Help w/ my budget rig

I

iotiX

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 18, 2004
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Im on a $450 (including shipping & handling) budget -- i know that it's not much, but anything is better than what im currently using. Of course, i plan to upgrade in a few months, this is just a foundation.

Anyway, so far i have:
ASUS A8N-VM Socket 939 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail -- 71.66

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 2000MHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail -- $109.00

G.SKILL Value 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory - Retail -- $83.98

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM -- $47.98

LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 1.5M Cache ATAPI/E-IDE Combo Drive - OEM -- $27.99

= $ 340.61, including shipping and handling.

All i need now is a case w/ a psu. Feedback on what i have so far, as well cases with good PSU's would be appreciated. Just want to make sure all this stuff will work together before i order it as well :D .

Anyway, thanks in advance for all your help
 
wow - not a bad bottom line.

If i were you, i'd prolly go w/ seperate case and PSU rather than buying a case that comes w/ a psu but as far as economics, you might be better off going w/ a case that comes w/ a psu.

read reviews and see what people say about the included psu's. I've used antec psu's before that came w/ cases and had no prblems with them...

but again, if it were up to me, i'd get a decent / good psu and just go craptacular on the case. but you would have to live with looking at it everyday...

I like the Kingwin mATX cases (black + silver). decent ventilation and design imo.

good luck
 
spend 10 bucks more and get a dvd burner

also if it's just "a foundation" then why go with a motherboard that has an integrated graphics solution (unless of course you dont plan to upgrade the video card).

12 bucks more gives you a hard drive with double the capacity

thats 22 bucks more for some pretty good upgrades...other than that it looks good, but its always easier to say if you tell us what you'll be doing with it and what your future plans are
 
I agree with the DVD burner. The board has a PCI-X slot, so he can upgrade graphics later. Try an Antec case, about $75 or so with a good power supply. Because shipping can be pretty high on a case, you might consider a Brick and Mortar store for the case.
 
Buckus said:
I agree with the DVD burner. The board has a PCI-X slot, so he can upgrade graphics later. Try an Antec case, about $75 or so with a good power supply. Because shipping can be pretty high on a case, you might consider a Brick and Mortar store for the case.
Click to expand...
I believe you mean that the board has a PCI-Express slot, as it has two: x16 and x1. PCI-X is completely different.

I was confused when PCI-E first came out, too, I know. ;)
 
first off -- thanks for all the help guys, i really do appreciated it.

more to the point -- the rig will be used for light gaming (for now), web browsing, and some basic photoshop things. i know it won't be a beast for the tasks but it should work nicely, imo. I'm still trying to decide on a case, but unless i find a better case than the Antec that has been suggested to me, i'll probably stick to buying the Antec.

just one question though: my hdd is OEM, so i won't get any cables, correct? w/ the hdd being SATA, what cables would i need? I would hate to get my stuff and then not be able to use it. :eek: Same goes for THIS dvd burner i plan on buying. It's retail so i get my cables and such, right?

... oh and yes, this is my first build, so please excuse my ignorance :D
 
iotiX said:
just one question though: my hdd is OEM, so i won't get any cables, correct? w/ the hdd being SATA, what cables would i need? I would hate to get my stuff and then not be able to use it. :eek: Same goes for THIS dvd burner i plan on buying. It's retail so i get my cables and such, right?

D
Click to expand...

The motherboard will come with the cables you need.

Good luck.
 
setscrew said:
The motherboard will come with the cables you need.

Good luck.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot, now i don't have to spend my time worrying about non existant problems :D

with that advice in mind, i plan on buying this dvd burner -- LINK -- thoughts on that?

With all those changes, think i'm set to go? basically it'll be everything on that list, PROBABLY one of the recommended cases here, and the change to a dvd-burner drive.

one last question -- with my SATA drive, do i have to take any extra steps when installing windows xp? my friend says no, but i'd like a second opinion on that :rolleyes:
 
The problem with case/psu combos is that they usually contain sub-standard power supplys. You said you were just going to use the computer for basic activities and light gaming for now - but if you want to upgrade later, you can save yourself some money if you have a decent PSU from the start.

Here's a really cheap case, with no PSU (not that bad looking either):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133174

And then you can purchase a moderately priced PSU to go along with it, which will provide better upgradability in the future.

As for the DVD burner, I dont see anything wrong with it, but I think Sony and Lite-On are a bit more reputable. (Just my personal choice/opinion)

Sony (35.99):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131031

Lite-On (35.99):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106014
 
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