damn one of a few threads in TT that should be stickied....

anyways, I know intel w/ core 2 duo currently dominates.... as does SATA 3.0, PCIe and DDR2....

other than dell deals and the like (which are becoming more and more appetizing) what would be a good mid-high range set up? (less than 1,200 i suppose)

4/13/2007 1:48:43 PM

looking for a AGP card to replace my 6600GT

4/16/2007 1:34:53 PM

7800?

4/16/2007 3:30:51 PM

6800gs or 7800gs are top agp picks

right now i'd say

e4300/e6420/e6600 ($100-$220 after price drop on 22nd, 6420 released 22nd)
nforce650 mobo ($120-$200)
ddr2-1066 or 800mhz memory ($150AR-$180)
any seagate 7200.10 sata2 hdd ($80-100)
7900gs OC'd or 8800gts 320mb ($140AR)
any good case will do, for example antec p180 ($80AR)

see also:
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200703.ars/

[Edited on April 16, 2007 at 9:29 PM. Reason : .]

4/16/2007 9:26:04 PM

I just built my new pc last month. e6600, 2gb ddr2, 320gb hdd, 500watt psu, dvd burner, 8800gts 640 for a little under $1000.

e6600 - $297
intel mobo - $50
2gb ddr - $65 each 1gb stick (x2)
320gb hdd - $90
500watt psu - FAR
mid-tower case - FAR
dvd burner - $22
8800gts 640 - $360
+ shipping and taxes for a few of the items (about $40)

So in all about $990. Best damn budget gaming rig I've built so far. I might splurged too much on the video card, but it was an impulse buy that I bought in store.

^8800gts 320mb isn't 140AR. There was a deal today at buy.com for one $215 AR, but now its dead. You can get 320's for about $250-$260 and they are definitely the best bang for the buck video card. About 2-3x faster than my 7900gs. But I do have the 640mb version so at high res, its a quite better.

[Edited on April 16, 2007 at 9:37 PM. Reason : 8800]

4/16/2007 9:33:28 PM

How can you justify spending $300 on a processor and then $50 on a motherboard?

4/16/2007 11:24:50 PM

^^yeah, i had 140-250 then edited it to say AR and deleted the 250... i agree the 8800gts is probably best bang for buck right now

^completely agree, the lowest 650 board i'd suggest would be the MSI P6N SLI-FI which is ~$120, motherboard is right under PSU as most important component

a little concerned too about this:

Quote :

"500watt psu - FAR"

i'm guessing it's an Ultra PSU and case

STILL you can get a HELLUVA rig for $1200

[Edited on April 16, 2007 at 11:37 PM. Reason : .]

4/16/2007 11:35:22 PM

ya definately should have forked another 100 for a better mb...

i got the buy.com 8800gts today for $215 After $20 rebate... selling my 7900gt for probably $140 or so which makes it worth it.

just built:

Antec 900 ATX case ($60 After $40 rebate from frys.com, retail)
Antec Trio 650W SLI power supply ($60 After $40 rebate from frys.com, retail)
e6400 ($208 newegg, retail)
eVGA 680i n68 mb ($190 After $15 rebate)
zalman 9700 led HSF ($60 newegg, retail)
arctic silver 5 ($6 newegg, splooge tube)
4gb crucial xms2 SLI pc800 ram 4-4-4-12 4x1gb sticks ($129 After $50 Rebate x 2, retail)
8800gts 320mb ($215 AR, retail)
2x 500gb SATA ($120 x 2 from frys.com, retail)
74gb Raptor 16mb cache (best buy $110 in store no rebates, retail)
sata samsung 20x dvd burner ($38 newegg, oem)
Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio ($50 from buy.com, retail)

$1495 AR ($215 in rebates)... not too shabby at all <3 slickdeals


got 2gb of the ram free ($129)
got 1 500gb hdd free ($120)
sold 250gb sata hdd ($50)

$1196 after that


selling 7900gt ($140)


makes it about $1056 after all is said and done and i still keep the old pc (80gb hdd it came with, intel video it came with, etc.)

