45 replies to this topic

[Bryan]

Here's what I have so far.


ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - 139.99
ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP/640M GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - 399.99
Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W Power Supply with Three 12V Rails - 124.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane 2.5GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO4800DDBOX - 109.99
OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - 119.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3400620AS 400GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - 99.99

Totals around 995. Would like to upgrade the processor to a X2 2.8GHz and downgrade the harddrive and the quality of RAM (would still like 2gigs). Thinking also about just going with the GeForce 8600. Also wondering if there is a cheaper alternative for a power source.
Would also like to keep the price as much or less than the current.

Basically, I want a CHEAP gaming computer.

Help please?

[Mr. Hobo]

ncix.com go to forums and ask them. Lot more knowledgable people there than here

Conroe>Brisbane especially if you overclock

[Bryan]

Don't plan on overclocking, nor do I have need to do so =P Hence why the case I'm buying is just going to have a fan and the fact that I'm trying to skimp on my power supply.

Thanks for the link, I'll make a post now.

[Nick]

No offense, but building a desktop is a bad idea. If you have a fatal crash or something goes wrong with one of the parts you have no warranty to cover it and you basically have to re-buy the item. It's a much safer bet to buy a desktop.

[Bryan]

No offense, but building a desktop is a bad idea. If you have a fatal crash or something goes wrong with one of the parts you have no warranty to cover it and you basically have to re-buy the item. It's a much safer bet to buy a desktop.

I've built desktops before and am currently running the setup that I posted. The site I buy from, newegg.com, offers warranties for specific parts. I don't want to buy a desktop, because frankly I don't give two shits about a warranty. If I have a fatal crash, I'll fix it, or at a last resort, reformat (which is all what most warranties cover). Hardware malfunction is rare if you know what you're doing (i.e. know what parts to put together, what parts mend with what etc., besides, the only expensive part is the GFX card, anything else is relatively cheap thankfully (whereas some premade desktops come with 600 mobos etc., and if something breaks you're forced to shit kittens out the ass to pay for it)

[shabba]

No offense, but building a desktop is a bad idea. If you have a fatal crash or something goes wrong with one of the parts you have no warranty to cover it and you basically have to re-buy the item. It's a much safer bet to buy a desktop.

LOL - Most stupid comment yet! Of course you get warranty... Lets see. OCZ offer life-time warranty on ALL ram.. Antec over 3years. Asus 2 years [I think].. You will get more warranty on these parts that you will do from dell or any other manufacturer. Okay granted it may be abit more hassle. By hassle I mean you may have to ring the company, but they are more than helpful with returns.

For the power supply I would go for a 50-70 priced one you really wont need that sort of PSU, the watts you will get out of that could power a server...

Edited by shabba, 11 July 2007 - 02:32 PM.

[Fatal]

lol, I've built all 6/7 of my desktops, I wouldnt even CONSIDER, EVER buying an OEM prebuilt computer again, except for laptops for obvious reasons.


You can build a better, cheaper, faster computer with a conroe, hard drives and power supplies are both VERY important parts of the computer, people dont understand hard drives are the slowest component of a computer and they bottleneck a lot of things. Programs such as winrar = almost ALL hardrive performance.

Every new part you buy has a warranty, obviously some better then others. Human error is the cause of most dead computer parts so I wouldn't worry about getting something DOA, small chance.

I would make A LOT of revisions to that build you have going Bryan but I doubt my list would be used, actually, I cant see myself keeping ANY parts on that list except mabey that hard drive since its big,fast,cheap

For the power supply I would go for a 50-70 priced one you really wont need that sort of PSU, the watts you will get out of that could power a server...

Watts = not very important, its the QUALITY of the power supply that matters, A low quality 600 could EASILY lose to a GOOD 500w power supply. Antec,OCZ,Corsair,Fortron,PC Power & Cooling are the best PSU brands IMO.


EDIT: Fine, I made a list anyways

Intel E6320 (165.50)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115015

Gigabyte P35-DS3R (130)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128050

A-DATA 2x1GB Extreme Edition (93)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820211174

OCZ GameXStream 600w (120)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817341001

EVGA 8800GTS 320mb overclocked version (287)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130038

Hitachi Deskstar 400gb (94)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822145134

Total: $889.50

I can cheapen it up more if needed, or upgrade it, whatever you want, but with this build, you will get more performance, lots of overclock potential if you DO decide to overclock even a little, better warranties, for cheaper. If you like that Seagate drive better, you can go with that too but apparently that model dies a lot, very hot, and loud, which is unusual for Seagate so I chose a Hitachi which is a brand I have used for my hardrives for years. I am currently running 4 320GB Hitachi's in RAID 0

Edited by Fatal, 11 July 2007 - 03:33 PM.

[Bryan]

I really do not want to overclock nor have any need for overclocking nor will I never overclock. Feeding more power into something and heating it up just for a bit more speed is not something I want.

