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budget gaming machine

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I had a 7750BE and was very disappointed. It was really just a spaceheater that didn't do much of anything better than my Opteron 165 so I returned the failed Phenom and the board it was combo'd with to Newegg after about a week of using it. I ended up bringing my E7200 build to campus instead and am much happier. IMO you should seriously consider the Intel route because that Phailed Phenom X2 feels like a half-assed chip. Oh yeah, the CnQ on that stupid chip doesn't work either. It will drop the multiplier but it won't drop the voltage so you end up with the same temperatures regardless. My advice is to listen to all these E5200 suggestions because they genuinely hold water.
 
Originally posted by: Zenobia
Ok, now I feel really dumb. I forgot to mention I?m allergic to intel. Sorry, consensus here reads intel, but I?ve been doing AMD for decades... almost. Intel is probably the better choice for the $$ but if I get one I?d know I?d brake out in worts. And I?m sorry about HD Radeon, etc, too, but I?ve had an Nvidia EVGA 7600 card for years that plays Crysis amazing well at fairly high settings. And the Asrock board my be el cheapo but it looks to the future. Phenom FX when and if? But thanks, you've really given me lots to consider!

(Ganesh1, it was an honor to read your comments. No negetivo here.)

Yeah, Diablo3, arf arf!
Click to expand...

thanks u might be the first guy who read my comments and replied to them(unless iam posting a new post and damn wid this brackets must have got it from my mom side 😛 )

and i think it will be best suited if we assume that ur budget is arnd 165 bucks for board and cpu

i suggest when ur going in for a budget build why not go for a brisbane chip
like this
brisbane
dunno what would be the difference cause i have always been a intel freak (no intension to offend anyone 😛)
its on a combo deak wid a mother board for 178$
a asus board 😛


but anytime if u wanna switch ur loyalty u knw u will always have a intel freak like me to stand by ur side
😛
 
Originally posted by: Zenobia
Ok, now I feel really dumb. I forgot to mention I?m allergic to intel. Sorry, consensus here reads intel, but I?ve been doing AMD for decades... almost. Intel is probably the better choice for the $$ but if I get one I?d know I?d brake out in worts. And I?m sorry about HD Radeon, etc, too, but I?ve had an Nvidia EVGA 7600 card for years that plays Crysis amazing well at fairly high settings. And the Asrock board my be el cheapo but it looks to the future. Phenom FX when and if? But thanks, you've really given me lots to consider!

(Ganesh1, it was an honor to read your comments. No negetivo here.)

Yeah, Diablo3, arf arf!
Click to expand...

lol. There's nothing wrong with brand preference, although it's amusing since AMD owns ATI (and subsequently the Radeon HD line) so you're really divying up your loyalty here.

If you don't overclock, the new Phenom II's look very promising. I used to be an OC whore before I realized how big of an impact it had on the powerbill. I run my computer 24/7 and the money I save from not overclocking can pretty much by me a new $200 cpu every two years. Now I'm a huge underclocking buff, only clocking my gpu and cpu up when I game or do heavy computing.
 
Originally posted by: nyker96
Here's my picks:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $45
Radeon HD 4830 512MB $80AR
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P45 $85AR
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz $73

about same as yours. But if you OC that E5200 to over 3.2Ghz. You'll have a killer gaming machine 4 cheap. Will be slightly faster than your suggested rig.
Click to expand...

I have the Gigabyte EP45-DS3L and a sapphire 4830.

The board let me do a decent overclock on a relatively crappy overclocking CPU. It was easy to switch from AMD to intel on this build. Overclocking the E5200 shouldn't be a problem at all. I'm really suprised at how well the 4830 performs. In some cases its over double the speed of my 3850 and games never get bogged down. It overclocks very well and i've got to say it was the best deal since i paid $79.99 for a Geforce 8800GTS 320mb a year ago.
 
