• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

$900 budget : Gaming rig

EQTitan

EQTitan

Diamond Member
I have a very small budget of $900 roughly (trying to sell/trade my laptop list HERE)

I was wondering what type of specs I would be looking at for a gaming rig, for games like UT2k4, Quake Arena, and Worlds of warcraft. I know this small ammount of money probably won't even get me a decent gamer but maybe something I can start with and build from there. Any input at all is greatly appreciated....

Thanks.
 
At 900 you can get a very decent rig
Here's my suggestion

Cpu: Athlon Xp 3000 not 64 bit ~ 120
Motherboard: A good socket 462 based mobo ~80
Graphics- Geforce 6800 NU for ~290 or if you want to save some more a Radeon 9800 Pro can be had for under 200 bucks
Ram- Good DDR 400 Ram goes for about $180 for 1 gig or about 100 for 512mb
Drives- 16x DVD >40 DVD Burner >80
Case and Powersupply- >80
Finally HDD (I'm guessing 120gigs should be good nuff) ~80
Soundcard, NIC, modem, etc free because they are integrated
So if you opt for the 6800 Nu your final price should be approx $865
If you pick the 9800 I'd say about $700

Hope that helps

BTW: This will be more than just a decent gaming machine😉
 
Can you recommend a specific board? What is a good site to order from as shipping will be the most expensive unless it's free...
 
What does the $900 include? Just the box, or all the peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers) as well? If the former, you can get a pretty decent rig, if the latter, you'll have to squeeze a bit to get it all in.
 
$185 athlon 64 2800+
$65.00 Antec Solution Series Quiet Black Mid Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "SLK2650-BQE"
$61.95 Western Digital Special Edition 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD800JB, OEM Drive Only
$77 A-DATA 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - OEM
$77 A-DATA 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - OEM
$88 CHAINTECH "VNF3-250" nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboar
$4.69 SPEEZE 120mm System Cooler
$42 Sony Black 52x32x52x16 Combo Drive

NO video card

Total: $619.64 with shipping

With Geforce eVGA 6800 GT: $1,1018.64
With Geforce eVGA 6800 : $908.64

I built my friend a similar system, the a-data ram works with the board in case you were wondering.
 
Where did you buy the parts?

I'd need more Case power maybe 400w ~ 420w
GFX5900 maybe or the ATI 9800 Sapphire
DVDROM 16x
NEC 2510a DL DVD+RW+R
 
Newegg. Are you sure you need more case power? Antec's are quality power supplies and the included power supply even has 21 amps on the 12v rail which isnt too shabby ;P Get the 9800 over the 5900 if you are going to be playing Halflife2. Doom 3 in theory will run better on the Nvidia hardware.
 
Mainly a UT2K4, Quake arena, and would like to play soe other FPs game with no video lag issues.

Here is what I got using newegg.com

$55 - RAIDMAX "Silence" Black Mid-Tower Case with 420Watt Power Supply, Model "811TP" -RETAIL
$88 - Western Digital Special Edition 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD1200JB, OEM Drive Only
$180 - Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 1G(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - OEM
$70 - GIGABYTE "GA-7VT600 1394" KT600 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
$146 - AMD Athlon XP 3000+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail
$167 - Sapphire Radeon "9800 Atlantis" Video Card, 128MB DDR 128bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model 594L 1024-1C47, OEM

Total = $734.44 2nd day shipping (no drives, DVD CDR)
 
Do not get that 9800 pro 128bit card, the memory is crippled serverely with only half the bandwidth. Buy the $199 version. That power supply also is really weak on its +12v line with only 13 amps. The 3000+ barton is a rip off! Get a mobile 2500/2600 and a quality heatsink and overclock it to 2.5ghz.

Get the Abit NF7-S motherboard for $85, Amd Athlon Mobile xp 2500+ for $88, and a nice heatsink/fan (perhaps someone could make a suggestion on that? 😛 )
 
The only reason you'd want more power than a 350W Antec is if you're planning on having four hard drives, a heavily overclocked CPU and a 6800GT. A 350W Antec or Enermax is going to hold up a whole lot better than that 420W Raidmax PSU. Most people would call that case a really bad idea when the Antec 2650-BQE is $10 more.

If you're smart enough to build your own system, there's no reason to ever get an XP 3000+. You'd get better performance out of a $77 Mobile Athlon 35W. Or, if you want a retail CPU, get an $80 Barton 2500 and set the FSB to 200.

Usually it's worth it to get a 160GB drive instead of a 120GB, seeing as they're about $10 more at the most. Also, look around at some benchmarks. Look at the speed, number of complaints, heat and noise with current WD drives. Seagate/Samsung/Hitachi all make better drives with 3-year warranties these days.

There's absolutely no reason to get a KT600 board. NF2 boards are better. Get an $85 Abit NF7-S if you want SATA. Otherwise get a Shuttle AN35N.

That Radeon you listed is a waste of money. Did you notice the horrible reviews it has on Newegg? There's no point in getting a Radeon 9800 if you're not going to get a 256-bit model. The real Radeon 9800 Pro for $199 totally blows that one away, and can be overclocked easily.

"Matched memory" is a pretty much bogus concept, so there's no reason to get it unless it saves you money. In the case of that memory, you're paying an extra $9 to have your memory in one package instead of two.
 
