As you can see what I am aiming at here is a top of the range system which should last a good long time. At the moment I am looking at a Demonite Performance from http://www.demonite.com/systemprod.asp?systemvar=2

I have set it up like so but was wondering which option of some of the parts to go for, the one to the left is my current choise but any advice on which would be best would be great:



I am particularly interested in which CPU to get, I really can't see any difference and no computer magazine is particularly useful in helping me decide between the Intel and the AMD.

Also the Video card, which is the one to go for?

And lastly the RAM, they offer Corsair DDR-XMS but that would be pushing the budget too far, 1gig PC3200 is still pretty future proof isn't it?

I think these people seem to be pretty good, there a front of Carrera. + there's a pretty good warranty coming with it. I tried to get the same specs from a dell but it wasn't quite so customizable and was more expensive. Do you think this is good or should I look elsewhere?

Thanks,

I'd go for neither and wait for a few months!!!

Why?

Its called the Pentium 4 extreme edition, - extremely expensive though, hence the advice to wait, especially when you consider how much p4's were just a few months back.....

The "EE" p4 will get considerably cheaper, no question.
Considering how an 800fsb p4 3.2 betters its AMD equivalent, and a 32bit p4 EE betters the 64 bit AMD, perhaps waiting for Intels p5 (which I'd hazzard a guess will be 64bit) would be the long term solution?

A review at launch of the AMD 64 here http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030923/athlon_64-53.html And this quote, considering the different platforms (1 32bit , 1 64bit ) utterly sums this up for me.

Quote:


As I say, wait a while.

On the other hand, if you must upgrade now, a 3.2ghz 800fsb p4 with either Canterwood or Springdale chipset and dual channel RAM will more than make up for the price premium over the AMD XP (Cheaper but slower.)

Do NOT consider a 533fsb 3.2b p4 - AMD's XP 3200 is certainly a better buy - and probably why Intel had to quickly released the 800fsb version of the p4 relatively shortly after the release of the 533fsb chip!

As I've said before though,ultimately, its your money, your choice!

Paul.

I'm just glad I don't have a Celeron any more! 

I think I do need it now, and the next few months is when I will be needing it most unfortunately so I don't think I can take your sensible advice and wait

I think the Pentium is an 800fsb, heres the quote from the Info button:


What is the PCI-Express? I have heard no mention of it in my computer magazines.

With the RAM, using a Gig of Corsair 3700, will I see a big enough increase in performance over the normal PC-3200 to warrant the extra cost? I can still go for that and be within my budget (sort of......)

Any other opinions on the Video card?

Thanks for your advice!
Almost there now.......

swanny338, Sorry to pee in your PC's pond as they say....  

Back to Bird Man's question.

I've just built an Asus P4P800 based machine for my brother in law with 512 MB PC400 3200DDR and an 800FSB p4 2.8 with a 128MB GF4ti4600 (4xAGP) in other words, not an optimal setup like your proposed system.
An excellent performer none the less! - 14,200 3D Marks at the last tweaking session, consistent 25fps (locked) in FS2002 with Everything maxxed.

Even CFS3 ran fine without the cd patch or update! - Bloody well with both applied!!  8)

At the spec level were talking about here, overall performance is neither here or there - its awesome! - Games such as CFS2 et al are all the better for all the sliders at maximum, 8x Anti alaising @ 1280x1024 or higher - things your prospective machine should happily handle.
However, just as you had to in the days of the pII 450's etc the performance is only there when enough system resources are available. Tony (my brother in law) was under the assumption he'd be able to have Norton and christ knows what else running in the background without any performance hit.....   Oh well he knows better now......

Yes, there is new kit in the pipeline, Go buy it when it's launched and the bod from the PC store will happily tell you of yet faster / better / expensive kit back in that pipeline...... Get my drift?

Your PC as you quote seems fine to me, however if you do have a little extra money to spare,rather the faster RAM, which incidentally I don't think ASUS officially support!, invest in a "Canterwood" mobo (like the one I list below) they are the 800fsb board to go for if your not tight with your money like Tony is! (He has the cheaper but slower "Springdale" board)


Quote:
 Just add Screwdriver and a few hours of cursing for a nice new shiny uber-PC! - Enjoy it!

Paul

In fact ATI looks the clear winner!

PS. Swanny I really think its time you changed your avitar!

Nvidia need a boot up their collective arses for the performance of the FX cards!  I'd still be inclined to go for Nvidia,  Ati ,many driver issues read about I have, as Yoda would say! 

Fair play to those benchmarks! - I do wonder which drivers they used though.....

Talking of which, you may find this interesting Bird man.... http://www.simhq.com/_technology/technology_012a.html

I suppose I'm just not the proverbial Ati fan, far from it!

That was great Scania - just what I needed, Intel are victorios! I could still go for 1024Mb of Corsair DDR-XMS 3200 and still be in budget if it would make any performance increase - its about a hundred pounds more than the normal PC3200 so it must be quite a bit better?

Right, this is the final setup:


They have a range of power supply's too. 400W, 420W coolermaster True, 520 coolermaster true power or 28DB Low noise 420W.



Thanks for all your help and advice - I really do appreachiate it, I'll have a look at these driver problems. Like you I still have an incling to go NVIDIA but those benchmarks pretty strongly suggest that ATi is the way to go.

Man I want a new computer so bad, but theres nothing wrong with this one to complain about to the parents. I thought mine was decent, then i saw a normal pc in a ad with like 3 times the hard drive that mine has. Im really itching for a new machine.