Best budget Gaming Machine

[Spike]

A friend of mine wants to build a computer and im basically goig to tell him what to buy. He has a $850 buget and I am thinking he should go with a 660 Gt (128), Ive heard they will outdue even a radeon 9800 pro (256 mb). We have opted to go for n force 3 chipset so that means agp 8x. there are however alot of 6600's made by alot of diffrent companies (Here). i was wondering if there is any real advantages of going with one over another other than the bragging rightds to the brand name and price. for a motherboard we we were going to go for a Msi Neo 2. and an amd 3200+. If anyone has any reccomendations as to any components that offer bang to the buck ited be apprecieated. but the main issue is the graphics card.

 

[Z(+)DIAC]

Seeing as you are going for the Neo2, pay the extra bit for the Platinum edition, it's worth it in my eyes. Also I have that board and to was thinking of going 6600gt, but why not spend an extra $20 for a 6800 vanilla? If you do go with a 6600gt I would look at these companies first, in order:

BFG > Leadtek > eVGA > XFX

Good Luck

 

[Spike]

Iono ive heard the 6600Gt beats the vanilla http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040907/geforce_6600-08.html this isnt the vinalla exactly but i doubt theres much of a diffrence. oh were looking for somthing like a 200 gb sata hd so if anyone knows where to get one dirt cheap id appreacieate it (Note* we do keep our eyes open on newegg)

 

[Fury109]

Seeing as you are going for the Neo2, pay the extra bit for the Platinum edition, it's worth it in my eyes. Also I have that board and to was thinking of going 6600gt, but why not spend an extra $20 for a 6800 vanilla? If you do go with a 6600gt I would look at these companies first, in order:

BFG > Leadtek > eVGA > XFX

Good Luck

He suggested a 6800 vanilla not a 6600 vanilla. Price diff between 6800 and 6600gt is probably gonna be more than $20 though, unless there are some super specials somewhere.

 

[Bootyquake]

I just recently built a gaming rig for a friend of mine for almost exactly $850. All parts bought at Newegg:

AMD Athlon 64 Socket 754 2.2Ghz
Gigabyte 3-D Rocket Cooler Pro Heatsink/fan
MSI "K8M Neo-V" K8M800 Mobo
Patriot 2x256 Dual channel kit (2-2-2-5 timings, nice stuff!)
Aspire X-Pider Full tower case w/ 420W power supply
52X CD-RW drive (black)
floppy drive (black)
120GB Western Digital HDD - SATA, 7200RPM
Leadtek 6600GT video card

I know I probably forgot something, but it really turned out nice, overclecked very easily to 2.42Ghz with the 2-2-2-5 timings intact. He's getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 8700 in 3dMark03. Just goes to show if you shop a bit, and don't mind using the socket 754 processor, you can make a pretty fast little PC for 850 bucks

Bootyquake
Athlon XP 3200+ @ 2420Mhz
1GB Geil Value PC3200 @ 220Mhz
74GB WD Raptor 10k RPM
Gigabyte 6800GT @ 410/1.1

 

[paymepunk]

Seeing as you are going for the Neo2, pay the extra bit for the Platinum edition, it's worth it in my eyes. Also I have that board and to was thinking of going 6600gt, but why not spend an extra $20 for a 6800 vanilla? If you do go with a 6600gt I would look at these companies first, in order:

BFG > Leadtek > eVGA > XFX

Good Luck

I like chocolate.

but seriously, are you referring to the 128mb 6800 pro? I'm almost ready to upgrade from my killer 32mb gforce2mx. Is it sad when you laptop has a better video card then you desktop?

 

[AMDXP]

its just the Nvidia 6800 unless your thinking of the ATI 9800 Pro

 

[paymepunk]

thanks for clearing that up.

 

[tranCendenZ]

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3000+ Retail S754 w/ fan ($145)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-486&depa=0

Motherboard: ASUS K8N S754 nForce3 250 ($85)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-512&depa=0

Videocard: eVGA 6600GT ($210)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-220&depa=0

Memory: 1GB (512mb x 2) Crucial CT6464Z40B CAS3 RAM ($80x2 = $160 total)
http://www.crucial.com/store/MPartspecs.Asp?mtbpoid=98AEBBBBA5CA7304&WSMD=K8N&WSPN=CT6464Z40B

Hard Drive: Seagate 7200.7 160GB SATA 7200RPM/8mb cache ($110)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-034&depa=0

Case/Power Supply: Antec Sonata w/ 380w TruePower PSU ($99)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-127&depa=0

DVD: Plextor 716SA SATA 16x Dual Layer DVD+R/DVD-R/DVDROM/CDROM ($130)
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=27-131-351&depa=0
(black faceplate included)

~$950 total... $100 over budget, but sweet setup

 

[Spike]

not bad i had him order a bunch of components monday. I made him spend 1k and some change lol but he is getting the 3200+ 90nm msi k8neo2 platnum a 200 gb hd hardcano 10 fancontroller, xp pro, the sidewinder case (i didnt particurally like it but he did and its his money + the price was rite) a 500W aspire powersupply (i told him to get a diffrent one but i wasnt there when he ordered the stuff and it looked cool so he picked it up...) 1 gb of mushkin ram the 6600 Gt a dvd rom 52x32x52x16 it was like 20 bucks so not a bad price but it was generic im prally forgetting smthing but ohwel itll be a nice machine and its socket 939 so he can upgrade later which was a big deal to him, all he wants to do is play everquest 2, and at all my lan partys ill make him play hl2 and doom 3 and source so it should do that great. only thing i couldnt get him to do was splurge on a lcd monitor. he has this old monitor dont remember if its 15 or 17 inch but neways i told him it was kind of a bad idea to have a nice graphics card and a crappy monitor...but he was 150 over buget lol so guess it was kinda outta the picture for now.