Looking for help with a Holiday build

C

Cali3350

Supreme [H]ardness
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Mar 22, 2002
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Im building a system for someone VERY dear to me so i want to get the most out of it i can. The problem is my price range is only ~$450 - $500. Now i realize this severely limits my options, however i already have many things.

I already have mana HDD I can give the system, aswell as a Powersupply and and case. I have all the Drives and everything, so essentially i just need to buy the CPU/mobo/Ram. The video card is a cause for concern, i have a old X800XT AGP lying around, however i realize PCI-E is the way to go. If i could fit a video card in there aswell that would be great, but i know not to expect miracles. Now this person is a very avid gamer and power-user, so im looking for no less then a 6300 (or X2 3800+). Im not set on Intel or AMD, however knowing the Conroe is the better chip id love to go for it.

I have a few questions if you all dont mind. What is up with all of these DDR2 speeds? I see everything from 533 to 1000+. All i have lying around is some old DDR-400 (though i have lots of it). What is the stock speed for the conroe, it is DDR2-533 correct? All of the other ram is just for overclocking maniacs? Can i assume Dual Channel is almost a neccesity?

Anyway any reccomendations or suggestions would be great. I havent been able to keep up with everything lately and I know theres no better place to ask for advice then here with you guys.

Thanks for Reading.
 
There's a few older boards that support conroe and DDR, check on newegg. Most of them support two DDR or two DDR2.

For a conroe build you could probably get it under $400 minus peripherals if you use preexisting ram:

$180 - E6300
$100 - Older Mobo
$100 - After MIR Geforce 7600 series
(roughly)

However, you can also come in under $500 if you get a single stick of DDR2, try 800 if you plan on OCing. Its actually about the same price as 667 and a little more than 533(stock) on newegg.

Look at the X975 or P965 chipsets for overclocking.
 
ASRock Dual VSTA will allow you to have flexibility with AGP/DDR1 and PCIe/DDR2. Usually can be found around $60 or so shipped. Not the best board in the world, but should work fine at stock settings and allow you to use a Conroe chip.
 
Can you update this after you build it. I'm curious to see its performance. I might be building some cheap PCs.
 
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