Cheapest C2D system?

R

rivacom

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
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I was looking to make a very low, low budget C2D system. My current setup is a single core AMD Athlon 64 3200+, with 2GB Corsair XMS Memory. Was wondering if anyone could come up with a solution for a C2D system for as cheap as possible. (would love $100-200 range) I have already with me, Case, power supply, 1 IDE and 1 Sata HD, DVD Burner, and PCI-E GFX Card. So really all I would need is board and chip. I see those FRY deals but no FRY's around me up in Upstate NY.
 
someone on this board recommended to get an e2160 and then overclock it to 3ghz. So I got the $70 cpu and it does 3ghz out of the gate. I don't know if there's anything better out now. :|
 
- What are you planning to do with this new PC?
- Will you be overclocking?
- What power supply do you have?
 
Can't remeber what brand the power supply is but it's a 450w power supply. I would overclock if needed but granted I'm only running on a amd athlon 3200+. Anyone recommend the cheap c2d system to beat?

I have:
Video Card
hard drives
dvd rom


Would be looking for:
motherboard
processor
memory
case(possibly powersupply)
 
$100-$200 budget for motherboard, processor, memory, case really limits things. with such a low budget, overclocking is a must, which isnt a problem because the e21xx processors overclocks really well.

$72.50-Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160
*free game; lost planet. as i said its very clockable.
$26.99-ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
*to overclock the e2160 though, you only need a decent heat sink fan. this let you overclock the e2160 to +3.0ghz
$82.50-GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L rev. 2.0 LGA775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
*p35 are really good motherboards for overclocking while at a cheaper price than other boards.
=$181.99 for those three alone.

what are your ram's mhz? (for example 800,667,etc.) what os do you run and is it 32bit or 64bit? windows xp runs 2gb great and 2gb is the recommended minimum for vista. 32bit os only recognizes 3.0-3.5gb of ram.
 
He doesn't have RAM nor a case apparently, which is definitely not going to come under 200.

Make and model may be helpful for the power supply as just about any company can slap a wattage sticker and call it that wattage. The problem is, the PSU's aren't always specced up to that.

What about this video card? You're not gaming or anything are you?

Would you be willing to overclock on this new system was what Danny was asking..

edit: Wow I practically asked the same questions Danny did...in response to the response to his post.
 
If I'm able to over clock, I would like to. I currently have a XFX 7600 GT which will hold me for now. Memory is ddr 3200 so I can't really reuse. If I take my budget cap off, I guess I should be asking what's the best I can do for under $500, but I want it low as possible, with but able to upgrade the rig down the road. So under 500, but I need processor, board, case/power, and ram.
 
gwai lo said:
edit: Wow I practically asked the same questions Danny did...in response to the response to his post.
Click to expand...

It happens. The OP didn't fully answer my questions so I see why you ended up asking the same questions again

Anyway OP, a good quality Intel C2D rig is not gonna happen with a $200 budget. Especially since, more than likely, you'll need a new PSU as well. If you can up your budget by an additional $50, you can get a C2D rig:

Intel Pentium Dual Core E2140 CPU - $68
Gigabyte GA-P31-S3G Intel P31 Motherboard - $67
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 RAM - $45
Antec NSK4480 ATX Case With Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU - $70
----
Total: $250 Plus tax and shipping

EDIT: Did not see your updated post.

Well the above build is kind of good but it's pretty low-end. With a bit more cash:
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 CPU - $72
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 Motherboard - $90
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 RAM - $45
Antec NSK4480 ATX Case With Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU - $70
---
Total: $277 Plus tax and shipping
 
There's a potential problem here - is your graphics card AGP? I don't think that GA-P35-DS3L has any AGP slots, if so, and you'd either have to find an AGP motherboard that also took Core 2 Duos, or more sensibly get a PCI Express graphics card.
 
$90 for the DS3L is insane -- at $60-70 it's a deal, at $90 it's a joke. Wait on a deal, or spend a few dollars more on a much more feature-rich board. The MSI P35 Neo2-FR can regularly be had for $100 or so AR, and it is a much nicer board than the DS3L.
 
The Neo2-FR used to be $95 without rebates when I almost bought it. :(

Lets see... shit, overbudget by ten bucks, o wellz...

$60 - Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 Socket 775 Via PT880 Pro/PT880 Ultra Chipset DDR2 667Mhz, AGP & PCI-E x16 8-Ch Audio
$80 - Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache
$70 - Antec NSK4480 ATX Case With Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU
==========
$210 + tax and shipping

/*------------- <cut n paste> -------------*/
Just to let you know, you can still use your old AGP and DDR ram, if you're still interested. The AsRock 4CoreDual-VSTA or 4CoreDual-SATA2 supports both AGP and PCI-E, as well as DDR and DDR2. AT did some reviews on that board:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3024

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2813
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2814

Summary: The board is a good, budget stopgap solution for people who want to get more life out of their DDR and AGP stuff. DDR400 is still fine for today's applications, and only high end NVIDIA graphics cards will be affected by the 4x speed of the 16x sized pci-e slot, but not by much (PCI-E Scaling Review).
/*------------- </cut n paste> -------------*/
 
the Video card is PCI-E and I might as well move into the new wave of DDR2 Ram. Thanks for the input guys/gals.
 
rivacom said:
the Video card is PCI-E and I might as well move into the new wave of DDR2 Ram. Thanks for the input guys/gals.
Click to expand...

Thats the beauty of the board I recommended... if you need to wait and upgrade to DDR2 later, you can still use your DDR1 RAM for now. Then, when you get more cash, buy some DDR2. I just wanted to show you that it could be done with your existing parts and pretty damn near close to the $200 mark you were hoping for.
 
It's a great board for now, but for the future?

I just actually played Crysis and as it runs great on everything medium(800x600), It makes me want more.

I put together this rig here from newegg.

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...ishListNumber=8601828&WishListTitle=New+Build

Now I have two questions really, Anything anyone can find that needs changing?(IE better deal on ram(I'd prefer a good deal on 4GB)

Would I be better off spending the money on Q6600 rather then the processor above?

I've scrapped my low budget, but I'm still trying to get the best prices. I know this won't be 100% Full settings on Crysis, but a step up. Items I will be using from my current rig are:

Nvidia XFX 7600 GT 256MB PCI-E
DVD-r/rw
Western Digital 250 ata Drive
Windows XP Home

Anything else anyone can suggest?
 
If you want better gaming performance, you'll need a new GPU.
 
For the record, enginurd is always right. Unless we disagree, which is rare, in which case I'm right. Unless he and Danny Bui both agree I'm wrong, in which case it is possible I am "confused".

This is my unprofessional opinion, and it is law.
 
Ditch the power supply. That particular Thermaltake PSU is crap. Here are some other power recommendations:
Silverstone ST400 400W PSU - $45
XClio Stablepower 460W PSU - $52
Enhance ENP-5150GH 500W PSU - $69
Antec Earthwatts EA500 500W PSU - $70
Corsair 450VX 450W PSU - $76
Corsair 550VX 550W PSU - $89
Corsair 520HX 520W PSU - $106

This is an excellent deal on 4GB of RAM:
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $90

@ silent-circuit
LOL!

I'm pretty sure Enginurd has been wrong on a few occasions. If I'm wrong about that, I'm pretty sure that first comment just inflated his already huge ego! :D j/k!

Anyway, enginurd is right. If you want increased gaming performance, you will need a better video card.
 
rivacom said:
I plan on changing it out, but it's last on the list.
Click to expand...
Change what out? The power supply? That should be first on your list. Golden rule: Never skimp on the power supply.

And what "Can I run it scans" are you talking about?
 
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