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Help....recomendations for $900ish gaming pc

B

blakangus

n00b
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Messages
40
Well, so far not one, but two deals have fallen through for me in the past week, one on ebay (they claim they dropped the pc), and one here on the hardforums (postal service lost the system - too bad cuz it was an fx-53 system) . so it looks like im back to building my own pc from scratch - prolly all from the egg. anyway im here on the farm without highspeed, but i figure bots and singleplayer will be good enough, and i just got a check for 900 dollars for a bull i sold, so i would like to use that. the system (amd or intel, but i think amd will be the best) should be around 900 bux. so whats the best combination of components for around 900 bux? i will let the [H]ard| 3xp3rts decide

edit: i have a monitor and lite-on 8x dvd burner
 
two questions regarding the previous posts - are the timings on that RAM too loose? will that really affect my overclocking? also is having only a 512k cache much worse than the 1 meg?
 
Wetworks said:
For the motherboard, I would go with the Chaintech VF250. It's about $20 cheaper, and the chipset is better than the VIA. The KT800Pro is on par with the non pro (939) nVidia chipset.The Chaintech also has 3 DIMM slots. This represents your best bang for your buck. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-152-043&depa=1
You can read the Anandtech review here:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2063
Click to expand...


I was going to suggest the chaintech for ~$85 as well...
 
Well, the RAM question is addressed in the review I provided. You should see a 2-2-2 timing with no problems. Corsair value, crucial et al are pretty much the same as far as latency. The MB is the common denominator, that's why I say go with the Chaintech. As for the cache, it's a matter of contention. The 512k has a higher clock frequency than the 1 mb cache variety. Personally, I would go with the gig of system memory and the smaller cache. Just my $0.02 tho.
 
intresting....definately think im gonna go a64 3000+ now, and definately the chaintech board. wow - 222 timings from value RAM - i like, i like. but will this affect how high my fsb can go - getting a good 2.4 or 2.5 oc with good cooling would be nice!
as for the video card.... once again i will let the experts speak
 
Anandtech writes:
"The benefit of the working PCI/AGP lock on the nForce3-250 chipset is obvious. This late 3200+ reached the same 246-248 overclock that we have seen on other nF3-250 motherboards with this late 3200+. This 23% overclock at stock multiplier is more like those that we are accustomed to seeing on Pentium 4.

The Maximum FSB test deserves a bit of explanation. Our goal here was to find the highest FSB that we could achieve in synchronous mode (or 1:1) with a single DDR550 DIMM that has reached DDR570 (285FSB setting) on a Pentium 4 test platform with an Intel ES processor and unlocked multipliers. Since it is not possible to test everything in a roundup, we did not test asynchronous operation, which would be running the memory at a lower speed than the bus. Asynchronous mode is possible on all 5 of these motherboards, and it may be possible to achieve even higher FSB settings by removing memory speed as a limitation.

With a single DIMM of OCZ DDR4400EL, the best FSB that we could achieve at a 1:1 ratio was a stable 275 or DDR550, at a ratio of 8. HyperTransport could be maintained at the 4X (800 setting) up to a 260 to 265 FSB setting. Above this point to the maximum of 275FSB at 1:1, we needed a 3X HT setting"---- straight from the review, dude. :). As for the video card, since you are below the $500 price point, get the 6800 nu (non ultra). That puts you at $800 and change. The GT is the best bang for your buck, but that might put you over your stated budget, but not by much. ;)
 
The ram in question....I think 2-3-2-5 is as low as the latencies will get with that ram. I could be wrong.
 
