What Do You Think?

[Magnetron]

Hi

I haven't build a system in about five years so I guess that slaps me back down to noOb status.

Usage: Gaming, Office Work, Web Browsing, DVD/CD Burning, Mass Porn Storage!!
Price Range: $500 - $700US (I live in Trinidad but plan to order from newegg)
Preferences: Asus, Corsair, AMD, Nvidia open to other suggestions.

>I will be using WinXP Pro SP2 32bit. May dual boot with Vista 32<>No over clocking<>
Concentrating on just the tower internals for now. I will most likely get the tower itself and monitor locally<>I gather cooling and power supply are a bit more important for the newer hardware so any suggestions on these will be greatly appreciated<>Just getting back into gaming. Not looking to build very high end gaming machine just something that will run most games at a reasonable level but with some room to upgrade<

Kinda leaning towards these parts from Newegg -

Board - $129.99
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131013
May not use SLI but would like to have the option to upgrade.

CPU - $159.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103773
Is highly recommended by a couple friends of mine that have it.

RAM - $98.00
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145034
I've never had a problem with Corsairs Value Ram. I hope XMS is just as dependable.

Video - $94.99
ASUS EN7600GS SILENT/HTD/512M GeForce 7600GS 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121007
May or may not use SLI. Like the silent/no fan feature.

HDD x 2 - $69.99 each
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148262
Never used SATA before.

DVD Writer - $29.99
SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner With LightScribe Technology - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827151141
Standard stuff I guess.

*Phew* so what do you guys think?

 

[Build it Myself]

I wouldn't run athlon, that 6000 chip runs slower than a 6750 intel...which means slower than a 2xxx OC as well...I just went with an Abit IP35Pro with a 2180 I plan to OC...if you don't want to OC, i'd say consider that 6750 because the price is in the same range and performs better...
I'm currently running AMD and have my whole computing life, so I'm not an Intel fanboy, just did some research before I purchased and Intel seems to win for the time being...

 

[jkresh]

you can get an x1950gt for just a little more then the 7600gt (or an x1950 pro for a bit more), both are significantly faster. They wont be silent but if speed is important to you the differences are dramatic.

 

[Magnetron]

Thanks much for you info guys. I've always wanted to try an Intel build and the x1950gt definitely looks like the better buy. Is there a way to calculate how much wattage I'll need?

 

[Roguestar]

Yes, http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp but it's rather generous. Suffice to say a good quality 500W PSU will power pretty much anything these days. Go for OCZ, Corsair, Seasonic, PCP&C.

Also, instead of this <> stuff you could use a full stop or perhaps a full stop and carriage return.