• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Bonny Situation

B

brinjin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 2, 2002
Messages
418
A friend is asking me to build him a PC on a $2000 budget, he wants a high-end video solution (at first it was SLI but i talked him out of it for budget and availability reasons), 2 hd's in raid1, one fast primary hd. My question is which platform would you build on based on whats available now, AMD or Intel. And which way would you go with the video solution ATI or Nvidia. Thanks in advance to all.
 
AMD without question if its a gaming rig. The X850 XT PE is the king of the hill. But if you only have a $2000 dollar budget, it's not an option. The X800pro Vivo which can be softmodded to XT or XT PE, or the 6800GT are your best bet's.
 
OH, and with God as my witness, this thread is not meant to be flammable, I'm just having a real hard time figuring out how to get him the most for his money.
 
AMD 64, Decent ABIT mobo, 120gb HDD, x800 or 6600gt (or 6800 for a decent price), 1gb ram, 400w PSU, cheap case, DVD burner, 19" monitor, KB/M, WinXP home, should bring you to about $1900 with a little on the side for your trouble. ;)
 
I suggest AMD as well and a PCI Express 16X card from Nvidia. The Nvidia cards seem to be more future-proof with Shader 3.0 and such. Try to save some money by buying all the stuff from one site. Some will give you dicounts if you drop enough cash at once.

Also if he is already has a computer try to use as many parts from it as possible.
Mouse, keyboard, floppy drive, power supply and maybe the monitor can be used again!
 
Thanks, after seeing yours I guess I should add that he doesn't need keyboard, mouse, Win XP, or monitor. This budget is for the box only.
 
AMD64 processor
PCIe motherboard (Asus, Abit, MSI)
X850PE (seeing how that might be easier to find) Or 6800Ultra BOTH PCIe Models. Don't get an AGP model if you go with a PCIe motherboard obviously ;)
I'd lean towards a 6800ultra PCIe though. Later he can buy another ultra if he so desires and enjoy SLI.

But stick with the Top dog models (x800xtpe or x850pe or 6800ultra)
 
brinjin said:
Thanks, after seeing yours I guess I should add that he doesn't need keyboard, mouse, Win XP, or monitor. This budget is for the box only.
Click to expand...

In that case:

AMD Athlon 64 [New revisions of the Winchesters are coming out after Christmas,I'd get a 3500+] with a PCI-E Motherboard using nForce 4 chipset

ATI X850 XT PE

Some OCZ 1 Gig that you see fit. MAke sure to get a good pwoer supply, does he use headphones or have a speaker system? Maybe a Audigy 2 sound card if he wants high quality sound, but I like to spend my money more on graphics then on sound IMO.
 
Do you see a sign that says dead GPU storage on this forum?!?!?

lobstar has posted about what I would also recommend. Too bad Fry's isn't national, you could save a lot of money.
 
A64 3000+ 939 - $150

Abit "AV8" K8T800 (AGP ONLY) - $112

Corsair Value Select (2x512mb) - $151.50

ThermalTake 420w - $36

DVD burner - $65

250 GB WD HDD - $155

Total to this point - 669.50 (no shipping)

Video Card - Around $300 - $400 I would go 6800 GT myself, but its all about how much you want to do to the card for the best bang for the buck.

Case ... again, Its all in your own taste. I typically budget around $100 for a case. I like em purdy.
----------------------------------------------------------

That would be the best bang for the buck right now, although you could step up each of these. This is where i would start. I would say this is a very respectable setup for a person that isnt going to OC all that much (I assume because they are not building it themselves).
 
lobstar said:
A64 3000+ 939 - $150

Abit "AV8" K8T800 (AGP ONLY) - $112

Corsair Value Select (2x512mb) - $151.50

ThermalTake 420w - $36

DVD burner - $65

250 GB WD HDD - $155

Total to this point - 669.50 (no shipping)

Video Card - Around $300 - $400 I would go 6800 GT myself, but its all about how much you want to do to the card for the best bang for the buck.

Case ... again, Its all in your own taste. I typically budget around $100 for a case. I like em purdy.
----------------------------------------------------------

That would be the best bang for the buck right now, although you could step up each of these. This is where i would start. I would say this is a very respectable setup for a person that isnt going to OC all that much (I assume because they are not building it themselves).
Click to expand...

thats not anywhere near 2000!! haah but that's one banging system for that amount :)
 
stay away from abit k8 boards cause they are garbage. I would go for the MSI NEO 2 939 board and 3500+ cpu
 
Wrench00 said:
stay away from abit k8 boards cause they are garbage. I would go for the MSI NEO 2 939 board and 3500+ cpu
Click to expand...