4/16/2007 11:58:35 PM

i love fry's.

i wish we had fry retail stores on east coast

4/17/2007 12:11:46 AM

no then we'd have tax

4/17/2007 12:16:32 AM

well at least we'd get in on some of their B&M only deals

4/17/2007 2:51:42 AM

Keeping:
WD 320GB PATA, 2x Maxtor SATA 300, 2x 320
Antec Server SOHO 1000 case
ASUS 18X SATA DVDRW
BenQ 16x DVDRW

old guts:
350W generic PSU
ASUS A7N8X non-deluxe
Athlon XP 2600+ (1/9 ghz) socket A
Syba 2-port SATA I PCI card
ATI TV Wonder VE from the stone age
1.5 GB Geil DDR400
80GB WD PATA
ASUS nVidia FX 5700 128mb AGP
these are going into a new Rosewill case for mom's new comp (up from POS 1200+ from early '02)

new guts:
575?W NXZTINXS PSU
Athlon X2 4200+ 65W (hey, it was $27 cheaper than the 4600 and I wanted less pwr consumption) AM2
ASUS M2N DX
2x 1 GB Corsair
EVGA nVidia 7600GT 256mb w/ dual DVI PCIx16x
2x Samsung 20" LCDs - 204B
Arctic Cooling 64
4x Hopefully quieter red LED fans - from Antec to Apevia
Arctic Ag 5
+ Digital TV tuner soon

My other comp, and media center in training is:
eMachine T2692 (quit laughing, it was a freebie) case
celeron 2.6 ghz socket 478
768MB DDR333
BFG nVidia 6200oc 128mb AGP, sure smokes the onboard S3
Sony 16x DVDRW
200, 250 WD PATA HDs
Biostar P4M80 mobo
Rosewill 350W PSU

and your nearest Fry's is north of Atlanta, I think

4/19/2007 11:23:17 AM

i was thinking of gettin some new stuff... how does this look:

Mobo: ECS NF650iSLIT-A (V1.0) LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135047


CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA22889


RAM: WINTEC AMPO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161172


WHAT DO YOU THINK TWW?

(ram is prolly most likely to be changed to something more reliable. any changes need to be close to that price range)

4/23/2007 10:14:01 AM

Quote :

"WINTEC"

?!?

4/23/2007 10:26:29 AM

yeah that was my concern as well.. im thinking what i might do is buy the motherboard, and instead get 4gb (4x1gb) of RAM.. something more along the line of crucial. Then just use my Pentium D processor (3.? MHz), not that old, until the beginning of August. I think by then the quad processors (Q6600?) will be the same price as the E6600 is now, and I can get one for my g/f for an anniversary present.

More thoughts?

4/23/2007 2:32:00 PM

price drops are more related to product releases rather than just pure time....

other than that, not a bad idea.... i need to upgrade my video card to a 7900something ..... then ill sit on that for a couple of years ( 3700+ 3 gigs ram etc) then ill replace everything again.... (except for the 2 500 gig hd's)

4/23/2007 3:22:28 PM

i haven't read a favorable review of the Q6600 over the E660 due to the fact that there really aren't any programs that take advantage of it...sample review from overclockers club

Quote :

"From all the above results, the only reason to buy the Q6600 over the E6600 would be if you do a LOT of encoding, rendering etc etc. The performance boosts for compression/decompression, and encoding is unsurpassed. However, if you're a casual gamer looking to build a new gaming rig, then I'd have to recommend the E6600. Currently, there are simply too few games that fully take advantage of SMP. Even in games that fully support SMP (Rainbow 6: Vegas), you'll only see improvements of 10-15 fps, which in my mind, isn't worth the extra cost of a quad core chip. Thankfully, with the ability to overclock these processors so easily, you will be able to milk every last drop of performance from them. The raw power that these new CPU’s have to offer makes them the current crème de la crème. I would say my major concern about this processor would be the highly inaccurate temperature reporting that this CPU has."

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/q6600/

4/23/2007 3:24:01 PM

yeah, i dunno if in the future it will improve at all... ?

4/23/2007 3:52:49 PM

didn't know the 6400 had 2mb cache where the 6420 or 6600 had 4mb... oh well no big diff. anyways.

4/23/2007 4:34:57 PM

btw, that $50 motherboard is one I got off a tduber for $50, its the gaming Intel mobo which is pretty nice. msrp is about 130 and works perfectly fine. Btw, e6600 price drop this past weekend to 230-235 depending on vendor. I got an e6600 for 235 from newegg with a free copy of supreme commander since I was borrowing my friend's e6600.

