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awesome sauce

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

15 Jul 2008 at 02:51 - 1

Snograt

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

[GURU]GW [wiki]GW2

R/

15 Jul 2008 at 03:07 - 2

Now I've moved you to the right section, you can check out the second sticky down:Computer parts guide

awesome sauce

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

15 Jul 2008 at 03:18 - 3

Oh wow, I didn't even realize I put it in the wrong section. Sorry about that.

Snograt

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

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R/

15 Jul 2008 at 03:22 - 4

No problem ^^

To save people having to click through to see all the selected components:

Phenom 8450 Toliman 2.1GHz
Rosewill R220-P-BK midi tower case
Visiontek Radeon HD4870
Sigma Power Engine 535W PSU
2 x 1GB A-Data DDR2-800 @ 5-5-5-18
Biostar A770 Mobo
Excelstor Jupiter 80GB HDD
Lite-On DVD±RW

Lord Sojar

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

Oblivion

Irrelevant

Mo/Me

15 Jul 2008 at 03:43 - 5

I wouldn't trust the Sigma power supply. Graphics card is A+. Processor is decent, and will play most stuff just fine. Don't let anyone scream about Intel vs AMD, as AMD's platform with ATi cards is superior.

Biostar is....and iffy motherboard manufacturer, but hopefully you have good luck.

A-Data RAM is terrible. Find some from Gskill perhaps? They are usually cheap and great performers.

The HDD is decent I guess, but pretty small. I would go with a 120GB from Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, or Hitachi. Just find a good deal.

You could reduce the graphics card to the HD4850 to save the money and put in slightly better stuff. Upgrade the CPU to a better Phenom, the PSU to a known brand, Gskill or Crucial RAM, one of the above HDD manufacturers. If you want, just give me the word, and I will link you to my selection of parts.

Snograt

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

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15 Jul 2008 at 03:56 - 6

Oh, and swap the IDE DVD writer for a STA one - they're still dirt cheap. This one from LG will do - if they get more stock :/

awesome sauce

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

15 Jul 2008 at 04:11 - 7

I got a combo deal that I didn't see for this psu:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182010

I also think I'll switch to this ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Shopping/Shopp...82E16820231098

As for motherboard... I don't know. All I'm looking for is something decent under $80. I'm not interested in xfire or sli or anything.

If anyone wants to suggest a completely different setup that would be great. I'm not that knowledgeable and I think I'll need all the help possible. Just keep in mind that this does not include a monitor, so $895 worth of parts = me buying one of these monitors: http://www.usedmonitorshop.com/pcmonitors.html LOL.

Snograt

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

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15 Jul 2008 at 04:50 - 8

If you read moriz's guide, he's posted this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by moriz's guide to PC parts

$500

for those who are on a tight budget, and want as much game as possible.

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103212 $60.99
motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186147 $54.99 (MIR $10)
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231098 $44.99
case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e e%2bHundred $69.95
hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148262 $54.99
optical drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136142 $24.99
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182016 $44.99
video: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121253 $164.99 (MIR $30)

final: $478.89 (MIR $40)

at this price range, i'll have to cut quite a few corners to get adequate gaming performance. AMD processors just fits the bill, since that's the best dual core CPU i can find under $75. apparently it overclocks like a banshee, so be sure to crank it up for some free performance. also had to cut RAM down to 2gb. given the rest of the system, you probably won't notice it much anyways.

since the graphics card is the greatest determinant of gaming performance, i opted to go with the HD4850 here. i know i'm coming off as the greatest AMD fanboy the world has ever known, but these things just kick ass.

As you can see, it's a sub-$500 build, so you can work with that and upgrade parts to your budget. It's a fine balance to get right; the quality of CPU, GPU and mobo. The mobo in that list is a steal, even if it is a Foxconn. I did see an open-box deal for an Asus on there -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813131289R - but AMD boards are not my speciality.

(What we need is a budget proportion guide - meaning given a budget of $1000, how much should be alloted to which components.)

Showtime

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2005

WTB Q9+5e Bows/Q8 14^50 Weapons

R/P

15 Jul 2008 at 05:22 - 9

This is a real good source of info for pricing and building computers.

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=798731

moriz

??ber t??k-n??sh'??n

Join Date: Jan 2006

Canada

R/

15 Jul 2008 at 13:40 - 10

take a look at my $1000 PC in my guide. with today's update, it dropped to $825, which is well within your budget and will fulfill your gaming needs for the next 2 years (probably).

Snograt

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

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15 Jul 2008 at 16:13 - 11

Cool!

(No wait, that's not cool - it means I've got to re-source my British figures now ><)

swaaye

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

15 Jul 2008 at 21:26 - 12

I suggest you go to Newegg's PSU area and look up 80+ units. They are very power efficient.

For example, this Corsair unit is superb. 450W is more than enough for anything not running dual vid cards. Don't let the big wattages of some of the PSUs out there make you think you need 500+ W. I've personally measured a Core 2 Duo + Radeon 4850 to be under 200 W at full load.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139003

awesome sauce

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

16 Jul 2008 at 04:09 - 13

Thanks for the help guys. I won't need to buy this until I head off to college in late august. Is there anything I should wait for?

Wrath Of Dragons

Burninate Stuff

Join Date: Aug 2005

New Mexico

E/Mo

16 Jul 2008 at 06:51 - 14

Late august? EVERYTHING will have changed by then

I think the ati 4870x2 should be out by then, if you care to blow that much on a card.

Lord Sojar

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

Oblivion

Irrelevant

Mo/Me

16 Jul 2008 at 14:49 - 15

Nehalem.... it comes out later this year. It is well worth the wait, trust me. Even a budget system can be built using Nehalem.

Nehalem is a quad core CPU, and Intel brought back Hyperthreading, so you have 8 cores according to Windows (it isn't quite like that, but for the sake of simplicity, we will just say it is)

Nehalem also features tons of improvement in memory management, and has an integrated memory controller, which will increase gaming performance by very large percentages in most cases. Wait for Nehalem, trust me.

Snograt

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

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R/

16 Jul 2008 at 16:48 - 16

Is Nehalem likely to be available before late August?

Proteus Summer

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Dec 2005

Teh Seks [TS]

W/Me

17 Jul 2008 at 06:02 - 17

Quote:

Originally Posted by awesome sauce

On a budget of $900 (although I want to save as much as possible)

Total = $663

Lord Sojar

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

Oblivion

Irrelevant

Mo/Me

17 Jul 2008 at 20:36 - 18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snograt

Is Nehalem likely to be available before late August?

Even if he has to go without a good PC for a while, it is still worth it. September is right around the corner.