I like ABIT boards. Never had any problems with them. MSI are nice too. Again, if its not a Oc project, I don't think you are going to run into any issues.

EDIT**

aZn_plyR said:
thats not anywhere near 2000!! haah but that's one banging system for that amount :)
Click to expand...

Thats the point ;) It sounds like he doesn't want to spend any more than 2k, and would probably like to be under that, so I figure $1100-ish total isnt bad for that budget. And we're talking a machine that should run most stuff 1280x1024 4xAA/8xAF (conservative estimate) with out any sort of tweaking. I would be more than happy with that setup at that price.
 
First off, thanks for all the replies. Actually this guy is very comfortable spending the whole 2k. Also this would be my first AMD build, so i gots a couple 'o' questions:

What speed memory am I putting on these boards?

Is AMD's pack in heatsink/fan solution as capable as Intel's, or do I need to invest in something else.

THanks again
 
The speed of the ram with AMD boards is usually DDR-3200. With ram get matching sticks of low latency ram with a name you know and trust like Corsair, Mushkin, etc...AMD boards also come with an onboard memory controller speeding things up so the speed of the ram isnt really a big issue. The AMD 3500+ is probably your best bang for your dollar, with Cpu and mobo combo going for like $400-$450. With the latest gen of cards you want the fastest processor you can get your hands on. Edit: as to the heatsink question, from my experience yes they are decent heatsinks allowing me to overclock just fine.
 
Do Not go with socket 940, AMD is fazing it out in favor of the Socket 939 interface. Socket 939 will allow your uncle to upgrade his processor only if he wishes sometime in the future.
 
brinjin said:
First off, thanks for all the replies. Actually this guy is very comfortable spending the whole 2k. Also this would be my first AMD build, so i gots a couple 'o' questions:

What speed memory am I putting on these boards?

Is AMD's pack in heatsink/fan solution as capable as Intel's, or do I need to invest in something else.

THanks again
Click to expand...

I used the stock AMD fan on my AMD64 3000+ for awhile and was able to run a 400mhz OC on the CPU, so I would say they are good enough for everyday use at default settings.
 
brinjin said:
First off, thanks for all the replies. Actually this guy is very comfortable spending the whole 2k. Also this would be my first AMD build, so i gots a couple 'o' questions:

What speed memory am I putting on these boards?

Is AMD's pack in heatsink/fan solution as capable as Intel's, or do I need to invest in something else.

THanks again
Click to expand...

OK, so that being said:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ $245

ABIT "KV8 Pro" K8T800 Pro - $93

CORSAIR XMS Xtreme Memory 1GB (512x2) - $251

CORSAIR XMS Xtreme Memory 1GB (512x2) - $251

EDIT 2** This is DDR400 (3200). 2-2-2-5 timings.

Leadtek 6800 GT - $390

500w Rosewill PSU - $46

Lian Li PC-65B - $120

Raptor 74GB 10k RPM HDD - $177

250GB WD 7200 RPM - $145

Lite-On 16x DVD Burner - $67

Cooling - Plan about $100 or so for a HSF combo, fans, bling, you know.

EDIT 2** AMDs cooling solution is recommended if you are not OC'ing only because that is the only way they will honor the waranty (or so they say). If OC'ing, just check some reviews on HS/fan combos and see what you can stand as far as noise goes.


Total - $1885

Leaves you that room for shipping, and a little to skim off the top for the trouble ;)
-----------------------------------------

BTW: I only use Newegg because its easy to pull everything from one place, saves on shipping, and they don't have that bad of prices/shipping rates.

That system should rock with the 2gb ram, 6800GT (yes AGP, its not dead yet!), awesome proc, sweet as hell case (Lian Li fanb0i), decent HDD space (game drive and storage). The MOBO you could do what ever you like, afterall, its your job to research the products for him, but I do really like ABIT.

This list should only be a road map to what you can do with that money, but I think for this setup, you should be able to play anything with out any sort of problem for a long time.


EDIT* Just thought I would add that I don't believe in putting all your performance eggs in one basket, that is why I suggest a more middle of the road proc and vid card than going all the way on one or the other. Sure an FX series proc would be nice, but then your going to have to get a 9800pro just to stay in budget ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top