A friend of mine wants me to build him a budget

Bastid · Post by **Bastid** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 10:35 am

gaming rig for him and i was curious if anyone had any advice or input as to get the most bang for the buck... needs everything cept a monitor, key board, mouse, ect...and im thinking 5-600 bux is about what he wants to spend... ifts its pimp enough i might be able to get 7 out of em but prolly pushin it.

any help would be awesome and thnks guys

what ya think about this: (any conflicts ahead or anything?)

ASPIRE (Turbo Case)Green ATX Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "ATXB5KLW/350"
Specifications:
Case Type: Mid-Tower Case
Color: Green
Material: Metal
Drive Bays: 5.25" x 4/0, 3.5" x 2/4 (external/internal)
Expansion Slots: 7
Front Ports: USB2.0 port x 2, Audio
Power Supply: 350W
Cooling System: 2 fans
Motherboard Compatibility: ATX/ BABY AT
Dimensions: 16.5" x 7.8" X 17" (DxWxH) more info-> N82E16811144045 $44.50 $44.50

DFI "LANPARTY NFII ULTRA B" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
Specifications:
Supported CPU: Socket A AMD Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron Processors
Chipset: nVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 + MCP-T
FSB: 400/333MHz
RAM: 3x DIMM for Dual Channel DDR400/333 Max 3GB
IDE: 2x UltraDMA 133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2xPS2,1xCOM,1xLPT,8xUSB2.0(Rear 4),2xLAN,2xS/PDIF,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC650 CODEC
Onboard LAN: Realtek RTL8110S GbE + 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: Sil3114 Serial ATA controller, 4x SATA, SATA RAID 0/1
Onboard 1394: MCP-T + Agere FW803 Phy chips 3x IEEE1394(internal)
Form Factor: ATX more info-> N82E16813136138 $114.00 $114.00

AMD Athlon XP 3000+ "Barton", 400 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - OEM
Specifications:
Model: AMD Athlon XP 3000+
Core: Barton
Operating Frequency: 2.1GHz
FSB: 400MHz
Cache: L1/64K+64K; L2/512K
Voltage: 1.65V
Process: 0.13Micron
Socket: Socket A
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, 3DNOW!, 3DNOW!+
Packaging: OEM (Processor Only) more info-> N82E16819103394 $138.00 $138.00

Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail
Specifications:
Manufacturer: Mushkin
Speed: DDR400(PC3200)
Type: 184 Pin DDR SDRAM
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Cas Latency: 2.5-4-4
Support Voltage: 2.6V
Bandwidth: 3.2GB/s
Organization: 64M x 64 -Bit
Warranty: Lifetime more info-> N82E16820146219 $64.85 $129.70

Western Digital Special Edition 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD1200JB, OEM Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 120GB
Average Seek Time: 8.9 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM
Interface: IDE ULTRA ATA100
Features: High-performance with 8MB Buffer
Manufacturer Warranty: 3 years
Packaging: OEM Drive Only more info-> N82E16822144118 $88.75 $88.75

Subtotal » $514.95

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 11:02 am

plus video card
plus CD rom or other
Plus Processor cooler
Might want to consider PCIx, so he has an upgrade path

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 11:40 am

hmm? I agree PCIx to extend the upgrades later.. what about Windows XP? got a disk to use cause that will cost some. Also if your going to push the 600 limit.. may as well sink the rest into the processor as high as the money will take it.

RicRogue · Post by **RicRogue** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 3:18 pm

Chris wrote:plus video card
plus CD rom or other
Plus Processor cooler
Might want to consider PCIx, so he has an upgrade path

Ya, you really can't have a gaming rig without the above

Bastid · Post by **Bastid** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:14 pm

lol i didnt realise i had left those out...

any suggestins...brand n stuff?

drdoug99 · Post by **drdoug99** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 1:21 am

personally, I've always gone with crucial memory to build systems for friends....just because my friends dont overclock, (hell they can barely turn a comp on) and I certainly wont overclock it for them if they dont want me to or even know what overclocking means since if anything happens, stability problems, etc, well it falls back to me. And crucial is pretty solid.

I would say go with 512mb....1 gig is uncessary for me really...512 is no problem, specially for a budget system. And I say go with crucial, as I am assuming it would save a few bucks...I know Muskin is a good OCing brand, so I'm assuming it might be more. but I dont know.

also of course going with 512mb will save some bucks for an all important vid card.

really I have no clue....haven't kept up much, and it seems like everything I read, they are charging over teh MSPR for...

Personally from what I've read the GeForce 6800, or 6600GT should be good for budget, yet still powerful enough for most games for a year at least.

Also personally, I would stay away from the Aspire "turbo case". I would spend the extra 20-30 bucks and get a good Antec case/psu combo, or a cheap case, good power supply. The cheap combo cases always have some unknown power supply...but I haven't read up on that brand of case....maybe it's decent, I dont know.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:12 am

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 054&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 185&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 078&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 305&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 633&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 040&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 143&DEPA=0

800ish or so plus shipping.

This gives him a usable system that is pretty well off, plus room to upgrade the cpu, ram, video card, hdd.

The 6600GT is enough unless he has real high gaming demands, but then you really kill you're budget.

