Trying to build a computer for under 700 bucks
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- Start date
YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
- Aug 6, 2001
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AMD 3000+ Winchester
MSI K8N Neo4 Ultra
2x 512 Corsair Value Select
Xclio 450 watt powersupply
Leadtek or MSI 6600GT
Hard drive of your choice, Western Digital and Seagate make the best hard drives.
MSI K8N Neo4 Ultra
2x 512 Corsair Value Select
Xclio 450 watt powersupply
Leadtek or MSI 6600GT
Hard drive of your choice, Western Digital and Seagate make the best hard drives.
YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
- Aug 6, 2001
- 31,205
- 45
- 91
How often do you upgrade your computer?
I'm wondering if I should try to go for a system that will allow for greater upgradability later on, or just go for something that will be faster but have more limited options later.
I'm wondering if I should try to go for a system that will allow for greater upgradability later on, or just go for something that will be faster but have more limited options later.
UsandThem
Elite Member
- May 4, 2000
- 16,068
- 7,383
- 146
From the guide at the top of general hardware:
AMD Based Computer $665.00
AMD Athlon 64 2800+, 512KB L2 Cache $120.00
GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS" NVIDIA nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard $76.00
ANTEC Performance Series II Mid Tower Case With 350W Power Supply $79.00
Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 $51.00
Modem if needed $14.00
Windows XP Home $88.00
SAMSUNG 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive $79.00
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card $158.00
Just drop the case, and get a CD/DVD drive.
AMD Based Computer $665.00
AMD Athlon 64 2800+, 512KB L2 Cache $120.00
GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS" NVIDIA nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard $76.00
ANTEC Performance Series II Mid Tower Case With 350W Power Supply $79.00
Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 $51.00
Modem if needed $14.00
Windows XP Home $88.00
SAMSUNG 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive $79.00
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card $158.00
Just drop the case, and get a CD/DVD drive.
YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
- Aug 6, 2001
- 31,205
- 45
- 91
Is $760 shipped ok?
These are newegg prices... if you search around a little at other places you'll be able to shave a few dollars off. (Monarch, Zip Zoom Fly, Chiefvalue etc.)
Windows XP Home = $93
A64 3000+ 939 = $146
EVGA 6600gt = $180
Chaintech NF4 = $87
XClio 450W = $53
80 gig Seagate IDE = $65
Corsair Value Select 2x512mb = $88
Lite-On 52x32x52x = $28
Comes to $758 shipped for me.
If you can reuse some optical drives that would help you get closer to your goal.
If you need to keep the budget really tight you could switch over to an AGP solution getting a radeon 9800pro instead of the 6600gt.
These are newegg prices... if you search around a little at other places you'll be able to shave a few dollars off. (Monarch, Zip Zoom Fly, Chiefvalue etc.)
Windows XP Home = $93
A64 3000+ 939 = $146
EVGA 6600gt = $180
Chaintech NF4 = $87
XClio 450W = $53
80 gig Seagate IDE = $65
Corsair Value Select 2x512mb = $88
Lite-On 52x32x52x = $28
Comes to $758 shipped for me.
If you can reuse some optical drives that would help you get closer to your goal.
If you need to keep the budget really tight you could switch over to an AGP solution getting a radeon 9800pro instead of the 6600gt.
dell refurb..
got a 3.4, ddr2(512),cd burner, 80 gb hd... for like 600 basically and a gforce 6800 (the basic one).
oh and pci-e
plays wow and doom3 nicely.
.02
edit: pci-e (i forgot that part)
got a 3.4, ddr2(512),cd burner, 80 gb hd... for like 600 basically and a gforce 6800 (the basic one).
oh and pci-e
plays wow and doom3 nicely.
.02
edit: pci-e (i forgot that part)
Assuming you have the case and power supply covered, this would be my recommendation:
Mobo: DFI LANPARTY UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) - 143 shipped from newegg
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512kb L2 cache, Socket 939 Retail - 146 shipped from newegg
HD: Western Digital Raptor 74GB, 10,000RPM SATA, Model WD740GD, OEM - 188 shipped from newegg
RAM: Corsair Value Select Dual Pack 184 Pin 512MBX2 DDR PC-3200 OEM - 88 shipped from newegg
Video Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon X600 XT 128MB DDR, 128-bit DVI/VIVO PCI Express Model 593L Retail - 119 shipped
CD Burner: Sony 52x32x52 Internal IDE CD-RW w/ CD maker software Model CRX230ED-B2 OEM - 28 shipped
Total cost: 712 shipped from newegg
Notes: You could also drop the memory down to 512MB (same Corsair Value Select) for a savings of 37 dollars and then go with an NEC 16x DVD burner for 56.50 shipped (instead of the Sony CD burner). This change would put you at 703.50 shipped.
