building with a budget

[T2urtle]

Hey everyone. i'll be needed a desktop soon as i'll be living on my own. And i don't want to leave my laptop on constantly. Let me start off with details on my laptop and stuff i'll be doing.

I have a dell 9300, geforce 6800, 512mb, 1.6 centrino, 40gb. I love it, i love the video card and everything. I'll mainly be leaving the desktop on 24/7 with the restarts here and there. I'm a heavy torrent downloader. A light gamer, mainly CS. I'll be using this computer to burn, rip, encode dvd's and cd's weekly. Aside from that the normal stuff surfing web, AIM, junk like that. I MIGHT plan on starting some other games but not as of now.

I have a $600-700 budget area. I would like something based off A64. If i do go custom build, i don't plan on getting all the parts at once. Just pickup the barebones, probaly run off on-board video, audio for the first couple of months and pick up a part a month or so. My 2nd choice was to buy a computer off the shelfs and slowly add on to that. I had my eye on a emachine that i'll link you guys at the bottom and just thinking i'll add on stuff to that. Now that emachine and gateway are one i think the quaility has gotten a lot better. And parts aren't failing prematurely. I dont know which would be the best for me as of now. please give me some input

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp...pcmcat18700050010&id=pcmprd46300050011

after rebates its about 700$-800 after taxes

AMD 3500+, 1GB ram, 200gb, ATI radeon 200 and DL dvd burner. with printer and 15in moniter.

Seems pretty decent. I would assume that ATI card isn't great but will play Counter-strike decently. And later on i'll swap out the ATi card, throw in another 200gb and a 2nd DL-burne, put it in a nicer case and call it a day. I dont know how expanable are these emachines but looks to have 3 PCI cards. and a PCI-E for the video cards. would this be a best bang for the buck.


Getting the emachine will save me from buying an OS, LCD and downtime building.

 

[T2urtle]

i've been looking into everything trying to price out everything and i dont see anything that can compare to emachine in parts. But i dunno about the quaility of the parts tho

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Emachines are pretty cheap, it's true, but that deal seems to be over-budget for you. Not only is it ~$50 more than your $700 cutoff, but you have to put down an initial ~$1,050. It doesn't seem like an ideal solution, but if you want it, you don't have to worry about getting ripped off. That deal is pretty nice.

However, if you know how to build your own, you might do well to order parts from NewEgg.com. They're not always the absolute cheapest place, but they offer reliable service and quick shipping. And they are pretty close to being cheapest.

For CPUs, you should probably stick to an Athlon 64 3200+ or below, and overclock the heck out of it. If you really want to save money, you can go with a Sempron 2800+ like I did. They get to 2.4 GHz easily, which is a little better than an Athlon 64 3300+ at stock.

For motherboards, you have several very nice choices. If you're getting a socket-754 Sempron, go for the Biostar GeForce 6100-M7. It has amazing overclocking features, as well as perhaps the best integrated video on the market. It also has a PCIe x16 slot if you prefer a dedicated graphics card. If you're going for socket 939, you can opt for the Biostar GeForce 6100-M9 with integrated graphics, or the Epox EP-9NPA+ Ultra for a more feature-rich nForce4 board. There are lots of other boards out there, many of which would also fit your needs, but those three in particular stand out from the crowd.

For a DVD burner, the NEC ND-3550A is quite possibly the best drive on the market right now.

For a hard disk, you might consider getting twin SATA drives in RAID 0. Anything by Western Digital, Seagate, Samsung or Maxtor should be pretty reliable. Avoid Hitachi and Magnetic Data Technology.

Good luck!

 

[T2urtle]

i've put together rigs myself, no problem. i've mainly put together AMD athlon systems. non for myself. I would get a NEC 3550A for sure because i have 2500a drive. its the best. I would like to stick with the a64 instead of going sempron.

I'm worried about how realible that system is. My friends have had old emachines prior to the gateway/ emachine thing. like 5+ years old emachines and they all craped out one way or the other. One machine crap out on because of the PSU. ANd i couldn't find a small enough PSU that fits the case and so i swap the case out. Later on the hard-drive failed and we just gave up. Thats my main worry. Yea the sytem is $50 over my budget, but i think its a fair deal given the LCD and everything.

