$900 Gaming Machine - need opinions

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d1scg0lf3r

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A friend got $900 for christmas and wants me to put together a gaming system for him. Here is what I have put together: (Tell me if there is a better way to spend his money)
**Neither of us are overclockers so keep that in mind**

It doesnt matter to him whether he goes Intel or AMD for the processor, nor does it matter ATI or Nvidia for his graphics card. He just wants the best machine for his $$, Like we all do :)

Please feel free to make any suggestions. I havent really built a system in the last year so any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated.

Case $55 - Enlight Beige Mid-Tower ATX Case with 350W SATA Power Supply

MoBo $89 - ABIT "KV8 Pro" K8T800

Processor $146 - AMD Athlon 64 3000+

Memory $79 - Crucial 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 He already has 1 stick of the same memory so total will be 1Gig

Video Card $409 - ATI RADEON X800 PRO Video Card, 256MB GDDR3

Hard Drive $66 - Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive

CDRW $24 - Lite-On White 52X32X52 Internal EIDE CD-RW Drive

An additional case fan $7
FDD $7

Total shipped $927.66
 
artic silver 5

floppy drive i think, does this motherboard need drivers for sata drives?
 
I've got that same motherboard and I love it but you may want to go with a 939 pin setup. You can get Abit's K8T800 Pro 939 pin board for about 110$ and a 939 pin 3000 for about 150$. You'd then get dual channel memory and a good upgrade path for the future. The only other real choice then is video cards and in that 400$ range its the x800pro or 6800gt. I lean more towards the nVidia but thats because I've got a 6800 and it rocks. Both are good cards though so get what you like.
 
Alyosha said:
I've got that same motherboard and I love it but you may want to go with a 939 pin setup. You can get Abit's K8T800 Pro 939 pin board for about 110$ and a 939 pin 3000 for about 150$. You'd then get dual channel memory and a good upgrade path for the future. The only other real choice then is video cards and in that 400$ range its the x800pro or 6800gt. I lean more towards the nVidia but thats because I've got a 6800 and it rocks. Both are good cards though so get what you like.
Click to expand...

go with a 939 setup, switch the x800pro for a 6800gt, and make sure you get a matching stick of 512mb ram so you can run dual channel safely.
 
Is AS5 really necessary. As long as you get a retail boxed processor the heatsink fan thermal compound should be just fine.
 
ohnnyj said:
Is AS5 really necessary. As long as you get a retail boxed processor the heatsink fan thermal compound should be just fine.
Click to expand...

cooler is better :cool: +1
 
Ok, so I went on NewEgg and did a little searching, this is what i came up with:

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Aspire X-Dreamer II(Black) ATX Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, With Window, Model "ATXB4KLW-BK/350" $57.50

SOLTEK "SL-K8AN2E-GR" NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL $89.00

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail $146.00

PDP SYSTEMS Memory Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 512MB (256MBx2) DDR PC-2700, Model PDC5122700LLK - Retail $81.00

SAMSUNG 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model SP0802N, OEM $57.00

Lite-On Black 52X32X52 CD-RW Drive, Model LTR-52327S, OEM $23.00

eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800GT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "256-A8-N344-AX" -RETAIL $388.00

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Comes out to 872.41 shipped. Any suggestions?
 
Thanks for all the replies.

We went with a socket 939 MoBo and Processor, the Athlon 64 3000+. We also switched the video card to a Geforce 6800 GT. Everything is ordered and on the way :)

I talked to him about the trial of windows 64-bit OS, and he just wants to install his windows xp pro for now. Anyone using the 64-bit OS? If so what do you think of it?
 
OwNjaH said:
Ok, so I went on NewEgg and did a little searching, this is what i came up with:

---

Aspire X-Dreamer II(Black) ATX Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, With Window, Model "ATXB4KLW-BK/350" $57.50

SOLTEK "SL-K8AN2E-GR" NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL $89.00

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail $146.00

PDP SYSTEMS Memory Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 512MB (256MBx2) DDR PC-2700, Model PDC5122700LLK - Retail $81.00

SAMSUNG 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model SP0802N, OEM $57.00

Lite-On Black 52X32X52 CD-RW Drive, Model LTR-52327S, OEM $23.00

eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800GT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "256-A8-N344-AX" -RETAIL $388.00

----

Comes out to 872.41 shipped. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

That PSU might struggle.

Adam.
 
That entire system is going to hold down that nice graphics card. You should take some of that Video money and get a better system. Maybe put a 6600gt in it
 
Paradoxx said:
That entire system is going to hold down that nice graphics card. You should take some of that Video money and get a better system. Maybe put a 6600gt in it
Click to expand...
only the ram
 
80% of that setup is as cheap as you can get it. It will tank. That's basically getting a crap Dell and having them put in a nicer graphics card.
 
I agree, that $800 could've been spent better, how much research did you do before you bought all that? Also, why did you buy PC-2700 ram which was more expensive than the Crucial PC-3200, You still only have 512MB of ram, when you could have had a gig?
 
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