Ultra-budget ghetto gaming rig

[v8envy]

So turns out I probably won't be able to push out my machine build until next gen cards come out and cause current gen to drop in price. Parents' P3/500 let out the magic smoke, and they're demanding a replacement.

To that end, I'm giving them my old crusty amd2600+/512MB PC2700/9800pro box, and planning a temporary rig that'll get me through the next 8 or 9 months. At the end of which it'll become wife's box, get donated to relatives, or parted out & ebayed.

The aim here is absolute lowest possible cost, while still being functional for gaming at low res/no AA (hence video forum). I'll put together a real machine around June of next year.

OS: gentoo + cedega, or old win2k license
Case: Antec Sonata BQE, antec 350w PS ($43, already have it)
HD: WD 200G, ($43, already have it)
Ram: 1G (2x512) PC3200 corsair value, $77
Mboard: TUL AX480A7-F Socket 754 ATI XPRESS 200P ATX AMD Motherboard $63
CPU: Sempron 64 2800+, retail - $75
Video: 6600GT ( $127 ) or X850XT ($240)
Total: $428 (nvidia) or $541 (ati)


I'm thinking the X850XT PCIe could get me about a year, so may be worth the extra $110.

Can anyone think of a cheaper way to fly here? Any real problems with my mboard choice? Any other stopgap ideas?

Thanks!

 

[imhungry]

You should be able to play games with the 6600GT for a bit, just at looww settings.

If anything, I'd upgrade to sempron to an athlon? And maybe the value ram to XMS ($100 @ newegg), if you plan on getting an athlon. XMS will overclock better. And maybe switch the x850xt out for a 6800GS, since they generally OC very well. You could save $30-$50 right there.

Besides that...don't know right now.

 

[Crescent13]

OS: It would be well worth it to save some money on other parts, and get windows XP.
Case: Nice :thumbsup:
HD: Ok, not much to say about it though since you already have it
Ram: :thumbsup: awesome ram! (XMS doesn't make that much ov a difference, and this ram overclocks like crazy, I have it)
Mboard: this would be MUCH better for the price.
CPU: Downgrade to the 2600+ if that is what you need to do to get windows XP, it will be worth it
Video: Get a 6800GS, better price/performance ratio

This belongs in General Hardware BTW.

 

[touchmyichi]

I say buy the ASrock 939 board- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081
CPU- get the cheapest socket 939 you can possibly find. I recommend checking out for sale/trade

the reason i suggest this combo is the mass upgradability you have on it. You can up to any of the excellent 939 venices or opterons as well as socket M2 in the future. Also, you can upgrade to a PCI express card in the future. Not only that but Athlon 64 is really the way to go right now and you're going to have to make the jump to A64 and PCI X at some point, might as well do it now for a reasonable price.

What you also could do is go with the 754 socket (as you suggested) for only 64 bucks with this siempron- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104249. Along with it I'd recommend yet another asrock- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157077. This one allows a future 939 upgrade or a MSI nforce 3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130521. This 754 combo would be cheaper than the Socket A stuff you were considering.

So basically go with the 939 if you can due to future upgradability, or a 754 if you really do need to save the cash.

 

[Crescent13]

Originally posted by: touchmyichi
I say buy the ASrock 939 board- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081
CPU- get the cheapest socket 939 you can possibly find. I recommend checking out for sale/trade

the reason i suggest this combo is the mass upgradability you have on it. You can up to any of the excellent 939 venices or opterons as well as socket M2 in the future. Also, you can upgrade to a PCI express card in the future. Not only that but Athlon 64 is really the way to go right now and you're going to have to make the jump to A64 and PCI X at some point, might as well do it now for a reasonable price.

What you also could do is go with the 754 socket (as you suggested) for only 64 bucks with this siempron- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104249. Along with it I'd recommend yet another asrock- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157077. This one allows a future 939 upgrade or a MSI nforce 3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130521. This 754 combo would be cheaper than the Socket A stuff you were considering.

So basically go with the 939 if you can due to future upgradability, or a 754 if you really do need to save the cash.

Since when does Socket M2 = Socket 939????

Socket M2 = 940 pins, DDR2 Ram

Socket 939 = 939 pins, DDR1 Ram

They aren't compatible.

