Can I save any money anywhere on this machine?

[Pastore]

Basically I just want a cheap, complete machine ready to go for gaming. I haven't built a PC in about 4 years so I'm a little out of date on the hardware. How is this for a cheap gaming PC? I'm not looking for OCing, and don't care about audio (will use onboard). Also, Retail CPUs come with HSF right?

newegg wish list


Let me know if I can save money anywhere on this machine. I want to keep everything from newegg.

Thanks

 

[Boy Hits Car]

You should get 2 sticks of 512meg ram instead of one stick of 1gig.

It won't save you any money, but it is a good idea since you are getting a dual channel motherboard.

 

[Pastore]

Originally posted by: Boy Hits Car
You should get 2 sticks of 512meg ram instead of one stick of 1gig.

It won't save you any money, but it is a good idea since you are getting a dual channel motherboard.

What's the advantage of that?

 

[imported_Tick]

Well, that video card is a little out of proportion to the rest of the system. You might go a with something a little older, since that rig will be CPU limited.

 

[imported_Tick]

Originally posted by: Beast1284

Originally posted by: Boy Hits Car
You should get 2 sticks of 512meg ram instead of one stick of 1gig.

It won't save you any money, but it is a good idea since you are getting a dual channel motherboard.

What's the advantage of that?

Faster memory access.

 

[Pastore]

Originally posted by: Tick
Well, that video card is a little out of proportion to the rest of the system. You might go a with something a little older, since that rig will be CPU limited.

What would you suggest then, going with an X700 and maybe a 3200+ instead? You really think the 3000+ is the bottleneck on this setup?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Beast1284

Originally posted by: Tick
Well, that video card is a little out of proportion to the rest of the system. You might go a with something a little older, since that rig will be CPU limited.

What would you suggest then, going with an X700 and maybe a 3200+ instead? You really think the 3000+ is the bottleneck on this setup?

dont. it wont be. actually drop that video card. for just a little more, this is vastly faster
http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/simprod.asp?pid=9962&ad=pwatch

x800pro vivo 256mb. it is almost as fast as the x800xl (1-2fps slower) and cheaper(vs 275 for lowest x800xl price on pricewatch). also, it is moddable(with a little conductive pen trick) to a full fledged x800xt(almost as fast as a 6800ultra)

 

[imported_Tick]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: Beast1284

Originally posted by: Tick
Well, that video card is a little out of proportion to the rest of the system. You might go a with something a little older, since that rig will be CPU limited.

What would you suggest then, going with an X700 and maybe a 3200+ instead? You really think the 3000+ is the bottleneck on this setup?

dont. it wont be. actually drop that video card. for just a little more, this is vastly faster
http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/simprod.asp?pid=9962&ad=pwatch

x800pro vivo 256mb. it is almost as fast as the x800xl (1-2fps slower) and cheaper(vs 275 for lowest x800xl price on pricewatch). also, it is moddable(with a little conductive pen trick) to a full fledged x800xt(almost as fast as a 6800ultra)

His question was whether or not he could save any money, not what he could get for the same amount of money. I contend that if he wanted to save money, and sacrifice the least preformance, then he should go with a lesser video card. However, if he were going to spend that amount on a video card, then the Pro vivo is a good choice, mostly because of the conductive pen mod.

 

[Pastore]

So basically what we're saying is the vid card is really the only way to save money on this setup then. I don't think I want to get a lower performing vid card as I want bf2 to run as good as possible.

 

[Demo24]

actually your gonna need to increase costs. I sure wouldnt want to put my rig on a PSU like that. considering its kinda weak and for a 35 buck case I doubt its gonna be of good quality to begin with.

you could cut that video card back to a 6600gt. which may save 50 or more.

 

[Pastore]

Originally posted by: DEMO24
actually your gonna need to increase costs. I sure wouldnt want to put my rig on a PSU like that. considering its kinda weak and for a 35 buck case I doubt its gonna be of good quality to begin with.

you could cut that video card back to a 6600gt. which may save 50 or more.

I just want the thing to run. I'm not overclocking or anything. What's the risk?

Is there a huge performance difference between the X800 and the 6600GT?

 

[kornphlake]

You might be able to find a cheaper hard drive if you watch the staples/ best buy/ circuit city ads, it seems like they'll occasionally have a 80 gig drive for like $25 after rebates. I'd also watch for memory deals, it seems like I've seen a gig on sale at Fry's for like $50 after rebates.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Beast1284

Originally posted by: DEMO24
actually your gonna need to increase costs. I sure wouldnt want to put my rig on a PSU like that. considering its kinda weak and for a 35 buck case I doubt its gonna be of good quality to begin with.

you could cut that video card back to a 6600gt. which may save 50 or more.

I just want the thing to run. I'm not overclocking or anything. What's the risk?

Is there a huge performance difference between the X800 and the 6600GT?

x800 and 6600gt(not to omucg, the x800 plain si supposed to be at $200 msrp(never hit that spot) and compete directly with the 6600gt(which has dropped considerably since the x800 was announced, now hovering around $160-180)

x800pro is the competitor to the much faster 6800gt, and thus will be considerably faster.

