computer gurus! Need imput!

[ITSME4G63]

Hey guys and gals, I'm going to have to build a new computer for this fall becasue mineis a little bit outdated, I've got a amd athlon 2100xp and 512 ddr ram running a geforce3 (not the 200 or 500, straight up gf3, thats the middle one with 64mb), I've had it like this for about 3 years and I think its tie to upgrade. I havent been in the coputer scene for ohh Ill say about 3 year so Im not that knowledgable of whats hot shit out there anymore. But I was lookign in the latest computer games magazine (september 05,which I get a free subscribtion of), and on page 59 (if any of you read/have) it shows the recommended processors to buy, Im on a budget, so thats the column I looked at. It says to purchase the Athlon 64 3400+/3.2ghz pentium 4. Well being the thrifty dsmer (like alot of us are) I will go with the amd processor, which I actually think are better than the pentiums. It says if you get the amd make sure to get the 939 pin one. I was looking on new egg and they sell the processor for 225$ , heres the link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103484 . I also looked at the 3200 and its 190$, here si the link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535. Now, are these processors are good budget buy? Is it worth to pay 35$ extra for the 3400? and, would any places you know sell these for cheaper? if so please post. I do not plan on upgrading for soem time after this so should I just go all out and pay another 50$ to get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539 the 3700?

Now I also would need a new video card, the magazine says for budget to pck a radeon x700 or geforce 6600 but I think this one seems to be a good budget buy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150068, please tell me what you think of it.

Im also going to be in need of a motherboard, I know asus always had good stuff so I immediately looked at this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131517 , but then I see a cheapr version of it here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131510 , should I spend the extra money, is it really worth it for the 164$ mobo, or should I just get one for 114$? I think I've picked the right mobos since its says amd 939 chipset on them, If I havent please steer me in the right direction.

Now, I have no clue in as what ram I should purchase for these motherboard, btu I would liek a minimum of 512, someone please steer me in the right direction.

I will also need a new power supply, I always new of antec to be good power suppliers, heres a listing of their products http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=Browse&Manufactory=1516&Subcategory=58, which one do you think I should go with? or is there any others companies that are good?

Now for sound, I think Im going to get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102175 . i doubt there will eb any arguments here.

now hard drives, I have no clue which one to get, I have a 7200rpm 80gig here on thsi computer and Im thinking of using that, but Im also thinking of buying a new one, which one would work best with the two above mobos? http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Category.asp?Category=15 , keep in mind, budget hd

I also want a simmple computer case , which one do you think is good for a budget buy, I dont want anything flashy, just something that will house my shit http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Category.asp?Category=9 .

Thanks for any responses and please post any onlin eplaces that I would be able to get any of these items cheaper than newegg.

 

[Bostedquest]

I have had problems dealing with new egg. I bought a MB from them and I had to fight with them for nearly 3 weeks to return it. Though I know several people that have had no problems what so ever with them.

I typically but stuff from www.xoxide.com(computer cases) and specific parts look up and buy at www.pricewatch.com

I would stick with a athalon, except for heavy duty audio/video editing they are faster than a pentium.
I would also suggest at least 512 DDR.
I am on my 3rd athalon, 2100, 2500 and finally the 3K. I like the 3K the best. Though my next system I fully plan on going 64 bit.

Look on Pricewatch, and look at the reviews of the sellers. 9600 pro 256' ATi's are barely over a c note.

 

[ITSME4G63]

Look on Pricewatch, and look at the reviews of the sellers. 9600 pro 256' ATi's are barely over a c note.

thanks for the info, but I am an ninvidia man, the way its meant to be played// any other input appreciated.

 

[DSMRyan]

AMD Athlon 64 3400 is what I have, it's a good buy. I'd get two sticks of 512MB Ram. I'd also just take the HD from your old computer and use that. Buy a DVD/CD Combo burner/DVD-ROM/CD-ROM for $50 too. I've never ordered from newegg but I heard they're the best.

