700 Budget Build

lost0822

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 10, 2004
Messages
270
ok....a friend of mine is going thru a divorce and is giving his wife their piece of cr@p comp. He was wondering if i had a comp i could sell him.....i have a back up one that i don't use but like to have it in case my main goes down and i have something to get onto the internet with to find the solution to my mains problems. I don't want to sell it really but as a friend i'd like to help him out. So i thought i'd just buy minimal parts now that have some future proof to them and then in the coming months buy the rest.

Anyway my main now is only a single core (see my signature)....so i'm kind of out of the loop on stuff. I'll about a 700 dollar budget to build a new one.....here's the catch with the new one.......I will continue to use it as backup to the one i use now because i don't plan on buying a good video card for it yet to keep my price down for now.....bascially if i could get a MB with onboard video that would be fine in the mean time. So here's what i need.

CPU: i'd like to go with an Intel and shoud i wait for the price drop?

MB: something with onboard video for now.....and i don't need anything that can overclock a lot....i just dable in overclocking.

RAM: at least 2gigs

Video Card: none for now.....will save up money afterwards for an 8800 series or whatever's out there at that time.

Sound: i'll be using my old 5.1 surround and the Creative SB out of my main....don't need sound on my back up machines.

HD: at least 300 gigs...no raiding or anything

DVD Drives: i'll be taking the RW out of my main now to put in the new one eventually so all i'll need is a DVD ROM drive

Case: something nice and not too flashy i guess....i like the Antec P182's but the price is a little high

any suggestions would be great.....like i said i'm out of the loop on stuff and i just want something that will be VERY upgradeable in the future.....and when i say future maybe around this coming Winter (that's when i'd like to get the 8800 Card)

thanks
 
Heh, you could build a nice machine for $700, even with a cheap vidcard, lol. Do you plan on upgrading to a quadcore?

Here's something to start out with...
$186 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz
$100 - Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$82 - G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
$80 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200RPM SATA300 16MB Cache
$50 - XClio GOODPOWER 500W ATX 500W
$35 - Cooler Master RC-534-SWN1 Silver Steel ATX Mid-Tower w/ Side Window
============
$533 + tax and shipping

... add in a cheap $30 vidcard for now, and there you go!
$35 - MSI NX7300LE-TD128EH GeForce 7300LE 128MB GDDR2
$82 - BFG Tech BFGW6600GTOCX GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 ($40MIR)

extras...
$20 - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
$33 - Lite-On 20X DVD±R Black SATA Model LH-20A1S OEM
 
Heh, you could build a nice machine for $700, even with a cheap vidcard, lol. Do you plan on upgrading to a quadcore?


maybe sometime in the future....so i guess if the MB can do quad that would be nice.


also i guess i don't need a MB with onboard video if there's a card i can buy for really, really cheap
 
Post above has been edited.

maybe sometime in the future....so i guess if the MB can do quad that would be nice.

also i guess i don't need a MB with onboard video if there's a card i can buy for really, really cheap

The newer P35 Express chipset boards are a bit more pricey than the one in my post above.

I'd go for this one:
$140 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
 
Heh, you could build a nice machine for $700, even with a cheap vidcard, lol. Do you plan on upgrading to a quadcore?

Here's something to start out with...
$186 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz
$100 - Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$82 - G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
$80 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200RPM SATA300 16MB Cache
$50 - XClio GOODPOWER 500W ATX 500W
$35 - Cooler Master RC-534-SWN1 Silver Steel ATX Mid-Tower w/ Side Window
============
$533 + tax and shipping

... add in a cheap $30 vidcard for now, and there you go!
$35 - MSI NX7300LE-TD128EH GeForce 7300LE 128MB GDDR2
$82 - BFG Tech BFGW6600GTOCX GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 ($40MIR)

extras...
$20 - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
$33 - Lite-On 20X DVD±R Black SATA Model LH-20A1S OEM

i'm going with a majority of those parts....except:

120 GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965
155 Antec P182 Gun Metal Black

i know the case is expensive but this is my future comp and i don't want to buy a cheap case right now just to put it in something then down the road have to take it all out and put all the parts into another case.

so with that i stand at 783 dollars without shipping yet...not bad...my budget is not strictly 700...but that was a number to shoot for.

