High Performance, Budget Build questions

[rnc505]

Hey guys!

Im look for a med-high performance setup for a max of 3.5 benjamins. Here's what I'm looking at (granted I'm a first time builder):

Computer case: Idc - well ventilated cardboard box works for me.
Case power supply: idk - one that won't crapout quick, but isn't "caviar".
Case fan: idk - one that works ok
Motherboard: intel chipset that'll support a core 2 duo atleast.
CPU: Minimum Core 2 Duo, E8500 sounds good. Retail or OEM idc
CPU Heatsink: Idk- somEthing cheap and compatible
CPU Fan: see "CPU Heatsink"
Thermal Paste: see "CPU Heatsink"
Memory: Minimum 4GB- looking at Crucial. 800 MHz or better or DDR3
Hard Drive: cheap, compatible, and 20 GB minimum
CD/DVD Drive: not necessary, except for OS installation
Graphics/Video Card: Integrated works more than fine
Audio Card: see "Graphics/Video Card"
Card Reader: NA
Keyboard: Got one
Mouse : Got one
Monitor: got one
Operating System: the cheapest OEM 64 bit between XP-Vista-7, although I could probably get it cheap w student discount.
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 MBPS Gigabit ethernet precisely- I got Fiber Optics run and I wanna take full advantage of it.

So as you can see, Im looking for more speed, and everything else can suck it just needs to not fail.

Also, I'm a college student so I can get any student discounts that are offered.

I need this PC not for gaming, just running a CPU/RAM intensive program that is windows only so it's a bitch running it on my Bootcamp Mac with 2 GB and bottom of the line Core Duo.

Thanks guys and do you think I can get all this in the range of 250-350$$??

Thanks again!
Rnc505

[glc]

do you think I can get all this in the range of 250-350$$??

Nope. An E8500 by itself is almost $200. To meet your specs, you are looking at a MINIMUM of $500.

[rnc505]

Is there Any 6mb cache intel processor that would fit my budget?
And what's more important lb cache, cores, GHz? Etc?

[rnc505]

Anything comparable from an AMD whether it be GHz, cache, cores, or even price?

[rnc505]

How about buying a **** P4 with 80GB hard drive, etc from eBay and then just upgrading the motherboard, CPU, and RAM- which means the cost is $50 for the **** PC + motherboard, ram, CPU, and 64 BIT windows 7 - no P4 will come with 64 bit anything lol but I guess you guys probably knew that years before I.

My only hangup is like graphics compatibility, probable need to add/replace gigabit Ethernet, and will it fit correctly lol.

What do you guys think?

[rnc505]

Sorry about so many little posts. It's late and new ideas keep popping into my head.

Hey check this out (AMD Athlon II X4 630):
PassMark - AMD Athlon II X4 630 - Price performance comparison

Out ranks an E8500 and is the most cost effective - lowest (good) rank for cheapest price - $88 on newegg vs E8500's $200+ price tag.

So the AMD Athlon II X4 630 + corresponding motherboard + CPU cooling fan + 4-6GB of RAM + 10/100/1000 port + windows 7 home premium 64bit + shitty P4 Dell (Dell Optiplex GX260 P4 1.8 Ghz 512 MB RAM CDROM/FLOPPY - eBay (item 380302980958 end time Jan-01-11 17:27:45 PST)).

The **** Dell is 45 + 88 for the CPU + ~ $70-$90 for ram = $200 + the fan motherboard + OEM windows + gigabit Ethernet.

Still a possibility or just shitcan my idea?

[glc]

Your IP is on a spam blacklist, which is why I have to approve all your posts. Sorry about the delay.

Administrative note - please do NOT use foul language here - whether the word censor blots it out or not. The 4 letter word for feces is NOT acceptable here.

Another administrative note - please use the EDIT button instead of making a new post every time a new idea pops into your head.

[David M]

I would take the Dell outlet route.

For your budget of $350, you can get an Intel E5700, 4 gigs of RAM, a 500 gig drive and Windows 7. That's pretty good.

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineS...071&l=en&s=dfh

[rwest]

You won't do it with Intel. But here's an AMD list that may suffice.