EDIT: HAHAHA What are you thinking?!?!?! Socket 754 supports PCI-Express and has for a while now!!! Look at the motherboard I posted.

 

[themusgrat]

The 6600GT is great. I have it, and play BF2 with half settings at medium, half at high, and 2x AA. Though it is the limiting component in my system, it is still good and the most cost-effective GPU until the 7800 GT comes down. In your case, it will be great. Hopefully, your mobo will allow OCing, as Semprons OC very well and can come very close to A64 performance, at least closer than Intels. lol with a devilish tone... squared... no, to the 17th power... yeah, this is good... begin talk of AMD world domonation now. enter... OK, I'm through.

 

[hans030390]

The 6600gt should last you for a year...high settings for games out now, medium settings for next gen (lower resolution too).

 

[CKXP]

v8envy, you should go with the $428 (nvidia) option since your aim is lowest cost possible and you plan on upgrading around June. the 6600gt will do just fine, it might even surprise you on well it performs.

 

[touchmyichi]

Originally posted by: Crescent13

Originally posted by: touchmyichi
I say buy the ASrock 939 board- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081
CPU- get the cheapest socket 939 you can possibly find. I recommend checking out for sale/trade

the reason i suggest this combo is the mass upgradability you have on it. You can up to any of the excellent 939 venices or opterons as well as socket M2 in the future. Also, you can upgrade to a PCI express card in the future. Not only that but Athlon 64 is really the way to go right now and you're going to have to make the jump to A64 and PCI X at some point, might as well do it now for a reasonable price.

What you also could do is go with the 754 socket (as you suggested) for only 64 bucks with this siempron- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104249. Along with it I'd recommend yet another asrock- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157077. This one allows a future 939 upgrade or a MSI nforce 3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130521. This 754 combo would be cheaper than the Socket A stuff you were considering.

So basically go with the 939 if you can due to future upgradability, or a 754 if you really do need to save the cash.

Since when does Socket M2 = Socket 939????

Socket M2 = 940 pins, DDR2 Ram

Socket 939 = 939 pins, DDR1 Ram

They aren't compatible.

EDIT: HAHAHA What are you thinking?!?!?! Socket 754 supports PCI-Express and has for a while now!!! Look at the motherboard I posted.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. The ASrock 939 SATA 2 has an upgrade card slot for socket M2 which will be released upon the AMD M2 line being released. Yes, no one knows for sure how it will work with DDR1 or if the riser will include DDR2, but the support is definently there and advertised by the company. They have done the riser card expansion on some of their older boards very well, so I trust them here. As for PCI express, I thought the card he wanted was an AGP- in which case a board that supports BOTH AGP and PCI express would be nice and yes, I am aware that socket 754 has PCI express but it looked as if he was considering AGP.

Actually look into the products I posted instead of making yourself look like an utter moron next time.

 

[v8envy]

Thanks for the replies guys. The multi-socket asrock is a very interesting product.

The reason this is a disposable build is not just because I'm ultra cheap, it's because I expect my real machine to be an M2 with DDR2. The socket 939 cpus are 2x as pricey, for almost no perceptible gain. Too bad socket939 semprons can't be bought by mere mortals.

AGP was not a desirable goal.

As far as XP, meh. I have friends who work at microsoft who can get me a copy for less than I pay transgaming. It's just I prefer win2k to XP, and gentoo to both. I've got the bloated XP beast on my amd64 laptop, and if I wasn't so fat and lazy (and if linux supported power management for crap), it'd be long gone.

Neither the 6600GT nor X850XT would be CPU bottlenecked by the sempron64. I've got my 3200+ laptop for work, all this would be for is games.

Since the general concensus is a 9800Pro-class GPU (6600GT) is enough for now, I may pick up a $15 9200SE for my parents, and pick up an AGP board, keeping the current GPU.

 

[Captante]

Keeping the 9800 Pro is the best bet if you want to go cheap, but if you do buy a new video card I'd go for the X850XT over either of the Nvidia options since its the fastest AGP GPU in the majority of games ... just keep in mind that the newest games humble an 6800 Ultra/GT or the aformentioned X850 at highest detail levels and you'll be playing most of them at low detail and/or resolution with a 9800 Pro or 6600GT if you use AA & AF unless you can tolerate pretty low framrates.

 

[nonilley]

If you can somehow get a pci-e card a 6800gs would be a better choice.