4/23/2007 5:21:40 PM

MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130082
$120.41 shipped


OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227139
$114 AR shipped

4/23/2007 6:20:00 PM

^I dont see anything that mobo really has better than the one i posted except it's $5 cheaper. The one i posted has a higher FSB, cabability for a Quad Core in the future, etc etc

[Edited on April 23, 2007 at 11:00 PM. Reason : what makes that RAM that much better?]

4/23/2007 10:59:50 PM

MSI has 1333mhz FSB as well, just have to set it manually - http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=P6N_SLI-FI&class=mb

and it's called quality difference, MSI>ECS

[Edited on April 24, 2007 at 12:35 AM. Reason : .]

4/24/2007 12:34:46 AM

the ram is from a known manufacturer rather than just 'something'

4/24/2007 2:00:39 PM

i'm looking for a low to mid range mobo, ram, and proc.

anything around that catches your interest?

it's for my parents who don't need pure speed, just enough power for internet, pictures, and email.

i've got everything else needed.

4/25/2007 10:00:47 PM

e4300

4/25/2007 11:17:03 PM

yah everything ive heard about the e4300 is that it is amazing for the price. Fast, extremely stable and overclock-able. good bang for your buck

4/26/2007 1:11:46 AM

so you are going CoreDuo but staying AGP?

4/26/2007 3:43:42 AM

i got a 7950GT coming in today... (new and last new part for my older 939 computer....)

eventually I'll pretty much get a new computer... b/c I'll need new ram, new motherboard, new processor, new video card.... might as well get a sound card, case/psu, and a optical drive...

4/27/2007 10:41:17 AM

Quote :

"im curious how far away we are from the availability of faster main storage technology...i heard hybrid drives are in development (solid state and mechanical). how far away are those? how far away are [reasonably affordable] fully solid state hard drives?"

anyone?

4/27/2007 11:06:22 AM

aight... what do u guys think about this mobo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130081
MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

it would eventually be paired with an Intel E6600.

then perhaps this RAM?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

4/29/2007 9:26:51 PM

running my e6400 on an evga 680i mb at 3.13ghz 1ghz overclock on air, muahaha

4/29/2007 10:28:59 PM

is the 680i that much better than the 650i?

i mean would you really notice much performance difference?

4/29/2007 10:46:39 PM

nah dude...ms word opened 1.21 jiggawatts sooner than the 650...shits way noticeable

4/29/2007 10:49:53 PM

imho the 650i > 680i

the 680 has had lots of issues and the 650i has proved to be more reliable just with a couple less features, if you are looking at price vs. performance the 650 would be the better choice

[Edited on April 29, 2007 at 11:05 PM. Reason : .]

4/29/2007 11:05:13 PM

Quote :

"aight... what do u guys think about this mobo? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130081 MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail it would eventually be paired with an Intel E6600. then perhaps this RAM? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098 G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail"

looks good to me

4/30/2007 9:59:55 AM

If your going to overclock the e6600 to >3.6GHz then i would get the 680i. Otherwise the 650i will do nicely. Those were my conclusions from personal experience with the evga 680i and the 'slower' msi p6n sli-fi.

4/30/2007 12:02:49 PM

Never get a 7800 card, it's so damn buggy.

And, wait a few months before you upgrade man.

4/30/2007 2:20:26 PM

FWIW, i just reached 3.6Ghz / E6600 on MSI P6N SLI-FI with stock mobo cooling and Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 (1600FSB / 800 memory) ~ 66% overclock on air
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=192647

add some mosfet heatsinks and a northbridge fan or larger HS and you should be able to do >3.6Ghz, but then again you can spend another $50 and just get the 650i plat. if you really want to run it that hot and that high of voltages... btw, the 680i has horrible reputation for burning out memory in a month after an OC, personally the 680i isn't worth the $100 more

for normal operation i lowered it to 3.15Ghz running at 40'C idle and 55'C full load

[Edited on May 1, 2007 at 2:10 AM. Reason : .]

