My new budget system, any suggestions?

Kyohe

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 28, 2004
Messages
97
I've been using an M6805 laptop since it came out, and I'm about ready to use a desktop computer again. Unfortunately I'm pretty strapped for cash. I have all the IDE devices and peripherals so this is what I was thinking of getting.

Budget:
Geforce 6800: 130$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130263

Antec case/PSU: 100$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155

1gig of Corsair DDR400: 100$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145450

AMD 3700+: 212$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

Asus A8N32-SLI: 219$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131568

Total: 761$

I just want to make sure it'll all go together nicely and make a decent computer. I'm also shooting for easy upgradability in the future. So, what do you think?
 
what are gonna be the main uses for this computer? and what is your maximum budget for it?
 
I'm really building a computer that can play WoW without giving me any trouble. I'd like to be able to play BF2 and maybe Oblivion too, but I'm not a performance Nazi. If it can run well on medium/high settings I'm happy. Aside from that I'm trying to build it with later upgrades in mind. With that MOBO I could add more ram later and if I really wanted an upgrade I could get a 7900 or whatever. Do you think it will work well for current gaming and later upgrading? Oh and my budget is pretty tight, 700$ is already cutting pretty deep.
 
A NF4 SLI X16 eats up a lot of the budget ~$700. If you go with a plain SLI mobo for ~$100 or even less, you could shift the money instead to move video to 7600GT and RAM to 2GB.

For example, you could instead get:

EVGA 7600GT: ~$190 before $15 MIR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130283

2GB G.Skill (if not overclocking): ~$145

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231047

A faster video card and more RAM would probably have a greater impact on your performance in newer games than would a $200 motherboard. Not to say your orginial A8N32-SLI choice is bad, but for a budget gaming machine, you would probably be better off spending the money on GPU and RAM to get more bang for your buck.
 
Alright. That brings up a question I had before. What is the difference between X8 and X16? I was thinking that if I don't get the X16 then when it is the standard in a year or so, it will make upgrading a pain, i.e. I'd have to get a new Mobo. That's why I was thinking of going with the top of the line Mobo. If I don't get the A8N32-SLI, what do you suggest instead? Also to clarify, I do not intead to Overclock anything.
 
Most video cards are PCI-express x16 interface. But since current video cards are unlikely to saturate that much bandwidth, the earlier SLI boards divided that bandwidth in half, allocating 8 pci-express links per video card when in SLI mode. The SLI X16 now gives each card full 16 lanes. That makes it more future proof, but for a budget gaming machine, why sink so much into a motherboard feature that may not be useful for a few years?

How long will it take to saturate x16 bandwidth? No one can be sure, but for reference, consider how long it took for video cards to finally take full advantage of the bandwidth offered by AGP 8X. It probably wasn't until the 6800 series came out that it mattered, and that was like 2 years after AGP 8X became widely available. And when video cards finally start making full use of x16 bandwidth, it's not like an earlier SLI board will be rendered obsolete. Disable SLI and you can still run one single video card in full x16 (which might even be faster than two older cards in SLI). And even if you went with the Asus SLI X16 board, it's still only Socket 939 while Socket AM2 is right around the corner.

If you really like Asus brand, you could get their A8N-SLI x8 mobo (~$115) but I heard the chipset fan on that one is terrible. The mobo reviews on the Hardocp frontpage, General Hardware & Motherboard sub-forums, Newegg reviews, and Google (once you find a model that interests you) would probably be good places to start to figure out which SLI mobo suits you best. Good luck!
 
Hit Newgg's refurb to save a few bucks. You can actually upgrade some components with the money you save... Motherboard especially!
 
Well, when I say upgrade I mean maybe spend another 300$ a year later about. Let's say AT MOST I might want to buy 2X7800gts and hook them up with SLI. Would those cards want to run at X16 each? Or would they be bottle capped at X8 anyway? If they would be then I don't really see a reason to buy the dual X16 capable board. What do you think? And I'm not so sure about getting refurbished... if it's OEM then it won't have all the cables and box and things that normally come with it right? I dunno that that's worth whatever savings there may be?
 
Alright for the non 32, normal A8N-SLI boards I'm having some troubles figuring out the differences. There's the board, then a "premium" then a "deluxe". I've lined the stats up side by side and can't see any major difference. Why are there different versions? And is the "Premium" worth the extra 60$?
Normal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131524
Deluxe:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131517
Premium:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540

Sorry if I'm missing something really obvious. Thanks.
 
Buget and SLI ido not belong together. Here is my recomendation

Opteron 146 OEM From Monarch 156$
DFI Ultra-D Retail 130$
2GB GSkill PC3200 2.5/3/3/6 136$ from newegg
7600GT 256MB Card 179$
Retail X2 Opteron Cooler 17-20$ on ebay.
Antec Solution SLK1650B Black Steel ATX W/ 350 Watt Quailty PSU 60$

683$ B/F tax and shipping. You can't beat this buget combo IMO. Will be cool running, should run circles around your laptop.

If you really want SLI you can still mod the Ultra-D's and turn them into SLI boards.
 
Ya know it is true that I probably won't actually use the SLI at any point. Maybe it'd be better to just stick with a single video card set up in the future. Why do you recommend the Opteron instead of the Athlon 3700+?
 
From what I understood the Opteron is more for servers, with the only major differences being the ability to use two processors and up to 8 sticks of ram. I won't be overclocking, using more than one processor, and I highly doubt I'll ever get to 4gigs of RAM. The non OEM Opterons seem to be a bit more expensive too. The DFI does look like a nice board though, I've been reading reviews on it. What do you think of the MSI K8N-NEO4-F? It's a bit cheaper and seems to have some good specs.
 
Well so far these are the changes I've made. I'm still sticking with the 6800 because it's 100$, I know the 7600GT would run better, but I don't think it'd run twice as good, since it's nearly twice the price. The small HDD is just for the OS, I like to have the OS and all the programs on one seperate drive. That way if I have to wipe, I don't have to move around nearly as many files.

40gig HDD: 50$

Geforce 6800: 130$ -30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130263

Antec case/PSU: 100$ -20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155

2gigs of DDR400: 140$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231047

AMD 3700+: 212$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

DFI Lan Party: 122$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

Total: 750$ -50

With this I think if I wanted to buy a 7800GT down the line it'd upgrade nicely.
 
In all the full reviews of the DFI board I've read they said it was great. I was wondering about the onboard sound that isn't physically attached to the board? How does that work? Is it difficult to put together at all? Also on the new egg reader reviews (I know pretty meaningless source) some people mentioned a problem with the NV4 NIC chips and causing lock ups. Has anyone heard of or experienced that?
 
Back
Top