- Aug 9, 2004
- 4,458
- 4
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So I'm at college and my friend wants a new computer and has ~$1500 to spend. I've been away from the desktop world for awhile, ever since I got my Dell 9300 laptop, so I'm not quite sure what's the best right now. Anyway, the goal here is trying to get him the best rig for $1500. He already has a nice samsung LCD, speakers, mouse, keyboard, etc. All he needs is the tower, and I think $1500 should be able to get him so nice hardware. So far, here's what I have roughed out.
CPU: 3800+ X2 (~$320) or Opteron 170 (~$410): what's better, what about capatability?
Mobo: No clue here, I need some help. I'm only going to mildly overclock it, so I dont think he'll need all the options of a DFI board, so what else is good? MSI? Abit? Having SLI capaility will probably be good too.
RAM: 2GB of some kind of 2-3-2-5 RAM, G.Skill is looking good atm.
Video Card: I'd really like to pick up a 7800GTX 512MB, but holy crap are they expensive right now. The 1800XT doesnt seem to be worth the money, or am I missing something? The 7800GTX 256MB would be a good comprimise I guess, but the 512MB is so much more pimp
HDD: He has a 120GB, so I think I'll use that as the OS HDD and he can get a 300GB one for Page File, Games, and Movies.
Case: Something with 120mm fans, the new Antec sonata looks really nice.
PSU: The antec sonata comes with a 450watt Antec, I'm not sure if thats going to be enough though, considering a GTX 512MB draws ~284watts under load :Q . What's a beefy but reasonably priced PSU?
Then there's misc. cables, fans, probably and XP-90 for the CPU. What else should I consider? Please comment on this and suggest things I havent considered. Thanks guys!
CPU: 3800+ X2 (~$320) or Opteron 170 (~$410): what's better, what about capatability?
Mobo: No clue here, I need some help. I'm only going to mildly overclock it, so I dont think he'll need all the options of a DFI board, so what else is good? MSI? Abit? Having SLI capaility will probably be good too.
RAM: 2GB of some kind of 2-3-2-5 RAM, G.Skill is looking good atm.
Video Card: I'd really like to pick up a 7800GTX 512MB, but holy crap are they expensive right now. The 1800XT doesnt seem to be worth the money, or am I missing something? The 7800GTX 256MB would be a good comprimise I guess, but the 512MB is so much more pimp
HDD: He has a 120GB, so I think I'll use that as the OS HDD and he can get a 300GB one for Page File, Games, and Movies.
Case: Something with 120mm fans, the new Antec sonata looks really nice.
PSU: The antec sonata comes with a 450watt Antec, I'm not sure if thats going to be enough though, considering a GTX 512MB draws ~284watts under load :Q . What's a beefy but reasonably priced PSU?
Then there's misc. cables, fans, probably and XP-90 for the CPU. What else should I consider? Please comment on this and suggest things I havent considered. Thanks guys!
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