Computer Part Recommendations :)

[FuManStan]

Hey guys, i havent been keeping with a lot of recent hardware and prices so i was wondering if you can pick out some parts for my friend. He has a $600 budget for every part for a new computer except a monitor and a video card (a gf3 ti200 he has from his old computer). Intel or AMD doesn't really matter. It will be mostly for gaming, all sorts of games like first person shooters, strategy, sports games. It would be nice to have something that could be upgraded a bit later on and that can a bit. Things like RAID or Firewire or other features aren't really a big deal. 512 ram is preferred. And... let's see what other information would be helpful.... hard drive space isn't too big of an issue, i think 60 would suffice. I think that's all i've got, if you need any more details i'll check 🙂 Thanks ahead of time!

 

[Soulkeeper]

well lets see

$198 - athlonxp 2400+
$150 - samsung 512mb pc2700
$155 - asus a7n8x nforce2 chipset

those are just some prices off of newegg.com just to get the ball rolling..
everything is a trade off
that's over 500
you can get a slower cpu for like 60 bucks
or some faster mem if he plans on overclocking for like 200 bucks
you have the choice of the retail HSF or buying a separate one with the cheaper OEM cpu
does he have a case/psu ??
does he plan on overclocking ??

 

[JSSheridan]

Will your friend be using his current CD/DVD drives, floppy drive, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and OS? For the moment, I'll assume that he is. Also, will he be doing any overclocking? Here's my list.

Case - ANTEC SOLUTION SERIES MODEL SLK3700AMB w/ANTEC SMART POWER 350W - $73.00 + $15.00 shipping;
Motherboard - LEADTEK Motherboard K7NCR18D-PRO Nforce2-ST - $120.00 + $0.00 shipping;
CPU - Retail AMD Athlon XP 1700+/266 FSB Thorougbred Processor CPU 1.47GHz - $67.00 + $0.00 shipping
Memory - CORSAIR XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series 512MB 32MX8 PC-3200C2 - $208 + $0.00 shipping;
Hard Drive - OEM WD WESTERN DIGITAL EIDE 80GB 7200RPM - $106.00 + $0.00 shipping;
FDD - SONY 1.44MB 3.5 INCH INTERNAL FDD DRIVE - OEM - $8.00 + $5.00 shipping

Total - $602.00

HTH, peace.

 

[chizow]

Hehe reminds me of the Battle of the Boxes contest from the AMD XPP 2 tour 🙂

Both very good solutions there, but yah, need to know what else he can/will port over.

Chiz

 

[Soulkeeper]

here's the break down on hard drives (newegg.com prices):

$115 - 80gb 7200rpm 8mb cache western digital
$89 - 60gb 7200rpm 2mb cache maxtor
$70 - 30gb 7200rpm 2mb maxtor
$80 - 40gb 7200rpm 2mb maxtor
$104 - 80gb 7200rpm 2mb samsung
$80 - 40gb 7200rpm samsung


the western digital drive is pretty much the fastest ide drive you can buy right now and the 80gb model is a good deal
Maxtor are more or less the medium of the hard drive bunch they are usually good price/performance/etc blend
the samsung ones are the quietest ones if he is concerned with noise levels

 

[Soulkeeper]

ohhh yeah forgot 2 sticks of mem with that board since it is dual channel

 

[FuManStan]

Let's see... he'll need a new case and power supply. He has a keyboard and mouse. Need's a floppy. He has a 12x burner but a new one would be nice but not necessary. Overclocking isn't a big deal, but it would be a nice extra in case he wants to do it later. The Leadtek nforce2 looks good since it will cover sound and a network card and its cheaper then the Asus board, unless you guys think Asus would be better since Leadtek is new to the motherboard business. I guess the biggest consideration is ram. Since overclocking isnt a big consideration, what do you guys think?

 

[Soulkeeper]

get ram that can atleast run at 400mhz
the reason being the nforce2 can operate at a 400mhz fsb and there are rumours the athlons will eventually progress to that level with the barton core

i recommend two sticks of 256mb modules because the nforce2 boards will perform much better with two sticks as apposed to one 512mb stick

I prefer asus or abit as far as motherboard makers go because they are top quality and usually have all the overclocking features you need. If you want to save on cash and know what the motherboard you are getting does and doesn't have then going with leadtek prob isn't a big deal.

 

[JSSheridan]

I updated the list to include a floppy. The next AMD core, Barton, will operate at 200MHz FSB, and PC3200 memory will go well with a Barton. I would buy memory now that I could use later when the CPU is upgraded. I haven't seen the nForce boards show a large performance gain when using dual channel in games. To me, that isn't worth the $20-$30 extra spent on two sticks. The 1700+ has some room to be overclocked, perhaps to a 2200+ level. Peace.