple of
good articles there comparing Intel and AMD. I made my decision based upon
what I read there. Actually I got most of my product info there. I chose
Intel because it was the best choice for office apps and my best bet for
future upgrades. The Athlon 3200+ is the end of the line for that design.
But you can't beat an AMD for price/performance comparison.

:
: Motherboard: It has to be reliable but also support overcloaking.
: For my home pc I have an ASUS motherboard p4c800 that overclocks my
: pentium 3 g to 3.3 g. iT IS PRETTY STABLE AND i AM SATISFIED.

I bought an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe board even though I'm not interested in
doing RAID right now. Serial drives and RAID arrays are the future, so this
board will take me the farthest (I hope). Gigabyte and Biostar make good
boards also.

:
: Ram: 1 gig is a must!
I chose between Kingston and Corsair memory with Crucial being a close
third. You got to buy what matches your MB! Be careful with all the talk
about low cas latency memory. This may be important to overclockers and
extreme gamers but to normal folk who wear an occassional python boot, it is
not worth the extra $70.


:
: Graphics card? I guess any will do?? Office work mostly. I have an
: eizo monitor so a dvi input is an option if it makes the screen
: better!
:
I always splurged here. Next to the top of the line. It's the video card
that will become obsolete before anything else in your box.

: Sound card: Simple, only to hear some videos.

Lots of MBs have on board sound now. I don't need 6 channel DTS sound to
work. The onbvoard is fine with me.

:
: DVD writer??? Need a good one since it will there for a long time in
: terms of speed.

Again, check out Tom's Hardware. Top rated were the Sony and Plextor
products.


:
: HArd disk? I was thinking to get the raptor sata 36 Gig for the
: system and another for everything else..
:
: Lan card: A stable one? Any ok one will do.

I Don't do LAN.

:
: Fan: I need a silent one, at home I have one zalman for cpu and one
: for the power supply and it is quiet:)

Can't go wrong with Zalman. Retail P4 Comes with a fan and heatsink.
It is amazing how many problems home builders are posting with systems not
booting that are due to bad or insufficient power supplies. With the high
end processors there is no other component more important than the PS. A
normally configured P4 system uses 300+Watts on a slow day. A 340W PS that
doesn't quite put out the rated juice will ruin your whole project.
The case and power supply were surprisingly the hardest items to choose. I
wanted front of the box USB and Firewire connectors and a quiet case.
Finally settled on an Antec Sonata with a Seasonic Tornado PS. The 120mm
fans spin much slower than the 80mm you find on most cases and PS's and are
therefore much quieter. Put those specs together and there are surprisingly
few choices.

:
: ANy other ideas??
:
Wander on over to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt . Lots of help over there.

: THZ!!!!!!!!!!