new computer ideas

[videodrone83]

hey, i have around 1,000 to spend for upgrades on computers, and I am into the overclocking scene, but there are so many options

I just need

MOBO
PROC
RAM
VID CARD

i got all the generic devices

I would like to purchase an x800 but thats 400 bux right there, any suggestions on what to go with for the rest, i know a nforce3 250gb would be nice with a64 3200+ or mobile barton 2500 with dfi or abit board would be cheaper, any suggestions would be great, also for ram, i heard adata 4000 or 4200 is great, even tho the timings arent hot, they still great oc

 

[videodrone83]

im looking to be able to run far cry/doom3/half life 2 smooth high qual

 

[darkswordsman17]

My suggestion would be to go with a Chaintech ZNF-250 nForce 3 250 board ($92), and go with an OEM Athlon 64 ($215). Get a nice heatsink (Coolermaster just came out with a pretty nice 6 heatpipe one). Get some DDR500 or maybe better (1GB for about $300). Then spend the rest on either an X800 Pro, or better a 6800 GT (provided you can find one or can wait for it to get out) for about $400. Best Buy might be having a sale on Kingston HyperX DDR500 still and so you could get a gig of that for about $250. You might look into watercooling, but that'd require probably between $100 and $300 to setup well.

 

[Tostada]

I don't know what hard drive you already have, but I'll bet you'd have a better gaming experience if you got:

$200: Raptor 74G
$127: MSI Neo Platinum Socket 754
$173: Athlon 64 2800+ Newcastle OEM
$275: 2 x 512MB Mushkin PC3500 CL 2-3-3
$209: Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro with XT core
$16.99: Vantec IceBerg 4 video cooler

Which comes out to $1000.99 with shipping

The PC3500 would be good to overclock a little, otherwise I'd get OCZ Enhanced Latency PC3200 and save $30.

 

[Tostada]

My real point is that, as a person who upgrades your own system from time to time, I don't really see paying over $400 for just the video card as a good investment when that part will depreciate very fast. Spend $200 now and spend $200 on another video card in another year and a half.