Budget system building.

[T2urtle]

Ok guys i'm looking to peice together a decent computer for everyday tasks. My old rig was a p4 1.6ghz, 1gb of ram, about 260gb total harddrive. geforce 4 mx 440 64mb with a NEC 3500a.

Now i'm trying to upgrade but my old computer does what i need. I do mainly dvd encode/ rip and what not. Light gaming here and there. I just wanted to know if i was making good buy's here and the best bang for buck. My overall budget for the system would be in the $650 area. I will not be overclock at all.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103572
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor - Retail- $157

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827152070
NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With 5X DVD-RAM Write Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-4570A BK - OEM $39.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148111
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3250824AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $90.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145440
RSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail $77.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116624
Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-USB2 WinTV-PVR-usb2 - Retail $127

This leaves me with about $160 to spend on a board and a case. I'm looking for a board with onboard video/ audio right now. I'll get a decent card later on the road. And for the case i would just like a simple black case, maybe one with a side window.

Would you guys say i'm making smart moves here for the build or now. I'm just trying to get the best bang for the buck.

Again usage would be light light gaming, dvd rip/burning, some tv watching and recording. Regular daily stuff nothing hardcore at all. At this point i just want to setup with the bare min. for another computer to run. And as time progresses more parts will be added. I already have plans on another 1gb, a 2nd HD and a nice video card in the $150 area.

 

[Howard]

I think you'd be better off with a Pentium D 805 than an A64 3000+. Perhaps a little more storage, too.

 

[secretanchitman]

howard is right...maybe a cheap dual core would be good for you. even though you wont OC, its still good for multitasking.

burner is fine, hd is fine (unless you need more room), ram is fine, tv card is fine (unless you want an internal card).

as for mobo...hmm there is a model from gigabyte that has onboard video, pci-e, gigabit ethernet, 7.1 sound, coax, and etc. lemme look it up....here it might be a bit much for you though, but it has mostly all of the features you need, except firewire though and im sure you can buy a pci card for that...or if your case has a firewire port on the front, this mobo has headers on it so the front port will work.

good luck!

 

[OhioState]

a good board for you would be this one BIOSTAR TForce6100-939.

very good board also micro-atx good onboard vid and cheap good reviews

 

[T2urtle]

could you guys explain to me the reasons why it would benefit me to run a Pentium instead of AMD


also with that GB board i would beed to get 240 pin DDR. would that be more pricey ?

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: T2urtle
could you guys explain to me the reasons why it would benefit me to run a Pentium instead of AMD

For roughly the same cost, the PD 805 performs better at media encoding than the A64 3200+.

 

[Aznguy1872]

Plus it is dual core so you can mutitask much better.

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: OhioState
a good board for you would be this one BIOSTAR TForce6100-939.

very good board also micro-atx good onboard vid and cheap good reviews

hey nice find! better than what i came up with...

 

[TanisHalfElven]

msi rs-480 (i think its 480 but might be 482). x300 igp s939. pci-E slot. <70 on newegg. ati xpress 200.

 

[T2urtle]

hm... i'll put thought into it, i've always been a fan of AMD cause its was more of a bang of the buck but now it seems as the prices have matched up pretty equally.

I guess i need to do a little more homework on prices and performance between the 2. what would be something equal to 3200+ i would assume the 805.


its 482

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130520



How much would be a low low end video card pci-e form?
i've been noticing only mircoATX have on-board video, so i was just thinking of getting a regular board w/o onboard and getting a cheaper video card.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: T2urtle
hm... i'll put thought into it, i've always been a fan of AMD cause its was more of a bang of the buck but now it seems as the prices have matched up pretty equally.

I guess i need to do a little more homework on prices and performance between the 2. what would be something equal to 3200+ i would assume the 805.

The only CPU-intensive stuff you'll be doing (so you say) is the encoding, and the 805 is superior to the 3200+ at that.

 

[T2urtle]

basiclly all i'll be doing is encoding, rip, burn dvd's and TV shows. along with everyday tasks, most of which don't suck up a lot of system resources. And light gaming here and there on a lot of older games. Price diffrence is about $30 between one of the suggest boards and 3200+ vs the 805 and the board above as well. i forgot which one it favors. But as of now i'm leaning towards the 805.


Howard, when you say superior, what do you mean? Overall faster? Better quatily? Smoother system while encoding? I'm hoping its all that. If the 805 is faster at encoding then the 3200+ on average how much faster are we talking about?

 

[Cobolman]

Might want to check the Hot Deals forum...there's a Dell deal in the $600 range that's pretty damn impressive.

 

[dBTelos]

You may want to go with Kingston or Corsair value ram over the stuff you had before. For a case, I have a ultra black mid-tower with u/v blue sidewindow, its far from great but works pretty well. Very cheap on tigerdirect IIRC.

 

[T2urtle]

how hard is it up to upgrade a dell?

I'm really not liking the case but i like the system. i wanted to transfer everything over to a custom case. $600 is a nice price.

 

[LarryK]

great case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155

duel core realy nice

 

[T2urtle]

i think thats what i'm going to do. get a Dell for about 700$ and get a case and call it day.

thanks guys.