Newegg.com - ASUS M4A785-M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Desktop Processor - C3 Revision HDZ555WFGMBOX

Newegg.com - A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model AD2U800B2G5-DRH

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - Thermaltake VL84301W2Z V3 Black Edition with 430W Power Supply ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Totals 369.77 shipping included

You will still need an OS. And I'm not real sure about the psu in that case, but from what I understand Thermaltake makes a decent psu.

[David M]

I still got you beat rwest! Be honest and add that budget busting $100 OS into the price.

[rwest]

Dave I did note the Op will need an OS. And yeh, as far as price is concerned the refurbished Dell is the better bargain, but reliabilty I got you beat.

And actually XP with license can be had as low as thirty bucks on craigslist in my area. Although Win 7 Home will still be another hundred fer sure.

[glc]

but reliabilty I got you beat.

Not necessarily!

[rnc505]

Hey Guys,

A little while ago I posted on here a build looking for a pipedream price. Well, I went out, did a bit of research and came up with a new build. Its freaking sweet boasting an AMD3 core, amazing Mobo and some other pretty good specs (well not by gaming standards, but still sweet to any everyday, computing kinda people).

I came up with $499.59, give or take some bucks.... I want to see what I can sacrifice to bring it down $50 or even $100.

For simplicity sake, I made it into an excel spreadsheet. But it seems .xlsx isn't a valid file extension, so I'm make it a .DOC (please excuse the weird formatting, converted a .CSV from excel to a word table... lol).

Also, you guys know this stuff better than I so you'll know where to trim the fat, so let me tell you what this PC will be for and maybe I can shave some serious dough off the the $500 price tag.

Basically, I will be running a few very CPU intensive, sometime concurrently, sometimes not. They aren't graphics programs or anything like that. Basically its for website link building and they require a few hundred threads running at the same time and they'll be running for most of the day. Also at any moment I could be working with a few hundred thousand urls at a time copying and pasting, etc so thats where I guess RAM comes in.

But maybe my 8GB of DDR3 1066MHz is overkill? maybe 6GB or even 4GB would work? Or maybe 4/6/8GB of DDR2 800MHz would suffice, you guys know better than I? And I found the processor on PassMark CPU Value Chart - Performance / Price of available CPUs... it said it had the 2nd most bang for its buck (CPU Benchmark value / price) and was a pretty strong processor....

ALSO - the reason I really like this motherboard - onboard video and audio (thats not important to me at all, but you do have to have something for it), gigabit 10/100/1000 lan built in.

So if you guys could help me out with this that would be totally awesome!

Thanks again,
Robby

[glc]

Copied and pasted for convenience:

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-UD2H $89.99 Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-UD2H AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU MD Athlon II X3 445 $77.00 Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX445WFGMBOX
Case Rosewill R101-P-BK 120mm Fan MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case $39.98 Newegg.com - Rosewill R101-P-BK 120mm Fan MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case
PSU LOGISYS Computer PS350MA 350W Micro ATX Power Supply $26.67 Newegg.com - LOGISYS Computer PS350MA 350W Micro ATX Power Supply
HDD "Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive" $64.99 Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Memory G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL $79.99 Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL
CD/DVD LITE-ON SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM $20.98 Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $99.99 Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - Operating Systems
TOTAL $499.59

[glc]

I'm afraid I have no suggestions to reduce the cost - but I sure do have a few to improve the reliability.

1. Logisys PSU's are junk. That case takes a standard ATX power supply, not a micro. Here is the cheapest PSU I'd recommend:

Newegg.com - Antec Basiq BP350 350W ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply

2. I don't trust Seagate hard drives. Do you NEED 1 TB?

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

3. G.skill has been having issues recently, and I think you should get 1333 speed ram.

Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1333C9

End cost should be within a few bucks.

[rwest]

GLC is there any reason you reccomended 8gig of ram?

Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9

On sale right now at Newegg. It will operate at 1333, because that's the max the MB supports without overclocking.

[glc]

Only because that's what the OP has in his list. He may need it, review his proposed use.