 

[seth98es]

64bit is definitely the way to go. What is your budget? Id probably just go with a 3400+ Winchecster or Sandiego if its in your budget. If you want the best 64bit AMD 939 mobo: MSI K8n Neo Platinum. Its one of the best overclocking boards out there. If your not worried about o/c just get a descent Abit/Asus/MSI board in your range.

For the vieo card the 6600GT used to be the best budget card, but that was a few months ago. Now htat the 7800GTX is out the 6800GT must have lowered in prices. But that card is not an Ultra, so Im not sure how it would compare to other cards.

Definitely get 1gb of ram, you will regret it if you play the newer games like Battlefield 2 and other upcoming titles.

The Audigy 2 is a good qualty card, just be sure to have speakers good enough to take advantage of it!

And for the hard drive, a lot of performance guys go with the Western Digital 10k RPM Raptors, but I dont think theres enough noticeable speed increase to spend $113 on a 37gb hd. So just get a nice WD hard drive with 8mb cache or use the one you have.

O and I always do my shopping at NewEgg. Great deals, fast cheap shipping, and they always pull through on their RMAs for me!

 

[ITSME4G63]

64bit is definitely the way to go. What is your budget? Id probably just go with a 3400+ Winchecster or Sandiego if its in your budget. If you want the best 64bit AMD 939 mobo: MSI K8n Neo Platinum. Its one of the best overclocking boards out there. If your not worried about o/c just get a descent Abit/Asus/MSI board in your range.

For the vieo card the 6600GT used to be the best budget card, but that was a few months ago. Now htat the 7800GTX is out the 6800GT must have lowered in prices. But that card is not an Ultra, so Im not sure how it would compare to other cards.

Definitely get 1gb of ram, you will regret it if you play the newer games like Battlefield 2 and other upcoming titles.

The Audigy 2 is a good qualty card, just be sure to have speakers good enough to take advantage of it!

And for the hard drive, a lot of performance guys go with the Western Digital 10k RPM Raptors, but I dont think theres enough noticeable speed increase to spend $113 on a 37gb hd. So just get a nice WD hard drive with 8mb cache or use the one you have.

O and I always do my shopping at NewEgg. Great deals, fast cheap shipping, and they always pull through on their RMAs for me!

cool, which ram shoudl I purchase if I used tha tmobo, theres like a gazillion differnt types of ram I lost track by now, back in the day it was just pc100 and pc133 to worry about. And which video card would be the better 6600 then?

 

[seth98es]

Nowadays its up to PC2700, 3200, 3500, ect. The Neo Platinum supports up to 3200 so get 3200. Hard to say what ram to get, lots of optoins. Crucial, OCZ, Geill, Corsair, G-Skill are all good RAM companies. Just dont buy anything that says "ValueRam", it is usually junk. If your not into overclocking just about any midrange RAM from those companies would be perfect for you.

 

[TalonTSi-AWD91]

I just got done building 4 or 5 Athlon 64 computers the past couple weeks so just from what I've seen I would go with the cheapest Venice core Athlon 64 CPU you can get. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537 Every one of them I bought EASILY overclocked to 2.4ghz and could run Prime95 for days without errors. I would really suggest buying one of these instead of a Winchester as they seem to overclock better and run cooler.

For the motherboard, I would recommend a Chaintech VNF4 Ultra. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152049 It's very cheap, has nice overclocking options, and is very stable and fast. The onboard sound is also decent. It's 7.1 and will probably work perfect for what you would be using it for. You can get much better sound cards, but they're going to add a lot on to the price and you would need pretty nice expensive speakers to make it worth buying.

I used Wintec RAM and had excellent results with it. It's under $45 for a 512MB stick and it overclocks very nicely. I have easily got them running at 450MHz DDR and 100% stable in Memtest. I would recommend getting two to run in dual channel and to have 1gb of RAM, it makes a very nice difference. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820161615

I also have really been pleased with the Hitachi Deskstar hard drives here. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145088 They're SATA II, 160GB, and have 8MB cache. These drives have given excellent performance on the Nforce 4's NVRAID. I also haven't had any reliability problems with any of them yet, but that can really be hit or miss with hard drives.