I'm not a fan of the processor you used, I was hoping for a dual core at 2.8 a piece, not 1.8. The Mobo I've actually read reviews on, and though it's stable, it's a bitch finding drivers for it, I've also heard problems of audio not working etc. And for the graphics card, if I get an 8800, I will get the 640. There is no reason to spend that money for a 320 just because it's D10 capable (which I wont even use because I wont be running Vista on the system). As for cooling, like I said, I don't plan on oc'ing, and the list I posted up top makes almost no noise at all in this case: http://www.bestbuy.c...d=1156203597045
.

I'd like to see another list, only with an AMD processor. Not that I have anything against Intel, but I'd like to see you come up with something that isn't so er... biased.

Basic specs I want...
Dual Core @ 2.8 each.
320MB GFX 8600 series
decent mobo
decent power supply
2 gb ram.

I'm looking to spend around 800. If that's not possible... as close to as I can =]


Edit: As for warranties, I don't care about the length
. If it works, I'll use it, if it doesn't, blah.

[Alex]

No offense, but building a desktop is a bad idea. If you have a fatal crash or something goes wrong with one of the parts you have no warranty to cover it and you basically have to re-buy the item. It's a much safer bet to buy a desktop.

Wow fail.
Get this processor with what Fatal recommended, there are intel price drops coming out it's going to be 180$ I think
I'm pretty sure it would smoke an AMD 2.8 dual core, it's not about bias...but facts...the Intel processors smoke the AMD x2, they just do most of the time.
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115003

The graphics card he listed is really strong, and worth the upgrade from the 8600, and it's a lot cheaper than the 400 dollar version.
I'd rather get the 320 version and buy a good audio card.

if you want a pretty good pc for around 600 here's not a bad setup but its very cheap.
http://techreport.co...07/index.x?pg=2

Edited by Alex, 11 July 2007 - 08:51 PM.

[Hawk]

http://www.xbitlabs....2duo-e6420.html

Take a look at the benchmarks. I didn't read the whole article, but for the CPU the Intel C2D series rapes AMD. GHz means very little. A Pentium D at the same speed as a C2D would be dominated. The architecture makes a big difference, not the GHz.

Also, the PSU is NOT the place to be cheap. If that thing messes up all of your hardware dies. For Hard drives the Seagate Barracuda .10 is the best for a reasonable price. If you wanted to decrease loading times you could opt to run 2 hard drives in RAID 0, it may be risky if you have important things on your computer, if not, that is the way to go.

I STRONGLY suggest overclocking. The heat output may be a bit higher, but you can beat most chips running stock setting with a E4300 from Intel. A good fan/heatsink and decent airflow and you won't have any problems. You could even overclock it just a bit without upping the voltage. The heat increase would not be significant and you would still boost your performance.

I won't start listing parts until you decide which route you will go, AMD/Intel, RAID/single drive, OCing, even just a little bit/Running stock. I just wanted to put in my two cents to see if it would change your mind.

[Bryan]

Wow fail.
Get this processor with what Fatal recommended, there are intel price drops coming out it's going to be 180$ I think
I'm pretty sure it would smoke an AMD 2.8 dual core, it's not about bias...but facts...the Intel processors smoke the AMD x2, they just do most of the time.
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115003

The graphics card he listed is really strong, and worth the upgrade from the 8600, and it's a lot cheaper than the 400 dollar version.
I'd rather get the 320 version and buy a good audio card.

if you want a pretty good pc for around 600 here's not a bad setup but its very cheap.
http://techreport.co...07/index.x?pg=2

I guess I just wanted a list with an AMD processor. Not because I don't like Intel (I think Intel is better imo) but because I'd like to see a system he isn't so used to creating (by using a different brand of processor).

The only reason why I would get the 8800 is for D10. Considering there are no games on the market that require it, I'd rather go for a 8600 and buy the 8800 when price drops in a year or two.

And thanks for the link, I'm looking at it now =]

http://www.xbitlabs....2duo-e6420.html

Take a look at the benchmarks. I didn't read the whole article, but for the CPU the Intel C2D series rapes AMD. GHz means very little. A Pentium D at the same speed as a C2D would be dominated. The architecture makes a big difference, not the GHz.

Also, the PSU is NOT the place to be cheap. If that thing messes up all of your hardware dies. For Hard drives the Seagate Barracuda .10 is the best for a reasonable price. If you wanted to decrease loading times you could opt to run 2 hard drives in RAID 0, it may be risky if you have important things on your computer, if not, that is the way to go.

I STRONGLY suggest overclocking. The heat output may be a bit higher, but you can beat most chips running stock setting with a E4300 from Intel. A good fan/heatsink and decent airflow and you won't have any problems. You could even overclock it just a bit without upping the voltage. The heat increase would not be significant and you would still boost your performance.

I won't start listing parts until you decide which route you will go, AMD/Intel, RAID/single drive, OCing, even just a little bit/Running stock. I just wanted to put in my two cents to see if it would change your mind.

I still don't know about AMD/Intel processors. To be perfectly honest, I have no current knowledge in tests between both, I just wanted opinions on both sides. I want to run a single hard drive. I don't care if running RAID will decrease load times by a couple of seconds, I just want it to work lol.

I don't want to overclock. Period.

