budget am2 PC

[nattydreds]

well i was originally going to go with Intel but considering i am a poor student i thought i may aswell save some cash with an am2 rig. i have a rought idea on the parts but not to familiar with am2 motherboards, heres the list:

AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+

Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3, MSI K9N Neo-F or Asus M2N-E SLI??

2GB Transcend Jetram PC6400

Asus 7900GS 256mb

160GB WD Cavier SE 16mb

L.G 18x DVD-R SATA

Silverstone SS-ST400

CoolerMaster Centurion 5

Vista Home Premium 32-bit




Now im really not sure on the motherboard, i want to overclock but still want a fairly good price. the whole budget is about NZ$1200 which is about US$800 i think. are there any critical changes i should make? The 4200+ im looking at is EE edition, do these chips overclock the same as normal ones? Need suggestions! especially on mobo. thnx.


PS. is there any way i can make a better C2D rig for the same price?

 

[f61]

Click on the Hardware Configuration at the top of this post. Without the vista, and including a KB, mouse, some thermal grease, Floppy and cable, its about US$625. Theres room to grow, and oc. All the parts can be found at newegg. See what you can find down-under... but I always suggest window shopping at the egg because you can see the part#, check some reviews, and see the specs.

The Brisbane series (3600 or 4000) of CPU's overclock quite well and are EE. I don't think the Biostar MoBo and the GSkill memory are availible there, bummer, they're both cheap and VERY good.

I would suggest a 500-550W PSU, it will last longer, and carry over to the next build.

I don't think Intel could match the price, but a Conroe 6300, and a cheaper P35 type MoBo, are definately more "future-proof"... you could upgrade to a top Penryn 45nm dual or quad. That WOULD take a 550W PSU with a newer Graphx card. So for just the price of the new CPU, BIG performance gain. Sometimes a bit better to put the money up front and make a minor change along the way.

 

[sandmannight]

Never really heard of the Ram and Asus always seems to be better...other than that seems like a solid build...and C2D is going to be more expensive always

 

[nattydreds]

great thanks alot. ya too bad about the mobo, but i can pick up some fairly cheap corsair XMS2 6400c5. F61 your rig is exactly what im looking for, i think i will drop the 4200+ for a 4000 since im going to be overclocking anyway and get vista64.