What to get with $1000

C

chevelle4life

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 30, 2004
Messages
66
I need a computer that I can take to college with me in a year and a half. I want to be able to play star wars galaxies jump to lightspeed with no problems. It needs to have atleast 1gb of ram, raptor drive(s), amd 64, a good memory card, good cooling, nice case. Please show me what I can get for 1000 with california sales tax 7.75. Thank you
 
Best start cutting down those expectations bubba. You can spec out something decent for 1k, but you will have to make tradeoffs. Raptors, especially plural, for instance are a massive waste of money in any semi-budget gaming system. They might be nice for a high-load fileserver, but that's not what you asked for.
We'll start with a nice solid s939 AGP based motherboard, yes, PCIe is coming. No, early adoption is not a good thing.
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum $140
Paired with a nice cheap processor.
A64 3000+ s939 $150. I know it's not blazing fast, that's what overclocking is for.
Can't overclock without good ram, now can we?
PDP 2x512mb PC3200 2-2-2-5 latency $220 TCCD chips on Brainpower PCB no less :)
Now we have to start making the tough decisions.
Video card, well, the BFG 6800 OC is certainly nice, but at $300 retail it's just a bit expensive. A nice 9800pro can be had for $200 though...
Hmm, we'll need to power this all somehow. Yes, an Enermax noisetaker would do nicely...but 420w ($70) or 370w ($55). I'll wait until I'm done to see whether the $15 price difference matters.
HDD...You said you wanted raptors? Fine, but it'll cost you! $108 for a 36gb raptor. (I'd go with a 120gb seagate for $83 personally.)
And where shall we put all this fun stuff? In a case of course. Not much money left, so I went with a cheap, well-reviewed aluminum case $37.
Top it off with a TR XP-90 $50 to keep that 3000+ nice and cool.
With the 420w, seagate 120gb, and 9800pro that comes to $950.

You didn't ask for optical drives, or a monitor, so I didn't include them. I also ignored sales tax, order online from some place outside cali.
 
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