Sonota Case $100
3000+ A64 $210
HSF $35
MB Asus K8V $115
Radeon 9800Pro $200
1GB Ram $150
160GB HD $ 70

This is just off the top of my head
 
Ok y'all here is the setup i think will preform best for the money. however if some of you think it would be benificial to wait untill say november to build (cuz i will be busy with football till then, so the pc may not see maximum use till then) i may just do that. please share all the advice you can. anyway here is the setup:

A64 3000+ oem - 211
chaintech nForce3 250 - 88
corsair value select 1 gb pc3200 cas 2.5 - 173
msi 9800pro 128meg - 200
hitachi 160gig SATA - 99
Zalman 7000 copper cpu heatsink - 45
10x speeze 80mm fans - 9.90 total
fUnc 1030 mousepad - 24
thermaltake purepower 420w psu - 48
xp home - 90
total is 980.33

not bad but i still need speakers
 
EXCELLENT choice on the fUNC pad. It's awsome!!!!! For speakers, Logitech's Z640s are a great budget 5.1 setup for around $50. If you are an audiophile, you might want to go with something higher end, but these work great for me with CS and i-tunes listening.
 
I'd go with and Intel system like this:
P4 2.8C ------------------- $185
Abit IC-7MaxII------------- $135
ZALMAN CNPS7000A ----$41
Geil DDR500 cas2.5 ----$279 <-- fast!
eVGA 6800 GT ------------$400 <--- evga.com
WestDig 80G SATA--------$71
you have DVD
total with out case === $832

Let you pick your own case since its really a personal preference as to what you want it to look like/ what fits in with your style, etc.

Here's a case with a 450W PSU for $30 --- dont know how good it is.
Here's a good 520W PSU for $55

But with that system it should overclock to 3.5Ghz (or close to, unless you get a dud CPU) the ram will hold up at Cas 2.5 to DDR500. a great HSF to keep the CPU cool, and awesome videocard.

If you can wait a few more months I would go with a 939-pin Athlon64 PCI-express system. But those might not be reasonable until near X-mas.
 
I can't believe you guys are pairing him an a64 processor with a 9800pro.

I would go with the cheaper barton and a 6800gt any day. Doom3 is upon us!
 
chrisf6969 said:
I'd go with and Intel system like this:
P4 2.8C ------------------- $185
Abit IC-7MaxII------------- $135
ZALMAN CNPS7000A ----$41
Geil DDR500 cas2.5 ----$279 <-- fast!
eVGA 6800 GT ------------$400 <--- evga.com
WestDig 80G SATA--------$71
you have DVD
total with out case === $832

Let you pick your own case since its really a personal preference as to what you want it to look like/ what fits in with your style, etc.

Here's a case with a 450W PSU for $30 --- dont know how good it is.
Here's a good 520W PSU for $55

But with that system it should overclock to 3.5Ghz (or close to, unless you get a dud CPU) the ram will hold up at Cas 2.5 to DDR500. a great HSF to keep the CPU cool, and awesome videocard.

If you can wait a few more months I would go with a 939-pin Athlon64 PCI-express system. But those might not be reasonable until near X-mas.
Click to expand...

Now that's a system.
 
if it werent for windows id have a pc by now. but every time i add up a system i have to add 90 bux for windows. i think im gonna just wait till after football to build, maybe the 6800s will be affordable by then
 
You could build a very good machine for $900, but you will have to think budget. Instead of a Athlon 64 you could get an Athlon XP which are quite reasonable in price. Instead of 1 gig of RAM, go for 512 mb. Get a Motherboard with good onboard sound. Look for an ATI 9800 pro ( you can get them in the sub $200 range now ). When selecting a Motherboard/CPU make sure to read the reviews so you have an idea of what to expect.

I recently built a machine for a guy for $650. He was on a fixed budget and we had to stay below a certain amount. The machine plays any game I threw at it. Just to give you an idea here is the parts list.

Shuttle AK39N KT400
Athlon XP 2000+
Antec SLK2600AMB case W/300 watt P/S
WD 80 GB 7200rpm HD
Thermaltake Volcano 9 CPU Cooler
Mitsumi Floppy Drive
Windows XP Home
Lite-on CDRW
Transcend Radeon 9200 64mb
Creative SW320 Speakers
Logitech keyboard/mouse combo
Archtek 56k modem
Kingmax PC2700 256mb

He had his own monitor, so we were able to build this machine for less than $650.00 US.
He has been running the machine for nearly a year and is very happy with it.

So, in your case you could do the same thing except add a little better video card and some more ram. I hope this helps you some.
 
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