Budget computer recommendations sought

WarAdvocat · Post by **WarAdvocat** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:24 am

Currently I have put together the following:

$35.00 POWMAX ATX Mid-Tower Case with X-Window, Model "ALV90-511SEL" Linky

$90.00 ASUS "A7N8X-E Deluxe" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A Linky

$187.00 AMD Athlon XP 3200+ "Barton", 400MHz FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail

$111.00 OCZ Performance Series Dual Channel Kit 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3500 -

$132.00 (2x $66.00) 2 Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model HDS722580VLSA80, OEM (SATA RAID 0 configuration)

I have monitors, keyboards, mices, optical drives, floppies, and vid card (BFG Geforce FX 5900), so I'm looking at a total cost to me of around $560.00. My budget isn't much more than that, and I'll need cables & whatnot I'm sure.

Am I leaving anything out? And is there a cheaper or better way to get a fairly high-performance system that will make me much happier than my current Dell 1.7 GHZ machine?? Staying within budget, of course. I'm building with an eye to upgrading as I go, so I haven't included a power supply, etc. And is going AMD as much of a mistake as my emotions are telling me?

Plague · Post by **Plague** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:01 am

AMD Processors run great! Don't worry about it. Now I have a question for you: Where in the world did you find a gig of PC3500 for $111?

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 11:35 am

You are missing one Heat sink

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 11:38 am

Believe it or not, you might be able to go cheaper and faster with an athlon 64, the 2800+ and 3000+ cost less then the XP 3200+ but do in fact outperform it. However, it is likely the $$ you make up on the CPU will be burnt on the mobo, it might be worth it still, an additional 10-15% performance boost can be had.

-Krom

STRESSTEST · Post by **STRESSTEST** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 11:56 am

I've got a spanky new Abit NF7 ver. 2.0 sitting here I can't use

WarAdvocat · Post by **WarAdvocat** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 1:01 pm

Stress: PM
Krom: Worth investigating indeed.
Testi: Retail box comes with HS/F. I also have a thermaltake AMD HS/F I won @ Califest last year in case this is inadequate.
Plague: My google-fu is strong!!! (and it may be an advertising error)

STRESSTEST · Post by **STRESSTEST** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 1:58 pm

YGPM back

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 2:07 pm

Just so you'll know, you'll have to bump up the FSB on your processor or underclock your RAM to get optimal peformance.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 2:41 pm

WarAdvocat wrote:Stress: PM
Testi: Retail box comes with HS/F. I also have a thermaltake AMD HS/F I won @ Califest last year in case this is inadequate.

Retail heatsink is satisfactory for ~1.5ghz and under. Use the Thermaltake!

Scratch · Post by **Scratch** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 2:48 pm

Testiculese wrote:
WarAdvocat wrote:Stress: PM
Testi: Retail box comes with HS/F. I also have a thermaltake AMD HS/F I won @ Califest last year in case this is inadequate.
Retail heatsink is satisfactory for ~1.5ghz and under. Use the Thermaltake!

I have one of those -- it's groovy. And yes, Krom, Stress, or Testi -- I'm with WA here, I need a new system -- efficient yet cost-effective. AMD chipset would be nice since I can't see to find my windows XP disk :/

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 7:42 pm

Testiculese wrote:
WarAdvocat wrote:Stress: PM
Testi: Retail box comes with HS/F. I also have a thermaltake AMD HS/F I won @ Califest last year in case this is inadequate.
Retail heatsink is satisfactory for ~1.5ghz and under. Use the Thermaltake!

Incorrect. Apparently you haven't see any of the newer heatsink designs. The stock heatsink that came with my XP2800+ keeps it nice and cool. (38C idle, 48C full load) This is the current design, which is DEFINITELY more than enough to keep my 2.08GHz processor cool. The previous design was powerful enough to keep my old duron 700 at 38C full load. I don't have a picture of it handy, but just imagine it being tall enough to go from the base to halfway up the fan of the current design and being half an inch longer overall. That sucker kept my XP2800 around the same temps.

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 7:55 pm

Get the 2500 Mobile. It is a lot cheaper and can overclock to 2.9GHz. 2.4GHz without a sweat.

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:13 pm

I'm in the same boat. I think I'm gonna build a system with an ASUS K8V SE and
AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor

Do you all think it will run the new Doom 3 well?

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:34 pm

Aggressor Prime wrote:Get the 2500 Mobile. It is a lot cheaper and can overclock to 2.9GHz. 2.4GHz without a sweat.

I've gotten up tp 2100,mhz so far.

but, Im using a 80mm fan dialed down as far as it can go...