Help in a new rig build

[NiKeFiDO]

Well my friend has asked me to build him a rig. He is not into gaming, I'm pretty sure he wont do much besides internet, music, movies, maybe some light gaming.

Do you think I should go build him an AGP motherboard and get like a 9700 or 9800 series vid card?
Or do you think it is worth it to go for pci-e? (and get like a 6600)

Im sure he will have this computer for a long time, but his needs arent really high.

Either way I think I am gonna go with a socket 939 board and get some variety of AMD64 CPU (unless you can convince me to do other - I still need to do some more price comparisons).

Limit for this comp will be around...$700

NEW QUESTION, LOOK DOWN

 

[Kid Vicious]

prolly in terms of budget AGP would be the way to go. get a tried and true mobo like the Asus A8V and a radeon 9600xt starters. that's should be enough for what he would like to do.

 

[mwmorph]

what does light gaming mean? even if he "ONLY" plans to play DOOMIII or AOEIII for 1 hour a week, that means, you still need to buy a decently powerful card to game with and meet minimum specs! get AT VERY LEAST a 9700pro/6600 if he will game at all, but it wont hold up well when the new games come out like F.E.A.R. or AOE III. I'd recommend a 6600gt at least if you will game for any real amount of time at any good resolutions/graphics settings. If he plans to upgrade, go pci-e. if he;'s not so technically adept, go agp.

pci-e (dfi ultra(139)) easily mods to a full fledged nf4-sli mobo with 1 pencil mark.PCI-E
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-136-152&depa=1

agp msi nforce3 250 board(k8n neo 2) proven great overclockers though a bit expensive(142)AGP
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-468&depa=1

PCI-E alternative MSI "RS480M2-IL" ATI Radeon XPRESS 200(no sli but is one of the fastest motherboards anandtech has ever tested) VERY good Ocers(89.50)
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-485&depa=1

AGP alternative EPoX "EP-9NDA3J" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Very good bargin priced nforce3 ultra board if you dont plan to oc.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-123-230&depa=1

 

[NiKeFiDO]

Thanks for responses!

light gaming - well, he's pretty much just not gonna do gaming on it. Ill talk to him and make sure of this. I believe I am gonna go the AGP route, he is not techinically adept and will not be upgrading this thing.

As for the vid card I'll get the best I can to stay within budget, he shouldn't need too much.

 

[mwmorph]

what is the budget for the video card?

 

[NiKeFiDO]

i was thinking in terms of overall budget - get what I can cheaply, stay within the $700ish area (overall).

 

[mwmorph]

AGP

sapphire 9800pro 128mb 256bit(some try to pass off 128bit cards as pros dont fall for it!)-($158)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-477&depa=1

9700pro(around 15%) slower-$100 used search the for sale/trade forums
9500 non pro can be flashed to 9700pro (sometimes) for around only $50-70 used

CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce 6200 Video Card 128mb($102)
can be unlocked or softmodded(sometimes) to 6600gt and overclocked to past 6600 speeds.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-110&depa=1

CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce 6600 Video Card 128mb($122)
(ocs even higher than 6200 usually)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-113&depa=1

[br]
PCI-E
CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce 6200 Video Card 128mb-($93)
same as agp version. can be unlocked and oced sometimes
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-108&depa=1

Gigabyte nVIDIA GeForce 6600 Video Card 128mb(117.50)
Silent no fans,otherwise same as other 6600
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-125-176&depa=1


SAPPHIRE ATI Radeon X700 PRO Video Card, 128MB GDDR3, 128-Bit($149)
slower than 6600gt but costs around $30 less too.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-455&depa=1

since pci-e and agp are pratically the same price and he wont upgrade, i'd recommend a
PCI-E alternative MSI "RS480M2-IL" ATI Radeon XPRESS 200
Very fast board without sli though but he wont be albe to sli anything lesser than a 6600gt anyway so there are no sli cards in your price range.
im guessing you'd be willing to spend $100 -$150 on a gfx card.

 

[NiKeFiDO]

thats about right.
as far as SLI goes, that is pretty much never gonna happen.

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.

 

[NiKeFiDO]

All 6600's are 128-bit right?

ALSO, any suggetions on a decent tower? not too expensive (<$70 ish)