Need help building a budget system....

[Darkhawk28]

Hey guys,

My friend wants to buy a MB, case and VC for $200 or less....

He has a Celeron 566, 256MB PC100 RAM and everything else will be transferred over from his old system....

Any suggestions? Can PC133 and PC100 RAM be mixed?

Thanks ahead....

 

[FlippyBoy]

if he gets a motherboard with the i810 chipset (integrated video), and an enlight 7237 or inwin s500, then he wont have to spend more than 150, if he finds good deals. the i810 board will work with either pc100 or pc133 ram, but if you have pc100 ram in there, then he wont be able to run the bus speed at 133 (unless its really good ram and overclocks really well). if he already has a stick of pc100 ram and wants to save money, then just stay with it, until he can afford a better processor.

 

[Darkhawk28]

Any model suggestions for the MB?

 

[MrCairo]

Try www.newegg.com for the video card @ least. I got 2 weeks ago the only currently produced "Visiontek" Gforce2 GTS(notMX!!!) 32mb card for $65 + 5. s/h and it rocks compared to a mx card. Here's the link....

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=48&manufactory=1180

No on esle make the GF2 GTS boards...they want you to go for the MMX or the GF3 cards. So this is a good find I think!

(I've ordered a ton from NewEgg and they're on the up & up)

MrCairo

 

[FlippyBoy]

a quick search on pricewatch for i810 reveals several supermicro motherboards for very little (~65, shipped). you can ask on the motherboards forum, or do a search on dejanews or google to find out more about it. the thing that i completely forgot about is that celerons do not suport 133mhz fsb, so even if you get all pc133 ram, you will have to run it at 100mhz anyway. if your friend is looking to save money, then this could wind up costing him less than 130, which leaves plenty of room for a nice vid card. i think id have to reccomend the radeon, as opposed to the geforce. same price, better image quality, near equal performance (better, in some cases).

 

[MrCairo]

I guess that depends on experience...I've never owned a Radeon card because of all the driver issues, but maybe that's in the past. All I can say is that I've been happy with the 3 Nvidia cards I own. And the drivers are timely and I've never had a compatability issue in 3 different systems and aprox. 30 different pc games. But hey...maybe I need to find someone who has a Radeon card and take a look! For the price and performance what card are you suggesting to compare to the GForce 2 card?

MrCairo

 

[Darkhawk28]

ok, here's the breakdown of the items he'd like to purchase...

$40-$60 .... motherboard
$40-$60 .... case (MB Tray, 300W PS, less than 17" tall)
$50-$100 .. video card ... prefer a GF2 Pro 64MB

Thanks..

 

[FlippyBoy]

hmm....your friend needs to take a trip over to the for sale forums. its gonna be hard to find a quality motherboard for under 60 shipped. as far as the case, i believe both the enlight and the inwin have removable or slide out motherboard trays (someone correct me if im wrong). and for the vid card, you really cant go wrong with either a gts pro or radeon 64.

 

[Darkhawk28]

Maybe spend $70-$75 on the motherboard and $125 and the other two.....

 

[AyeYou]

@NEWEGG.COM

EVERCASE E4252W005, Intel P4/AMD, 10-Bay, 300W P4, Truely Screwless ATX MID Tower Case. BEIGE. External: 4 X 5.25 and 2 X 3.50. Hidden: 4 X 3..50 (2 screwless removeable HD Cages). 2 x Front USB ports. 1 x side ball bearing fan with bracket. Enhance ATX1125BTA 300W P4 ready power supply.Special: Buy it with an AMD processor and Save $5 N82E16811127002 $39.00

ABIT VH6-II VIA694X PIII/CELERON 133MHZ FSB ATX FC-PGA MOTHERBOARD - RETAIL 4XAGP. UDMA 100. for intel processor N82E16813116162 $75.00

VISIONTEK Xtasy 5632 GEFORCE2 GTS-V 4X/2X 32MB AGP - OEM
This VGA card offers high performance based on the GeForce2 GTS-V chipset and 32mb 256 bit DDR memory. Visiontek is the only Nvidia board partner to offer this card. Part# 72440.0 N82E16814129007 $65.00


Subtotal » $179.00
Shipping and Handling Charge » $ 20.00 FEDEXSAVER TO MISSOURI
Grand Total » $ 199.00

 

[FlippyBoy]

sounds good, but can anyone vouch for the quality of the case? never heard of evercase, and i doubt it has a removable tray. i learned a long time ago to not trust generic cases.

 

[Darkhawk28]

Thanks for all your input guys.... if you think of any other options, let me know.

 

[Tominator]

Get a CUSL2 on the For Sale Forum for $85 shipped. A good case will run about $40 to your door on Ebay. Yes, you can mix the memory. Get a nvidea Ultra for about $110 on the Forum....That celery should hit at least 850 without a problem......and change....