First Time Build About $600 Budget

[Koratus]

Lets see,
I'm looking to run Windows 7 Home Premium when it comes out, and I have about $600 to spend. I would like a decent CPU after horrible experiences with a 1.7GHz. A graphics card would be nice but I'm not playing a graphic intense game like Call of Duty or the other one i hear on here all the time. Hard drive size isn't important for me. RAM, I would be happy with about 4GB. I guess my primary use would be school stuff and an light gaming. I'm sorry if I seem lost or uncertain but that's exactly how I feel.


edit windows 7 (119 upgrade) monitor keyboard and mouse i do not have so that would have to be bought too x.x
Thank you in advanced,
Koratus

[Masaki 7-11]

Here is a good build list for a computer (good for school stuff and light gaming) with keyboard, mouse, monitor and OS (windows vista 64-bit home premium with windows 7 upgrade):


LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106289
$29.99

Antec Three Hundred + BP430 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129065
$84.95

Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136358
$49.99

Hanns·G boston Simulated Woodgrain 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor w/ swivel a adjustment Built in Speakers - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254025
$109.99

Microsoft QQA-00001S Black USB Digital Media Keyboard 3000 and Mouse Kit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823109067
$26.99

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model VS4GBKIT800D2 G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145238
$57.99

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders w/ Tech Guarantee
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116677
$89.99

ASUS M4A785-M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX245OCGQBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.258819
$130.99

Subtotal: $580.88

[Khalil]

Nice parts Masaki

[Koratus]

Thank you, I'm going to take a look at the parts you mentioned but i managed to raise the budget to 800. Also I have a preference towards Intel for some reason if you wouldn't mind. I appreciate your effort.

Thanks in advance,
koratus

[Masaki 7-11]

Here is a build list for an Intel build with updated parts to reflect your increased budget:


LITE-ON Black 24X DVD Writer SATA Model iHAS-324-98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106334
$31.99

Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129024
$109.99

Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136358
$54.99

Hanns·G Hi-221DPB Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254035
$139.99

ASUS EAH4670/DI/512MD3 Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121329
$69.99

Microsoft QQA-00001S Black USB Digital Media Keyboard 3000 and Mouse Kit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823109067
$26.99

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184
$64.99

ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131347
$96.99

Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E6300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116093
$79.99

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders w/ Tech Guarantee
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116677
$109.99

Subtotal: $785.90

[Koratus]

Thanks again,
Nothing against your build at all, but before I shell out $800 I would like a second opinion on the second of his builds. If there is a better piece for a few dollars more i would consider it.

[Alaron]

Looks very solid to me, quality parts.

[AMGrbaowska]

Many people here are very skilled, and know what they are talking about, Masaki knows his stuff. Also, here we like to reccomend quality products and customer support, all of the items in Masakis list will be quality and have good customer support. This is a good build.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by Koratus Thanks again, Nothing against your build at all, but before I shell out $800 I would like a second opinion on the second of his builds. If there is a better piece for a few dollars more i would consider it.

If you think you will need more than 500GB of hard drive space, you can get a 640GB drive (also WD Green) for $5 more than the 500GB version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136298

[glc]

Actually I'd recommend a Black over a Green. Just being a bit picky, that's all.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by glc Actually I'd recommend a Black over a Green. Just being a bit picky, that's all.

Black has faster speed than the Green and better warranty but costs more, is noisier, consumes more power and most likely you won't notice the difference between the two. I have a 1TB Green running as a external backup and the speed is pretty good, it's actually a good bit faster than my 7200RPM 500GB (both run in eSATA and both have 32MB of cache).

[Koratus]

My friend recommended i get a quad core(intel or amd) or a new i7 or i5 because of upgrading it in a few years and the duo cores getting discontinued ect, what are your toughts on this,

[Khalil]

what happend to $600 budget? You are not gonna build an i7 or i5 for that kind of money.
If you go Quad Core I recommend you go with the AMD Athlon X4 630 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103704
that is a sweet processor I just built a few of them and they are serious performers for the money and you can build a system around one to fit your budget.

[Koratus]

AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor Model ADX630WFGIBOX - Retail
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.265471
Combo Price: $220.98 ($205.98 with 15 mail in rebate)

Is that a good deal since its ddr3?
fyi i could go slightly over 800 and when i buy it (around christmas) tehre shoudl be some better deals

[glc]

If you are not buying until Xmas, don't bother picking parts NOW. Things change fast.

[Koratus]

ok, feel free to lock this

[glc]

No need to lock it - just bump it back up when the time is near!

[andper10]

Originally Posted by Masaki 7-11 Here is a build list for an Intel build with updated parts to reflect your increased budget: Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136358 $54.99 ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131347 $96.99

Sorry to bump this back before you are ready to build, but I would recommend spending some more money on the motherboard if you go the LGA 775 route. I have the P5K SE (non-plus edition) and you will not be happy with it if you decide to try to overclock your PC later on like I did. Mine is missing some voltage controls that cause you to be unable to reach the full overclocking potential of your CPU, and I assume this version is missing those settings too. Mine had some serious Vdroop, which also negatively affects your overclocking ability. I actually ended up doing a pencil mod on it (which helped significantly), but I don't like having to physically modify my motherboard to get it to work on par with the non SE models in the Asus P5K series. The better P5K models have a voltage damper option that you can enable in the BIOS to nearly eliminate Vdroop and they have the missing voltage controls that I mentioned. (I believe some of the missing controls were FSB/northbridge voltage, southbridge voltage, & VTT voltage.) You may never overclock, but I just wanted to warn you. It is a pain to find out that your motherboard is somewhat crippled in the overclocking department after you have already been using it for a while and you have all your parts installed and your cable management completed.

Since this is your main hard drive, I would recommend getting a black edition rather than a green edition. It should improve startup & program loading times.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by andper10 Sorry to bump this back before you are ready to build, but I would recommend spending some more money on the motherboard if you go the LGA 775 route. I have the P5K SE (non-plus edition) and you will not be happy with it if you decide to try to overclock your PC later on like I did. Mine is missing some voltage controls that cause you to be unable to reach the full overclocking potential of your CPU, and I assume this version is missing those settings too. Mine had some serious Vdroop, which also negatively affects your overclocking ability. I actually ended up doing a pencil mod on it (which helped significantly), but I don't like having to physically modify my motherboard to get it to work on par with the non SE models in the Asus P5K series. The better P5K models have a voltage damper option that you can enable in the BIOS to nearly eliminate Vdroop and they have the missing voltage controls that I mentioned. (I believe some of the missing controls were FSB/northbridge voltage, southbridge voltage, & VTT voltage.) You may never overclock, but I just wanted to warn you. It is a pain to find out that your motherboard is somewhat crippled in the overclocking department after you have already been using it for a while and you have all your parts installed and your cable management completed. Since this is your main hard drive, I would recommend getting a black edition rather than a green edition. It should improve startup & program loading times.

I was recommending a P5Q SE, not the P5K SE (which I have one of). I've used the P5K SE for some pretty strong overclocks (100% overclock on Celeron Dual Core E1200) and haven't had any problems with voltages or instability. There are plenty of options for overclocking in the P5K SE (not as much as more expensive motherboards with newer chipsets, but enough unless you are doing very difficult overclocks).

There isn't that much of a difference in performance between the Black and Green version of the hard drives; I've pointed out the main differences above.

[glc]

Let's not talk about overclocking when we are discussing systems with relatively inexperienced builders - unless they SPECIFICALLY ask, okay?

- Admin -

(This is a bit stronger than a mere request, guys)