Budget system. What do you think ?

[DetConan]

For my wife scrapbooking and my gaming. Can not spend more on this rig. Any comments ? (I am not an overclocker)

Case Antec Sonata II
CPU : Athlon 64 3200+ 939
Motherboard : MSI K8N-NEO4 Platinum
Videocard : XFX 7600GT
RAM : 2 x 512 de Kingston KVR400X64C25 value ram
DVD : Asus DRW-1608 16X
Hard drive : Seagate Barracuda 120gig SATA

Any suggestions (corsair instead of kingston, etc...) Will it be a good price/performance balance ? (around 1000 canadian, including XP).
Will it be a good long term investment ? Will it be easily upgradable ?

I bought my current computer (hp pavilion 6730, celeron 600) 6 years ago, without much research : I entered the store and left with it... I loved it anyway and it is still running... But today, I would like to buy a computer that I would like even more, and for as long as this one...

 

[LOUISSSSS]

consider corsair value ram, i've had bad experiences with kingston ram, but that was probably bad luck.

 

[Bobthelost]

If you're not overclocking then you should think about getting a 754 CPU instead, it means that if and when you upgrade next you'll have to swap the motherboard out as well as the CPU, but i found a newcastle 2.4Ghz 754 for the same price as a 2.0Ghz 939.

Upside: Faster CPU here and now
Downside: Harder to upgrade in the future (irrelevant if you're waiting 2 years or so)

 

[essasin]

I would get a cheaper case and get 2 gigs of ram.

 

[sportzforlife3]

oh and get the dual core intel CPU it's only like $160 on newegg.

 

[dBTelos]

Pickup a cheap case at a store, save yourself the shipping and from buying a Sonata 😉 Corsair Value RAM > Kingston Value RAM. HDD, you could go a lot bigger for about $50 more if you wanted.

 

[DetConan]

2 people suggest to buy a cheaper case. Indeed, the sonata II is a little expensive (132.00 canadian) but I tought it was a good choice because it includes a good PSU of 450W and does not need another fan for cooling. So what would be a good choice of a cheeaper case (with PSU and good cooling) ?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: DetConan
2 people suggest to buy a cheaper case. Indeed, the sonata II is a little expensive (132.00 canadian) but I tought it was a good choice because it includes a good PSU of 450W and does not need another fan for cooling. So what would be a good choice of a cheeaper case (with PSU and good cooling) ?

Unless you're doing overclocking, stick with the Sonata. Yeah it's a little pricey, but it has a beautiful mirror finish and comes with a quality power supply. If you want to overclock, go with the Antec SLK3000-B and a seperate power supply such as OCZ's 520-watt PowerStream.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: DetConan
2 people suggest to buy a cheaper case. Indeed, the sonata II is a little expensive (132.00 canadian) but I tought it was a good choice because it includes a good PSU of 450W and does not need another fan for cooling. So what would be a good choice of a cheeaper case (with PSU and good cooling) ?

First of all I would never get a case/PSU combo....
Sure the PSU will work just fine but for how long?
Most companies just throw a PSU in the case whether it be lousy or of good quality.

If I was going to but a case and a PSU seperately...
I would always go with the fortron(FSP group) PSU`s!!
For the money you can`t go wrong!!

 

[Bobthelost]

Nah, antec PSUs aren't the best out there, but they are useable. The SontaII is a nice case/PSU combo.