First time budget build ~$600

[oakwill]

Hi All,

Been wanting to build a PC for a while and now that my home pc has crashed seems like the right time. Would love to build an all out gaming system but multiple offspring sort of limit what I can do.

Will recycle where I can to save money i.e. keyboard, mouse, dvd burner (not too old), cd drive and upgrade when funds are free.

For now was planning on putting following together hoping to stay under $600 based on local Microcenter pricing:

• AMD athlon 4800+ or 5600+ - worth the extra $?
  
• Asus M2N-E nForce 570 Ultra AM2 ATX Motherboard
  
• 4 g DDR2-667 RAM or 2 G good PC8700 - which would give best bang for the buck and will I notice a difference?
• e-GeForce 8500 GT 512MB DDR2 PCI-E Video Card
• New sata 200G seagate HD - I'm assuming I can take my old HD and still use via IDE
• Case? - was looking at Xion case/power combo for $50 (450w) is this worth it? Do I need more power, if so is 500w eXtreme any good?
• Windows XP
• case fan, cpu fan

Would appreciate input if what I was looking at was pure crap or not. No offense will be taken as honesty is always appreciated.

Any guidance also appreciated.

Thanks,

[alex530]

I don't know much about AMD so I will leave that for others. Right now, Intel has a performance edge so it might be worth considering. Since you're on a budget, I'd go with 2 X 1 GB of 800 RAM. You won't notice a huge difference from 667 to 800, but RAM is so cheap its worth it to get the faster stuff as you can always upgrade later. This RAM is very solid at a great price.
Instead of a 512 MB 8500 GT, I'd go for a 256 MB 8600 GT for entry level gaming.
Power supplies are important and shouldn't be neglected. If you ever plan on upgrading your video card, I'd get at least a 500W. Also, the fans that come with your case and CPU should be fine unless you plan on over-clocking.

[Katreat]

If you want a case/psu combo the only one I would generally recomend is the Antec Sonota III. It has a quality 500w PSU. Definately get a quality PSU and you can check out good vendors on this list:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=131195

If you are looking at gaming then I agree with alex and would go for a 8600 Gt at the minimum. To be honest if gaming is your goal save up a little more and shoot for a 3870 or 8800 GT, you will notice a huge difference with newer games with either of those cards. The 8600 GT is a good all around card but will dog down in the newest games. Check out this compairson review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...ming_graphics/

I have also not built AMD for a long time so will leave that to others, but if going AMD you definately want 800 ram. I would recomend 800 for about anything these days it just gives you more options for upgrades.

2 GB of ram is plenty so if on a tight budget dont worry about going for 4 GB.

If not OC'ing the casse fans and stock SPU cooler should be fine. I know some AMD chips come as "black" and require an aftermarket cooler so be careful to read if they come with a heat sink or not.

Kat

[Masaki 7-11]

Here's a list of good quality parts; and if you use windows xp (will work fine with vista also), it will run very well, even for gaming:

COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119115
$34.99

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136161
$69.99

ASUS M3A AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131234
$89.99

POWERCOLOR X1950PRO256MBAC2 Radeon X1950PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131056
$119.99

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-460-PMSR-A3 ATX12V V2.3 460W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171028
$34.99

mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996527
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146118
$48.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane 2.5GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO4800DOBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103212
$84.99

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116056
$89.99

Subtotal: $573.92

[oakwill]

Thanks for the feedback - think I will spend a little more on card and am considering

e-GeForce 8800 GT Superclocked 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E Video Card

This may sound like a dumb question but how can I make sure the power supply will be sufficient for the card?

Another question - will I be able to use my optical drives with the new MB as well as slave my old HD?

Thanks,

[amdalex]

500w or higher will definitely power an 8800gt. A good 400w would do it also.

[Katreat]

Not sure which MB you have decided on, but if it has an IDE connector on the board you should be able to run and HD and burner off it. IDE is on its way out so some newer MBs have only third party IDE controlers and there have been some issues with them.

Kat