I still need a power supply.....i'm going to look into them a little more....any other suggestions in the power supply department?....i need to make sure the cables are long on it cause i've heard with this case you need longer cables on your power supply because of where the PS is located in the P182
 
I still need a power supply.....i'm going to look into them a little more....any other suggestions in the power supply department?....i need to make sure the cables are long on it cause i've heard with this case you need longer cables on your power supply because of where the PS is located in the P182

The XClio Goodpower 500W is a good budget PSU. However, since you're going with the P182, I doubt its cables are long enough. BTW, if you can, check out that case in person. I, personally, don't like the P180 series because I felt they were too flimsy (yah, even the revised version). I went with the original CM Stacker instead.

My recommendation:
$95 - Corsair HX Series CMPSU-520HX 520W PSU ($105 - $10MIR) (Free Shipping)

other PSU Suggestions:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1460
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103
 
The XClio Goodpower 500W is a good budget PSU. However, since you're going with the P182, I doubt its cables are long enough. BTW, if you can, check out that case in person. I, personally, don't like the P180 series because I felt they were too flimsy (yah, even the revised version). I went with the original CM Stacker instead.

My recommendation:
$95 - Corsair HX Series CMPSU-520HX 520W PSU ($105 - $10MIR) (Free Shipping)

other PSU Suggestions:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1460
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103


thanks for the info...i'll check those out

i have a P160 case that i love.....but i do know what your saying about the flimsy thing....the P160 also suffered from that a bit.
 
Maybe I can help.
I put together a nice big guide on building new computers (like what components are best as well as basics)
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=30822

Take a look at the buyers guide sections that will help.

Don't agree with the budget PSU section of the above guide. FSP is fine for lower end to mid range builds, but when recommending Antec PSUs it's important to specify which series. Some are ok, some not so much.
 
...flimsy? My first and continuing impression was that it's built like a tank.

well i've never actually seen a P182 in person...i was just basing my opinion off of my P160 case...i mean it's sturdy....put has too many plastic parts for my liking.....for example the front bezel.
 
Don't agree with the budget PSU section of the above guide. FSP is fine for lower end to mid range builds, but when recommending Antec PSUs it's important to specify which series. Some are ok, some not so much.

i'm looking at those corsair ones right now that someone else suggested.
 
...flimsy? My first and continuing impression was that it's built like a tank.

While they are rather sturdier than their initial release and the previous P160 predecessor, they are far from tanks. A Sonata vs a P180, in a head-on collision, would leave the P180 in pieces, hehe. The Antec old skool server cases... now those were tanks... but people don't want heavy duty cases anymore. They want light-weight, aluminum with sound dampening sidepanels. The P160/180/182/Nine Hundred are all flimsy, imo, compared to a good old fashioned Antec case of the past. If you want a tank, you'll have to look elsewhere, like the CoolerMaster Stacker (original, not the 810/832/etc).
 
While they are rather sturdier than their initial release and the previous P160 predecessor, they are far from tanks. A Sonata vs a P180, in a head-on collision, would leave the P180 in pieces, hehe. The Antec old skool server cases... now those were tanks... but people don't want heavy duty cases anymore. They want light-weight, aluminum with sound dampening sidepanels. The P160/180/182/Nine Hundred are all flimsy, imo, compared to a good old fashioned Antec case of the past. If you want a tank, you'll have to look elsewhere, like the CoolerMaster Stacker (original, not the 810/832/etc).

I went from an original Sonata to a P180B. Just subjective impression, I'd say the P180B is better built. The front panel on the Sonata in particular was a piece of junk.
 
The XClio Goodpower 500W is a good budget PSU. However, since you're going with the P182, I doubt its cables are long enough. BTW, if you can, check out that case in person.

The XClio's cables are long enough for the P180 according to a fellow Hardforum member here.
 
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