help me build a cheap monster machine

S

seancky2

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
302
I plan on building a rig soon and want to go cheap. i plan on getting an athlon 64 3200 or something and overclocking it as far as it can go. is the 3200 a good overclocking cpu? also, what is a solid motherboard and memory i can pair it with? Thanks.
 
You're never going to get a cheap "monster machine" with that. It will be cheap and mediocre.

The Core 2 Duo CPU's are the way to go for overclocking. Get a cheap E4300. With the right cooling, it can go faster than a Core 2 Extreme. Now that would be a cheap monster machine. Ok, you're probably not going to have high end cooling, but it will still go plenty fast with good air cooling.

Pick any decent P965 motherboard from a brand name like Asus. Cheapest branded P965 you can find and you're sorted.
 
lol for $750 I built my c2d rig, but that doesn't include speakers, monitor and keyboard. I just slowly acquired all the parts I needed over time when there were some killer deals. If you do that you can build a pretty nice "monster" rig. Although it took about 1.5 months to have everything, I saved $700 dollars.
 
E4300 - 170$ or so
2gb Gskill basic ram - 125$
Asus P5n-e - 135$
8800GTS 320 - 300$
AC Freezer Pro HSF - 30$

Throw all that together, and I'm sure you'll hit 3ghz on the core2 (which is about 4ghz on the A64 you were looking at) with the ability to go SLI in the future.

Get a coolermaster Centurion 5 case, and a good PSU, and you're all set. <800$.
 
Check out my signature... that entire setup from begining to end (Including the drives which people are now including in their pricing) cost me $1308 - I dont know if you are planning on building this system completely from scratch, if so... you need to account for the cost of the case, HD's, Drives, Cooling, etc...
 
Arcygenical said:
E4300 - 170$ or so
2gb Gskill basic ram - 125$
Asus P5n-e - 135$
8800GTS 320 - 300$
AC Freezer Pro HSF - 30$

Throw all that together, and I'm sure you'll hit 3ghz on the core2 (which is about 4ghz on the A64 you were looking at) with the ability to go SLI in the future.

Get a coolermaster Centurion 5 case, and a good PSU, and you're all set. <800$.
Click to expand...
i'd go with this build. wait another week and the e4300 will be less than $120 and you can put the money saved into a better hsf solution that'll definitely help you get high overclocks.
 
o0akoni0o said:
i'd go with this build. wait another week and the e4300 will be less than $120 and you can put the money saved into a better hsf solution that'll definitely help you get high overclocks.
Click to expand...

Yeah... It'll power through even the hardest of situations, compared to the athlon build.

It's also more stable to boot.
 
This is how the system that I posted compares to others via PCMark05

benchmark.jpg
 
Arcygenical said:
E4300 - 170$ or so
2gb Gskill basic ram - 125$
Asus P5n-e - 135$
8800GTS 320 - 300$
AC Freezer Pro HSF - 30$

Throw all that together, and I'm sure you'll hit 3ghz on the core2 (which is about 4ghz on the A64 you were looking at) with the ability to go SLI in the future.

Get a coolermaster Centurion 5 case, and a good PSU, and you're all set. <800$.
Click to expand...

pretty monster, but where's the hard drive? :]
 
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