An Antec Truepower PSU should work very well in the computer. I've used a lot of these PSUs in the computers I've built and never had a problem with one yet. A 420 watt or higher would be the best to get.

I just put a Chaintech GeForce 6600GT in the Athlon 64 box I built for myself and am very pleased with it. It was $150 and runs great. If you can spend more there are faster video cards that you can buy, but this one has worked great for the price. It's a tiny bit more expensive now since there is no rebate like there was when I bought it, but still a decent price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145098

Hope that helps.

 

[Bostedquest]

thanks for the info, but I am an ninvidia man, the way its meant to be played// any other input appreciated.

that was just an example..
dual layer 16X dvd burners are 39.99...
GF FX 5700 256... $101

114$ for 300 GB EiDE drives
146$ 300 SATA drives

I just tend to stay sway from and lead others away from places that I have had trouble with. IE NewEgg.
I just put these two sites as the are the main ones I deal with.
Though the still cheapest acyrilic case I have seen is still on hatebay...

 

[ITSME4G63]

I just got done building 4 or 5 Athlon 64 computers the past couple weeks so just from what I've seen I would go with the cheapest Venice core Athlon 64 CPU you can get. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537 Every one of them I bought EASILY overclocked to 2.4ghz and could run Prime95 for days without errors. I would really suggest buying one of these instead of a Winchester as they seem to overclock better and run cooler.

For the motherboard, I would recommend a Chaintech VNF4 Ultra. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152049 It's very cheap, has nice overclocking options, and is very stable and fast. The onboard sound is also decent. It's 7.1 and will probably work perfect for what you would be using it for. You can get much better sound cards, but they're going to add a lot on to the price and you would need pretty nice expensive speakers to make it worth buying.

I used Wintec RAM and had excellent results with it. It's under $45 for a 512MB stick and it overclocks very nicely. I have easily got them running at 450MHz DDR and 100% stable in Memtest. I would recommend getting two to run in dual channel and to have 1gb of RAM, it makes a very nice difference. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820161615

I also have really been pleased with the Hitachi Deskstar hard drives here. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145088 They're SATA II, 160GB, and have 8MB cache. These drives have given excellent performance on the Nforce 4's NVRAID. I also haven't had any reliability problems with any of them yet, but that can really be hit or miss with hard drives.

An Antec Truepower PSU should work very well in the computer. I've used a lot of these PSUs in the computers I've built and never had a problem with one yet. A 420 watt or higher would be the best to get.

I just put a Chaintech GeForce 6600GT in the Athlon 64 box I built for myself and am very pleased with it. It was $150 and runs great. If you can spend more there are faster video cards that you can buy, but this one has worked great for the price. It's a tiny bit more expensive now since there is no rebate like there was when I bought it, but still a decent price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145098

Hope that helps.

i see that the 6600gt is a pci express card, are those pci express's better than agp cards these days? Also, Im not big on overclocking, I know its like tuning your pc, but seriously I dont want large fans on my computer that sound liek a hairdrier, been there done that, can barely hear myself think with a fan that spins that quick so I would like to go with the processors that I listed.

 

[Redmachine]

i see that the 6600gt is a pci express card, are those pci express's better than agp cards these days? Also, Im not big on overclocking, I know its like tuning your pc, but seriously I dont want large fans on my computer that sound liek a hairdrier, been there done that, can barely hear myself think with a fan that spins that quick so I would like to go with the processors that I listed.

I have an agp version of the 6600gt, mine though is a xfx it's faster out of the box than the chaintech/msi cards. As far as fans... don't skimp out here, they make stealth fans that are nearly silent or you need to go with a water cooling setup, fans are your friends though especially on a power heavy PC

 

[TalonTSi-AWD91]

i see that the 6600gt is a pci express card, are those pci express's better than agp cards these days? Also, Im not big on overclocking, I know its like tuning your pc, but seriously I dont want large fans on my computer that sound liek a hairdrier, been there done that, can barely hear myself think with a fan that spins that quick so I would like to go with the processors that I listed.

