My $800 budget gaming pc.. please help!

The_Number_Of_The_Beast said:
SLI boards are only $20-$40 more. That really isn't that much unless you have a really tight budget.
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I'd still only reccomend getting it if you're positive you will go SLI in the future. Remember, down the road, it may be more practical to get one single better card, than put a second of an outdated in there. SLI only offers 30% performance increase max, so a lot of newer models down the road could beat those in SLI. Plus, he may want DX10 soon.
 
Encore4More said:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2000MHz HT 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor - $170
Motherboard: MSI K9N SLI Platinum Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - $130
RAM: pqi TURBO 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) System Memory - $80 (1Gb stick instead of 512x2 to improve upgrading possibilities...)
Video Card:XFX GeForce 7900 GT (470MHz) 256MB PV-T71G-UDF7 Video Card - Retail - $251
Sound Card:Integraded :P
Harddrive:Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($86)
Optical Drive: get this DVD burner in either Silver, Beige, or Black, depending on what color ur case is - $30
PSU:Super-Flower Extremely Silent TT-550SS 550W Power Supply w/ 4 LED Fans ($40)

GIGABYTE GH-PCU22-VG 2 Ball Blue LED Light CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink($30


$817:D
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get that... best thing ur gona come up with with ur budget...
anyone wanna 2nd that?
 
Yea, I'd go for 2x512 for dual channel. You don't plan on passing 2GB with this machine, do you?
 
you will improve performance (by a tiny bit)
but then ur machine will not be as upgradable... if you wan't to upgrade to 2gb later (as you said you wanted to) then u are going upgrade and have 4x512 filling all 4 of your ram slots... it would be better having 2x1024 then 4x512

why?
1.because ram doesn't run as fast when all 4 slots are filled...
2. when you are going to want to upgrade AGAIN (to 4GB [when that will become standard, and that will come sooner than u think]) you are going to have to rebuy all your ram which is going to cost ALOT of money....
 
Encore4More said:
why?
1.because ram doesn't run as fast when all 4 slots are filled...
2. when you are going to want to upgrade AGAIN (to 4GB [when that will become standard, and that will come sooner than u think]) you are going to have to rebuy all your ram which is going to cost ALOT of money....
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Not always,
1) if he is only buying 1gb now, then I doubt he will ever upgrade to 4gb in the life of this come
2) not all mobo's make the ram run slower when all 4 slots are filled, just as some sli boards run 8x on both slots in sli, while other boards run both slots at 16x.
 
 
bball4life said:
Not always,
1) if he is only buying 1gb now, then I doubt he will ever upgrade to 4gb in the life of this come
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HE DEFINATLY WILL!!!!lol
Ram Gaming Standards:
1999 - 64/128
2000 - 128/256
2001 - 128/256
2002 - 256/512
2003 - 256/512
2004 - 512/1024
2005 - 1024/2048
2006 - 1024/2048
if we continue this is prolly a very just estimate:
2007 - 1024/2048 or possible even 2048/4096
2008 - 2048/4096
as you see it could be a matter of a year and a half...
THINK NOW!
Windows XP came out at the end of 2001 and was standard in 2002 PCs...
Windows XP required at least (no less than) 64MB of RAM and recomends 128... the gaming standard was around 256/512 in 02

Windows Vista requires at least (no less then) 512MB and it recomends 1GB... now lets ratio this out

the gaming standard (for high-end gamers) in 02 was 512MB!!!! the minimum system requirements for the new OS was 64MB... THAT IS 8 TIMES THE OPERATING SYSTEMS MINIMUM requirements!!!!


The BARE MINIMUM requirments for Windows Vista is 512MB... what is 8 times 512? 4096
i would not be suprised if we end 07 with 2048/4096 on future programs... expecially with the other new technology that comes out...

Another anology... 2 Core processors and 2GB memory became common about the same time...
The upcomming year will bring us Quad-Core processors, and i beleive it will also bring about a much more common usage of 4gb memory and programs that will have access to that much memory... also on that note, programs that will be threaded for dual-core and quad-core processors... technology comes FAST... when we look forward we think it is impossible, but when we look back we see that at was possible...

so i think 4gb and prgrams/games that will be able to access large portions of 4gb will come fast especially with the AM3 already getting talked about...



Technology for ram does not slowly inch up MBs at a time, it doubles...
 
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baballin328 said:
I think you should go with a harddrive that has 16mb cache instead of 8mb. Better performance, and right now it's cheaper.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701
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This hard drive looks great and it is at a nice price.. I am going to add it to my parts list...

