Building a Athlon64 rig

[Juno]

According to my old thread from four months ago, I decided to hold that until today. And I'm done with my sophomore year in college so I'm looking forward to build one with a budget of between $1,700 and $1,800.

But I might have three options:
A. Athlon64 rig
B. Pentium-M laptop (according to my laptop thread, I decided to go for Intel if I want to buy a laptop.)
C. Budget Athlon64 rig and cheap/wireless laptop

Option A:
Lian-Li PC-V1000B case - $205 (too much?)
Antec True550 550W psu - $96 (I cannot determine which one is the best PSU for A64, suggestions?)
DFI LanParty nF4 SLI-DR mobo - $196
Athlon64 3200+ with Venice core - $199
Thermalright XP-90 hsf with Vantec Tornado 92mm fan - combined $46.54 (which HSF and fan gives the monster boost when overlocking?)
Vantec fan controller - $18.49 (good fan controller?)
WD Raptor 36gig and WD Caviar 200gig - combined $222 (both drives are SATA)
BFG Tech GF6800GT OC PCI-e - $415 (single for now)
NEC DVD+RW ND-3520A - $46
Total: $1,429.03
Also, I would pull out my GeIL 2x512mb pc3200 rams from my current AthlonXP gaming desktop for this.

Option B:
Mayhem G4 with 6600 - starting at $1,549

Option C:
Lower my Athlon64 budget to $1,200 and find a Dell laptop with $750 coupon to save money.

What do you think? Serious responses please.

 

[amdskip]

Option C:
Lower my Athlon64 budget to $1,200 and find a Dell laptop with $750 coupon to save money.


Why waste so much money on a desktop when you are a college student. I could have upgraded to a 64 system a long time ago but I have not because it would be a waste of money. My XP2500 does everything I need it to do and my X31 thinkpad is simply awesome.

 

[JBDan]

I like option A but I think you should go 3000+ Venice ($100 less and with OC achieve same performance as 3500+) -- Thermalright xp90 or Zalmans offering-- All sounds pretty darn good to me Njoy that rig 🙂

 

[thespeakerbox]

C!!

TWO or ONE???

get two.

You probably wont use the crazy option A to its potential anyway.
Then again, you probably wont uyse the laptop to its potential.

I have both. I waited for the dell coupon and picked up a 700m . Get small and BIG. Saving 750 sure makes up for not using it as much as youd like to.

 

[TWills]

for college use, I'd prefer a laptop.

 

[bjc112]

Option A, but save a bit of money..

I would cut back on the Lian Li - nice case, but $205 is steep..

Get a Venice Core.. 3500+ will do, if you are interested in OC'ing get a 3000+ and save some cash..

Drop the 36gig raptor.. You either get the 74GB or you don't get one at all..

😛

Looks good though!

😛

 

[Juno]

Bump, I made some revisions.

 

[KoolDrew]

Option C

 

[theMan]

i would get an xp-120 cooler for that. i assume you really want to oc right? i mean, you have a dfi mobo + venice 3200.

 

[DfiDude]

Go for the X850 XT Connect3d for 430 bucks 🙂

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: theman
i would get an xp-120 cooler for that. i assume you really want to oc right? i mean, you have a dfi mobo + venice 3200.

The XP-120 is not worth it over the XP-90. The XP-90 is the best overall heatsink IMO.

 

[Markfw]

Option 3