Help me build a machine!

[alphatarget1]

Hi everyone, I had been planning on getting a update for quite a while now. Had a budget of 600 dollars which I just bought a monitor for 130. I need the most computing power for the least amount of money, meaning that I don't particularly care for gaming (maybe I'll pick up GTA4 later, but it's not the purpose of this machine), and I just want to watch some HDTV. I need to run mathematica which takes up CPU power. I guess the faster the thing is the better. So far I have the following:

AMD phenom Quad $150
some AMD motherboard with integrated grahpics $100 (suggestions?)
hard drive $50 (probably buy on BF)
ram $80
case (maybe I'll get one for free from home)

that leaves me $70 bucks to get like, wireless adapters, bluetooth, HDTV, hopefully they'll be cheap on BF.

What do y'all think? I'd like to see motherboard recommendations especially

 

[disports]

ram $80? There's mushkin 4 gb (2 x 2gb) DDR2-800 ram for $37 after rebate or G.Skill DDR2-800 for $49.99 if you don't want to wait for rebate on newegg

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: smithrwon
ram $80? There's mushkin 4 gb (2 x 2gb) DDR2-800 ram for $37 after rebate or G.Skill DDR2-800 for $49.99 if you don't want to wait for rebate on newegg

yeah but isn't DDR2-1066 (or something) better?

 

[Denithor]

Quad-core shootout at xbitlabs

Worth ten minutes of your time before you spend $400 on parts.

Q8200 $190
Gigabyte EG43-S2H $88AR
G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2-800 $44 (FS + no rebates!)
WD6400AAKS $75

Total: $397AR

OC the Q8200 to 3GHz and it will slaughter anything AMD can offer. OC it to 3.5GHz and it gets even better (but you're going to want a better hsf, something like the Tuniq Tower).

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Quad-core shootout at xbitlabs

Worth ten minutes of your time before you spend $400 on parts.

Q8200 $190
Gigabyte EG43-S2H $88AR
G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2-800 $44 (FS + no rebates!)
WD6400AAKS $75

Total: $397AR

OC the Q8200 to 3GHz and it will slaughter anything AMD can offer. OC it to 3.5GHz and it gets even better (but you're going to want a better hsf, something like the Tuniq Tower).

Tempting. Man, last time I assembled a PC was an Athlon mobile overclocked easily to like 3200 from 2400. That thing was pretty fun but I left it to my dad. AMD has really fallen behind huh? I would rather support the underdog, though.

 

[jae]

Dont make that move... ur only shootin yaself in the foot. Buy what makes sense, and what gives you the most for your money.. which is intel right now.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
Tempting. Man, last time I assembled a PC was an Athlon mobile overclocked easily to like 3200 from 2400. That thing was pretty fun but I left it to my dad. AMD has really fallen behind huh? I would rather support the underdog, though.

Support the underdog for what? It's not like AMD is a friend who's down on his luck. They're a faceless corporation, just like Intel, and couldn't care less about you except that they want your money. An individual consumer's purchase is meaningless in terms of making a statement to the market, or providing enough capital to improve AMD's R&D.

To recap, after buying an inferior CPU, here's the result:
- You have a less powerful computer than you might have
- AMD is in the same position they were before you made your purchase

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: jae
Dont make that move... ur only shootin yaself in the foot. Buy what makes sense, and what gives you the most for your money.. which is intel right now.

Do you mean I should wait a while to buy? I'm pretty much aiming to buy something on Black Friday, provided the prices are right. If the prices are right right now I'll buy it, but I don't remember the last time I spent 190 dollars on a processor lol.

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
Tempting. Man, last time I assembled a PC was an Athlon mobile overclocked easily to like 3200 from 2400. That thing was pretty fun but I left it to my dad. AMD has really fallen behind huh? I would rather support the underdog, though.

Support the underdog for what? It's not like AMD is a friend who's down on his luck. They're a faceless corporation, just like Intel, and couldn't care less about you except that they want your money. An individual consumer's purchase is meaningless in terms of making a statement to the market, or providing enough capital to improve AMD's R&D.

To recap, after buying an inferior CPU, here's the result:
- You have a less powerful computer than you might have
- AMD is in the same position they were before you made your purchase

Gotcha. Since new processors are coming out soon do you think I should hold off and let the prices drop a little?

