AMD budget setup for a friend...

[stech4u]

keep in mind that he prolly wants to upgrade a year & a half from now, but not a very dramatic one. he intends to play cs1.6, and maybe hl2 but just do daily thing like check email, word process, and internet...

his budget is $400-500 tops w/ tax and s&h (especially from newegg.com since we live in CA)

CASE:
ANTEC SOLUTION SERIES MODEL SLK3700AMB w/ANTEC SMART POWER 350W P4/AMD POWER SUPPLY ATX12V - RETAIL

VIDEO:
Sapphire Atlantis ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB 8X AGP DVI/TV BULK

CPU:
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ Thoroughbred /266 FSB Processor CPU 1800+/ 1.53GHz -0.13 micro OEM

QUESTIONS:
>> which HSF should he get for this???
>> which MOBO???
>> which RAM config??? Buffalo Tech 512MB PC3200 good enough, or should he go 2x256??? if so, which???

thanks in advance.

 

[wetcat007]

uh AMD Athlon 1800+? WHY? get a tbred rev b 1700 or 2100 and a Epox8rda+, and a ThermalRight SLK800/900 and a decent 80 mm fan.

 

[stech4u]

okay... let's start over... but for sure, he wants to get this card...

VIDEO:
Sapphire Atlantis ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB 8X AGP DVI/TV BULK

he'll need suggestions for the following (while staying in the range of $400-500 tops w/ tax and s&h):

>> CPU
>> Heatsink & Fan
>> MOBO
>> CASE
>> CDRW & DVD ROM, or COMBO (whichever is better in performance)

thanks.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: stech4u
keep in mind that he prolly wants to upgrade a year & a half from now, but not a very dramatic one. he intends to play cs1.6, and maybe hl2 but just do daily thing like check email, word process, and internet...

his budget is $400-500 tops w/ tax and s&h (especially from newegg.com since we live in CA)

CASE:
ANTEC SOLUTION SERIES MODEL SLK3700AMB w/ANTEC SMART POWER 350W P4/AMD POWER SUPPLY ATX12V - RETAIL

VIDEO:
Sapphire Atlantis ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB 8X AGP DVI/TV BULK

CPU:
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ Thoroughbred /266 FSB Processor CPU 1800+/ 1.53GHz -0.13 micro OEM

QUESTIONS:
>> which HSF should he get for this???
>> which MOBO???
>> which RAM config??? Buffalo Tech 512MB PC3200 good enough, or should he go 2x256??? if so, which???

thanks in advance.

Great case,stick with this one.

Cpu a barton 2500+.

Nice video card too,will be good in HL2.

Mobo, Asus A7N8X

Buffalo sounds good.

 

[0roo0roo]

depends if you want to oc. 1 gb of ram recommended. you only need 2700+ for a low end xp cpu anyways you know.

i o/c my 59 dollar m/b cpu from frys to 2.4ghz, requires a little work though.

 

[chocoruacal]

Do a search for "budget". You'll get 2 pages worth of posts in the past week alone.

>> >> CPU
>> Heatsink & Fan
>> MOBO
>> CASE
>> CDRW & DVD ROM, or COMBO (whichever is better in performance)

1. Retail XP2500 = $90
2. Whichever nForce2 board has the features he needs, and will fit in his budget = $70-$100
3. Antec 2600 = $70
4. 48x CDRW = free-$10 after rebate/coupon. DVDRW = $100

As for RAM...quality over quantity. He can always upgrade to more later. 256MB of HyperX or Twinmos should be enough for word processing and porn.

Thats the bare minimum I would do right now. Anything under a 2500 would be a waste of money and if he had any business overclocking, he wouldn't need us to pick the parts out for him.

 

[dmw16]

Case and video are good. Here is what I would get.

CPU: XP1700+ you can find one w/ good stepping for about $55 on the net
MOBO: Epox 8RDA+ should be about $80 and it has sound, NIC, USB2, firewire
RAM: 512MB of the best priced DDR400 you can find (as long as it comes from a decent vendor), Buffulo is good stuff
HEATSINK: SLK800
FAN: Panaflo H1A
THERMAL GREASE: Artic Silver

With this setup you wil be able to overclock to 2.0ghz pretty much for sure. I have a 1700+ that does 2325mhz on 1.85V on an Epox 8RDA. With that HSF you should get good cooling. Make sure you have a good set of case fans.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Originally posted by: stech4u
okay... let's start over... but for sure, he wants to get this card...

VIDEO:
Sapphire Atlantis ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB 8X AGP DVI/TV BULK

he'll need suggestions for the following (while staying in the range of $400-500 tops w/ tax and s&h):

>> CPU
>> Heatsink & Fan
>> MOBO
>> CASE
>> CDRW & DVD ROM, or COMBO (whichever is better in performance)

thanks.

I agree get the motherboard with the features he needs
i've had the pleasure of trying 3 different NF2 motherboards (dfi lanparty, asus a7n8x delux, abit nf7-s)
out of all these the abit is definately my favorite
I recommend getting one with sata so that way he is set with that support
get a good psu like 400 watts or more if you can
the heatsinks that come with the 2500+ are pretty good
i don't know if any other athlon retail heatsinks have a copper base plate
what cpu you get really depends on what he is gonna be doing with the comp and how much money is left in your budget

also i recommend getting 512mb of mem if you can (3200+ or better)
256 just ain't enough anymore


good luck

 

[Cerb]

CPU: get a 1700+ and overclock it, or 2500+ (and you can still overlock this one, too).

HSF: Speeze HSF w/ 80mm fan ($12 at Newegg)--no need for thermal paste. Long model number. Get a better one if you're going to overclock, like an SK-7 and Panaflo L1A, or SLK-800 and L1A. Get Arctic Ceramique unless you have Arctic Silver already. About the same temps and far easier to use.

Mobo: ECS L7S7A2 ($52 at Newegg). Performance is on par w/ NForce2 using a single channel of DDR. Only other note is that getting the Zalman NB cooler (NB32 or NB47) is preferable if you want to hit or exceed 200MHz FSB, as they put the HS it comes with on with tape. Check AMDMB's forums for a few good stickies and other threads on this mobo.
However, if you need really good sound onboard, go with a nice NForce2.

RAM: 1x512 for above mobo.

The video card should be fine.

CDRW: check retail outlets for rebates.

If you need to upgrade the PSU, check out the Fortron PSUs at Newegg. The 300w and 350w are both excellent.