System Builder Marathon: $625 Gaming PC

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Sure they could give a 625 dollar AMD setup, but it just wouldnt be as good at this time so why bother?
Its always about value at the price points.
 
lol... my e5200 crapped out at 3.7ghz 1.4vcore... someone i know got his e7300 to 4.0ghz at some ridiculous vcore though lol... it really depends on teh chip. some get good VID's, some get bad. some overclock good, some overclock crap, its the natura of binning. naturally e8400's would be binned more than the 5 and 7 series, and the e8500/8600 would be better still.
 
i wouldn't risk buying an e7300 over an e5200. i have built amd systems, now i'm regretting why i didn't bought pentium dual core which are practically core2duo's with less cache.

regarding nvidia ion, i think intel is thinking deeply of whether they allow nvidia to Atom since netbooks still sell without it.
 
I actually just got done purchasing parts for a new pc that ended up being around that same price. This is my first time building a PC so I'm not sure if I could have done better, but I think it's worth mentioning if anyone is interested in going for a Quad Core instead of the Dual Core.

Intel Quad Core Q6600
Asus P5QL Pro Motherboard
NVidia 9800 GTX
GSkill 4 Gb Ram
580 Watt PSU
Rosewill Mid-Tower
160 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
SATA CD/DVD Burner
 
I guess I will share my for-Christmas build with TH.

$82 2.5GHz E5200 45nm C2D
$0 (no CPU cooler)
$54 ASUS P5KPL-CM
$34 A-DATA 2x2GB (4GB) DDR2 800
$200 GeForce 260
$55 WD 320GB WD3200AAKS
$0 integrated sound
$0 integrated network
$12 Spray painted an old beige case black.
$67 500W SeaSonic
$22 LG DVD burner
$10 card reader

$526 Total

I don't see why they didn't shave off $40 for the cheaper CPU
 
I work at frys in the computer department, because of this I weekly check out the ads this is the stuff that are good deals in the computer/components departments
Prices are good till tommorrow evening (tuesday) at 9 o clock when the store closes. Things are in bold are better deals than listed above.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E7300 & ECS GF7050VT-M Motherboard $99.99
Patriot 4GB DDR2 PC6400 Dual Memory $49.99 with a 20 dollar rebate
Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case $34.99
Antec Earthwatts 500W Power Supply $49.99
Seagate 1.5TB Serial ATA/300 Hard Drive $129.99

Also good deals
crucial 4GB DDR2 PC8500 Dual Memory $47.99 $35.99 after rebate
crucial 2GB DDR2 PC6400 Dual Memory $19.99

I am just mad that I didn't get the e8500 + crappy motherboard for 134.99 that they had last week.
note for 99 dollars this is the e7300 not the e7200 the new chip with the higher multipler and is more likely to be a higher bin sort.
 
i wouldn't risk buying an e7300 over an e5200. i have built amd systems, now i'm regretting why i didn't bought pentium
dual core which are practically core2duo's with less cache.
Click to expand...
Their is no practically about it, Pentium Dual Cores (unlike Pentium Ds also known as netburst) are the same architecture as Intel Core 2 Duos. They are even made on the same wafer as the high end e8600s. Only difference is not all their cache worked perfectly and/or they didn't go as high as frequencies so they were binsorted into dual cores. Finally intel deactivated the cache that may have worked fine/or may not have worked fine and set the multipler to 12.5 and the bus speed at 200mhz.
 
[citation][nom]Master Exon[/nom]I guess I will share my for-Christmas build with TH.
$82 2.5GHz E5200 45nm C2D ...
...
I don't see why they didn't shave off $40 for the cheaper CPU[/citation]
because that's the cpu they used last month and they wanted to try something different this time, something more powerful.
as they said in the article, it didn't work out the way they hoped and they won't be using it again
 
Very nice. I would like to see them squeeze in a PhenomII next time... Wonder if they could have squeezed in the CF 4830s (or CF 1GB 4670s?) if they kept the e5200 and changed the mobo to the Asrock P45 that was reviewed by TH last week.

Lastly, I think the rig can still be overclocked further while keeping the same voltages - if only TH had time to play with the clock skews.
 
If you guys had stability problems at 3.6 and 3.8 (at almost 1.5v) and had programs wipe things out to the point that you had to re-install the OS I'm guessing you benched at a non-stable OC (long term). I think you need a do-over at 3.5 otherwise it's not helpful. We wouldn't run our systems that unstable, and the other sbm's you built are/were stable.

You could give the 7300 another shake next month to check if you just had an unlucky CPU, or the 5200 to see if it was just lucky etc. I just built a 5200 + GA-EP43-DS3L for a friend that went to 3.6 on stock cooling and 1.3625v easily.
 
[citation][nom]spirto[/nom]once again no amd setup? i thought you said you were going to give us amd users a smb[/citation]
No one is telling you to go AMD for $625 so why should you? The best bang for the buck at $625 is an Intel system.

BTW, a quad core is needed to play GTA4.
 
GTA4

Operating System: Windows XP SP2
Processor: Dual core processor (Intel Pentium D or better)
RAM: 2GB
Hard Drive: 18GB free hard disk space
Video Card: 512MB Direct3D 10 compatible video card or Direct3D 9 card compatible with Shader
Drive: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
 
[citation][nom]caamsa[/nom]GTA4Operating System: Windows XP SP2 Processor: Dual core processor (Intel Pentium D or better) RAM: 2GB Hard Drive: 18GB free hard disk space Video Card: 512MB Direct3D 10 compatible video card or Direct3D 9 card compatible with Shader Drive: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive[/citation]
I have the game and it is very CPU bounded. The recommended spec is a joke as a system with P4D + 8600GT simply couldn’t play the game.
 
I would've liked to see an AMD system, but it makes sense that it's not here. Tt this price point it gets pretty competitive between the two, I can understand why Tom's went with the 7300 - overclocking. The new 7750 from AMD looks pretty good, especially when the Egg has it for 75$, though most people are getting 3.2 out of it, maybe a few with 3.4
 
Well not to belabor the point but when I look at a car magazine I see all kinds of cars not just one type. When I going shopping in the grocery store there is more than one brand to choose from. Variety is the spice of life.
 
System still needs:
OS (about $90 to $100)
monitor (about $120 to $140 for a 19" LCD)
Keyboard ($10)
mouse ($6 to $20)
These four items could range from about $230 to $270 if you got items from the low end of the price range.
 
System Builder Marathon: $625 Gaming PC : More CPU, Please

Come on for just a few more bucks you could drop in a 3.0GHz Core 2 and a GTX260 (seen one at newegg for 199) and run any game out there at 1920 x 1200 without overlocking. The enthusiast rig is overkill for braggers who have too much money. You don't need the Arctic cooler, the stock does just fine.
 
I would like to compare this to systems from earlier this year, and from last year. However, this is difficult, because the only consistent game between now and last July is Unreal Tournament 2003. Tried to compare it to $837 PC from last March and the $3590 PC from May 2007 These should be comparable as far as computing / gaming power, but there seems to be no/few consistent benchmarks between now and 18 months ago.
 
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