please help me piece together a system

xyyz

Diamond Member
Sep 3, 2000
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i'm looking to get a new mini-pc up and running within a week or two.

it's been ages since i've followed hardware so i really don't know what's good and what's not. i rather not read everything out there on every board and every component, so i'm asking for your help in narrowing what i should get.

i really would like to keep things under $750, but if that's not realistic, then i can stretch it to about $1000. i don't need a monitor or any other peripherals, just the core system. obviously, i'd like the best bang for the buck.

should i go with intel, amd, agp, pci-e, what card, etc.

i'll look at where the general consensus lies and then read a little on what you people are suggesting. but for all intents and purposes, i'll be buying what you tell me.
 

Thermalrock

Senior member
Oct 30, 2004
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had i 750 bucks id prolly buy something like this:

that new arctic cooling silence case. silentium t1 if im not mistake read a review and it goes for around 100 bucks with a very very good 350w psu made by seasonic (80% efficiency they said)

200gb hdd another 100$

the radeon x300 is made with the ati's new 0.11µ process so it consumes very few power and doesnt need a fan (not the fastest but like 130$ and completely silent) but its only pci-e i think.

nec 3500 (best dvd writer i know of) 75$

around 150 on ram id prolly go 1gb noname rather than 512 low latency cuz the extra 512 mb should help you more.

athlon64 300+ 160$

thats 715$ right there. leaves you with only 35 bucks for a motherboard :( id prolly add 100 bucks to the budget and try to get an nforce4 mb this month when they goes retail.

750 is a tight budget :(
 

xyyz

Diamond Member
Sep 3, 2000
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much appreciated.

odd that only you responded do this. i guess noone else was particularly interested.

since i only have 1 post, it'll make life much easier. i'll start reading up on what you suggested.

how does the x300 differ from the x700?

 

Thermalrock

Senior member
Oct 30, 2004
553
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the x300 is slower and cheaper but doesnt need a fan and i read ppl claim it runs doom 3 ok if you dont play too high res.