PCI Express is supposed to be better then AGP. It has higher bandwidth, although video cards don't need it as it is. However, most of the new top end video cards are going to be PCI Express only. That probably isn't a big deal at all, but it's not any more expensive really for PCI Express.

You won't need anything loud at all for cooling. That is one of the best things about that CPU. The one I have running at 2.4ghz here at home is using the retail heatsink and fan and it stays at around 44c under load. That is also considering that it's about 90 inside my house right now. It never gets hot and is extremely quiet. There is absolutely no point getting the more expensive A64 3400+ or 3200+ over the 3000+. You're going to spend more to get a CPU that is just clocked a tiny bit higher from AMD. You can get the 3000+, save $75, and overclock it just as high as the 3400+ and 3200+ will go. As said, the Venice core CPUs run so cool you don't need to worry about heavy cooling, and to just get to 2.4ghz I could give you the settings. Every one I've ever built has easily hit 2.4ghz with the exact same settings. Going over that would be more difficult and depend on your PC, but 2.4 is easy. I would personally just rather spend the extra money elsewhere when the CPU will be the same regardless of which one you get, at least for those specific processors.

 

[Bostedquest]

Overclocking does not mean large spinning fans...
Hell I use 2 120's, 2.2 gallons and a pump hat will easily outflow a walbro 255 in sheer volume...

 

[ITSME4G63]

PCI Express is supposed to be better then AGP. It has higher bandwidth, although video cards don't need it as it is. However, most of the new top end video cards are going to be PCI Express only. That probably isn't a big deal at all, but it's not any more expensive really for PCI Express.

You won't need anything loud at all for cooling. That is one of the best things about that CPU. The one I have running at 2.4ghz here at home is using the retail heatsink and fan and it stays at around 44c under load. That is also considering that it's about 90 inside my house right now. It never gets hot and is extremely quiet. There is absolutely no point getting the more expensive A64 3400+ or 3200+ over the 3000+. You're going to spend more to get a CPU that is just clocked a tiny bit higher from AMD. You can get the 3000+, save $75, and overclock it just as high as the 3400+ and 3200+ will go. As said, the Venice core CPUs run so cool you don't need to worry about heavy cooling, and to just get to 2.4ghz I could give you the settings. Every one I've ever built has easily hit 2.4ghz with the exact same settings. Going over that would be more difficult and depend on your PC, but 2.4 is easy. I would personally just rather spend the extra money elsewhere when the CPU will be the same regardless of which one you get, at least for those specific processors.

so you are saying that the 3000+ can be overclocked and maxed out the same as the 3400+? I also notice that the motherboard you posted costs half of the asus one I've posted, is there a reason for that or is it only brand name?

 

[TalonTSi-AWD91]

so you are saying that the 3000+ can be overclocked and maxed out the same as the 3400+?

I was just looking, and I don't know if you noticed but that 3400+ you have is a socket 754 and not a socket 939 so that won't work with either of the motherboards you posted or the one I did. The 3200+ you posted is 939 but it's $40 more and IF it does overclock more, it won't be much. The 3200+ will have a higher multiplier since it runs at the same hypertransport speed, so you can have a higher clock rating at the same hypertransport speed with the 3200+. The main thing is that with decent Nforce4 boards, you're not very likely to max out the hypertransport before the CPU if the multiplier is all the way up. From the reviews I've read and what I've experienced with the A64 computers I've been building the 3000+ normally will overclock from 2.4-2.7ghz and the 3200+ is about the same with a couple people saying they got to 2.8ghz. That could have been on water cooling or something too. Either way, even if you get an extra 100-200mhz out of the CPU, for the price difference it's not worth it. You would be much better off using that extra $40 to put towards an even faster video card or more ram. That will make more of a difference then the CPU being 100mhz faster.

I also notice that the motherboard you posted costs half of the asus one I've posted, is there a reason for that or is it only brand name?

