The $1,000 question

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RammaR

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Looking to upgrade my PC on a budget and needing the following:
CPU / MB / RAM / HD / Video Card for around $1,000 total.

I do some gaming but also video encoding for DVD's. The new X2's are probably a bit out of my price range to really get the performance. I haven't really followed hardware in the last year but am trying to get caught up on my research. I've been running overclocked chips for years so don't mind buying a cheaper chip, to get better memory / video and then overclocking.

Any advice would be great. Thanks!
 
the best would be to find an Opteron 165, 2GB of Gskill, a DFI NFR Ultra-D, a nice SATA II HD of whatever size you need, and a 7800GT or a 6800GS. That would be pretty close to 1K i think.

I would say stretch for the dual core opty though cuz dual core makes a massive difference in video encoding.
 
I'm not finding the 165's on NewEgg or Mwave - is there a better source?
 
RammaR said:
I'm not finding the 165's on NewEgg or Mwave - is there a better source?
Click to expand...

Zipzoomfly should have em. Great source, free shipping on almost everything, and no tax. :)
 
contact Dave Graham, hes a member of the forums and sells them very cheap OEM. He posts pretty regularly, so just look around and you'll find him.
 
amd 3000+ venice $120~
evga 7800gt $300~
wd 2500ks $110~
g.skill 2x1gb value $145~
mobo of your choice <$200~
give or take $100~ for tax/shipping/etc

that should be ~$1000
 
x2 3800 $322
nforce4 mobo of your choice ~$100
gb ram ~$85
connect3d x800gto $170
250gb sata ~$100

~$800 after shipping. The vid card can be modded to an x800xt with a bios flash (which will be a good amount faster than anything even close price wise), dual core for vid ripping and plenty of hd space. Add another HD and another gb of ram and you're right at a grand.
 
7800 gt = $300
Opteron 165(if you can find one)= $330
X2 3800 if you cannot (=$325)
DFI ultra D = $130
74Gb Raptor = $165
or
Hitachi T7K250 = $100-110
2x512mb PC3200 Ballistix 2-2-2-6 = $130

(im running my ballistix@ 262mhz 2.5-3-3-8 2.7v)

$1055 + shipping.. it will probably be less after the few rebates you will probably get..

$1000 without raptor, 250gbSATAII instead
 
wow, lots of feedback already - thanks. I think the dual core is they way I want to go. How much of a difference is there between the 3800+ X2's and the Opteron 165's? Tom's hardware doesn't mention the Opti's at all in the last round of CPU tests.
 
RammaR said:
wow, lots of feedback already - thanks. I think the dual core is they way I want to go. How much of a difference is there between the 3800+ X2's and the Opteron 165's? Tom's hardware doesn't mention the Opti's at all in the last round of CPU tests.
Click to expand...

The Opteron is just BETTER. It has a 2MB cache, and usually overclocks just as well as, if not better than, any X2.
 
opteron 165 is 1.8ghz, 1mb l2 cache per core
x2 3800 is 2ghz, 512k l2 cache per core

I would go for more mhz, from what I've seen the extra 512k cache per core won't make up the extra 200mhz of the x2. If overclocking, it may be a different story as the opterons usually o/c a little better so you might be able to get the 165 to the same or close to the same clock speed as the x2 when both o/c'd. YMMV.
 
You can always OC to make up the speed difference, but you can't add extra cache ;).
 
oo oo i'm good at this! heres my 1000 dollar system.

Processor - OEM Opteron 170 from Dave Graham(he'll have the price, i'm going to assume its similar to what i paid, 360, figure 10 bux shipping, 370)
Motherboard - DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $123
Video Card - eVGA 256-P2-N516 Geforce 7800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $299
RAM - mushkin eXtreme Performance 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered System Memory Model 991482 - Retail $119(89.99 after $30 m.i.r.)
HDD*2 - SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series HD160JJ 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $81*2=$162

i absolutely love my pair of spinpoints, quiet yet fast, in raid 0 they are stupendous... the ram, well, you don't need an incredibly fast ram, but that ram should give you room to overclock, and vid card is self explanatory, the motherboard, after getting one to run my opteron 170 in, i cannot say i am disappointed, and i thank (cf)eclipse for recommending it, it is absolutely a great motherboard. the processor should be good for at least a decent oc(keyword should, no guarantees), but that would mean you'd also need a hsf because its OEM, unless you got something lined up... the total for this is just over 1000, i came up with $1043, but it would give you an absolutely great system!

this is what my 2 spinpoints pulls in HDTach, although with the nf4 chipset its a little bit better now, not so all over the place

SamsungSpinrightX2.PNG



bobzdar said:
x2 3800 $322
nforce4 mobo of your choice ~$100
gb ram ~$85
connect3d x800gto $170
250gb sata ~$100

