building barebones on a budget

[blackrain]

I am on a really tight budget right now and don't want to spend much more than $160 on a core barebones setup (cpu, memory, mobo). However, I want a motherboard that I can upgrade next April with a better cpu and ram if that is even possible.

I have extra peripherals lying around (hard drives, video cards, cdrom, dvd, rom, etc). I even have a case and power supply ready to go.

Anyway, I found a good deal on a refurb GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 nVIDIA nFORCE 570SLI CHIPSET mobo for under $50.

I was looking at AMD Athlon X2 dual-core 4600+ (ADO4600CZBOX) 2.4ghz energy efficient w/1mb cache 65nm 65w (brisbane) 64-bit socket am2 retail cpu for about $66

Zipzoomfly also has this:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...sp?ProductCode=80724-7



Here are some questions that I have:

1) I would like to know whether either or both of those cpu selections are compatible with the GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4
2) What RAM should I get? I am guessing that I will have about $40-50 to play around with.
3) For the GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4, since it is a refurb, I am guessing that it may not come with an i/o shield. How can I get one? I went to the gigabyte website and there was an accessories link, but it did not have i/o shields
4) Do you recommend a completely different setup?

 

[pugh]

That mobo is very nice. I have been using it since last Aug.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

For $50 if you hunt really hard you can get 4GB, but most likely 2-3GB of solid DDR2-800 RAM.

 

[blackrain]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
For $50 if you hunt really hard you can get 4GB, but most likely 2-3GB of solid DDR2-800 RAM.

What kind of specs?

I see these two as options but one has CAS latency of 4 (2 sticks) while the other option has CAS latency of 5 (1 stick). How would you suggest to go?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231087
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231121


By the way, do you have any recommendation of ram in terms of compatibility?

 

[cparker]

Or you could get the gigabyte 780g matx motherboard for 90 or so shipped, add an le-1640 single core cpu for 40, and spend the 30 (might have to go up to 35) left over for two gigs of ram (probably after rebate). Later you can upgrade the cpu and increase ram as you planned, but you will have a motherboard with great integrated graphics and lots of other "state of the art" goodies. The cpu can generally be easily overclocked with that motherboard, and it will then "fly" with single threaded applications, so you might not even need to upgrade the cpu for a while. This would make sense if you don't have a graphics card available already that's has better performance than the amd 780g integrated graphics. If you do have a better graphics card, then the original motherboard you have a good deal on, refurbished, makes better sense, although I'd consider the single core 45 watt cpus, depending on the applications you're running. Dollar for dollar they run faster than the low power dual cores.

 

[blackrain]

Originally posted by: cparker
Or you could get the gigabyte 780g matx motherboard for 90 or so shipped, add an le-1640 single core cpu for 40, and spend the 30 (might have to go up to 35) left over for two gigs of ram (probably after rebate). Later you can upgrade the cpu and increase ram as you planned, but you will have a motherboard with great integrated graphics and lots of other "state of the art" goodies. The cpu can generally be easily overclocked with that motherboard, and it will then "fly" with single threaded applications, so you might not even need to upgrade the cpu for a while. This would make sense if you don't have a graphics card available already that's has better performance than the amd 780g integrated graphics. If you do have a better graphics card, then the original motherboard you have a good deal on, refurbished, makes better sense, although I'd consider the single core 45 watt cpus, depending on the applications you're running. Dollar for dollar they run faster than the low power dual cores.

So you recommend this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103239

Would it also run with the board that I originally selected?


Also, I am looking at the specs for the board you recommended and trying to udnerstand what the state-of-the-art "goodies" are. can you elaborate more on that. I saw something about HDMI which seemed interesting. Does that mean I could hook up my TV through the HDMI?

I am a gamer and like the SLI on the M57SLI. So I am trying to understand what I am what would be getting from the 780g if I gave up the SLI.

btw, beware...I know enough to be dangerous. I haven't upgraded in a long time so I am not completely up to speed with the latest tech

 

[cparker]

The processor will work with any am2 board. Since that board is am2 you wouldn't have problems with it. As to the advantages of the 780g gigabyte board, well that's a fairly involved topic. Basically it has a very powerful graphics capability built into the chipset. You could read up on the board and the chipset and figure out how it compares to discrete graphics cards, for example it's comparable to this or that ati or nvidea based card, etc. You then see what you have in your own inventor. As to sli stuff, I don't know much about it as all I'm doing with mine is using the onboard graphics which is pretty good, but the board has capabilities of working with other compatible graphics cards simultaneously. You can read up about it here in one of the forums, do a google search, whatever. It also has blu ray capability, firewire, gigabit network adapter, hdmi connector for hdtv, and built in sound that's pretty good, much better than earlier generation of onboard sound (this from my own listening and from reviews) Again you would need to read up about all of this. The board has its critics as well. It has problems when you have very high wattage cpus, as documented in some articles the past month here at anandtech. But for anything under 100 watts or so, I think it's fine. Lots to read and think about. I have one and it's been one nice board, after updating the bios and drivers. Running vista on it with the big brother of that chip I mentioned (the le 1640) and it's very nice and fast for whatever I have to throw at it (should mention I don't do gaming) at stock 2.6 ghz speed. Hope this helps.

