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Looking to build a "best bang for the buck system"

B

Bleech

Junior Member
I am looking to do a major overhaul of my system while staying on a tight budget of about $400. My main goal is an overall speed increase and to be able to play the current games in medium to high resolutions. No overclocking. My current system consists of:

Athlon C 1400 mhz cpu
ECS K7S5A motherboard
GF 4200Ti Graphics card
340 watt PS
1 Gig PC3200 ram

The ram will be reused in the new system.

I have priced out the following for about $400 at Newegg:

A64 2800+ processor
ECS 755-A2 motherboard
GF 6600GT graphics card
Thermaltake 480 watt PS

I do not plan on another major upgrade until this system can no longer keep up with future software, probably 2-3 years. I realize by that time all of these parts will probably be obsolete.

With this in mind, is this a good system, or is there anything else I could change to significantly reduce the cost, or spend a little more on to signficantly increase real world (not just benchmark) performance? Thanks in advance.
 
Not to mention that unless you've got 2 or 3 harddrives and a whackload of other peripherals, you likely won't need a 480watt PSU. Stick with a good brandname, but if you want to save some money to go with a PSU with less wattage, go for it.
 
Originally posted by: Bleech
A64 2800+ processor
ECS 755-A2 motherboard
GF 6600GT graphics card
Thermaltake 480 watt PS
Click to expand...

I'd get a 90nm Sempron 2800 if I was really going for best bang for the buck in the $400 range. It's a newer core than the 130nm 2800+. It's not like many things will be 64-bit optimized in the next few years, even if XP 64-bit ever does come out.

ECS really isn't a good brand. You seem to be one of the few people who actually had a K7S5A survive more than a year. I wouldn't get anything cheaper than a Biostar or maybe ASRock board. Brands like ECS and PC Chips are just too cheap. Of course this is just my opinion because I've had a solid 50% of every ECS board I ever used die, which makes it by far the biggest problem I've ever had building systems for people.

The regular 6600 is the best card in the $115 range, but the 6600GT is a very questionable choice in video cards these days. It's only about $10 cheaper than the Radeon X800, and the X800 totally blows it away. The 6600GT is an 8-pipe card with 16.0GB/sec of memory bandwidth. The X800 is a 12-pipe card with 22.4GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Sapphire Radeon X800 $189 (newegg)

Stick with a good PSU of course, but there's certainly no reason for a 480W PSU. I'd get the cheapest good brand that has a strong 12V1 rail.
 
If you really want the best bang for your buck, a cheaper video card should suffice. Maybe you should even look into refurb if you're on a budget. That PSU is definately overkill. Go with the XClio 450W PSU with dual +12V rails. Great PSU, and it's only about ~$50 at Newegg.
 
Originally posted by: chaudharymic
I have that PSU, and love it. Works great.

Get a real brand mobo.
Click to expand...

ECS isn't a real brand? :disgust: They only manufacture mobos for the likes of ABIT, Shuttle, etc... right.
 
When gaming is really the only specific goal he mentioned, I don't see why he wouldn't get an X800 if it can fit in the budget. It's by far the best bang for the buck in video cards. I'd get that XClio PSU and the $76 MSI NEO3-F (the the $86 EPoX is probably overkill since he's not overclocking).

 
Originally posted by: Tostada
When gaming is really the only specific goal he mentioned, I don't see why he wouldn't get an X800 if it can fit in the budget. It's by far the best bang for the buck in video cards. I'd get that XClio PSU and the $76 MSI NEO3-F (the the $86 EPoX is probably overkill since he's not overclocking).
Click to expand...


You meant ATi X800XL?
Yes that card is best bang for buck
That would smoke 6600GT for sure
 
Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
You meant ATi X800XL?
Yes that card is best bang for buck
That would smoke 6600GT for sure
Click to expand...

No, I meant the X800 that I linked which is only $189. The X800XL is a $285 card with 16 pipes.
 
Thanks for all the input. Does anyone have a link to a benchmark that includes the X800 and the GT 6600? I've only been able to find ones that have the X800 pro and X800 XL.
 
I've built 4 systems with K7S5A boards about 3 years ago and all are still running smoothly. I haven't seen too many complaints about their 754 board yet, and it is by far the cheapest out there.
 
I have the ecs a939 board which is based on the Nforce4 not ultra chipset. I got it from Newegg as a special for $68 about a month ago. I paired it with a socket 939 3000+ winchester core and have it Oc'ed to 2200mhz. The system is 100% completely stable has not crashed one time. I can overclock the chip higher, but the board does not have a pci lock from what I can find and my wireless card craps out any higher tha 41mhz pci bus. For a budget system though this thing rocks.
 
Do you live near a Fry's, that ECS 755-A2 board is the one they always include in their mobo + AMD64 CPU combos.

If you don't live near a Fry's, watch outpost.com, they'll sometimes have a good deal on that ECS mobo + AMD64 CPU combo.

This weekend, Fry's has AMD64 3200+ + ECS 755-A2 for $190.

Outpost has the AMD64 3000+ + ECS 755-A2 for $170.
 
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