Low budget rig -did I screw up?

[mcc4020]

Well, I think my old Athlon XP1800+ is starting to give up the ghost, mainly because all the PCI cards and fans are going south on me even though the computer actually works. (even went through a DVD burner since I've had this one)

old 4 year old system:
Athlon 1800+
512 megs DDR333
48x Rewriteable CD drive
80 gig IDE HD
ATI Radeon 7500 GPU (AGP 8x)
Epox MB with no built in USB 2.0, network, or firewire.

Anyway, I just placed an order from Newegg for the remainder of parts I needed to build something low budget, yet can handle some of the newer games that I would like to play as well as the usual office apps.

New case with 430w Thermaltake PS and 3 or 4 cooling fans
Epox AM2 MF4ULTRA-3 MB ($82)
Athlon 64x2 3800+ 65W AM2 ($109)
GSkil 1 gig DDR800 memory ($99)
Sapphire X1650Pro 256GDDR3 vid pci x-16($80 after rebate)
16x DVD RW drive (samsung, think paid $30)
160Gig Seagate SATA HD ($50 from OfficeMax)

Going to use the old Keyboard, mouse and monitor, although I would like to upgrade the monitor as it is starting to have some burn in issues because of the starfish in teh aquatic scene on the XP Plus backgrounds.

Just wondering what you guys think of the budget build and what you may have done differently. I see a lot of recommendations for faster processors or video, but at the price I am paying, an upgrade on the processor and video would likely cost at least a hundred if not more. plus, with the Am2 slot I can at least get the high $$ procesors pretty cheap in the near future if I want a bit more speed. (now seeing the expensive socket 939 processors of just a year or so ago going for $50 and $75)

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Frintin]

Very nice build for the cheap! I am sure you will be totally happy with what you chose.

The prices you got there leave little room for changing anything (great prices!)

Motherboard is up in the air, as there are cheaper prices for similar feature builds. Memory might have been cheaper also.

 

[astralvoid]

..looks ok to me as a budget machine. I recently built a similar rig with an X1300 for my son's computer due to budget constraints and he's able to play most of the current games at somewhat acceptable frame rates, at least for him

 

[mcc4020]

Frintin, your input on the MB is exactly what I need. I have built at least 4 or 5 machines with Epox boards and have always felt they provide an excellent value for what you get. With this build, i was looking at a few Asus boards, some MSi boards and a few other brands. Most of what I kept seeing was either mATX or boards with only 1 IDE connector which was not good since I planned on having at least one, maybe two DVD drives, plus the possible addition of the old IDE hard drives from the old pc if I couldn't get it to run good enough for the kid to use. (I don't have a clue if I could use a mATX vboard in a full size case) Any input for future would be welcome as there are always people asking me if I can put something together for them. -Just always sidestep the issue

Astralvoid, I never got caught up in the whole high res gaming thing. I enjoyed playing Sim City, RollerCoaster Tycoon, All the C&C versions, and Call of Duty. (all at 1024x768 I believe) When Battlefield 1942 came out, I realized I would need more than what I had, except with two little ones there is little time for anything computer related, so I never upgraded.

-Mike