Originally posted by: greyhavns
so say i have about $500 to spend. What would be the best system with that amount of money? I have HD already and monitor, i just need basically MB, CPU and GRaphics card oh yeah and memory.
You can definately get a
great system upgrade for that much money. Here's a what I recommend; a part-by part list of what you need to get a killer rig for under $500:
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Generic ATX case w/ front USB ports (get a new case with lots of space that doesn't seem too flimsy. You can get a pretty functional one for under $50)
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350W+ Name brand Power Supply - it's always nice to have a stable Power supply so your ~2 GHz system is as stable as possible. Name brand PSU's are more expensive than generic ones, but they are rock solid and won't fry your CPU! I've found the Enermax 350W PSU (EG365-VE) to be a bargain (it's around $50). It ran my P4 at 2.3 GHz and Athlon at 1.9 GHz with no problems at all, and very little voltage fluctuations.
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KT333 or KT400 motherboard, or maybe a well-priced Nforce 2 - Get a good motherboard from ASUS, Abit, Epox, etc. based on one of these chipsets. Make sure it supports a 166MHz FSB and has a 1/5 PCI divider (you will see why in a minute). Under $100 for sure.
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256MB PC2700 or PC3200 DDR memory . Having fast memory is one of the prime reasons to build a new system - sure getting a Slotket and putting a Tualatin Celeron is convenient, but your system just won't have nearly the memory bandwidth of one with a new motherboard that supports DDR. With DDR, your new, ~2 GHz CPU won't be bottlenecked by memory speed, and will be a good bit faster than any P3/Celeron. It's $55 for Samsung PC2700 and $69 for PC3200 right now at Newegg, for example.
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AMD Athlon XP Tbred B 1700+ or AMD Athlon XP Tbred 2100+ Ok here's the deal with this CPU. It is one of the best overclocks for the money ever. With either CPU, you should be able to overclock to ~2 GHz, maybe more. The best part is that the CPU is multiplier unlocked. Here's the beautiful part. All you really need to do is set the FSB on your motherboard to 166MHz (both types of aformentioned memory will run fine at this speed - PC2700 or PC3200) and you can play around with the multipliers at 11X, 11.5X, 12X and 12.5X (which will give you CPU speeds between 1.8 and 2.07 GHz). Since your CPU is unlocked, you can change the multiplier in the BIOS without having to mess with anything in hardware! This is the easiest overclock ever, and will be so satisfying I can't even describe it. The XP1700+ is~$55 right now, the 2100+ is ~$105.
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a good heatsink, but you don't need to go nuts on it! - You can get a pretty good heatsink for your CPU without having to break the bank as many here do. I use a Thermaltake Volcano 9 (around $20) and it gets my 1700+ Tbred A (not a good overclocker) up to 1.9 GHz! I have a 2100+ Tbred B in the mail, which I'll be using very soon...
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Arctic Silver 3 CPU paste - around $5 for a 3g tube, which can do about 15-20 Athlon XP cores, or about 10 P4 cores. You could cheap out on the thermal compound, but for $5 why bother? Apply this to the bottom of your HSF as per directions (spread a very thin layer with a knife, credit card, etc) and it will help you run your CPU much cooler than the crap they give you with the HSF.
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a GeForce 4 Ti4200 or Radeon 9500 - you can search the FS/FT of this forum for a good GeForce 4 Ti4200 (preferably a 128MB version, but the 64MB version is no slouch either). 128MB version should be under $140, 64MB probably closer to $100.
Total: $430 with an XP 1700+ and a GF 4 Ti4200 64MB. If you want another 256 MB add $55, or add $85 to switch to 512MB of PC3200 memory.
For under $500, I have constructed a very well performing rig for you, complete with new memory, a new video card, etc. This should be a great rig for awhile, and will be dirt cheap to upgrade for a little while too! In my opinion, a machine like this (XP Tbred system with a 1700+ or 2100+ CPU) is the best deal out there right now. Good luck!
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