900$ Budget

[7_vii_7]

hey guys I got $900 to spend.

what do you think I need?

Raptor or SATA II ?

7800 GT? or 6800 GS?

AMD 3200+ or AMD 3500+

what Case? help!

 

[mdd1963]

If your goal is gaming, you'd be wise to get the 7800GT, even if you have to settle for a slightly slower processor..., if possible, get the 3500+ though, too, it's a nice minimum these days

The Raptor is indeed fast, but, if you can live with games taking 4 seconds longer to load, find a 200-250gb drive on sale at compusa for $59!

As for the case, get whichever one appeals to you and then add your own quality 400-500 watt PS....

 

[7_vii_7]

yeah if i get the 7800 GT .. is the XFX 6800 GS PCI-E any good?


80701-5 Quantity Limit: 20
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939 Retail ***Free 2nd Day***
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Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer ***Free 2nd Day***
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XFX PVT42GUAD GeForce 6800 GS PCI Express 256MB DDR Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI Retail ***Free 2nd Day***
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Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition (Full Version) Single-Pack OEM *** Free 2nd Day ***


this is what I think i will get from ZipZoomFly.. i just need to buy a case.. I will go to COMPusa for it.

Will this be good? I was thinking of SLIing the GS later on.

 

[Fox_granit]

You might want to go ahead and get the single 1 gig stick of ram, its not too much more, but it will save you a headache for upgrading later on..... just a thought

 

[7_vii_7]

but i want to be able to get the dual channel with the 2 sticks of 512

 

[PCcashCow]

You might want to go ahead and get the single 1 gig stick of ram, its not too much more, but it will save you a headache for upgrading later on..... just a thought

I would stick with the ram you have picked out, you will notice the Duel channel this way.

But here is a suggestion, what do you intend to do with XP pro? I have built may gamming PCs with Xp home and saved money, almost 50 bucks. In addition to that, do you really need a floppy? Becuase you'd save 15 bucks. SO now you have almost 65+ to work with.

With that, you can get the 6800 GS or better, and fit in a AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor (Winchester) and with the diffrence get any number of coolers.

If you want the 3200, then I suggest going with 2 gigs of ram OR, keep the 3200 and just add the XFX PV-T70G-UDE7 Geforce 7800 GT

tune down your mobo and bum the extra 20 bucks from your neighbor. I did the math quickly, but that should fit your budget.

 

[7_vii_7]

the CO is clocked higher

 

[PCcashCow]

the CO is clocked higher

Well, if thats an issue then so be it. But you can can get the 7800gt if you go with xp home, no floppy, cheaper mobo.

Are you building a gaming rig?

 

[7_vii_7]

pro is better than home.


home is like a transexual... nice to look at but none of the features you need.

 

[PCcashCow]

I'm not questioning your usage or profesion, but what 'features' do you need for XP Pro?

 

[7_vii_7]

i figure its more stable

 

[PCcashCow]

Not true.

They use the same kernel. On identical Single CPU machines perf should be the identical. there is no reason to go for Pro unless:
* it's free or cheaper than home, which its not
* your on a network where you need to join a domain ( in most cases you can patch in through an AD anyway)
* you have an SMP machine
* You need encrypted file system
* you need to run IIS on your workstation

In 90% of the cases, You dont need pro unless your a workstation connected to a large forest of domains.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

But anyway, have you adjusted on any other parts than you origninaly posted?

 

[Vascular]

Well if I was building a system today and had 900 to spend I would first start looking at my old system to see what I could scab out of it.

1. Any cd dvd in old comp that you could reuse untill you come up with more money.

2. Ram if its ddr you should reuse till you get additional funds even if its a little slower.

3.XP home is fine, I would venture to say atleast 80% of prebuilt systems come with home and you know how many of those are sold.

Reusing old parts lets you save some money to spend on higher end equipment. Look at tomshardware winter pci-e chart. SLI is not a very good upgrade path, it more of a "I HAVE THE ABSOLUTE FASTEST FPS POSSIBLE" statement. The 7800gt out performs the last gen 6800gt sli. If I remember correctly the GS is the same as the GT only the GS is fabed using 90nm.

 

[7_vii_7]

i am going to be having a wireless network in my house sharing a workgroup/domain.

 

[PCcashCow]

That type of networking is diffrent. Xp will network fine with any router interface. I dont know what type of domain your thinking of, unless your distributing your bandwith through an AD on a server.

 

[7_vii_7]

well i will be getting

AMD 3200+ Venice
GeIL GE1GB3200BDC 1GB Kit DDR400 PC3200 Dual Channel Value Series
WD 160gb SATA II 7200
EpoX EP-9NPA+SLI nForce4 SLi Athlon 64(FX) Skt939
Pioneer DVR-110 16X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive (Black)
Sony Black Floppy Drive
eVGA GeForce 7800 GT CO PCI Express 256MB
Antec Solution Series SLK3800B Black w/ 400W


well that will put me about 900$

now XP PRO is what is tripping me up.

 

[PCcashCow]

I still think you'll be happy with XP home. The extra money can go towards shipping, more ram (2gigs is always nice). But your rig looks nice you just want to be sure that PSU has 24pins on it

 

[pwnage]

why do people have such small budgets for new computers?

 

[7_vii_7]

there is a way to modify XP home so that it can act like a XP PRO lite... my friend sent me the link

XP Home ---> XP Pro Lite

 

[pwnage]

yea i know that. but why choose shuch an odd number why not $1200.

in my mind $900 will get you jack shit. My Proc cost more than that.

$1500 is a nice price and it will get you a damn good computer.
i have a P3 at home and i originaly spent $2000 on it. you know how long i have had it? 12 years and it still runs strong. i have had to do minor repairs, 1 bad HD, a new video card, and some more memory and that is it.

these super cheap machines are complete CRAP. its my belief that any thing under $1000 is crap and i have yet to see a machine that cost less than that run properly for more than 2 yrs. agreed the end user has something to do with it, in not keeping the machine up to snuff.

i have just finished a machine for a customer who has droped $13,000 on it. (and on this is not a typo) its fully customized and has enough top end parts to make you all cream your pants.

i'm not trying to be an elitest ass hole or anything i just feel that people have been duped by the clever marketing of companies like dell. don't get me wrong i like some of dells stuff. i just dont like that fact that they a taking advatage of those who know less that we do with these $399 dell specials.

i guess what im trying to say is, that $900 for a gaming rig is unrealistic. save some cash and spend $1200-$1500 on a new machine. also for those of you that don't know, AMD is coming out with new procs so wait. they will be coming out soon.

also im not trying to make your sugesstions sound like junk, they are great sugesstions.

 

[7_vii_7]

yeah $1200 sounds great...

but $40,000 in student loans
$2000 in CC bills
$700 /month rent...

you can give me the extra $300

 

[pwnage]

i just want to inform people i don't like hearing about people getting ripped off.

 

[7_vii_7]

Yeah i totally understand...

in the future 1 year or so i will get a X2 processor (supported by MoBo) GT CO in SLI mode, 4 gb memory, and 150gb Raptor drives in Raid 1. but for right now i am good with this.


so for what I have... do you think it is an ok system? just being able to play F.E.A.R. at 1280x1024@32bit 0AAx0AF

and just for fun stuff to!

 

[pwnage]

yea sounds good