 

[alphatarget1]

One question for y'all: how is the GMA 4500 IGP from intel? I have read good things about the ATI radeon HD 3200...

 

[Denithor]

IGP isn't meant for gaming. Even the HD3200 is lame at best unless you just enjoy playing at 1024x768 (anything higher res and it just falls down - hard). That said, either version will show BluRay smoothly if that's all you want.

Prices will probably drop a bit on the quads since the i7 920 smokes the q9550/9650 in most apps. When it will happen, who knows?

And I'm all for supporting the underdog, but only in cases where it makes sense. I recently did two low-end upgrades for friends who needed to spend <$200 and wanted a good boost in performance. In that price range AMD just offers better vaue but I wouldn't suggest their quads because Intel's go faster while using less energy.

 

[zerocool84]

E8400
Do you really need quadcore??? This is faster and cheaper than competing quads.
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L
Cheap and Good mobo

 

[alphatarget1]

Thanks for the suggestion guys. I want quadcore because I'll most likely run applications like mathematica on it. I want as much processing power as possible.

 

[alphatarget1]

I'm about to bite on this setup:

HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 (0A35415) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive $54.99
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ $54.99
Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F $129.99

MSI DKA790GX AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Phenom 9950 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HD995ZXAGHBOX $249.98

There is a $15 rebate in there. I decided to get a case anyway since I don't have one with me and I'd have to find a crappy one, plus this one has a nice PSU in there.

I'm not inclined to overclock this thing, but if y'all think I can do better with an intel combo (under $250) with a mild/stable overclock without a new HSF let me know! I appreciate your inputs.

 

[Denithor]

Hate to burst your bubble but don't buy that Phenom X4 until you review the Mathematica 6 chart on this page. Even the e8600 (dual core 3.33GHz) can beat up the X4 9950 in that program. And the Intel quads just run circles around it.

I would recommend the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P ($110AR) with the Q8200 (free FC2 included, sell for $30). You can get these two for under $300AR. If you look at the overclocking pages in that review you'll see they got the Q8200 up to 3.4GHz at 1.36V on the stock cooler. Even at 3GHz that chip will kick the X4 9950 silly. It also consumes way less energy than the Phenom so it will cost you less to run over time (will probably make up that $50 difference in the first year).

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Hate to burst your bubble but don't buy that Phenom X4 until you review the Mathematica 6 chart on this page. Even the e8600 (dual core 3.33GHz) can beat up the X4 9950 in that program. And the Intel quads just run circles around it.

I would recommend the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P ($110AR) with the Q8200 (free FC2 included, sell for $30). You can get these two for under $300AR. If you look at the overclocking pages in that review you'll see they got the Q8200 up to 3.4GHz at 1.36V on the stock cooler. Even at 3GHz that chip will kick the X4 9950 silly. It also consumes way less energy than the Phenom so it will cost you less to run over time (will probably make up that $50 difference in the first year).

Is the q8200 the only good chip? or are there cheaper ones that would overclock well as well?

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Hate to burst your bubble but don't buy that Phenom X4 until you review the Mathematica 6 chart on this page. Even the e8600 (dual core 3.33GHz) can beat up the X4 9950 in that program. And the Intel quads just run circles around it.

I would recommend the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P ($110AR) with the Q8200 (free FC2 included, sell for $30). You can get these two for under $300AR. If you look at the overclocking pages in that review you'll see they got the Q8200 up to 3.4GHz at 1.36V on the stock cooler. Even at 3GHz that chip will kick the X4 9950 silly. It also consumes way less energy than the Phenom so it will cost you less to run over time (will probably make up that $50 difference in the first year).

I did read the review... The only thing left is that I want a board that has halfway decent graphics which I can watch HD videos with...

 

[alphatarget1]

Bought a q8200 combo from fry's on black friday! I'll just run it by itself right now with the crappy mobo and will shop for a new mobo + ram + vid card combo later. Still waiting for the case so I can put the thing together...

 

[Denithor]

Well, if you're not looking for gaming and want good HD viewing experience go for a G43 or G45 chipset motherboard to match your Q8200. What motherboard did you get with it? If it runs well, just throw in a 4670 for about $70AR and you've got a nice HD machine with light gaming capability, for probably cheaper than you can replace the motherboard you got.