With the PSU, I know not to be cheap, I just want one for a reasonable price.

[Hawk]

I still don't know about AMD/Intel processors. To be perfectly honest, I have no current knowledge in tests between both, I just wanted opinions on both sides. I want to run a single hard drive. I don't care if running RAID will decrease load times by a couple of seconds, I just want it to work lol.

I don't want to overclock. Period.

With the PSU, I know not to be cheap, I just want one for a reasonable price.

K- Sounds fair. If you're going to run it stock I'll list some parts... that may take a while. Fatal can come in and correct me whenever, but if he does, he better back up his reasoning. xD

Since you will be using as a budget gaming rig, I'd suggest you look at the benchmarks here. The C2D series dominates

No RAID is alright with me. Makes it easier to make the budget.

K on the reasonable price.

Edit: NVM, I'll list parts tomorrow, its late and I'm lazy.

Edited by Hawk, 11 July 2007 - 09:33 PM.

[Fatal]

AMD X2 was the winner up until the Conroe's came out (Core 2 Duo)



This is a chart showing general comparison of the chips and what clock speed = what clock speed in another type of CPU. This should only be used for a GENERAL IDEA if that

I will post up a cheaper list in a second, right now AMD is a bad choice unless you already have some of the parts for it. Even if you had the parts, they will still lose in performance, but may win in price depending on your use.

Edited by Fatal, 11 July 2007 - 10:18 PM.

[Hawk]

I will post up a cheaper list in a second, right now AMD is a bad choice unless you already have some of the parts for it. Even if you had the parts, they will still lose in performance, but may win in price depending on your use.

Right now AMD downright dominates the price/performance (Low end). The 3600+ Brisbane = Amazing price with good performance. Dual core PCs are getting cheap, and I still don't have one! YAY for parents!

Edited by Hawk, 11 July 2007 - 10:21 PM.

[Fatal]

yea the brisbane's are very nicely priced, and its a decent choice if you're not overclocking, but there is no comparison if you're going to be overclocking on both, the more you overclock, the more of a better value the C2D gets. stock vs stock a E6320 will win by a good amount

[Bryan]

https://secure.neweg....asp?ID=7452047

That's what I have at the moment...

[Fatal]

I guess I just wanted a list with an AMD processor. Not because I don't like Intel (I think Intel is better imo) but because I'd like to see a system he isn't so used to creating (by using a different brand of processor).

The only reason why I would get the 8800 is for D10. Considering there are no games on the market that require it, I'd rather go for a 8600 and buy the 8800 when price drops in a year or two.

And thanks for the link, I'm looking at it now =]
I still don't know about AMD/Intel processors. To be perfectly honest, I have no current knowledge in tests between both, I just wanted opinions on both sides. I want to run a single hard drive. I don't care if running RAID will decrease load times by a couple of seconds, I just want it to work lol.

I don't want to overclock. Period.

With the PSU, I know not to be cheap, I just want one for a reasonable price.

also, overclocking is great as long as you know when to stop, you can see performance double at times. The main problem is when people get carried away and refuse to stop. I'm not going to push overclocking on you anymore but im just saying, its free performance thats there. If you find 500 dollars on the street, might as well take it. 8600's are a waste of money IMO, If I only wanted a temporary card, I would go get a X1950XT on newegg, and upgrade later. RAID will do a lot more then just a couple of seconds

EDIT: also that wish list doesnt work


EDIT2: Intel is also having price drops soon, so they will be even a smarter buy, very soon

Edited by Fatal, 11 July 2007 - 10:37 PM.

[Bryan]

EDIT: also that wish list doesnt work

https://secure.neweg...le=Blahblahblah

[Fatal]

might as well get the cheapest motherboard, ram possible since you're not overclocking

[Alex]

LAme, E6600 isnt getting a pricedrop?

[Bryan]

might as well get the cheapest motherboard, ram possible since you're not overclocking

Suggestions? Not too knowledgeable about mobos. Well, not too knowledgeable about computers in general =P

[Fatal]

LAme, E6600 isnt getting a pricedrop?

I believe they all are, if not they'll drop anyways because if it stayed at the current price, it would be a big ripoff

[Hawk]

LAme, E6600 isnt getting a pricedrop?

Well you can get an E6750 for less than a E6600 currently. Plus it has a superior stepping allowing for much better overclocks. I think it is essentially a E6600, I think it has the same multiplier.

[Fatal]

Well you can get an E6750 for less than a E6600 currently. Plus it has a superior stepping allowing for much better overclocks. I think it is essentially a E6600, I think it has the same multiplier.

E6750 and E6850 arent out yet, they have 1333FSB, G0 stepping so yea they're a good amount better, they're getting release on july 22nd along with the price drops

[Hawk]

E6750 and E6850 arent out yet, they have 1333FSB, G0 stepping so yea they're a good amount better, they're getting release on july 22nd along with the price drops

You're telling me something I learned about quite some time ago I was just saying it is a superior chip and will be cheaper than the 6600.

Edited by Hawk, 11 July 2007 - 10:55 PM.