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$1000 for a comp

J

Jay D.

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 26, 2003
Messages
122
My bro has been bugging me to build him a comp and now has a grand for me to do it.

He been bugging me extra hard today because he thinks I have time to do research for him but I have alot of HW.

He has an old laptop that just can't cut what he wants to do anymore...and thats game.

The catch is he needs a new everything...

Hes starting from scrath so he needs a monitor, a case, an OS and all the other stuff that we just take from our old systems when we upgrade.

It needs to run next years games (not flawlessly mind you just enough) and it would be nice if it were small. I was looking at shuttles earlier but I'm not sure how well they preform.

I need you guys to help me find a system that will fit my bro's needs.
 
Well, you could probably use this as a base, maybe improve some things and lose some things....

It includes Monitor and OS

I'd say Linux, but he wants a Gaming PC, so nvm...

Link Here
 
Barton 2500+'s are probably your bext bet for the money, get a $100 or so ASUS mobo, I dunno my AMD. If he's (or you) a student anywhere pick him up a Windows XP Pro student edition for $90, and a CRT for around $100. Buy some decent RAM, cheap case, $50 or so $50 Antec PSU. 100-16gb HDD, whatever he feels he needs. You can afford a 9800 Pro, that'll be the only place you'll go all out. 20$ or onboard sound, LiteOn burner for his needs, heatsink dependent on overclocking, and I belive thats it. Should put you right around that $1,000 mark.
 
Congratulations. You have succeeded in answering every single one of the questions we usually have to ask people who post "$XXX, what parts?" threads. :)

*ahem*

Anyway, I had to make do with a 17" CRT. No freaking way we can fit anything bigger/better.

This will be a heavy chunk over, though—$100. Maybe you could get your parents to assist?


=====
Chassis: Antec SLK3700
Motherboard: ABit NF7-S
Processor: AMD AthlonXP 2500+ OEM
Heatsink: Speeze FalconRock
Memory: 1x Corsair Value Select 512MB PC3200

Graphics Card: MSI GeForceFX 5900XT 128MB w/ VIVO

Floppy Drive: Samsung floppy
Hard Drive: Western Digital Special Edition 120GB
Optical Drive: Samsung 52x24x52/16x DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo

Monitor: KDS 17" flat CRT
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech MX Duo
Speakers: Logitech Z-640 5.1

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
=====

Anyway, if you REALLY need to save that $100:
Drop from the GeForceFX 5900XT to a Radeon 9600 Pro.
Drop from 5.1 speakers to 2.1 speakers, or use a cheaper set.
Drop from the MX Duo keyboard/mouse suite to a normal keyboard and normal mouse.
Get less hard drive space.
 
dude, he has limited space, so i doubt he would want 5.1 speakers... and if i were you i'd go with an ati 9600xt for around 165-180$, but if you can spare just a little bit more cash, get a 9800 pro, they're on newegg for less than 225$
 
You can get a nice Antec case with a powersupply for around $70-$100 depending which model you look at. Check the 'egg.
 
Originally posted by misfitsfiend
dude, he has limited space, so i doubt he would want 5.1 speakers... and if i were you i'd go with an ati 9600xt for around 165-180$, but if you can spare just a little bit more cash, get 9800 pro, they're on newegg for less than 225$
Click to expand...
Sure, but the 5900 is available for $185.

Nice 2.1 systems can be had for Not A Lot of money, so that's a good point.

emorphien: Like an SLK3700? ;)
 
Originally posted by Stiletto One
Sure, but the 5900 is available for $185.
Click to expand...

I'd go with an ATI myself if you can. The 5900 is a good deal but if you can swing a bit more the 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro at roughly $200-220 are killer deals.


emorphien: Like an SLK3700? ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, something like that. I was too lazy to look. :) I have the 1080AMG myself and love it, my friend just got the Sonata on my recommendation. But thats a pretty nice case for a damn good price too. :)
 
Ehh. The 5900 is damn close to the 9800 series in performance, and is about dead even with a 9700 Pro. I'd buy nVidia, although on a bigger budget, I would probably also go for a 9800 Pro.

Point is, at the $1000 level, $40 makes a big difference. And my setup's over as is.
 
You can do a bit better than that for $1,000.

A case doesn't need to run you $100, there are some for sale for $19.99 with a decent psu posted in the hot deals forum. There are several on newegg for ~$40-50 that would run just perfect for what you want.

Video, go with the 9800pro, it's by far the best for the money. If you plan on gaming next gen games, it would be what you'd want and last you at least a couple years.

Assuming you don't need a dvd burner, a dvd-rom is about $30, a burner if you get just a +R, can be as cheap as about $60 if you watch sales.

There's a 160gig western digital hd for $60 at comp usa this week, as well as an 80gig for $40 at office max. The 80gig would probably suffice just fine and save you a little.

Ram, you want at very least 512mb, personally I'd go a little extra and get 1gig since newer games will likely require more. Unfortunately prices on ram are asstastic right now, and continually increasing.