~$800 after shipping. The vid card can be modded to an x800xt with a bios flash (which will be a good amount faster than anything even close price wise), dual core for vid ripping and plenty of hd space. Add another HD and another gb of ram and you're right at a grand.
Click to expand...

if he were to go with the x800gto, i'd recommend the one i got instead of the connect3d one, i've heard the connect3d ones aren't coming with r480 cores anymore... the sapphire one is only 137
 
The connect3d's never came with the r480's, they come with the r423. The sapphire x800gto2 is the one with the r480 and is unlockable but usually retails for $220 or higher, unfortunately. The regular sapphire x800 gto (not gto2) can't be modded to 16 pixel pipes via a bios flash, but may come with the r480 core, which doesn't matter because the r423 operating at 16 pipes will beat the r480 operating at 12 pipes unless massively o/c'd (it'd have to be operating at around a 33% higher core speed).

The only difference between the r423 and r480 is a die shrink, so the r480 will usually o/c a little more. Usually around 5%, nowhere near the 33% required if operating at 12 pipes, and not worth the extra 40 bucks for the gto2.

After extensively researching it for myself, the connect3d x800gto is the best bang for the buck in the $200 price range. If it were close, I would have gone for a 6800gs, and if I wanted to spend more I would have gone for a 7800gt.
 
Elysian, thanks for the effort and details put into the spec's. Two questions though: why the Raid 0 configuration instead of one larger drive? and is the SATA 3Gb/s and a 7200 rpm drive better then 10,000 rpm drive and SATA 150?

I hate to say it but my current system is a 2.26 P4 on a Gigabyte board with Rambus memory back from back when it was the next best thing and an ATA 133 drive. A lot's changed since then - thanks again for all the help.
 
bobzdar said:
The connect3d's never came with the r480's, they come with the r423. The sapphire x800gto2 is the one with the r480 and is unlockable but usually retails for $220 or higher, unfortunately. The regular sapphire x800 gto (not gto2) can't be modded to 16 pixel pipes via a bios flash, but may come with the r480 core, which doesn't matter because the r423 operating at 16 pipes will beat the r480 operating at 12 pipes unless massively o/c'd (it'd have to be operating at around a 33% higher core speed).

The only difference between the r423 and r480 is a die shrink, so the r480 will usually o/c a little more. Usually around 5%, nowhere near the 33% required if operating at 12 pipes, and not worth the extra 40 bucks for the gto2.

After extensively researching it for myself, the connect3d x800gto is the best bang for the buck in the $200 price range. If it were close, I would have gone for a 6800gs, and if I wanted to spend more I would have gone for a 7800gt.
Click to expand...



the sapphire x800gto is coming with r430's... least mine did...
 
RammaR said:
Elysian, thanks for the effort and details put into the spec's. Two questions though: why the Raid 0 configuration instead of one larger drive? and is the SATA 3Gb/s and a 7200 rpm drive better then 10,000 rpm drive and SATA 150?

I hate to say it but my current system is a 2.26 P4 on a Gigabyte board with Rambus memory back from back when it was the next best thing and an ATA 133 drive. A lot's changed since then - thanks again for all the help.
Click to expand...
i don't think theres a 10krpm sata drive out there that can compete with a 2x7200 drive... please, if i'm wrong let me know, but i really don't think so... the only thing that would be better i think would be seek times...
 
Elysian said:
the sapphire x800gto is coming with r430's... least mine did...
Click to expand...

Well, you definitely don't want to go for that then. The connect3d x800gto or sapphire x800gto2 are the way to go, but with the sapphire you'd be paying 40-50 bucks for an extra 20-30mhz...
 
bobzdar said:
Well, you definitely don't want to go for that then. The connect3d x800gto or sapphire x800gto2 are the way to go, but with the sapphire you'd be paying 40-50 bucks for an extra 20-30mhz...
Click to expand...
i thought 423's were still 12 pipe? aren't they just a pci-e version of the 420? driverheaven had a good "overclocking the x800gto" article recently...
 
the connect3d x800gto is r423 operating at 12 pipes, but you can bios flash to enable the other 4 pipes. Techpowerup has an article on unlocking it and the sapphire x800gto2 (which uses the r480). The r430, r423 and r480 are all 16 pipe chips, but are on different manufacturing processes and can come with either 8, 12 or all 16 pipes enabled. Sometimes they're disabled due to defects and other times (in the case of the connect3d x800gto and sapphire x800gto2) to get rid of excess inventory. There are other cards that are unlockable with soldering mods, but I think the connect3d x800gto and sapphire x800gto2 are the only ones that can be done with a simple bios flash and that work every time. The rest are hit or miss as some of the pipes may be defective.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/127
 
Next question / concern is the Raid 0 configuration? Looks like the striping will add transfer performance but if either drive fails then all data is lost? Just wondering if a Hitachi T2K250 might be a decent option. Less moving parts (1 drive) and cheaper at $108, with a slight advantage in access speed but much slower overall data transfer without the Raid 0. I guess its just the 2 drives acting as one that scares me. Never had one fail yet, but murphy's rule would strike at a bad time. hehe.
 
