$600 budget...need opinions

[$ilvano]

First off, hello, I've been rading here a while, but I believe this is my first post. Like the topic says, I've got a 600 dollar budget for a processor, motherboard, RAM, and a graphics card. The rest of the components I can 'borrow' from my current computer, until I can afford more. I'm building this computer so I can play all the latest games (ie. doom 3, halflife 2, farcry, shellshock nam). Eventually I'll be getting a watercooling setup, but not right now. So overclocking ability is a must. Would like HT, just because i love to multitask.My current system is 3 or 4 years old. P4 1.5 willamete, emachines motherboard, nvidia Ti4200, 512mb pc133 RAM, and its starting to show signs of aging. I tried playing the doom 3demo, and even at 640x480, it was slow and choppy.
Right now, I'm pretty much set on getting a 3.0c P4, unless there is a signifant savings with going with AMD's equivelent or better processor. I'm hoping i can find one for under 125-150 used, but overclockable. The motherboard I'm looking at is at http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-484&depa=0
I know nothing about ddr, so I'm hoping this is some decent memory. Will upgrade to a gig later. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-144-121&depa=0 I'm wanting to go with either http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40161&item=5123316614&rd=1 or http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40161&item=5125035210&rd=1 , but, that would be out of my budget, and I know nothing about ATI's offerings so any reccomendations there would be appreciated also. Thanks in advance for all opinions and constructive criticism.

Silvano

 

[Met-AL]

First things first here bud. Don't let HT be a total selling point, it helps.

[H]ard|OCP just did an article about builing a PC for $500. It is on the frontpage.
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjU5

With the extra $100 you have, I would add that to the video card purchase part of the system.

Let’s summarize what our hard earned $500 bought us at NewEgg:

AMD Athlon64 2800+ CPU$142-$146
ABIT KV8Pro motherboard $99-$101
Kingston Value Series 512MB DDR PC-3200 $99-$102
PowerColor Radeon 9600XT Ultra $139-$149Total
Total $479-$498

And shopping at NewEgg, you can't go wrong.

 

[$ilvano]

I was just looking at an amd proc/mobo combo on frys, and was wondering if the 64 bit 2800+ or 3200+ would overclock like and outperform an intel p4 3.0c. Also what are some reccomendations for graphics cards? Thank again.

Silvano

 

[Shane_c82]

As for the amount of the overclock the P4 3.0 would get more (i think), however, if you go with the 3200+, which has a multiplier of 10 (2800+ has 9) and get about a 200 - 300 MHz oc out of it, it would perform on par or better than the oced p4 3.0 (i think). For games I would go with the 3200+ and a 6800 GT.