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need to build system, $650 budget.

S

Stugots

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Messages
7,301
EDIT: Budget $700

i am going to be building a system for a friend, he wants to keep it under $700. he will be needing the following components.

motherboard
processor
memory
harddrive
case
dvd burner (if enough money is left over)

he will be using it for a some gaming, sims2 primarily, and some audio editing. he currently has a p3 733, 512mb ram, tnt2 ultra that he plays sims2 on (yes, it actually runs, ive seen it myself) so anything will be considerably faster. light - mild overclocking is an option.

im not an amd guy so i priced out a intel system that would fit the bill, heres what i came up with.

Abit IS7
Celeron D 320 (2.4ghz, should do 3.0 at least on stock cooling)
2x256mb pc2700
Hitachi 160gb 7200rpm sata
liteon or nec dvd burner.

im letting him choose the case but ill review it to see if it has a decent powersupply or not. i need some comments and suggestions. or if anyone has a better system they could part together, intel or amd doesnt matter.
 
My only advice is to defintely steer clear of a celeron. if you're hell bent on intel, get a prebuilt system from dell. 2.8 P4 dimension for 349 after rebates http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/outrageous_desktops?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd
use the leftover for a http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-139-166&depa=1

If you have to go Intel, a p4 is a must, and a pre-built from dell is the cheapest way.

My personal advice would be to start with a socket A AMD. You can find barebones for as low as $200. AMD's are cheaper, cooler, better performers, and overclock a million times better. Then all the left over you could put into a nice vid card, memory, a nice looking case, and a nice monitor. Start looking in the hot deals section.
 
the celeron D is prescott based which makes it ALOT better than northwood celerons. id say a celeron @ 3ghz would be about as fast as a p4 @ 2.6-2.7 ghz. where as the northwood celerons @ 3ghz were barely as fast as p4's @ 2ghz
 
Right now Intel is just a bad choice.

Especially for this budget.

His box would be obsolete in 6 months.

Look at the amd solutions bro. Your friend will thank you in the long run.

OR just steer them to dell.com(check the dell outlet link) as advised above because that would be a nice cheap non-upgradeable solution.
 
jterrell said:
Right now Intel is just a bad choice.

Especially for this budget.

His box would be obsolete in 6 months.

Look at the amd solutions bro. Your friend will thank you in the long run.

OR just steer them to dell.com(check the dell outlet link) as advised above because that would be a nice cheap non-upgradeable solution.
Click to expand...

well, i was trying to piece together a s939 a64 system. but the only video card i could afford was a radeon 9800pro, and itd probobly only have 512mb of ram. and im not sure if that would be a balanced system.

also, if i go with amd, id like to stick with s939.
 
acascianelli said:
the celeron D is prescott based which makes it ALOT better than northwood celerons. id say a celeron @ 3ghz would be about as fast as a p4 @ 2.6-2.7 ghz. where as the northwood celerons @ 3ghz were barely as fast as p4's @ 2ghz
Click to expand...

but they still have that dinky L2 cache.
 
acascianelli said:
well, i was trying to piece together a s939 a64 system. but the only video card i could afford was a radeon 9800pro, and itd probobly only have 512mb of ram. and im not sure if that would be a balanced system.

also, if i go with amd, id like to stick with s939.
Click to expand...

939's a great choice, but working with a $650 budget would get real tight. From what you said in your first post it doesn't look like your friend has real high aspirations, so piecing togher a bugdet system for him should be pretty easy. Just depends on how complete it needs to be. If you just need a cpu, MB, and Ram you could probably pull off a nice a64. If you need everything else, monitor, keyboard, optical drives, mouse, vid card, case, PSU, and whatever else i really don't think you'd be able to do it. Barton or Sempron's though are a different story.
 
pigpen said:
939's a great choice, but working with a $650 budget would get real tight. From what you said in your first post it doesn't look like your friend has real high aspirations, so piecing togher a bugdet system for him should be pretty easy. Just depends on how complete it needs to be. If you just need a cpu, MB, and Ram you could probably pull off a nice a64. If you need everything else, monitor, keyboard, optical drives, mouse, vid card, case, PSU, and whatever else i really don't think you'd be able to do it. Barton or Sempron's though are a different story.
Click to expand...

he doesnt need a monitor, optical drives, keyboard, mouse.
 
9600XT 156.00 bucks 256 ddr
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=14-103-159&DEPA=1

WD 80 gig SATA drive 66.25 Can add a second for raid 0 or 1 later on.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=22-135-106&DEPA=1

Antec case and 300 watt PS 62.00 The 300 watts is low but Antec 300 is as strong as most 420 watt crap psu's easily and way more reliable.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-118&depa=1

PDP 512 mem pc-2700 Good overclocking mem, can hanlde higher voltage. 70.00
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-026&depa=1

Thats about 360.00 total.
If you want to go cheaper just find a lower end vid card.
 
This is what I recommend and will stay the $700. a have a good system. Just my personal opinion ;)
MoBo
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-478&depa=1
This is a very good case and solid if he is not looking for something fancy:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-192-006&depa=1
DVD/CD-RW
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-151-050&depa=1
HDD
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-122&depa=1
Memory
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-480&depa=1
CPU; and you can OC this sucker to at least a 2.4
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-436&depa=1
And last but not least cooling for the CPU; HSF
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-109-011&depa=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-109-113&depa=1
now neither one of this hsf are available at newegg but you can probably get at another site and also need to get a fan for it.
Now this is $468.49 + shipping not including the HSF which is another $60 to $80 with a fan. ;) :D
 
Be a friend and get him the Athlon XP-M 2500+ Barton (has 512kb L2 cache and unlocked multi) and NF7-S. Best value system out there, and you can have a little fun seeing what you can OC out of it.
 
ok...right now im looking at a s939 a64 with a 90nm 3000. id rather get the 3200 because its at the 2ghz mark but im going to take a leap of faith and ignore the ghz factor and just go with the rating.

for video, what would be a good card to get. obviously he cand afford a 6800 or anything but i was thinking like a 9800pro 128mb. somebody mentioned the 9600xt but i think that the 9800 be a better balance on a system like this. if i could get a 9800pro for like 190, that would bring the total for cpu/motherboard/ram/video to about 550, which leaves me plenty for a case and hdd. and as for ram, is 512mb good enough for mild gaming?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-469&depa=1

i was looking at this motherboard simply because its the cheapest 939 board. is there anything wrong with getting this motherboard?

edit: heres what im looking at right now...

cpu: Athlon 64 3000, $160
mobo: MSI k8t neo, $109
ram: pqi 2x256 pc3200, $85
video: refurb powercolor 9800pro, $172
case: antec with 350W, $60
hdd: seagate 120gb sata, $95

total: 682.

any comments on this config. btw, i checked with him and he doesnt mind refurbished hardware from newegg.
 
great job man! looks like you put together a kick ass rig and stayed within your budget :)

MSI is a good MB company. Just depends on whether you have a certain chipset preference. VIA seems fine, but most around here seem to prefer the nforce.

Edit: one other thing. the vid card is great. more than enough for mild gaming. As far as the 512mb, it will do just fine, but 1gb is more at the safe point of not having ram limit your system during more intensive tasks/gaming/whatever. Point is, if you can find a 512mb stick vs 2X256mb sticks, it will make upgrading later on easier. This is from newegg, name brand, same price.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=20-146-541&DEPA=0
 
how important is it to keep the ram in dual channel. like i said before im an intel guy and to dual channel is very important.
 
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