I guess I was thinking using the stock fan for that comes with the retail chip for starters, but that's not gonna work if I get an OEM from Dave - or if I overclock it from the get go. Looks like some of the Zalman fans are popular (I hope that's not the $190 water cooler system.) Any other recommendations for a solid cooling system? I'm not as worried about noise because the CPU is sorta muffled in the desk cabinet - so extra cooling is better.

Oh, and after looking at it - I don't think my current powersupply (250W) is going to hack it. Guess I'm in the market for one of those too.

Thanks
 
RammaR said:
Next question / concern is the Raid 0 configuration? Looks like the striping will add transfer performance but if either drive fails then all data is lost? Just wondering if a Hitachi T2K250 might be a decent option. Less moving parts (1 drive) and cheaper at $108, with a slight advantage in access speed but much slower overall data transfer without the Raid 0. I guess its just the 2 drives acting as one that scares me. Never had one fail yet, but murphy's rule would strike at a bad time. hehe.
Click to expand...
i've run a raid array for the last 2 years or so, without issue... don't do anything stupid with your drives and you'll be fine...



as for power supply, this is the one i run, and i love it, solid as a rock

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148012

can get it in different colors, it comes with an extra 120mm fan as well as a fan controller for said fan, and a fan controller for the pan inside the psu
 
How quiet is that 120mm fan that comes with it? Was thinking of using it ontop of one of these:
ThermalRight-XP-120

That fan controller might be perfect for noise control?
 
yeah fan controller would be nice, it seems like a pretty quiet fan to me, but now i run 4 120mm fans on my radiator, so my system isn't exactly noiseless lol... the psu fan is pretty quiet too
 
Just pinning down pricing on a few things now. New egg is an extra $100 between tax and shipping so I'm looking at ZipZoomFly and a few other places. Memory options there aren't as many, so I might just grab memory from Newegg anyway - but here's my real question. It looks like some of you are recommending 1gb by using 1 stick and others are 2 x 512mb? Can you run a single 1 gb stick so that after christmas I can add in another? From reading it looks like 2gb (2 x 1gb) is more stable than 4 x 512?

Thanks.
 
Yes, you can run only 1 1GB stick and add another one later. Stay with the same kind though.
 
How's this look:

Opteron 170 ( $369 - Dave Graham)

Mwave: (shipping $8.00)
DFI Lan Party Ultra-D ($125.00)
1 GB Crucial Ballistix DDR400 2 x 512 kit ($122.00)

Zipzoomfly: (shipping $0.00)
Enermax EG565 power supply ($89.95)
Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 250GB ($109.75)
Zalman 9500 cooloer ($54.99)
Evga GeForce 7800 256MB ($299.00)

Total looks like: $1178.68 to my door. It's a little over what I wanted to spend but I didn't count on the powersupply or as pricy of a cooling fan - but I do want to overclock it so its worth it I think. Any last minute tips or adivce on memory or anything else before I pull the trigger?

Thanks.
 
The XP-90 will cool just as or almost as good as that Zalman fan and cost half of that. I got mine with a fan from www.svc.com for $30.

Aren't HDD's cheaper than that? I got a Maxtor with 16mb cache 250GB for $90-95 two months ago.
 
I looked at the XP-120, but didn't come with a fan. The first Aspire PS i was looking at came with an extra 120 mil fan, but decided to go with an Antec or Enermax for a PS without the frills.

For the HD, looks like your right the Maxtors are a little cheaper - I'll look a little closer at them. Tom's rated the Hitachi a little higher then it or the WD, but might not be worth the extra $15.

If I skimp on the power supply a little, reduce the HD, and the fan - then maybe I could hit 2gb of ram - but still not sure. Seems lots of problems lately with the 1gb crucial sticks. Like you said before, "you can OC to make up the speed difference" - so stability is a must.

Thanks
 
For $1000, I'd do this.
CPU- Opteron 165 @ ZZF - $336
Mobo- Chaintech NF4 $69 (newegg)
RAM- Corsair XMS 1gb (2x512mb) $100 (newegg)
HDD- 250GB HDD of whatever brand you prefer, ~$100
Vid card- eVGA geforce 7800GT - $284 on newegg (after rebate)

That leaves you with $111 left to upgrade whatever you feel needed. The mobo is low end for a NF4, so you could upgrade that, and the ram if you want an additional gig or better quality. Whatever you feel would help you the most.

-mash
 
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