I was trying to peice myself together a system but got stumped on the board. but now that you listed a couple boards that might help me. I don't plan to overclock. Its not my thing. I have an idea of all the stuff i want. But the main thing i have no clue about is a motherboard. I want a reliable motherboard.


right now this is what parts i was looking at

NEC 3550a $40
WD 200GB 7200RPM SATA $92
Corsair 1gb $99
a64 3200+ $174
Case $50
__________________________________________
That brings me to like $450 area


All i would really need is a motherboard with onboard video/sound. I would also need a LCD. within a $250 area for both items.

 

[Tbirdkid]

shuttle, 3200 venice, 1gb value ram, 200gb hdd, 6600gt. peace love and hair grease.

 

[Away]

Emachines last time I checked were using MSI motherboards in their AMD systems. If they still are, you can't find a better budget box.

 

[T2urtle]

i found out that its a ATI RS482 chipset. Which means the A64 can either be 754 or 939. But from what i recalled 3500+ A64 chips were only made in a 939 pin.

http://www.e4me.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_T6524

It doesn't say what type of board or anything. Where would i find this out?



Can anyone tell me if its an micro ATX or a standard? Would i have any problems swaping the whole system out an putting it into a new case.

 

[Away]

They use mATX boards in there cases. The best way to find out if they are using MSI boards currently would be to stop by your local computer store and crack the floor case open. The people at Best Buy didn't say anything to me when I did it.

 

[Away]

This would most likely be the board here.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RS482M4-ILD&class=mb

 

[GamerExpress]

Emachines are junk!!! I wouldn't recomend them to anyone.

 

[T2urtle]

Originally posted by: Away
This would most likely be the board here.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RS482M4-ILD&class=mb

it looks to be like a older version of that board. its definately a 939 socket if it is a MSI board.

looks to be a m-ATX as well. Something that i would want to change out and have a full size ATX board later down the road. Would that be a problem? I wouldn't think so mainly just grab another socket 939 board and by that time i'll probaly have a video/ audio card set up already.



Gamerxpress... if this was a couple of years back i would have to agree with you 110%. But it seems to me like the merger with gateway has made them step up their game. Plus I might just get a 1 year warranty with them just in case. But $650for a completely a64 system with a 15's LCD seems cheaper then i can build. Just hopes it can handle being on 24/7

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: T2urtle

Originally posted by: Away
This would most likely be the board here.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RS482M4-ILD&class=mb

it looks to be like a older version of that board. its definately a 939 socket if it is a MSI board.

looks to be a m-ATX as well. Something that i would want to change out and have a full size ATX board later down the road. Would that be a problem? I wouldn't think so mainly just grab another socket 939 board and by that time i'll probaly have a video/ audio card set up already.



Gamerxpress... if this was a couple of years back i would have to agree with you 110%. But it seems to me like the merger with gateway has made them step up their game. Plus I might just get a 1 year warranty with them just in case. But $650for a completely a64 system with a 15's LCD seems cheaper then i can build. Just hopes it can handle being on 24/7

Agree with T2urtle.

I work on eMachines all the time and their systems are far from junk. The boards are made by MSI with custom Tattoo'd BIOS. Boards are off the shelf, but BIOS is just tatt'd. I would disagree.

 

[Serrinon]

It sounds like you need the entire package (PC, monitor, and printer). So with that in mind, the Emachines would be nice. However, if you don't need the monitor and printer, you can build your own PC and it will be nicer.

I have an emachines and it has been nice, was just what I needed at the time, but the little things bother me now, I purchased it 1 year ago, and the 160 GB HD, has 2MB cache!! My MOBO is also crap, but it is an Asocket FIC MOBO, so if they are using MSI now, that is much better. But you really really can't beat it if you need a monitor and printer.

 

[T2urtle]

actually i am looking for a entire package. Well i don't like this printer and but it will work for now. Well what my plan is would be to pick this package up and slowly in time upgrade everything that i see fit. First couple of things would be video card, add a 2nd hard-drive and sound card. 2nd thing would be maybe to put it in a nicer case and if the board screws up on me, pick up a mid-range board.


I just looked at the system at bestbuy. The 15in LCD looks really really tiny compared to the 17in one. The board seems to be a m-ATX from the size of the case. It ran pretty quiet at the store but then again that proves nothing. I like this system. Probaly getting this soon. Once i finish my x-mas shopping. plus i wanted to see if anyone has any more comments on this.