The Asus motherboard is more expensive because it has a couple of additional things on the board. The main one is that it has SLI, dual PCI Express x16 slots, so that you can run dual video cards as long as they're SLI cards. From your post, I'm assuming that you wouldn't be using this, but if you were this would be the main thing that is going to be better. The Asus board also has 8 SATA ports instead of 4, however the additional 4 ports are from a Silicon Image 3114 controller instead of the Nforce 4's NVRAID. The Silicon Image 3114 is really crappy compared to the NVRAID. Four will more then likely be plenty of SATA ports, unless you think you might have more hard drives then that. The Asus board also has firewire onboard. That may or may not be important to you, but if it is and neither of the other two things I mentioned matter you can get a PCI firewire card for around $20.

 

[1LE]

ASUS mobo's are my favorite. Very good results with them. AMD = thumbs down, for reliability. Just had too many problems with them, so I've ended up defaulting back to Intel recently. Power supply, PC Power and Cooling is my favorite. Hard drives, I tend to use Ultra 320SCSI, unless money is really tight, in which case I'll go ATA of some sort. Latency is tad higher with SCSI, but peak performance and multi-tasking performance are generally higher. Just depends on exactly what you're looking for. Had much better reliability out of SCSI drives too.

 

[TalonTSi-AWD91]

ASUS mobo's are my favorite. Very good results with them. AMD = thumbs down, for reliability. Just had too many problems with them, so I've ended up defaulting back to Intel recently. Power supply, PC Power and Cooling is my favorite. Hard drives, I tend to use Ultra 320SCSI, unless money is really tight, in which case I'll go ATA of some sort. Latency is tad higher with SCSI, but peak performance and multi-tasking performance are generally higher. Just depends on exactly what you're looking for. Had much better reliability out of SCSI drives too.

Which AMD CPUs did you have problems with? The A64 CPUs are honestly probably more reliable then Intel CPUs. I've had very good luck with Intel computers I've built, but a couple ended up having problems due to heat. I haven't had a single A64 CPU give me any problems yet, although I sure can't say the same for the Athlon XP processors.

 

[ITSME4G63]

Ok, I was thinking about getting this mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131524 but then I noticed a deluxe eeditoin ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131517 ), I see in the description of the deluxe that by the pci express x16 it says "(*SLI mode : x8 , x8 *Default Single VGA mode : x16, x1)". What does this mean? Is it an advantage? Im lookign at the reviews of this mobo though, and it looks liek the fans give out early?! , I was also looking at this mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127207 which seems like a nice alternative but i dont like the lack of regular pci slots, I mean agp boards come with 5 these come with liek 2-3 , I also got into looking at this one which looked lovely http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130492 , please tell me which one of these motherboards would be best.


Plus, I would be planning on getting this videocard, the only reason Im choosing sli is that I can get another one when they get cheaper or when games demand it. what you think of this msi card?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127147

and a 3200+ amd64 939 chip or a 3400, cant decide.

 

[TalonTSi-AWD91]

Ok, I was thinking about getting this mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131524 but then I noticed a deluxe eeditoin ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131517 ), I see in the description of the deluxe that by the pci express x16 it says "(*SLI mode : x8 , x8 *Default Single VGA mode : x16, x1)". What does this mean? Is it an advantage?

That's pretty normal. It's just saying that when using both PCI Express x16 slots, you end up with x8 per slot for a total of x16 instead of x16 PER slot. I can't remember if any motherboards right now have SLI with two true x16 PCI Express slots.

Im lookign at the reviews of this mobo though, and it looks liek the fans give out early?! , I was also looking at this mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127207 which seems like a nice alternative but i dont like the lack of regular pci slots, I mean agp boards come with 5 these come with liek 2-3 , I also got into looking at this one which looked lovely http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130492 , please tell me which one of these motherboards would be best.

Personally I would get the Abit. I've always had really good luck with them. The Abit board does have 2 regular PCI slots along with two PCI Express x1 slots and two PCI Express x16 slots. You don't have to worry about the chipset fan dying with the Abit either.

