Light Gaming/Replacement

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Cmustang87

Supreme [H]ardness
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So... long story short, friend of mine was sleepwalking and pissed in his computer. Fried his motherboard. His system was a AMD 64 3400+ with a 6800 video card.

He plays World of Warcraft, and he plays on a 19" widescreen, he doesn't do hi-res gaming and doesn't play any other games really on the computer and it gets used for college work.

This is what I have for him so far, his budget is $400-500 but I was able to get it under 400, the less the better he said (broke college student):

Mobo - ASUS M3A56 $64
CPU/Case Combo - Antec 300 + AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz $95
GPU - Sapphire 4830 $89 - $10 MIR
PSU - Antec EarthWatts 500 (no link needed) $79
RAM - Wintec DDR2 667 2x1GB RAM Kit

He's using Windows XP Pro, I may talk him into going to Vista HP 64 Bit or something, but I got him at $349.90 currently. What are your guys thoughts on teh 4830 and also the CPU of choice?

EDIT: So he has an extra case that he's going to use, and he said his case he was using before doesn't smell like stale piss. So I eliminated the case and updated his build:

PSU - BFG LS 550
Mobo - M3A-78-EM $74
GPU - Same
RAM - Wintec DDR2 800
CPU - Phenom 8750 Black http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103295 $87

Total comes to $351.96

Does my updated rig reflect the amount of money put into it? Or can we maximize his dollar a tad more? This build cannot go over $360 before shipping.
 
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your picks are good but for the memory. DDR2 667 will be major hold back for his rig.
 
lt_shiro said:
your picks are good but for the memory. DDR2 667 will be major hold back for his rig.
Click to expand...

He's not overclocking at all, he has no idea even what that is. DDR2 667 shouldn't have any effect on it. Am I wrong on this?
 
Will he be reusing the case? Hmm.. maybe not after all the pee that was on it hehe. Anyways.. I assuming the HDD, Optical drives will be reused? I will come up with several builds to consider.
 
Haha, the stale urine smelling computer case will most likely be thrown out.

He has a SATA hard drive that he will be reusing along with the optical drive.

I was thinking about the Earthwatts 500 to give him some headroom on his video card if he plans on replacing later on.
 
RAM speed won't matter past DDR2-800 for AMD. The statement: "since he's not OC'ing, the RAM speed doesn't matter" applies to Intel Core2 platforms only. AMD platforms scale well with higher speed RAM, whereas Intel platforms gain no improvement unless the CPU is OC'd along with the higher speed RAM.

The EA500 typically goes on sale for $55, wait for it if you can. If not, the BFG LS-550 is $70, and a better choice considering the price, IMO.
$67 - BFG Tech LS SERIES LS-550 550W 80+ PSU
 
enginurd said:
RAM speed won't matter past DDR2-800 for AMD. The statement: "since he's not OC'ing, the RAM speed doesn't matter" applies to Intel Core2 platforms only. AMD platforms scale well with higher speed RAM, whereas Intel platforms gain no improvement unless the CPU is OC'd along with the higher speed RAM.

The EA500 typically goes on sale for $55, wait for it if you can. If not, the BFG LS-550 is $70, and a better choice considering the price, IMO.
$67 - BFG Tech LS SERIES LS-550 550W 80+ PSU
Click to expand...

That clears up a lot..maybe that's why it was difficult in choosing the type of RAM, I'm used to piecing together Intel builds.

If the BFG is better priced, then that's what we'll go for.

As for the 4830, those are performing well, no? How is it supposed to stack against the 4770?
 
The HD4830 performs on par with the older 8800GT/9800GT. Supposedly (though I haven't read all of the reviews yet), the HD4770 is the intended replacement for the HD4830, and they both perform about the same.
 
tiraides said:
The HD4830 performs on par with the older 8800GT/9800GT. Supposedly (though I haven't read all of the reviews yet), the HD4770 is the intended replacement for the HD4830, and they both perform about the same.
Click to expand...

6 of one half dozen the other it seems, I'll just pick whatever has the best price at the time :p.

Well, I think I've got a pretty damn good deal for him at the tiem for 350 bones. Whattya think?
 
It's better than some of the other $400 build/upgrade threads that I've seen this week. Good job.
 
Just to let you know, I don't know if it will be a problem with the 8750, but with my 7750+M3A78-EM, the board automatically overvolts the processor and there's no possible adjustment other than software. My VCore sits at 1.36-38, when it's supposed to be closer to 1.2-25.
 
BlindFusion said:
Just to let you know, I don't know if it will be a problem with the 8750, but with my 7750+M3A78-EM, the board automatically overvolts the processor and there's no possible adjustment other than software. My VCore sits at 1.36-38, when it's supposed to be closer to 1.2-25.
Click to expand...

Interesting... can anyone else chime in on this? :confused:
 
Typically, boards deliver what CPUs require. If that CPU is tested in another board and uses lower voltage there, then its just power delivery/regulation issue on the other board, which may or may not be fixed with a BIOS update. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Personally I would go with:
CPU: e5200
Mobo: lowest end gigabyte 775 (usually around $50)
Video Card: HD4770
 
enginurd said:
Typically, boards deliver what CPUs require. If that CPU is tested in another board and uses lower voltage there, then its just power delivery/regulation issue on the other board, which may or may not be fixed with a BIOS update. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

I initially had high temps on my build and from doing research through google, I found other people who had the same problem. ASUS has told multiple others that they are working on a BIOS fix, but nothing's come up. Just wanted to give a warning, because I'm always concerned about the temps on this board. I'd change it out if I had the money.

http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Threaded&catid=21&threadid=109039
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20090413084100799&board_id=1&model=M3A78-EM&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
 
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