Thanks to ALL, I'm working on edumacation as we speak, er, type! Yeah, Ganesh!, I looked at that Brisbane... maybe too much budgeting. Richerrich1212, that Asus is talking to me, great combo. Don't know how I missed it, I love scouring Newegg for deals. And I suppose I'll consider... ouch!... that e5200 again... maybe. Thanks!
 
The stuff you picked out adds up to $368.

These parts are currently available at newbiz.com

E5200 - $61.06
Sapphire HD 4830 - $89.76
Biostar G31-M7 OC Core 2 Quad/ Intel G31 - $36.62
STT DDR2-800 4GB (2x2GB) - $53.84

total $221.24

That's a whopping $147 savings. At stock speeds it will game just as fast, if you overclock the cpu and gpu it will be significantly faster.

Don't be fooled by the price of the motherboard, it has plenty of overclocking options and supports quad-core for future upgrades.

 
Originally posted by: dflynchimp
Originally posted by: Zenobia
Ok, now I feel really dumb. I forgot to mention I?m allergic to intel. Sorry, consensus here reads intel, but I?ve been doing AMD for decades... almost. Intel is probably the better choice for the $$ but if I get one I?d know I?d brake out in worts. And I?m sorry about HD Radeon, etc, too, but I?ve had an Nvidia EVGA 7600 card for years that plays Crysis amazing well at fairly high settings. And the Asrock board my be el cheapo but it looks to the future. Phenom FX when and if? But thanks, you've really given me lots to consider!

(Ganesh1, it was an honor to read your comments. No negetivo here.)

Yeah, Diablo3, arf arf!
Click to expand...

lol. There's nothing wrong with brand preference, although it's amusing since AMD owns ATI (and subsequently the Radeon HD line) so you're really divying up your loyalty here.

If you don't overclock, the new Phenom II's look very promising. I used to be an OC whore before I realized how big of an impact it had on the powerbill. I run my computer 24/7 and the money I save from not overclocking can pretty much by me a new $200 cpu every two years. Now I'm a huge underclocking buff, only clocking my gpu and cpu up when I game or do heavy computing.
Click to expand...


Most cpus can still be overclocked quite well, while still utilizing power saving features, which run the cpu at half-speed when idle or lightly used. I recently put together an E5200 based system - it overclocked quite easily to 3.33 Ghz, but it ran at half that speed most of the time, even while using the computer for web browsing (although it would do "micro-bursts" of higher speed when first starting up programs). It was nice - the computer felt very fast, yet used low power. I'm sure AMD has the same thing with PowerNow.

With ATI cards, its very easy to edit the BIOS so that the card is underclocked in 2D, and overclocked in 3D. By default, most GPUs are already underclocked in 2D, so you'd only need to edit the BIOS if you want to underclock it even more. You can get them virtually silent that way.

Finally, you can really save on the power bill by letting your computer go into standby when not in use. No ned to have it fully running 24/7 if you are at work or in school, or asleep. I've gotten into the habit of putting my machine into standby every night. It boots right up in a few seconds the next day. Has lowered the bill alittle bit.

Finally, if your going to support AMD (and the Kuma is a very decent chip) then you might as well support AMD with the video card as well (and you'll get better bang for the buck as well).



 
Originally posted by: MustangSVT
as much as I would like to recommand amd, intel c2d is still the king for value and performance.
Click to expand...

Yea honestly, allergic or not, You simply have to go intel if you want budget and gaming together. Just take some benadryl and work your way through it. I noticed you don't have any problem going nvidia, and nvidia and intel are best buddies, and honestly you'd be better off going the ati route for your graphics anyhow.

As for overclocking, someone mentioned you hadn't mentioned whether you planned on doing any. If you want to spend this little and have a gaming cpu, its not really an option not to. Not that it ever should be.
 
I think the lowest end CPU from AMD that would be good for gaming is the (as-yet-unreleased) Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition. Overclockable, not too expensive, three cores. I wouldn't get anything less than a Phenom II, which puts the Phenom I-based Kuma out of the picture.
 