Mobo: DFI LANPARTY UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) - 143 shipped from newegg
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512kb L2 cache, Socket 939 Retail - 146 shipped from newegg
HD: Western Digital Raptor 74GB, 10,000RPM SATA, Model WD740GD, OEM - 188 shipped from newegg
RAM: Corsair Value Select Dual Pack 184 Pin 512MBX2 DDR PC-3200 OEM - 88 shipped from newegg
Video Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon X600 XT 128MB DDR, 128-bit DVI/VIVO PCI Express Model 593L Retail - 119 shipped
CD Burner: Sony 52x32x52 Internal IDE CD-RW w/ CD maker software Model CRX230ED-B2 OEM - 28 shipped
Total cost: 712 shipped from newegg
Notes: You could also drop the memory down to 512MB (same Corsair Value Select) for a savings of 37 dollars and then go with an NEC 16x DVD burner for 56.50 shipped (instead of the Sony CD burner). This change would put you at 703.50 shipped.
YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
- Aug 6, 2001
- 31,205
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- 91
You didn't include windows.
Getting a raptor at this price level is a really bad idea in my opinion.
Spend a lil time looking for a refurbished dell 8400. Pick one up in the 400$ range and you're golden. Still a lil room to upgrade to a nicer video card as well.
Well you should, because it is going to be included in his system. So your spec'd system would be about $810
I take it you pirate everything?
That is an incorrect assumption. In fact, I have a fully licensed copy of XP Pro...
At any rate, I am just trying to help this guy get as much quality hardware as he can afford. If he needs to include XP Pro, that's no problem. Just drop the Raptor and get an 80 or 120GB Western Digital 7200RPM drive w/ 8MB cache... Happy?
You said you already have a case, but the question is, is it a case worth keeping? Probably the best investment in building a new computer is getting a case with a good power supply, expandibility, airflow and something you like to look at. A good computer case can literally last a decade or more over many upgrades. Check out the pictures of the ATOP X Blade silver case with lcd screen on new egg. Most people would rather look at something like that rather then a plain old plastic box over the next 10 years and the thing is damn well built with good air flow. Unfortunately, new egg no longer has the 99 cent shipping it did a few days ago when I grabbed it. True, the X Blade dosen't have the best PSU, but the 450 L&G will work fine for most and it's far better then most dell and compaq PSUs.
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp...-147-15.jpg&CurImage=11-105-147-01.jpg
Since you already have a case, I am assuming you have a floppy and CD rom drive you can salvage, if so do that or if not you can grab both from a used comp store for under $10.
I'd recommend going mid range on your motherboard and RAM as these can also last over a couple of upgrades. The patriot low latency DDR 3200 is a good choice as the 1 gig (2 X 512) bundle from new egg is pretty cheap considering the timings it gets and decent ability to overclock. For a MB, I'd go with a Nforce4 ultra as PCIe vid is already becoming the standard as is sata2 support. I'd also spend the extra 50% for a 10000 RPM raptor HD as they greatly increase your speed and you won't need to upgrade for years.
What you may want to go lower end on is your CPU. There is not a huge difference between a A64 4000 vesus a 3500 in most games. The A64 3200 winchester overclocks well safely to at least 3500 speeds. CPUs tend to drop in price quickly, so eventually this is something you can later upgrade.
All this, considering you need an OS too, will get your near $800 if you buy everything on sale. Thus, the thing I recommend going really low end on for now is your vid card. This may seem silly because a vid card is the single most important piece of hardware for a gamer's performance, but the fact is vid cards are the one item that greatly falls in price consistently and are the major piece that constitutes a major upgrade when replaced. Get a $68 refurbed 6600 from newegg and overclock the core to 600 and you got a damn good card for now. Then wait for the next gen which is right around the corner. The mid range 24 pipe cards will be close to double the performance of a current 6800 Ultra and will be a good priced soon to come upgrade that will vastly improve your whole system.
At least, that's how I would do it if I was building now. The important thing to think of when building is not how much you can save now, but how much you can save in the future if some of the stuff you buy now is still worth keeping and using. Yeah, you can save some money going with a cheap dell, but when it comes to upgrading it, you cant keep the OS if you change the MB and chances are a new MB won't fit in the case, which will have a crap PS and no airflow to begin with. Most of the componets on dells suck too, inferior memory and crap motherboards. Build a solid system now for a bit more and most of your future upgrades will only consist of a cheap vid card and MB/CPU swap as opposed to entire system swaps.
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp...-147-15.jpg&CurImage=11-105-147-01.jpg
Since you already have a case, I am assuming you have a floppy and CD rom drive you can salvage, if so do that or if not you can grab both from a used comp store for under $10.
I'd recommend going mid range on your motherboard and RAM as these can also last over a couple of upgrades. The patriot low latency DDR 3200 is a good choice as the 1 gig (2 X 512) bundle from new egg is pretty cheap considering the timings it gets and decent ability to overclock. For a MB, I'd go with a Nforce4 ultra as PCIe vid is already becoming the standard as is sata2 support. I'd also spend the extra 50% for a 10000 RPM raptor HD as they greatly increase your speed and you won't need to upgrade for years.
What you may want to go lower end on is your CPU. There is not a huge difference between a A64 4000 vesus a 3500 in most games. The A64 3200 winchester overclocks well safely to at least 3500 speeds. CPUs tend to drop in price quickly, so eventually this is something you can later upgrade.