Sound card, I'd go with a SoundBlaster Audigy LS which is roughly $60-70 and works pretty nicely. If you want surround sound speakers, look towards the altec lansing 251 series, they're also in the $60-70 range.

A 19" kds monitor is about $150 on mwave.com, viewsonic 19" are a bit more towards $200, if you want to save some and go for a 17", the kds are just over $100 last I looked. I use the kds 19" and it's very nice in my opinion.

Assuming those parts, high-end cost, you're at: $200 monitor, $60 hard drive, $70 sound card, $70 speakers, $70 dvd burner, $50 case, $215 video card...that's $735, go with an aXP 2500+ for $83 and an MSI K7N2 Delta-L board for $73 and you're at $891. Pny 512mb pc2700 ddr333 ram is at $40 right now, grab a gig of that and you're at $971. Go with the lesser monitor and/or hd and you save a little more. I'm also assuming you've got a mouse and keyboard as well as network card/modem already.
 
XP pro is not necesary
it has extra networking features and such that arent included in home that makes it cost more

save $40
 
Personally I dont see much point in XP home :) Im quite happy with Professional. Can never tell when those extra features might be necessary. Plus when you get the professional versions of MS os's they generally charge you less when they release a new OS.


(had win98se and ME, wanted win2k, cost me 200.00 cause i wasnt using NTworkstation 4.0, if i had been, would only have been 99.00)
 
Originally posted by ST|FFY
XP pro is not necesary
it has extra networking features and such that arent included in home that makes it cost more

save $40
Click to expand...

i second this

most people dont use these features and will probably never use them. the common misconception is that people look at the two names, and think pro means faster, better and it means they are a 'pro', so they pirate, err i mean BUY xp pro. its an ego thing really. save some money, get home.
 
Hey ive got a good one ;)


Dont buy windows XP home OR professional.
Save the extra 100 bucks
use said 100.00 extra to build an athlon 64 system instead of the one you were considering before. Go to microsofts site and download the 1year beta of Windows XP 64 bit and have fun with the athy 64 ;)


Of course, drivers and everything else will be a pain, but the longer you have it, the faster the drivers are going to get. Plus, some things run faster already :)
 
If you check the Office Max ads, they have 80GB hard drives for $40 and CD burners for free this week after rebates. This will free up a little cash for you to allocate elsewhere once you get the rebates back.
 
Originally posted by TSx
STUFF
Click to expand...
On the sound card, it would probably work better to get a fuller-featured nForce2 board and just use integrated. Good point on case/PSU, you can probably get a used one—although you lose warranty if you do so. Hard drive, if you find a good retail deal, go for it!

As for a 19" monitor, I wouldn't recommend getting a cheap one, and good or not, they're PITAs to carry around.

Brig: VERY bad idea. :p Drivers aren't just a pain, they're almost nonexistent. It'd be bad enough for one of us geeks, but it's way over a typical "gamer"'s head.

As for not getting Windows XP Pro, that's up to you—but Windows XP Home gives me enough headache for me to try not to use it.
 
:) it might be a bad idea for a normal user id admit :D


I already have the iso and cd-key though , just waiting for some of the motherboards I ordered to show up so i can start playing with it :)

I just puzzled my way through a dual boot linux/xp install in the last few hours since I posted =x the worst part was getting sound to work with my Dell 400SC onboard sound (i875p chipset, ada1980 sound)

That and redhat refused to play mp3's out of the box, that took another 30 minutes of digging to figure out =x


All in all, im fairly happy with it, ive got RH9.0 running pretty smoothly, everything opens, and I have full access to my windows drives now :)
 
I'm not sure how sound is on the K7N2 Delta-L boards, but I know they're one of the better boards for that range of procs. You could easily save a bit using onboard sound, and also scrimping on the speakers, go with some cheaper $10 or so non-surround sound ones...hell watch the ads and you might see some that are free after rebates.

On the monitor...the KDS isn't really a 'cheap' monitor, it's just low in cost. I'm very pleased with mine, run it a ton for about a year or so now, never had a problem. The price on them makes them even better.
 
Originally posted by doh-nut
i second this

most people dont use these features and will probably never use them. the common misconception is that people look at the two names, and think pro means faster, better and it means they are a 'pro', so they pirate, err i mean BUY xp pro. its an ego thing really. save some money, get home.
Click to expand...
I had never used anything but pro. Had to work on home for a few days and man was I missing my "features". Theres quite a few things I took for granted in Pro that home doesnt have.

Guess you wouldnt miss them if youve never used them though
 
Originally posted by TSx
I'm not sure how sound is on the K7N2 Delta-L boards, but I know they're one of the better boards for that range of procs. You could easily save a bit using onboard sound, and also scrimping on the speakers, go with some cheaper $10 or so non-surround sound ones...hell watch the ads and you might see some that are free after rebates.
Click to expand...
$10 speakers tend to suck, period. :eek: You can get some half-decent Creative 2.1 speakers for less than $30, I think.

The Delta-L, not to be confused with the Delta-ILSR, does NOT have SoundStorm. If you're gaming, it pays to have a good sound processor, and the APU is one of the best out there when it comes to CPU utilization.
 
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