Need help piecing together an inexpensive E6300

[mazeroth]

My brother's old Athlon XP 1800+ bit the dust yesterday and he's currently using an old 1.4 Athlon of mine as a loaner until he builds a new computer. He has an AGP 9800 Pro 128meg that he wants to keep, but I'm talking him out of getting an AGP board, selling the 9800 Pro for $50-$60 and spending $100 - $150 on a PCI-Express video card. He makes good money but is very, very tight with it (that's fine) but he games 2-4 hours a day and I'm trying to show him that spending $400 - $500 after selling the 9800 Pro and his 1 gig of PC2700 that he'll have a system that's 2-3x faster for gaming, and that he'll be able to use the mobo+CPU+RAM for at least 3-5 more years.

With that, I'm looking for motherboard, RAM, and video card suggestions that will be a huge improvement over what he has now. I'm leaning towards an E6300 and Gigabyte GA-945P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) 945P motherboard. As for RAM, I have no idea what's good and cheap for him. He does NOT want to overclock this setup (which I think is stupid), but I told him in 1-2 years he might want to up the clocks a couple hundred megahertz. Sooo, what 1 gig of RAM and motherboard will be sufficient and stable that doesn't need to OC a ton?

Also, which video card should he get? Right now I'm looking at the X1900GT 256mb that Newegg has on sale for $150:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814102022

One last thing. He has a 300w Antec PS right now. If I tell him he's going to need a new PS he's going to probably tell me to you know what. I do have the 500w Ultra I got for free AR from Outpost.com. Do you think that's a safe PS to use, or should he stick with his name brand Antec 300w? If he gets a mid-end vid card will he really need a more powerful PS?

Sorry if this is long, and THANKS in advance for any help!

 

[CallMeJoe]

I would avoid the 945 chipset mobo if you're trying to future-proof the system. Check out the P5N-E SLI at ZipZoomFly for $136 shipped. Add an E6300 and a Gig of dual channel RAM from Newegg for about $290, and you'll have the basis for a pretty fast system. Probably want to consider an Nvidia GPU if you go with that mobo, since the 650i chipset supports SLI. I realize this is slightly over your budget, but you should be considerably better off for future proofing. Also, reports have the 650i board doing >500MHz front side with the Rev 1 BIOS.

 

[Roguestar]

If you're looking for something cheap and cheerful, change that 945P-S3 into a 965P-S3. The x1900gt is a good enough choice but the x1950pro has better bang-for-buck.

 

[mazeroth]

What will the 965P provide that the 945P won't?

Also, the X1900GT is $40 less than an x1950Pro and is less than 10% slower than it, according to all these benchmarks:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics....elx=33&model1=516&model2=606&chart=199

However, I have read about the X1900GT having a revision and they changed it from an R580 to an R570. Still, for $150 I think that's a pretty nice card.

More input is GREATLY appreciated! Thanks so far!

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Well, I can't help you with a video card choice, except to say that on your budget you should forget about SLI or crossfire.

I recommend the Gigabyte GA-945P-S3 ($89+ship) for your motherboard, of which you seem already to have approved. It doesn't have a lot of features, like RAID or firewire, but it should be a stable board with plenty of overclocking headroom. The 965/975 chipsets would offer a bit more overclocking potential, as well as DDR2-800, but those really aren't necessary, especially if your budget is tight.

The CPU choice is obvious: E6300. The retail cooler might be a little bit troublesome, but it should suffice, at least to begin.

For memory, you'll probably want 1GB dual channel. The GA-945P-S3 has four slots, so an upgrade path will be there for 2GB later on. I suggest the Patriot Signature Series (PSD21G667KH) DDR2-667 from Newegg for $106+shipping. They've got heatspreaders, which are nice, as well as the required 1.8v spec. And, if memory serves, Patriot is a reliable manufacturer. DDR2-800 might be tempting, but in my opinion the price premium is not worth the minimal performance boost.

Good luck!