All this, considering you need an OS too, will get your near $800 if you buy everything on sale. Thus, the thing I recommend going really low end on for now is your vid card. This may seem silly because a vid card is the single most important piece of hardware for a gamer's performance, but the fact is vid cards are the one item that greatly falls in price consistently and are the major piece that constitutes a major upgrade when replaced. Get a $68 refurbed 6600 from newegg and overclock the core to 600 and you got a damn good card for now. Then wait for the next gen which is right around the corner. The mid range 24 pipe cards will be close to double the performance of a current 6800 Ultra and will be a good priced soon to come upgrade that will vastly improve your whole system.
At least, that's how I would do it if I was building now. The important thing to think of when building is not how much you can save now, but how much you can save in the future if some of the stuff you buy now is still worth keeping and using. Yeah, you can save some money going with a cheap dell, but when it comes to upgrading it, you cant keep the OS if you change the MB and chances are a new MB won't fit in the case, which will have a crap PS and no airflow to begin with. Most of the componets on dells suck too, inferior memory and crap motherboards. Build a solid system now for a bit more and most of your future upgrades will only consist of a cheap vid card and MB/CPU swap as opposed to entire system swaps.
Qty Product Item # Unit Price Qty x Price
A-Top XBlade Silver Gaming Machine With 450W PSU & LCD Control Panel, Model "AT859A-SV-LCD" - Retail
Specifications:
Case Type: Mid Tower Case
Color: Silver
Material: Steel
Drive Bays: 5.25" x 4/0, 3.5" x 2/5 (external/internal)
Expansion Slots: 7
Front Ports: 2 x USB2.0, 2 x audio
Power Supply: 450W
Cooling System: 1 x 80mm front Blue LED fan, 1 x 80mm side Blue LED fan
Motherboard Compatibility: 12" x 10" OR 12" x 10.5" (w/ 2 x 5.25" installed)
Dimensions: 17" x 7.9" x 17.3"(HxWxD)
Features: LCD Control Panel, Side panel window with custom chromed XBlade design & a mesh guard more info-> N82E16811105147 $70.49 $70.49
Thermaltake Thunderblade 120mm (BLUE) LED High Performance DC fan, Model "A1926"
Specification:
Compatibility: Case, Power Supply
Dimensions: 120x120x25 mm
Bearing Type: Sleeve
Nominal Speed(RPM): 2000
Max Air Flow
CFM): 78Rated Voltage: 12V DC
Connector: 4 Pin
Noise(dBA): 21 more info-> N82E16811999127 $10.99 $10.99
CHAINTECH NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU, Model "VNF4/Ultra" -RETAIL
Specifications:
Supported CPU: Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64FX/64 processor
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
RAM: 4x DIMM Dual Channel DDR 266/333/400 Max 4GB
Slots: 1x PCI-Express X16, 2x PCI-Express X1, 3x PCI
Ports: 2x PS/2, 2x COM, 1x LPT, 10x USB2.0(Rear 4), 1x RJ45, Audio Ports
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices with NV Raid 0/1/0+1
SATA: 4x SATA2 3.0Gb/s with NV Raid 0/1/0+1
Onboard Audio: NVIDIA 7.1-channel audio
Onboard LAN: 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet
Form Factor: ATX more info-> N82E16813152049 $98.00 $98.00
GIGABYTE nVIDIA GeForce 6600 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI-Express, Model "GV-NX66128D"
Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: nVIDIA GeForce 6600/300MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 128MB DDR/550MHz
BUS: PCI-Express x16
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out (S-Video) + DVI
Support 3D API: DirectX 9(Shader Model 3.0), OpenGL 1.5
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536@85Hz
more info-> N82E16814125158R $68.00 $68.00
AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 939 64-bit Processor - Retail
Specifications:
Model: Athlon 64 3200+
Core: Winchester
Operating Frequency: 2.0GHz
FSB: Integrated into Chip
Cache: L1/64K+64K; L2/ 512KB
Voltage: 1.5V
Process: 90nm
Socket: Socket 939
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, SSE2, 3DNOW!, 3DNOW!+
Warranty: 3-year MFG
Packaging: Retail(with Heatsink and Fan) more info-> N82E16819103502 $190.00 $190.00
Patriot Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB (512MBx2) DDR PC-3200, Low latency 2-3-2-5, Model PDC1G3200LLK - Retail
Specifications:
Manufacturer: PDP SYSTEMS
Speed: DDR400(PC3200)
Type: 184-Pin DDR SDRAM
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Cas Latency: 2-3-2-5-T1
Support Voltage: 2.6V
Bandwidth: 3.2GB/s
Organization: two 64M x 64 -Bit
Warranty: Lifetime more info-> N82E16820220006 $130.67 $130.67
Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD360GD, OEM Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 36.7GB
Average Seek Time: 5.2 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: High Performance SATA Interface
Packaging: OEM Drive Only more info-> N82E16822144200 $126.00 $126.00
Subtotal » $694.15 + $93 for win xp home oem and some for shipping
Buy all this when the merchant has free or 99 cent shipping and it's a nice system that will upgrade well for years.
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