Originally posted by: rogue1979
The stuff you picked out adds up to $368.

These parts are currently available at newbiz.com

E5200 - $61.06
Sapphire HD 4830 - $89.76
Biostar G31-M7 OC Core 2 Quad/ Intel G31 - $36.62
STT DDR2-800 4GB (2x2GB) - $53.84

total $221.24
Click to expand...



That looks like a very good deal. Two comments. The 4830 seems to be on sale a lot recently. I think $75 AR is the lowest I have seen. Second, "performance ram" is the worst return on the money for a main computer part (cpu, ram and videocard). He could save more than $20 by going with a deal from Fry's Crucial ram that is usually around $20 AR and sometimes as low as $15 (for 4GB).

Something like that would be under $200. Very close to the (if not the) best bang 4 the buck "build your own" computer for gaming.

But,

you could also go with a Dell deal which recently I have seen E7400 based w a 22" monitor and OS for around $400. That's a full setup so it has the case/psu, (small) hard drive, optical and everything else
 
Here is some memory for $16 AR:

https://shop1.frys.com/product/5530560

Crucial CT2CP25664AA800

DDR2 PC2-6400 CL=6 1.8V $36 upfront $20 MIR (expires Feb 12th)

supposedly has been as low as $10 AR

rogue, can you post a direct link to that motherboard? newbiz.com takes me to New Waves Industries.

 
Originally posted by: edplayer
Here is some memory for $16 AR:

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop1.frys.com/product/5530560">https://shop1.frys.com/product/5530560</a>

Crucial CT2CP25664AA800

DDR2 PC2-6400 CL=6 1.8V $36 upfront $20 MIR (expires Feb 12th)

supposedly has been as low as $10 AR

rogue, can you post a direct link to that motherboard? newbiz.com takes me to New Waves Industries.
Click to expand...

Ew CAS6. I know we're going for budget here, but throwing another $5 or $10 at the RAM will get CAS5 or 4.
 
Originally posted by: CoinOperatedBoy
Originally posted by: edplayer
Here is some memory for $16 AR:

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop1.frys.com/product/5530560"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop1.frys.com/product/5530560">https://shop1.frys.com/product/5530560</a></a>

Crucial CT2CP25664AA800

DDR2 PC2-6400 CL=6 1.8V $36 upfront $20 MIR (expires Feb 12th)

supposedly has been as low as $10 AR

rogue, can you post a direct link to that motherboard? newbiz.com takes me to New Waves Industries.
Click to expand...

Ew CAS6. I know we're going for budget here, but throwing another $5 or $10 at the RAM will get CAS5 or 4.
Click to expand...

Yeah no reason to suffer with CL6. I got 4GB of Corsair 4-4-4-12 for $59 at Micro Center not long ago.
 
Originally posted by: Arkaign

Yeah no reason to suffer with CL6. I got 4GB of Corsair 4-4-4-12 for $59 at Micro Center not long ago.
Click to expand...

and that averages what, about 2% better for almost 4 times the money?



If you want a lower CAS, you can get this Corsair memory for $20 AR:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...p?ProductCode=10006082


Or you could just lower the CAS on that cheap Crucial ram (probably would have to raise the voltage though). If you do this though, the proper thing to do would be to send Crucial five more dollars.

 
My take

Pick up this board

GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3HP $85
Your memory $45
Opty 1210HE $83 if you shop around
HD4830 $74

For under $300 you get a board that is AM3 compatible and the opty will OC to 3G+. Mine is stable at 3.0 (1200mhz OC). It has almost as much cache as the Kuma and is rated at a TDP of 65W, low power. Down the road you can upgrade the chip when pricing drops.
 
Keep your eyes here on the forums! i scored a e6750, gigabyte board (p35-ds3l), big typhoon HSF, and 4gb ocz reaper for 205 shipped.
 
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