Need suggestions on where/what to buy.

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Konrad

Gawd
Joined
Jun 1, 2004
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621
Hello all.
There comes a point in everyone's life when they realize that even though they love doing something, they just plain suck at it.
This point, for me, was last night, and the thing was building my PC.
Let's just say I'm using a DVD copy of Knoppix.
Now don't get me wrong, I 'm not terrible at it. But I am just plain sick of the issues I have.
So I need some suggestions on where to buy my first pre-built.
A sad day indeed.
I currently have an AMD 64 3200+, 1GB PC3500 DDR, ATi x850XT (AGP), MSI Neo Platinum 2 (might be 4...), and a total of 280GB hard drive space.
The x850XT is a terrific card, but I overclocked a bit too far when I first got it and it hasn't been very stable since. Even got a SIlencer 5 for it, still very shaky.

So what am I looking for?
I like the performance on the new Core Duo, though their prices are kind of scary.
I'm looking for something around the performance of an AMD 64 4200+, so I won't get something that will be obsolete next week. I want it for TWO weeks, dammit.
As for the videocard, I need to keep this thing budgeted, but hot damn the 7600GT's are purdy.
Motherboard just needs GBit LAN, 4USB, SATA 3GB, the usual. I haven't been keeping up, so I really don't know whats good or bad anymore.
Don't need water cooling.
Smallest hard drive possible, I'd prefer to upgrade that myself.
As long as the case isn't orange, and doesn't rival the sun in terms of lumens, I won't have a problem.
Don't need a monitor, got a nice Samsung 730b over here.

I've checked out a couple of pre-built sites, but to be honest I just don't know where a good place to buy is or what good prices are for the Core Duo CPU's or what a good motherboard is, nevermind a good price for it.

I'd prefer to spend around $800, $1000 at the aaaabsolute max.

Suggest anything, I'm open to... help. Need help. Very close to hitting PC with hammer. *Not* a joke.

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.
 
At that price point, I'd recommend looking at ABS. They have some nice budget-minded builds. VM has also had some very nice $1000 builds. They've taken a back seat to the Core 2 models they offer, but the 1K builds are priced very competitively.


I would highly, highly recommend getting a Core 2 Duo if you have any multimedia productivity needs. If you're just gaming, then an AMD will probably be the more economical solution.
 
Alright, so I've got it narrowed down pretty good.
Against your suggestion, I've decided to go with the E6300. Even if I can get 1/4 of what people are getting with overclocks, it will be well worth it.
However, I don't know too much about the motherboards Velocity Micro use.
One of them has the Intel P965, and the other has the Intel G965. Those may as well be Greek to me.
Can anyone help me out with which one is a better choice?
The prices on the systems are exactly the same, it's just a matter of picking a chipset.
 
Konrad said:
Against your suggestion, I've decided to go with the E6300.
Click to expand...

DNA Doc said:
I would highly, highly recommend getting a Core 2 Duo if you have any multimedia productivity needs.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm confused.

Anyway, on the rest of your concerns, the difference between the P965 and G965 is that G965 motherboards have on-board graphics. Chris may be able to describe some of the finer nuances of the two chipsets, but that's the big difference. Most folks seem to favor the P965 so that you don't have to putz around with extra drivers and possible conflicts.
 
DNA Doc said:
I guess I'm confused.

Anyway, on the rest of your concerns, the difference between the P965 and G965 is that G965 motherboards have on-board graphics. Chris may be able to describe some of the finer nuances of the two chipsets, but that's the big difference. Most folks seem to favor the P965 so that you don't have to putz around with extra drivers and possible conflicts.
Click to expand...

Hm, for some reason I thought you had said to go with AMD if I was just gaming. Not really sure where my brain thought about that one.
Thanks for clearing that up about the different chipsets though.
VM only has 7600 GS's in the price ranges I'm looking for, and I really want a 7600GT or higher, so I may be going with the onboard, even if it is a bit more to deal with driverwise.
 
The G965 chipset will have all the features of the P965 with the addition of Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator X3000. It's a step up from the GMA 950, but most of the features like pixel shaders 3.0 are not implemented in the current drivers. Depending on the motherboard there may be other features differences (FireWire, etc), but the chipsets are essentially the same.
 
I actually went with the Campus edition.
Core Duo was standard, got ONE 1GB stick, instead of two 512 sticks, more expansion for later.
"Intel hi-def 5.1" instead of onboard (probably the same...)
Standard 2.1 SB380 Logitech speakers.
7600GS which I'll probably upgrade (7600GT wasn't cheap enough from them)
Nero Suite
If I had configured that with the GX, it would have actually costed more, oddly enough

Anyhoo, here's a link to the full setup:
http://www.conradkids.com/line_1_details.html

Thanks for your help guys, I'll post more as this continues.
 
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