Sub $1,200 full system... C2D or X2???

R

romeoagogo

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 25, 2004
Messages
159
Okay... I'm trying to put together a pretty badass gaming rig and since I'm a student and this is probably going to be coughed up out of my loan money, I'm trying to get the best bang/buck ratio here haha. I was originally planning on an X2 but reading a lot of peoples post about how good these conroe chips really are has persuaded me. Especially their OCing ability. My only issue here is that I don't know if for the PC i'm building is worth the extra $80 for C2D. Is it going to really matter for gaming and everyday activites, possibly ripping the occassional DVD. The only reason I really went with it is I figure that out of the box the e6300 will be great anyway. It will way outperform my current PC (XP-M 2400) and I'll love it but it also has the potential to be OCed down the line. After reading the review on the Nautilus 500 I can see myself going watercooled 6 months from now and being able to push my CPU a bit and get even more performance (some people are hitting 3Ghz?). I'm beginning to ramble here but my real question is looking at the build below which comes to $1176 (with the C2D) on newegg could I get the X2 and be just as happy? Most likely my vid card is going to be the bottleneck but is there any reason for the conroe? My budget is firmly $1200 but I would like to use the extra to buy some good 2.1 speakers and/or a decent set of cans. Without further ado:

Case: Coolermaster Centurion - $50
PSU: Antec SmartPower 2 450W - $60
Monitor: CHIMEI 19" 8ms Widescreen LCD - $180
Video: eVGA 7900GT KO 256MB - $265
HDD: WD 80GB SATA - $44
Keyboard: Logitech G15 - $68
Memory: Patriot (2 x 1GB) DDR667 - $180

Total before CPU/Mobo - $847
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E6300/Gigabyte DS3 combo - $330

AMD X2 3800+ - $150
ASUS M2N-E nForce 570 - $95
Total: $245

Going with the X2 is $85 savings which leaves me with ~110 left over total. With that I would probably get some Sennheiser HD485's for about 70 and spend 30-40 and some 2.1 Logitech speakers.

So what do you think? Keep in mind I do have an old set of 2.1 speakers and 1/2 way decent ear buds for my MP3 player so I wont be without sound if I go with C2D... but I think my gaming experience will be far richer with some better sound. Any other things you notice where I could drop the price at all (I'm considering dropping the G15 keyboard... any suggestions there?).

Thanks for reading thru all of this,
-alex
 
I would deffinately drop the KB and save the 68 bux for something else. As for the CPU, they are both good but the C2D can be OC'd really well. Its something to think about as you are getting free performance, unless you dont like to OC.
 
Get a 320gb SATA harddrive, you can get the seagate for $95 right now. 80GB is a few games and windows. Go with the 6300, you can cut some fluff by buying an X1800XT for $200, picking up one of those 19" monitors that are like $109 after rebate and dropping the keyboard. The 6300 will be quite a bit faster than the AMD. You could go 1GB of ram if your really on a budget.
 
I don't need the 320gb HDD. I plan on buying a 500gb soon to put in my Media Center server for streaming to my xbox360 so all I need for my PC is games/windows/music room. I'll definatly lose the keyboard and if anyone has any recommendations I'd appreciate them. As far as the X1800XT what kind of performace can I really expect out of it? How will it handle games like F.E.A.R and BF2? I already have Oblivion for my 360 but in general what kind of life span will this card have? I know I don't need to much power if I'm only pushing a 19" but any more insight here would be great. From some posts I've read I got the impression that 1GB of RAM can be a bottleneck in some newer games. I think I can fit 2GB in my budget still but if its not necessary its always an easy upgrade for later.
thanks for the feedback so far. Here is the updated version:

Case: Coolermaster Centurion - $50
PSU: Antec SmartPower 2 450W - $60
Monitor: CHIMEI 19" 8ms Widescreen LCD - $180
Video: HIS Hightech X1800GTO - $220 (not sure about this card, input appreciated)
HDD: WD 80GB SATA - $44
Keyboard: LITE-ON SK-1789 - $7 (cheap and had a lot of good reviews)
Memory: Patriot (2 x 1GB) DDR667 - $180
CPU/Mobo: E6300/Gigabyte DS3 combo - $330
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: $1,071

Without going to 1GB ram, smaller PSU or cheaper case I think that is as low as I am going to get it. Not bad though I don't think.
 
For $85, the difference between an E6300 and 3800+ will be night and day. Spend the few bucks extra, you'll thank me.

Definetely drop the keyboard. I've got one and just OK. Looks cool at night, but with the light keys and LCD, but that's about it. 10 on the coolness scale, but that's all it offers over other units.

Keep the HD man, don't let them convince you otherwise. Since all you have is OS and games, you'll use 50GB, tops. I mean, it's like 2GB for Windows, 1GB for Office, and 3-5GB per game. Don't waster your dough on unnecessary space.
 
80G HDD is just too small for today's PC. You will need 10G just for windows stuff, and 5-10G a pop games are normal. But again, you can get like a 160G PATA really cheap later for storage.
 
I really think I'll be fine with an 80gig. 10gig or less for windows+apps, 30 for music, 40 left for games which I think should be pleanty as I never have more than 5-6 installed.
 
the Antec Smartpower line is not intended for high-end machines. If you're going to be spending $250 on a video card and have all this other good equipment, you'd best be purchasing a better psu, especially with overclocking

the Truepower 480 would be the minimum I'd recommend for a half-decent computer.

you will wish you had purchased a bigger hard drive in the future. Not only does the Seagate drive have 320GB, but it has great performance because of the perpendicular recording technology (comparable to WD Raptors)
 
I will definatly take your advice on the PSU but I still don't plan on going with a bigger HD. If I am putting 500gigs in my media server I don't see how I will come close to touching 80 for just OS/apps/games. And I don't really think my sata drive will be the bottleneck in my system.
 
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