My Second Build

[kdburns]

I built my first machine in early 2004 with the expert help of everyone here at PCMechanic. My first build was an P4 machine and although the mobo went out last week, it did exactly what I asked it to for over 2 years without one flutter. Windows XP Pro didn't seem to "play nicely" with our network but the machine was incredibly stable.

These are the specs of that machine
ASUS P4C800-E
P4 2.8Ghz, Northwood
2- WD Raptor 74GB in Raid 0
Radeon 9600XT
Antec True 430W PSU
Lite-On DVD+/-RW
2- 512 Transcend/PC3200
All in a Kingwin KT-11

The machine is used to rip/process large graphics for large format printing. Banners, tradeshow graphics, ect. I chose the P4 due to the hyperthreading feature but I have been advised the AMD 3800+ Dual Core is now the screaming processor of choice. I know some get really fired up about the AMD vs Intel thing but I really don't care. I just want what will work best.

The 3800+ X2 seems to be the one I want but I can't seem to figure out which mobo I want. I guess my problem is I don't understand the difference between ATI and Nvidia. I'm fairly certain that I want to stay with ASUS but I need understand the difference between the two types. Is there a thread that I overlooked with this info or may another resource someone knows of that I can read to get a better understanding? Is this just a brand choice or is there function difference as well? I hope this isn't a really stupid question, but honestly, I don't know.

Also, if someone has an opinion about what processors are the fastest but still stable with good mulitasking ability, I welcome the input. I have a budget in the $2000 range which I think is fairly liberal for I need.

Thanks for the help.

[Foosa]

if your going to re-use parts from the other build like, hd and drives, you could get a better processor and video card for 2000.

if you can i would wait for intel to release their new core 2 duo(conroe) chips. Prices are predicted to drop drasticly for intel and amd processors after its release next month. (july 24) And you may want to look into getting one of them instead. I think that is what i am going to do.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=160186 has some good links to infomation about conroe and the price drops.