The ram is 1 stick, so no dual channel, but he'll need a gig, so that would be a future upgrade and would give him a big performance boost, by going to a gig and dual channel at once.

The mobo has the ich6 and 915 which gives u raid opptions in the future and the seagate drive uses the NCQ tech the 915 has, this helps HDD performance, so if he ran out and needed a 2nd its liek 75 bucks and he could have raid performance with it.

As for the case u could grab anything that holds a micro atx board and comes with a 350-400 watt PSU, antec or aopen cases would be my choice.

Bastid · Post by **Bastid** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:23 am

drdoug99 wrote:personally, I've always gone with crucial memory to build systems for friends....just because my friends dont overclock, (hell they can barely turn a comp on) and I certainly wont overclock it for them if they dont want me to or even know what overclocking means since if anything happens, stability problems, etc, well it falls back to me. And crucial is pretty solid.

I would say go with 512mb....1 gig is uncessary for me really...512 is no problem, specially for a budget system. And I say go with crucial, as I am assuming it would save a few bucks...I know Muskin is a good OCing brand, so I'm assuming it might be more. but I dont know.

also of course going with 512mb will save some bucks for an all important vid card. really I have no clue....haven't kept up much, and it seems like everything I read, they are charging over teh MSPR for... Personally from what I've read the GeForce 6800, or 6600GT should be good for budget, yet still powerful enough for most games for a year at least.

Also personally, I would stay away from the Aspire "turbo case". I would spend the extra 20-30 bucks and get a good Antec case/psu combo, or a cheap case, good power supply. The cheap combo cases always have some unknown power supply...but I haven't read up on that brand of case....maybe it's decent, I dont know.

yeah, that particular system i built for another friend, like almost 2 years ago for right at a grand...kinda funny now...
but yeah, the case was kinda irrelivant...it was just part of the list

Bastid · Post by **Bastid** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:27 am

YARDofSTUF wrote:http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 054&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 185&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 078&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 305&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 633&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 040&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 143&DEPA=0

800ish or so plus shipping.

This gives him a usable system that is pretty well off, plus room to upgrade the cpu, ram, video card, hdd.

The 6600GT is enough unless he has real high gaming demands, but then you really kill you're budget.

The ram is 1 stick, so no dual channel, but he'll need a gig, so that would be a future upgrade and would give him a big performance boost, by going to a gig and dual channel at once.

The mobo has the ich6 and 915 which gives u raid opptions in the future and the seagate drive uses the NCQ tech the 915 has, this helps HDD performance, so if he ran out and needed a 2nd its liek 75 bucks and he could have raid performance with it.

As for the case u could grab anything that holds a micro atx board and comes with a 350-400 watt PSU, antec or aopen cases would be my choice.

cool thnx Yard! it might be a bit much for him to spend but ill show it to him.

maroon · Post by **maroon** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:29 pm

How about A64? This is a good budget setup.

POWMAX 0808 Beige ATX Mid tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "CP808PL-1" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16811145046
$22.88

BenQ 16x DVD-/+RW Drive with Software, 4X Dual Layer Beige Model DW1620 PRO, OEM
Item# N82E16827101633
$54.99

Seagate 80 GB Barracuda 7200RPM SATA with NCQ Hard Drive, Model ST380817AS, OEM
Item# N82E16822148040
$69.00

pqi TURBO Series Dual Channel (Mirrored Black) 184-Pin 512MB(256MB x 2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail
Item# N82E16820141159
$79.99

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS-939" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL
Item# N82E16813128274
$85.00

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 939 64-bit Processor - Retail

Item# N82E16819103501
$160.00

SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600XT Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "ATLANTIS RADEON 9600XT" OEM Lite Box
Item# N82E16814102338
$137.50

Product total: $609.36

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 2:18 pm

Only thing that really sticks out in maroons suggestion is that pqi ram, i'd stick to a more well know brand like crucial/geil, and buy in 512 sticks.

Don't know about a 9600, its still fast, but its old tech now.

what type of gaming does he do?

Joel · Post by **Joel** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:20 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:Only thing that really sticks out in maroons suggestion is that pqi ram, i'd stick to a more well know brand like crucial/geil, and buy in 512 sticks.

Don't know about a 9600, its still fast, but its old tech now.

what type of gaming does he do?

PQI Ican't say much about, but I do recommend PDP. Get it, get it now. Cheap, excelent stuff.

I also happen to have a 9600XT, and it's played everygame out there so far. Mind you, not at super high settings, but I play HL2 (the demo) with AA/AF @ 1024x768, Doom3 @ 1024x768 Medium detail, etc etc.

However, even though the 9600XT is a pretty decent card, I'd splurg there and get a 6600GT for $50-70 more, since the video card is such a crucial part in any gaming PC.

Bastid · Post by **Bastid** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:41 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:Only thing that really sticks out in maroons suggestion is that pqi ram, i'd stick to a more well know brand like crucial/geil, and buy in 512 sticks.

Don't know about a 9600, its still fast, but its old tech now.

what type of gaming does he do?

virgin...
he is a console'r PS2 and XBox, never messed with puters yet...

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 6:01 pm

ya i'd go with the 6600gt