Friend needs a budget box

[silik]

hello [H] my friend needs a new rig and is looking to spend around 500$.

I can build everything for him, just been out of the loop for a while with whats good for the money, he needs:

CPU
Motherboard
Videocard
HDD (doesnt have to be big)
RAM

I tried looking around and like I said for the money im not sure what the best route to go is. open to all suggestions though he stated he would prefer an AMD cpu. Thanks guys.

 

[Stellar]

Actually his best bet would be a Pentium D 805 based system. They've been known to easily overclock to 3.8Ghz+.

CPU: Pentium D 805 - $130
Mainboard: Asus P5LD2-VM - $110
RAM: 1GB Corsair Value DDR2-667 - $88
Video: Onboard - $0
HDD: Hitachi T7K250 160GB SATAII - $70
DVD: BenQ 1655 w/Lightscribe - $50

Sub-Total: $448

 

[DeChache]

CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535 154
or
CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537 111
Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081 66.99
RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440 77
Hard Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144173 51
Video Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102657 149

Comes to 510.99 before shipping and you could go down to the 3000+ for 467.99 if you wanted to

Thats prob what I would do with that money

What I listed it what Im using except Im using a 7800GT and I got a 200GB harddrive
Its a good comp for just about every ting

 

[silik]

thanks guys going to run these suggestions to him when he gets back tonight

 

[Dangman]

AMD Rig:

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3200+ - $154
Motherboard: ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 - $66.99
Videocard: Geforce 7600GS 256MB - $119
HDD: HITACHI Deskstar T7K250 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $69
RAM: CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB DDR - $77

Total: $485.99

Intel Rig

CPU: Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield 533MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core - $129.50
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945P - $98.99
Videocard: Geforce 7600GS 256MB - $119
HDD: HITACHI Deskstar T7K250 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $69
RAM: CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB DDR2 - $77

Total: $493.49

 

[banned_user]

I like DeChache's suggestions except i would drop the SLi motherboard and use this instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081
Its the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 for about 72 shipped.
Then use the 26 dollars saved to get this video card instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130283
A 7600GT which will beat the x1600xt pretty much in everything.

If your friend isn't worried about gaming then maybe the dual core 805 would be better though.

 

[DeChache]

I did kind of contradict my self in that didnt I. Sli chipset and an ATi graphics.
Anyway
Im going to change my recommondation to the ASROCK linked above but I'm going to keep my vid card sugjestion.

 

[J Macker]

nice cards for the price and all... but how about a x1800GTO for $178 ?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814142067


but he may need a new psu with this upgrade, so keep that in mind! most motherboards are now 24 pin, and not all are stable with the regular 20pin psus.