5/1/2007 2:08:14 AM

That a nice overclock on air you got going there, I was able to get 3.6 with the stock heatsink but it was scary hot. As for the 680i burning out memory, I know. I had already ordered the board when people started complaining about it. I was sweating bullets at first but I saw a pattern from the people that were having problems. More often than not they were trying to push ddr2 800 to 1066 or 1100 speeds. So I didnt try it and I am good. BTW if you plan on sli later the pci-e on the msi wont run at full 16x, only 8x. Not that it really matters because I got a 8800gts and its way fast for anything so i dont plan on wasting money on another for >100fps.

5/1/2007 7:23:44 AM

^good to know about the memory... also good point about the x8, but i have an 8800gts as well it outperforms any 79xx's in SLi

[Edited on May 1, 2007 at 10:22 AM. Reason : .]

5/1/2007 10:21:43 AM

I'm looking at building a new rig this summer, and here's what I've got so far looking at TigerDirect. I'll try and snatch up some good stuff from Fry's and Buy.com through slickdeals too, so if there's something better, let me know and I'll look for it.

TD Asus A8S-X Barebone kit - includes case w/ 450 watt PSU, A8S-X Mobo, Athlon 64X2 3800+ Processor

2x1Gb PC3200 DDR

EVGA GeForce 7600GT 256Mb

Seagate Barracude 320Gb SATA

DVD Burner, etc.

My main concern is processor/memory choice - this kit is a good deal, but how well can it really perform? I'm not into hardcore gaming, but I want something that I can actually play some stuff on every once in a while and keep some decent FPS numbers.

5/1/2007 3:37:39 PM

If anybody is looking to do a ATI video box, I have a NIB crossfire board sitting in my living room, identical to what i am currently running in my game box.

Its a ECS brand board, model KA3 MVP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135024

Not a bad board, decent specs, great if you are going AMD Athlon X2 and want either a single pcie vid card card, or want the option of crossfired cards like the higher end ati stuff, lets you run dual cards even with the basic stuff.
With prices dropping on these i will prob jut hang on to it as its always good to have a spare when using onboard raid.



[Edited on May 1, 2007 at 6:15 PM. Reason : AddedPics]

5/1/2007 6:13:57 PM

^ that's really gonna depend on what kind of games and which games. RTS games and you are golden. If you're looking to play the next new FPS then you might want to go with a Core 2 Duo. But I have a Athlon 64 3500+ (single core) and have not found any need to overclock or upgarde yet.

5/1/2007 6:14:53 PM

So I want to build a cheap small-form factor pc (to fit under a bed or futon) and use it for backup and a folding client. since i want to keep it cheap, i was thinking of a 3.0-3.4ghz or so P4 setup. I already have ram,hdd,etc so i'm really only looking for a case, pc, and mobo, and ps.

what form factor/parts would you guys recommend? i'd like to keep it under $200 if possible.

5/2/2007 11:47:36 PM

Your probably going to want to go old school AMD socket 939 X2 because they are dirt cheap right now and im guessing your memory is ddr which would work with most x2 mobos.

The case, mobo, and cpu will run you over $200 if your looking for small form factor. For about $300 this would be what I would get.

Shuttle XPC SN21G5 AMD Socket 939 AMD Athlon X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 2 x 184Pin GeForce 6100 Barebone
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101002

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Toledo 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103052



If that is too much you can get a cheap a** case from Intrex, still get the cpu from above and put any of these mobo's in but then you have to add a power supply (350W or so).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200022+1070907495+1071020466&name=Athlon+64+X2+%2f+Athlon+64+FX+%2f+Athlon+64

5/3/2007 8:53:00 AM

synapse i just found this deal at tigerdirect. Its only good till 5/5/08.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=3094330&sku=A458-1172%20A&CMP=EMC-TIGEREMAIL&SRCCODE=WEM1351CA

5/3/2007 3:20:13 PM

we should block tigerdirect links on tww

5/4/2007 8:31:28 PM

lol true. only on the utmost of rare occasions do they have something of value, that isn't overpriced

5/9/2007 12:06:31 PM

so i got my mobo and 2gb of ram... still havnt ordered my e6600 & heatsink. It would be nice to get a free game with the cpu (i saw supreme commander before, and have seen ghost recon) but its not essential.

also does anyone have a recommendation for a good heatsink thats not too overpriced? i figure if im gonna invest in all this junk i might as well keep it cool & protected

5/9/2007 2:11:40 PM