Help me price out a $2000 system!

[RobertCane]

Hey all --

I'm putting together a college computer for my little brother. The machine he's using now is really outdated, so there's almost nothing he would keep from it. Here are the "extra" peripherals he wants to include:

LCD Monitor
Desktop Laser Printer
5.1 surround speakers
Keyboard
Mouse

So with all those, there's obviously less than $2000 to spend on the machine itself... but $2k is the overall budget. There's no preference for AMD or Intel, and no software that needs to be included. Thanks in advance for your help!

-- Rob

 

[StraightPipe]

What is it to be used for? games? papers? internet?

 

[RobertCane]

All of the above, but no overclocking. He's not going to be doing much upgrading either, so I want it to be able to last 3-4 years and be able to play most games as they come out. Longevity is key. Thanks,

-- Rob

 

[RobertCane]

bump

 

[jacktesterson]

Well i'm afraid theres nothing thats going to play games for 3-4 yrs....maybe the other stuff...so you can forget that idea

AMD Route

Soltek Deluxe NForce2 Mobo, Dual Channel DDR,8X AGP, SATA, USB 2.0, Firewire
AMD XP Barton 2500+
2*512MB PC3700 Ram (Corsair is good)
WD Raptor for Windows
80-120 GB 8 MB Cache WD or Maxtor for Storage and everything else
Antec PS
ATI Radeon 9800 (may I recommend the 256MB version from Sapphire)
coolermaster Case
LCD (i like Samsung), but I would personally choose a CRT monitor
Liteon Burner/DVD

Or if your into Intel, go with a 2.4C or higher board with the popular Intel chipset, forget the chipset off top of my head, Im not a intel user (nothing wrong just more price/performance from AMD), go with the Abit board.

 

[Jeff7181]

No reason to buy PC3700 RAM for a computer that's not going to be overclocked.

The 256MB 9800 Pro is DEFINATELY not worth $100 more than the 128MB version.

 

[jfall]

The 256MB 9800 Pro is DEFINATELY not worth $100 more than the 128MB version.

Maybe not now, but it may be if he is thinking in terms of keeping it for a few years

 

[jacktesterson]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
No reason to buy PC3700 RAM for a computer that's not going to be overclocked.

The 256MB 9800 Pro is DEFINATELY not worth $100 more than the 128MB version.

I was just stating the ram and the 256MB card to last for the future

 

[Regs]

The 256 Megs of Ram on a 9800 has no future. Maybe 256 Megs on those new "twice as fast cores" . There is no game, including Doom 3, that takes up that much vRam.

 

[Acanthus]

You dont need 256MB, to my knowledge currently NVIDIA and ATI drivers dont even correctly implement it. Ive done tests on NWN and WC3 by creating maps with incredibly high Poly counts, and the 128MB and 256MB versions both crawl around the same counts in both games. (they were slowly increased to determine if the 256MB cards could handle the higher poly counts).

I personally would go
I865 based motherboard
Intel 2.8C
western digital 250GB SE
FX5600 (non-U) 128MB or a Radeon 9600 Pro
1GB PC3200 (Corsair / HyperX series Kingston)
Nice case + PSU (I buy antec)
Liteon Burner/DVD/DVD-R

That should weigh in way under $2000 and youll have money for an NV40/R420 card when they are released. And they SHOULD actually justify spending an enormous amount of money on, and will likely be the 1st cards that will be able to run DX9 games at high settings.

Also trying to futureproof with ram is probably a bad idea with 3-4 new memory technologies on the horizon. DDR only has so much time left before new solutions come along. DDR2, ODR, and possibly new Rambus technology will be coming to replace DDR. And DDR isnt expected to scale much higher than PC3200 officially in chipsets.

You could also get a very nice bang for your buck with an NF2 Rev2.0 based motherboard. But because you dont like to overclock you would probably not be running a 400fsb unless you bought an official CPU which is expensive. You may want to consider, thought, that because the multiplier is unlocked stock on thoroughbred-B chips. You could easily get a 2500+ and run it at a 200fsb and keep it very close to stock speeds by dropping back the multi. Without increasing the Vcore at all. The 400fsb gives a strong performance increase because it helps utilize all the extra bandwidth provided by dual DDR400. And would save some cash over Intel.

 

[mchammer187]

2.4 or 2.6 C $170 or more

Samsung Laser $130
Dell 1800FP $400
Megaworks 550 D speakers $ 210

good Canterwood Mobo $120
512 MB Kingston HyperX - $90
Radeon 9700 pro or non pro - $220
SB Audigy 2 OEM - $60
Western Digital 120 GB HD $40 after rebates this sunday along with the CD burner from office max
52 x CD Burner see line above
Pioneer A05 DVD-r - $140
Antec Case + PSU - $100

this leaves about $300 or $400 for OS and misc stuff - KB/ mouse

i would suggest you overclock because hitting 3 Ghz + is pretty much a sure thing but if you dont want to then don't

 

[RobertCane]

Thanks a lot for the help guys... it looks like overclocking may be something to look into, then, if people are getting such rock-solid results without having to up the voltage at all.

One other question... *is* there an LCD monitor that's good for gaming? I know that some can be artifact-y and such. Thanks again,

-- Rob

 

[mchammer187]

Originally posted by: RobertCane
Thanks a lot for the help guys... it looks like overclocking may be something to look into, then, if people are getting such rock-solid results without having to up the voltage at all.

One other question... *is* there an LCD monitor that's good for gaming? I know that some can be artifact-y and such. Thanks again,

-- Rob

i think if you keep it under 25 ms pixel response it is perfectly fine

it may be a little worse than a CRT with ghosting but even with that going from a CRT to LCD is one decision that I certainly do not regret
and I do quite a bit of gaming as well