Need help and advice please

Dant3

Junior Member
Sep 11, 2008
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Hello all .
First of all thanks for any responds you'll post .

Ok let's start .
I use my PC for :
RTS games , some RPGs , some 3rd person shooters asassins creed resident evil devil may cry and maybe some FPS but i don't really want anything more than a playable framerate and mid range settings and i'll be using a 19 or 17'' LCD

i'll be off to college (computer science) in a month but still i don't know specifically which tasks i'll be using this PC for but i know for sure that i won't be doing any vedio, picture or graphical editing though i want to use virtual machines if possible .

I'll be dual booting linux (open suse or linuxpc or mandriva) probably with XP as i want to upgrade to windows seven later and skip vista

I almost never turn my PC off so it should be able to run 24/7 with no heat issues or any other ones

so the first corners for me to cut when budget is an issue is the monitor and the GPU as gaming is my least interest and i can survive only on RTSs

I don't need this PC to be very future proof i just need it to be able to run regular software and let me program smoothly and handle using MS office and my web needs (and maybe a little RTS gaming )for the next four years with no problems
i know it's a long time but till now a 2.8 GHz single core and 512 DDR memory were doing that for me just fine .




my budget is around 800 $ including the monitor and maybe a little stretchable
this is a LOW budget i know but i hope it will be enough




and i'll be buying all the stuff from egypt and i can't get anything oniline but i'm pretty sure i'll find all the parts i need the only problem i face is in the case as i haven't seen any non generic no name case in my life and it really sucks but it's not a huge problem as long as i find something that fits







i have no brand preference and i will not be using any old parts
and i have been researching this for almost 9 weeks now mostly from reviews here and in Tech report

I plan to maybe overclock the CPU a little but i want an aftermarket cooler for it anyway



now this is what i'm considering

Intel core 2 duo E8400 170$
intel core 2 duo e8500 190$
I read a lot of reviews about the e8500 saying how great it overclocks but if the e8400 can overclock equally good (not equally high as i won't be passing 3.6 or maybe 3.8 ) then the e8400 is better so has anyone overclocked the e8400 ?


4 GB of memory 800 MHz nothing fancy and i don't care about the timings or overclocking
but i just want a reputable brand that i can rely on like corsair and kingston
oh and i want a cheap two module kit so if i wanted i can upgrade in the future without getting rid of these



Ggabyte GA-EP45-DS3L mobo 105$
for the motherboard i only need a solid mobo that will last me a few years with no problems and overclocks good for the CPU
and i don't need any support for anything that i won't get now as my next upgrade will be handing this one down and building a new one



western digital caviar SE16 640 GB 85$
i really like this drive and i don't need a bigger or faster drive and as i said i will be dual booting but if it will be a problematic thing or if it will be bothering me i can get another 120 or 160 drive to put one OS on
but only if it will really benefit me


for the GPU i don't really need a great thing and it would be the first part to be sacrificed in favour of a good mobo , CPU or memory
but i'm considering an 8800 gt but i've said my graphical needs and you guys can better judge what i need (put in mind i'll be using a 19'' inch or less


now for the monitor i don't really need a great thing just a 19'' or 17'' LCD with nice enough picture quality

and i don't care which case i use as long as it can hold my parts safely


please recommend a good quality cheap PSU and i don't think i'll need an extra headroom for anything more than extra HDD or two more memory modules


sorry for the really long post and thanks in advance
 

Roguestar

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
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Has anyone overclocked the E8400? Haha, it's a massive favourite around these parts. Get the E8400.

Good motherboard, hard drive choices.

For memory, search newegg for the G.Skill DDR2-1000 (for overclocking), see if you can get that from where you're ordering parts; it should be about $90~.

GPU: Get yourself an ATI 4850 if you're thinking of an 8800GT. Otherwise if RTS and the likes are more important to you, drop to a 9600GT to shave some dollars off.

Bear in mind without using Vista x64 you'll not see or use all of your 4GB (assuming you get 4GB, which you should, as it's hella cheap).