Encore4More.. Thanks for your suggestions. I have taken them into consideration and have changed my specs a little. The only thing I noticed was that you used the same PSU that I had choosen...

Liuliuboy said that "Also that powersupply is a POS with only 22amps for 12v and a 20 pin connector. You'll need a better psu with a 24 pin conenctor." So I need to try and find a better PSU.

Below are my new picks for parts so far.. please let me know what you guys think!

MOBO MSI K9N SLI Platinum Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $130.99 $8.69
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130048

CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2000MHz HT 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor - Retail $169.00 $0.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103735

RAM pqi TURBO 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) System Memory - Retail $95.99 $4.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141062 (I will eventually upgrade to 2GB of ram)

Video Card XFX GeForce 7900 GT (470MHz) 256MB PV-T71G-UDF7 Video Card - Retail $244.89 $6.67
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814150150

HD Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $72.99 $0.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

PSU Need Some Help! - Looking to spend around $30-$40

Thermal Coolant ASUS X-Mars Heat Pipes CPU Light Cooler for Socket 754/939/940 - OEM $39.99 $4.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835193002
(I wanted to spend about $30 for this part - I had trouble finding ones that would be compatible.. do you guys know of any good/cheaper ones? - Do you think I even need one?)

DRIVES Some Standard CD/DVD Drive $30.00 $5.00

Total w/ shipping = $854.
 
X24 said:
ok, so he waits a year, ups it to 2gb, there you got another year or two for that
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this is my route for him:
1GB DDR2 1000 - $80

in mebbe 4months he adds in the same RAM and has it running in Dual-Channel... and by then the ram is prolly $65
so then he has

2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 1000 - (spending so far a total of $145 on ram)

then noticing some games are slowing down a bit and seeing future games will be slower, in mebbe the fall of '07 with windows vista out and the possibility of a AM3 upgrade he adds 2x1GB DDR2 1000 (which by then that set would prolly be around $80) so then he has:

4GB (4x1GB) DDR2 1000 - (spending so far a estimated total of $225 on ram..)




this is your route for him:
1gb (512x2) DDR2 1000 - $100

in mebbe 4 months he adds 2 more 512x2 sticks... then that pack is prolly around $80... so then he has :

2GB (512x4) DDR2 1000 - (spending so far a estimated total of $180 on RAM)


then noticing some games are slowing down a bit and seeing future games will be slower, in mebbe the fall of '07 with windows vista out and the possibility of a AM3 upgrade he wants 4GB... OOPS!!! to bad no more open slots :(
clears out all that ram and buys 2 sets of 2GB (1x2) DDR2 1000 spending around $160... so then he has:

4GB (4x1GB) DDR2 1000 - (spending a total of $330 on ram for that machine just so that it will run a tiny bit faster for the first 4 months:rolleyes: )






now that he has seen both 2 routes, let him decide...
 
Encore4More said:
this is my route for him:
1GB DDR2 1000 - $80
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DDR2 1000 isn't exactly going to work...considering that the motherboard and the processor only support DDR2-800 ;)
 
Encore well no offence but 2gb is going to be enough ram for a while, especially at ddr2 800 in DUAL CHANNEL, which he won't get with 1 1gb stick.
And if you look at it you are comparing the min stand now 1gb to the max standart in 2008 4gb. Doesn't work.
 
bball4life said:
Encore well no offence but 2gb is going to be enough ram for a while
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look at how technology has grown and you will see otherwise...

bball4life said:
especially at ddr2 800 in DUAL CHANNEL, which he won't get with 1 1gb stick.
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for 4months... to save like $120 and have more room for upgrading in the near future (as technology shows us).... when he gets the 2nd 1GB stick in 4months (if he gets the same thing) it will run dual-channel...

bball4life said:
And if you look at it you are comparing the min stand now 1gb to the max standart in 2008 4gb.
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im not... i am planning out for him to upgrade the best way to the higher standard of 2008





oh and i beleive this is a fairly decent PSU
so are monkeysims and bobo's... this is basically the same as bobo's i beleive, it is just 550Wats instead of 600Watts... and cheaper... and monkeysims is 500Watts, but a good budget move...



oh and one more thing Bball4life... 1gb lasting? Battlefield 2 with its most current updates already lags with 1GB ram dual-channenl...;)


Edit: everything i said DDR2 1000 i meant DDR2 800... blah, brain fart...
 
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