What I'd make:

$87: Mobile Athlon XP 2400+ 35W
$85: Abit NF7-S
$199: Sapphire R9800 Pro (with XT core)
$185: Raptor 74
$158: 2 x 512MB Mushkin PC3200 CL2.5
$42: Sony black combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM
$65 + $15: Antec SLK2650-BQE
$35.99 + $4: Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu heatsink
$12.99 + $4: Vantec IceBerg 4 Copper video heatsink

$892.98 delivered

Of course, you'd want a floppy to install your SATA drivers, maybe some nice round cables, some Arctic Silver 5, an 80mm intake fan... Most of those things you save a lot by buying about 6 at a time, or just get them locally. You do get a $20 rebate on the Raptor, so it would come out to right about $900.
 
A64 2800+ OEM - $173
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu - $36
Chaintech VNF3-250 - $88
2x 512MB Crucial PC3200 - $156
eVGA GeForce 6800 128MB - $289
Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM 8MB SATA - $66
Samsung 52x32x52x16 DVD/CD-RW - $41
Antec SLK2650-BQE w/ 350W - $65
---
$914 (I /hope/ you can scrounge up the extra $14...)
While most people will likely recommend an AXP Mobile + 9800 Pro for this price range, if I can fit it in (and I just did), I'd personally rather have the low end of the next generation than the high end of the previous one. For example, an Athlon XP Barton at 2.4GHz is on par at games with an A64 Newcastle at 1.8GHz - and you can overclock the A64 2800+ to at least 2.25GHz, or higher if you can find a way around the 250 max FSB in the Chaintech's BIOS (such as, for example, clockgen). The 6800 will be a good 20-30% faster than a 9800XT (not to mention the Pro), and the gap will only widen once they're both overclocked. Not to mention that nVidia has yet to release their "super driver" with across the board 10-20% performance increases for this generation (and they've done so for just about *every* generation so far, so I'd be rather shocked if they didn't), or that no one has yet examined the possibility of a mod to unlock the extra 4 pipes in the 6800.
 
go with the rig illisius recommended. the only things i would change would be...

get mushkin 3200 instead. same price, and better timings.
 
Originally posted by: Tostada
What I'd make:

$87: Mobile Athlon XP 2400+ 35W
$85: Abit NF7-S
$199: Sapphire R9800 Pro (with XT core)
$185: Raptor 74
$158: 2 x 512MB Mushkin PC3200 CL2.5
$42: Sony black combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM
$65 + $15: Antec SLK2650-BQE
$35.99 + $4: Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu heatsink
$12.99 + $4: Vantec IceBerg 4 Copper video heatsink
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: Illissius
A64 2800+ OEM - $173
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu - $36
Chaintech VNF3-250 - $88
2x 512MB Crucial PC3200 - $156
eVGA GeForce 6800 128MB - $289
Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM 8MB SATA - $66
Samsung 52x32x52x16 DVD/CD-RW - $41
Antec SLK2650-BQE w/ 350W - $65
Click to expand...

These are both excellent rigs to model your purchase after. Of course, there is always room for a bit of variation. There's no reason to buy yourself an XP 3000+. The only reason you'd want an XP system is if you were going to overclock pretty moderately, in which case you'd want a 35w 2400+ mobile as per listed above. I probably wouldn't get the raptor, though. I'd prefer to use the extra money I'd get from getting a 7200RPM drive towards something else, such as upgrading from that radeon 9800 to the 6800. In all likelihood, though, getting an A64 2800+ will probably be best for you, and if you lightly overclock it to perhaps 3000+, it will serve you very well.
 
I'd have to go dig up the benchmarks, but in games the overclocked Mobile Athlon is faster than the non-overclocked Athlon 64 2800+. And if you wanted to go $50 over budget and get a slower hard drive, you could even put a 6800GT on the Mobile Athlon system.

All you guys recommending the Athlon 64 system are just squeezing the budget a little too tight. You're having to get the Athlon 64 2800+, but that CPU is slower than a Mobile Athlon is going to be at 12x200, which every one I've seen is able to hit at under 1.85v. The Athlon 64 2800+ is locked. Aren't you going to need better memory to overclock it?

If he could raise the budget to an even $1000, the Athlon 64 would be great, but I certainly don't see it being better for a $900 system.

I would say that if he wants the absolute best gaming performance for $900, get a Mobile Athlon and overclock it. If he wants a slightly better system for the future, get an Athlon 64 and save some money on the video card.
 
i had a 2400 mobile running at 12 x 200 and my a64 2800+ is faster, without a doubt
with my a64 overclocked, there is a very noticible difference
get a 9800 pro with a r360 core for 200 and mod it
those two are good bang for the buck - the mobile athlon xp is cheaper, but think about the future too
 
Originally posted by: EQTitan
Ok, my new list

What is the difference between the M2400 35w Athlon and the AMD64 2800+ ?? aside from price....

A64 2800+ OEM - $173
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu - $36
Chaintech VNF3-250 - $88
2x Mushkin PC3200 DDR400 - $154
SAPPHIRE ATI R9800 PRO - $199
Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM 8MB SATA - $66
NEC 8X Beige Dual Layer - $79.99
Antec SLK2650-BQE w/ 350W - $65

Total = $932.78 (S & H and Tax included)
Click to expand...

I know it isn't really important, but get a black DVD with that case!

Also, you will need a floppy drive to install Windows on that SATA HD, since the SATA drivers are not present on the Windows XP cd. If you already have one laying around, that's cool use that one. Once Windows is installed, you can get rid of it again if you don't need it for anything. .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top