 

[blackrain]

One thing I should have noted. Originally, I was only thinking about this as mainly a gaming system with a nice video card purchase and cpu upgrade next year.

But cparker opened my eyes to the potential for HTPC with the 780G. I just got a new HDTV.

So lets say I go with the Gigabyte 780G. How does the whole "hybrid" feature work? Putting aside crossfire, would I still be able to use the onboard graphics in combination with a nice video card (8800, 9600, etc).

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: blackrain
One thing I should have noted. Originally, I was only thinking about this as mainly a gaming system with a nice video card purchase and cpu upgrade next year.

But cparker opened my eyes to the potential for HTPC with the 780G. I just got a new HDTV.

So lets say I go with the Gigabyte 780G. How does the whole "hybrid" feature work? Putting aside crossfire, would I still be able to use the onboard graphics in combination with a nice video card (8800, 9600, etc).

Hybrid crossfire works by using Crossfire with the onboard GPU which is usually an 8400m, with a similar add on GPU of around the same strength (8400,8500gt,8600gt). It would be a waste to put anything higher than an 8600gt, because Crossfire basically doubles the lowest card. In other words using an 8800gt in hybrid crossfire would give lower scores than the 8800gt by itself.

Hybrid crossfire is a cheap way (w/ $30-40 8400) to get mediocre gaming power (almost up to 9600gt standards) but thats it. If you want better graphics gaming than that, forget about hybrid crossfire

 

[blackrain]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy

Originally posted by: blackrain
One thing I should have noted. Originally, I was only thinking about this as mainly a gaming system with a nice video card purchase and cpu upgrade next year.

But cparker opened my eyes to the potential for HTPC with the 780G. I just got a new HDTV.

So lets say I go with the Gigabyte 780G. How does the whole "hybrid" feature work? Putting aside crossfire, would I still be able to use the onboard graphics in combination with a nice video card (8800, 9600, etc).

Hybrid crossfire works by using Crossfire with the onboard GPU which is usually an 8400m, with a similar add on GPU of around the same strength (8400,8500gt,8600gt). It would be a waste to put anything higher than an 8600gt, because Crossfire basically doubles the lowest card. In other words using an 8800gt in hybrid crossfire would give lower scores than the 8800gt by itself.

Hybrid crossfire is a cheap way (w/ $30-40 8400) to get mediocre gaming power (almost up to 9600gt standards) but thats it. If you want better graphics gaming than that, forget about hybrid crossfire

Basically, I like the HTPC aspects of the 780G (advanced audio, HDMI, bluray, energy saving features, etc).

If I want to use a high end discrete card, does that mean that I have to disable the onboard video features?

The issue to me is whether the onboard features can stay "on" when I use a high end gaming card for gaming. I might want to switch over from a game to some bluray, and don't want to restart the system to enable the onboard video and disable the discrete card.

Maybe I am not understanding something here? Will a discrete card always be "crippled" by the fact that the IGP clock is slower?


On the other hand, if a discrete card will always be crippled by the IGP clock, then does it make sense to disable the IGP and how easy or difficult is that? I guess that you lose the HDMI if you want to use a high end card. is there no solution to this?

 

[blackrain]

Upon further research, I see that mid-range and high-end video cards now come with native hdmi ports (or at least converters) and are perfect for a combo HTPC/high-end gaming system for use with an internal bluray player. Is that correct?


If so, I would like to leave the 780g discussion because it sounds like that board would actually hold me back.

Turning back to my original mobo selection, that mobo is now sadly gone.

So, just wondering what you think of:

GIGABYTE GA-MA69G-S3H AMD 690G
GIGABYTE GA-N650SLI-DS4L
GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3


They are basically all the same price. I think I am probably going to stay away from SLI and use a single graphics card so the N650SLI is probably not that relevant.

I could not find much about the MA770-DS3

 

[blackrain]

Final build:

refurbed GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 ($50)
le-1640 single core cpu ($40-50)
2GB g.Skill DDR2 800 ram

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231087
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231121

I am still not sure whether to go with the 1 or 2 piece memory kit.


Any final thoughts?

 

[Roguestar]

A higher density stick is better because then later on you can always add another! Besides the 1 DIMM is cheaper than the 2 DIMM set.