System Builder Marathon: Low Cost System

[dompadidodadollidado]

I really like the comparisions and for now I've decided to buy something similair to the low budget pc. I have a couple of questions though which I hope I can get some help with.

1) The article claimed that the AMPO ram had great overclocking capabilities. The stores that I buy my stuff from in Sweden don't retail AMPO. I chose between:
OCZ, Corsair, Kingston, Crucial and TwinMos.
Which should I choose to replace AMPO with? Which is the better for overclocking. Or should I just buy a more expensive RAM, as I don't really have a tight budget, but still want good performance / dollar (or swedish cown). If it makes any difference I'm planning to buy 4GB RAM.

2) What kind of power should I be looking at. I don't really understand the 39amps discussion so if you could just point me at the right direction.

3) I'm planning to run Windows Vista, is there a way to clock the 8800GTS in Vista as I read that AtiTool isn't supported? Is it necessary for me to overclock the Graphic card (read below)?

4) Will the system support a dell 30"? Not for gaming at highest resolution as I spend most gaming in windowed mode as I like to be able to other stuff in the meantime. I other words, I don't really do FPS but rather experimental games, strategy games and developing my own. I do occational Photoshop creations. And want to be able to have lots of stuff going on (why else a huge display?).

5) actually, Should you recommend a 8600GTS instead, considering my demands, or should that totally mess me up when I run max resolution in Vista and try to do lot of stuff? The 8600 has support for HD which I plan to be watching alot, especially x264.

6) got a bit carried away, was trying to keep it short. Final question. Would you say that what i'm looking for is realistic or should I aim for a Q6600 and skip the whole oc part?

*Hoping for some help*

Thanks

 

[zenmaster]

1) Just get DDR2-800. Dont' worry about OC'ing since that os plenty fast enough to get every ounce out of the Q6600, which you can massively OC with this.

2) Look at a Corsair/Seasonic/PC Power and Cooling 520+ Watt PSUs and you are set for anything. Others may work but these are great.

3) No Clue

4) Yes.

5) Get8800GTS if you can afford it, especially with that screen.

6) Go Q6600 and OC it to at least 3.0 Ghz.

 

[dompadidodadollidado]

1) DDR2-800's price is almost 2x as expensive
I get http://www.corsairmicro.com/_datasheets/TWIN2X2048-6400C4.pdf
for 930 SKR and
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_8000_titanium_alpha_vx2_dual_channel
for about 1700 SKR.
Isn't it better with 4GB of the cheaper one than 2GB of the slightly faster?

2) I can get http://www.northq.com/products/powersupply/nq4775-500s.html for about 80% the cost of corsiar 520w. Why should I buy the more expensive one?

5) Do I really need a 8800GTS. Sure it's cool to have a great card, but is it really neccessary? Now I have a Radeon 9250 on agp 4x, so *anything* would be a performance boost, heck, even pen and paper sometimes. I mean, I don't mind running games at lower resolution most times, usually I play CS-source at 800-600 and I don't even know what 4xAA looks like.. (i've seen pictures). But the other hand, I don't want to buy a brand new system and find out that the card aint up for running at 1024 or 1280 window mode, while doing other stuff in background.

6) I was planning to go for the E6750, since it's around 70% the price, and I couldn't really see any advantage for the Q6600 when OC other than rendering. I understand that cores will be more important as time goes by, but change is always around the corner.

 

[tj_the_first]

1. The OCZ RAM is way premium - I think you confused 800 with 8000.
2. Why buy BMW when you could get Skoda. By the same account you said budget so...
5. You have a 30" monitor at native 1920x1200 yet running a 9250 and gaming at 800x600? My soul is weeping. An 8600 GTS should be fine and certainly a massive improvement over the 9250.
6. What do you need, what do you do, and what can you afford? Either chip is good but you probably should stick with the 6750 if price is your motivating factor.

 

[tj_the_first]

To reply to Dark41;

the site was manual input not autodetect so presumably it was native res. I'm surprised you guys haven't sold any widescreens since round here that's the default option now. Even Dell spec widescreens on their office monitors (which I think is stoopid).

I agree regarding a wide 20" at 1680x1050 and that's why I got a 22" at the same resolution. Eyestrain was the major factor for me going to 22" instead of 20". I figure mainly that 1600x1200 is CRT only and there are ah heck all of those around with people gaming on them.

 

[dompadidodadollidado]

TJ_the_first

1) I sure did, thanks for pointing it out to me

3) I don't have 30" yet, planning to get it in when i buy the computer. (as 30" needs dual dvi)

6) thanks for input

 

[rolandmw]

Hi,

I'm a new guy and I definately don't have the expertise most of you have, but I did build this system and it's running great, except for the PITA CPU cooler installation.

I do have a question on what monitor was used in the test. If the article mentions it, I didn't see it. I have an old 19" CRT and really need to ge a new one... Any recommendations? Of course, I want to keep this a Low-cost System 🙂

Thanks and I sorry for being slightly off-topic.

Roland

 

[wintchman]

Hi there.
My uncle and I were really impressed with the system you guys put together. So he decided to buy one and I am currently helping him put it together.

We went with:
Processor: Conroe E6750
Motherboard: Asus P5K-E Wifi Model
Ram: Wintec Ampo DDR2 PC2-6400 - 4GB
PSU: FSP Group FX700-GLN ATX12V V2.2/EPS12V 700W
DVD Drives: Sony NEC Optiarc 7170 SATA x 2
Case: Raidmax Smilodon
Hard Drives:
1) Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KSRTL 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
2)Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

Connecting the components were very easy and installing the components was a breeze with the Raidmax Smilodon. However we have run into a problem. While trying to install vista it takes about 30seconds to 2 minutes between loads. Then when it gets to the hard drive area it cannot detect them, i've tried loading drivers from the cd but no luck. I think there is a problem with the BIOS settings and that I am overlooking something with the SATA connections because i haven't had a whole lot of experience with them. Is there any way you can get me the bios settings you guys had for your build? Also, is it possible to have the Raptor as the system install hard drive because its faster RPM, while using the 320 gb hard drive as a capture hard drive for videos/movies/pictures/storage etc.
Were stumped and your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time,
Taylor

 

[basketcase]

agreed, at $500 you are hard pressed to build a better system (including OS and monitor) than what you can get from HP or Dell.

Not that this is the best system ever... but if you needed a cheap gaming PC...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883114037

Then throw in a 7600 or 8600 for about $100.

You could be in business for about $400 and it wouldn't be half bad. It wouldn't win any benchmark awards or play Crysis very well, but it should play most everything else (if you don't get too greedy with visual settings). It even comes with an OS!

 

[zenmaster]

In the Very low end, I'm one of the few who think that Retail systems tend to make a good deal. You can get real good deals with refurb.

You are correct that if you toss in a decent GPU, you system is not all that bad for less than $400.

And you get lots of goodies such as keyboard, mouse, speakers, memory card readers, etc.....

 

[basketcase]

Yeah, you would be suprised how decent a system you can end up with if you start with a refurb box. Like I already said, of cource it isn't gonna break any records or anything like that. But, if you need a cheap machine for gaming, it will do ya alright.

But, you also have to consider things like how crappy the PSU is and whether or not you need to replace that when you put the video card it. Like the one I linked, I wouldn't expect it to run anything more than a 7600/8600/x2600 series card (if it will even do that). But, if you wanted something a little better, you could get a decent PSU for about $50 too.