Building on a Budget... need help

I

IoloShamino

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Jun 4, 2006
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Hi. I'm building a PC for gaming/general use and just looking for advice from people that know more than I do. My top three are: Budget, Gaming, and Upgradability.

So far I have purchased:

Pioneer DVR-710
Seagate 200gb UltraATA-100 HDD

And I'm looking at getting:

Gigabyte G8-K8N MB - ~$100.00
AMD Athlon 64 3200+: ~ $130.00
1gb DDR 400: ~$80.00
Budget Case and PS -??
GeForce 6800 xtreme - 135.00



Looking to spend around $400 on MB, CPU, and GFX card. May be able to get RAM from a friend. Thanks!! -Will
 
I think that for $400 you can do a bit better than what you've got here. Below is what I would get:

EVGA 7600 GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130283
$170 ($150 AR)

1 GB PQI DDR2-667
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820141187
$65

ASUS P5RD2-VM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131590
$73

Pentium D 805
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819116001
$121

This puts you a little bit higher than $400 but think it is quite a bit better than what you have listed.

If building a system right now, I would shy away from DDR in favor of DDR2, if only for the ability to use it again in another system.

I don't know much about the vid card you posted but if its a 6800 XT then it will surely not do as well as a 7600GT (probably barely better than a 6600GT).

I know most gamers choose A64s but I chose the PD805 because of its insane overclockability, its price and the fact that it is dual core.

So, there you have my take on $400, I'm sure others will have more to say on the subject.
 
Any advice on Micro ATX cases + PS? I've heard Antec makes reliable PS's and good cases, but I'd take a flimsy case and a nice PS because it's just going to sit on my desk anyway.
 
For a mATX case I personally use an Aspire X-QPack but just placed an order for an Ultra MicroFly which is similar in design to the X-QPack but is longer. Silverstone makes a nice mATX case called the SGO-01 Evolution but it is a little more expensive than the ones above. Antec makes the Aria but I've been told to stay away from those as they do not allow for standard PSUs.

Those are just the cube styled cases. Several manufacturers make tower styled mATX cases as well such as the Antec NSK 3300 or the Cooler Master Centurion 541

As for power supplies, I use an Antec Smartpower 2 500, mainly because it was cheap and it is modular. Brands to look for when it comes to PSUs are Antec, Enermax, PC P&C, Fortron, Seasonic and OCZ (OCZ is debatable in some people's eyes)
 
go buy one of the e-machines that doesn't use the sempron, then slap a good video card in it and you are ready to go.
 
Keep in mind you can use a MicroATX board in a regular ATX case, if you wish.
 
Got an ATX case... solid as hell and decent PS for 70.00 at a friend's computer shop! :p
I'm ordering the MicroATX board and Pentium D tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your help.

Think a 350w will hold the proc and/or for overclocking?
 
I wouldn't OC with it, but it should hold down the proc if the rails are good. Can you give us the brand/rails?
 
PowerMan... and sorry, but rails? Looking at a friend's Antec 500w as a replacement, will just be a month or so after I build this. Could hold off on OCing.
 
IoloShamino you may want to replace that PowerMan with an fsp/sparkle or antec psu. as for the rails they are talking about the 3+ 5+ 12+ rail amps.
 
Yeah probably gonna replace that PSU with an Antec 550 truepower II with dual 12v rails within a month. Think it will boot to start though, so I can at least get partitions and boot setup? Plan on running dual boot XP Pro and Fedora Core 5 64. Anyone have experience with Fedora 5 64bit version? If it's not worth it, I'll just stick with 32.
 
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