Plus, I would be planning on getting this videocard, the only reason Im choosing sli is that I can get another one when they get cheaper or when games demand it. what you think of this msi card?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127147

That video card will probably work just fine, although I've never used it personally so I can't speak from experience. There are speed differences between different brands using the same GPU, but the difference is something that will usually only be noticed in benchmarks. Even then, it's usually a pretty small difference. The main difference in the brands typically is the software they come with, what type of I/O connectors they have, and which hardware parts they use. At stock speeds the hardware won't make much of a difference, but if you're overclocking the video card the hardware used is extremely important.

and a 3200+ amd64 939 chip or a 3400, cant decide.

Are you talking about a socket 754 3400+? There is no socket 939 3400+. Socket 939 goes from 3200+ to 3500+. The 3500+ is $227 and the 3200+ is $190. As before, I would go with the cheaper 3200+ since you're not very likely to get any more out of the 3500+. Then again, I would still go with the 3000+ at $146 to have $81 extra to buy another gig of RAM or another hard drive, but that part is up to you really. Just a matter of preference I guess.

 

[ITSME4G63]

thanks alot, The video card, I was looking at a evga one, but after I read the reviews of having the card druunign hot (maybe due to a smaller fan?) this one looked pretty good, It has a big ass fan on it. I know its persoanl preference, but I really dont want to mess with teh overclocking stuff right now, So I most likely will go with a 3200 or 3500. thanks for the input, any other input aprreciated, like the differences between the hard drive connections, I see so have sata some have pata or scsi, I mean which one is the one to get?

 

[TalonTSi-AWD91]

SATA would be your best bet for hard drives. SCSI has it's advantages, but it' more expensive and you would also need a SCSI controller. SCSI is more for use in servers then desktops.

 

[DGajre777]

I think that the computer that you plan on building depends on what you are going to do with it. I built my computer 2 months ago, all parts except for the case and fans were bought from newegg, the case and the fans were bought from xoxide, and it came dented (had to hammer it out ). This is what I have on my setup:

1) Intel D915GAVL Motherboard
2) Intel LGA 775 (Socket T) P4 630 Processor 3.0Ghz with HT and 800Mhz FSB - (I chose Intel because I had a computer with an AMD processor and it gave me nothing but trouble)
3) Kingston PC 3200 Dual Channel 2Gig RAM - (I do some work related data runs at home)
4) Western Digital 80GB SATA HDD for Windows XP
5) Western Digital 250GB SATA HDD for Files/movies etc
6) Usual Floppy Drive, DVD+-RW, sound card, 2.1 speakers, cordless mouse etc.
7) Thermaltake 500W Powersupply with 2 fans, Thermaltake Jungle CPU Fan, 120mm front case fan, 80mm rear and side case fans and another 80mm video card fan. I initially bought LED fans, but they annoyed the f*@k out of me after a week, so I trashed them and got regular black non-led fans.
8) My motherboard has a PCI Expressx16 Video Card slot - but no video car yet, that's on my list to get.

I'd recommend 1GB of at least PC3200 RAM, but get 2x512, so you can hook them up in dual channel. If you don't have funds for 2x512, get 1x512 and when you have money, get another one. Good luck with your build!

 

[T_Eclipse]

thanks alot, The video card, I was looking at a evga one, but after I read the reviews of having the card druunign hot (maybe due to a smaller fan?) this one looked pretty good, It has a big ass fan on it. I know its persoanl preference, but I really dont want to mess with teh overclocking stuff right now, So I most likely will go with a 3200 or 3500. thanks for the input, any other input aprreciated, like the differences between the hard drive connections, I see so have sata some have pata or scsi, I mean which one is the one to get?

Like said before, SATA is better than PATA hands down for several reasons.

1) SATA cables are alot thinner (about 1/4 of a pata cable, this is better for air flow)

2) SATA can spin faster than PATA (You want the ultimate hard drive configuration, pick up 2 Western Digital Raptors that spin at 10,000 RPM and put them in a RAID 0 configuration , this is an extremely fast data transfer rate solution but very expensive )

3) SATA drives transfer data through the cables alot faster
SATA = 150 Mps (Megabits per second) (This rate might be faster now a days)
PATA = 133
Finally) Either get Western Digital or Seagate in my opinion


On a side note about video cards.
Do your self a favor and stick to name brands like ABIT, ASUS, MSI for nvidia.