Yet another critique thread

A

akanwar

n00b
Joined
Nov 17, 2003
Messages
11
Alright, so I'm building this computer for a friend and am sort of stuck. He needs the computer within a week and a half.

The budget is $1000 give or take 50..

He want's the computer to be decently future-proof. For a thousand, I'm having a hard time figuring this out. We've talked and are leaning towards a x2 3800 but that leaves little space for a good videocard.

Here is the updated list:

COOLER MASTER CAVALIER 3 CAV-T03-UW Silver Aluminum/Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
XFX PVT70GUDF7 Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
OCZ OCZ520ADJ ATX 520W Power Supply - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail
Patriot "Extreme Performance" 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model PEP5123200LL - Retail
BenQ Black IDE DVD Burner Model DW1640 - OEM

And fans....


Total: $1,060.63
What could I take out or downgrade so that this comp would fit in the budget?
3200 to 3000? Change PSU? Cheaper case?

Other than this, I already have the HDs, mouse, kb, and monitor

The big problem is getting a good video card/ processor combo to fit in with this. He plays quite a bit of games but really wants the multitasking.

Also, what cheap tvtuner would you guys recommend to go into the setup? SW-encoder should be fine right?

TIA for the help.
 
Would help if you listed individual prices. Might be able to find something cheaper for the same value.
 
This is a cheaper alternative to what may be a not-so-great PSU suggested above. Read through the stickies in the PSU forum - this may be the most important part of your system.

Something like an x700 or a 6600 will make a decent video card for this system. One question, though - why use an SLI board if you can't afford even one good video card? Get a cheaper board, and spend the extra on the video card.

 
I wouldn't go 6600gt they are great cards don't get me wrong I have on in my system right now. But 6800gt might be a better card for him. I am plannin on gettin one or maybe even the 7800gt next.
 
Dont expect that c2 corsair ram to overclock that well.

If he is mostly going to be gaming with it, talk him into a venice +3200 and use the saved cash on a heavy hitting video card. If he games alot more than whatever else he thinks he needs a dual core processor for, he'll appreciate it in the long run.


I have a cav 3 case also. Sexy!




 
unhappy_mage said:
This is a cheaper alternative to what may be a not-so-great PSU suggested above. Read through the stickies in the PSU forum - this may be the most important part of your system.
Click to expand...

Not that I'm knocking Fortron, but YOU should go read the PSU forum, because the Xclio is well loved there.
 
:eek: My bad, I haven't read the stickies in a while myself, and I missed that. However, I'd stick with the Fortron, because I've had good luck with them in the past, and haven't used an XClio. And there are twice as many results for fortron as there are for xclio, so I guess that's how I managed to get the impression that Fortron is the be-all end-all of the low-price market.

In any case, OP, get a good PSU. :p

 
Go the extra mile on the PSU. Get an Antec Truepower 2.

Cheaper RAM, that stuff is made for low latencies, not for overclocking.

I suggest a 6800GT, just one of them for now. I think newegg has an XFX forroughly $250 right now.
 
Thanks for all the comments guys. I'll look into all of your suggestions, especially the PSU.

Edit: How's OCZ on power supplies?
 
How about reading the stickies? The OCZ Powerstream series is on the good list, though. It's a good deal. Still, read them through. You might find one that sounds more fitted to your application. The PSU forum guys know more than I do about this. Listen to them.

 
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