 

[IntegraGSR]

i dont think you want a powersupply that doesn't even show its specs on the main page of the manufactuer

http://www.apextechusa.com/proddetail_power.asp?id=16

edit: i'm an idiot, there's a button for a datasheet after looking through it, i would highly recommend against this PSU.. you dont want to skimp on the PSU as it powers everything in your computer and if it dies or malfunctions it can take others things with it.

 

[necine]

When you build this rig you want everything to be perfect. Wait a few weeks. Scrap together an extra hundred or two. You'll have a nice rig that will last you a couple of years with that kind of budget.

 

[Zebo]

No!! You need to upgrade that. This is bare minimum gaming rig IMO:

Mobo- MSI "K8N Neo4-F" NVIDIA nForce4 Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU $90
CPU- A64 3000 Retial box OC to 3800 w/ ease on default core- $140
RAM- 1GB Corsiar value ram PC3200 Cas 2.5 $80
Video card- Connect 3d X800xl $280
PSU- Rosewill 550W Black Mirror Power Supply with 1 x 120mm UV Blue LED Fan, Model "RP550" $60
HDD- Seagate 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model ST380013AS, 8 MB cache $70
Media player- SONY Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE Combo Drive - $30
Case- whatever $40

Total - $790 all you got to find is $100 more and this will blow that outta of water.

 

[UsandThem]

Originally posted by: Zebo
No!! You need to upgrade that. This is bare minimum gaming rig IMO:

Mobo- MSI "K8N Neo4-F" NVIDIA nForce4 Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU $90
CPU- A64 3000 Retial box OC to 3800 w/ ease on default core- $140
RAM- 1GB Corsiar value ram PC3200 Cas 2.5 $80
Video card- Connect 3d X800xl $280
PSU- Rosewill 550W Black Mirror Power Supply with 1 x 120mm UV Blue LED Fan, Model "RP550" $60
HDD- Seagate 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model ST380013AS, 8 MB cache $70
Media player- SONY Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE Combo Drive - $30
Case- whatever $40

Total - $790 all you got to find is $100 more and this will blow that outta of water.

:thumbsup:

Also you can save a few buck by getting that Maxtor 80 Gb hard drive a Compusa this week. I think they are selling them for $39.99. Seagate has a much better warranty though.

 

[imported_Tick]

Originally posted by: Zebo
No!! You need to upgrade that. This is bare minimum gaming rig IMO:

Mobo- MSI "K8N Neo4-F" NVIDIA nForce4 Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU $90
CPU- A64 3000 Retial box OC to 3800 w/ ease on default core- $140
RAM- 1GB Corsiar value ram PC3200 Cas 2.5 $80
Video card- Connect 3d X800xl $280
PSU- Rosewill 550W Black Mirror Power Supply with 1 x 120mm UV Blue LED Fan, Model "RP550" $60
HDD- Seagate 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model ST380013AS, 8 MB cache $70
Media player- SONY Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE Combo Drive - $30
Case- whatever $40

Total - $790 all you got to find is $100 more and this will blow that outta of water.

I agree this is a much better rig, and a better rig-for-the-money, however, that wasn't what he asked.

 

[aatf510]

Right, definately get MSI over ECS for $11 more.
and not sure about the x800, you should check how it compares to the 6600GT

 

[DanDaMan315]

I would step it up and notch and go for the x800xl which goes for ~$300.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'd take a cheaper XClio over the more expensive Rosewill linked above.

If you want a decent case and powersupply, Antec makes some reasonably priced combos that have high quality PSUs and the cases are well built.

 

[IntegraGSR]

lol its funny how a guy asking how he can make his new build cheaper, gets everyone telling him how he can make it more expensive :laugh:

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I'd take a cheaper XClio over the more expensive Rosewill linked above.

If you want a decent case and powersupply, Antec makes some reasonably priced combos that have high quality PSUs and the cases are well built.

however i do agree that the PSU NEEDS to be upgraded, while all the other parts will do just fine :thumbsup:

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Yeah, besides the PSU I think that's about as cheap as you're going to get it...

You could bump down to a 6600gt to save money if you really wanted to... or go 754 and get a 2800+ instead of the 3000+.

 

[Twsmit]

If you really want to save money, go S754, nforce 3 or nforce 4 (they now have NF4 for s754) 1 stick 512MB or 2x 512MB and a 6600GT or x800XL. Get a sempron 3000+ or A64 2800+ as well.

Like the guys said get a good PSU, but I think you will be fine if u really want to save money going s754.

 

[Zebo]

lol its funny how a guy asking how he can make his new build cheaper, gets everyone telling him how he can make it more expensive

Well he's better off with a used system outta FS-FT forums than what he's got there. Some parts are just sorry, no way he sould be paying for.

IE

-ECS and overclocker do not belong in same sentence.
-Apex case with a crap PSU hopfully doesnt fry anything stock. OCing forghetaboutit.
-2mb cache hdd, why? when 8's are tons faster for just a little more.

... for $100 xtra he could build a very nice setup. What he wants he's better saving his money or shopping for a used decent setup.