Build me a pc.

hpi

banned
A friend of mine wants to build a pc with 500-600$ and it needs to be able to do basic multi tasking and gaming.

What do you suggest, I was looking at a couple of different options but Il check out the more experienced members items.
 

g4m3rof1337

Active Member
A C2D processor.
An affordable graphic card. Like a 7900gs, 8600gs, or an 8800gts.
A nice sized HardDrive.
A decent power supply.
 

computerhakk

VIP Member
A friend of mine wants to build a pc with 500-600$ and it needs to be able to do basic multi tasking and gaming.

What do you suggest, I was looking at a couple of different options but Il check out the more experienced members items.

Do you need a monitor? Keyboard? Mouse? Speakers?
 

Saurian

Member
You can do a C2D for 600 dollars, but its tough. For the super budget builds, like 550 and less, the AM2 Athlon X2's really cannot be beaten. The big thing with the AM2 processors, is the motherboards to go with them are downright cheap for GOOD boards. Equivilent boards are often a solid 40 dollars more. For example, the 1.9Ghz Athlon X2 3600+ running the Brisbane 65nm core (same process as the C2D) is 65 dollars. You can pair that up with a good board from 60 to 80 dollars, even with firewire, overclocking, etc - all the goodies. For the C2D, you're paying 120 minimum for an E4300, or more for an actually E6xxx series. Not to mention a descent board for it, which the minimum board I'd honestly go wtih is the Gigabyte S3 series. Even then, that board is less featured then, say, an Abit KN9S nForce 570 motherboard for the AM2. Did I mention that the 3600+ Brisbane's are hitting 2.6Ghz easily on stock voltages, some a bit more, and with a bit of a voltage bump they are hitting 3.0Ghz? That's comparable to The C2D in overclocking.

If you're interested in an AM2 build, you can look for my build that I posted in the General PC forum at the top of the index page. Or, if you express interest, I could post one up later on as well. Just trying to offer other ideas then the mindless "C2D FTW!" chants everybody pawns off.
 

Saurian

Member
Ok, so I finished my LA Methods final far earlier then expected.

AMD Athlon X2 3600+ 1.9Ghz - 59
Abit KN9S nForce 550 - 79.99
Supertalent 667Mhz C5 DDR2 RAM - 84.99 (Promo code available)
XFX 7600GT 256MB - 119.99 (-20 MIR)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro - 29.99
Cooler Master Elite ATX Case - 39.99 (-10 MIR)
Samsung Spinpoint 200GB 7200Rpm SATA HDD - 55.99
Lite-on DVD-RW SATA Optical Drive - 25.99
Hiper 480W PSU - 49.99

Grand Total: $545.92 dollars + Shipping - 30 Dollars in Mail-In Rebate's. And, if you're cool you can get another 15 dollars off of that with a promo code on the ram.

You can easily overclock that processor to 2.5Ghz with no worries, you have a brand name powersupply and case, solid graphics and a great motherboard, quiet effective hard drive, and you've gotten a SATA DVD burner to boot. And, you're under budget! You can spend another 55 dollars elsewhere, maybe in the PSU, or probably a bigger hard disk, whatever. If that were a C2D build with a similar quality motherboard and processor, you'd be paying another 100 dollars easily, probably more. And if you have a case, optical drives, hard disks, etc to bring over to the new build - that's even MORE savings.
 

daisymtc

Active Member
Ok, so I finished my LA Methods final far earlier then expected.

AMD Athlon X2 3600+ 1.9Ghz - 59
Abit KN9S nForce 550 - 79.99
Supertalent 667Mhz C5 DDR2 RAM - 84.99 (Promo code available)
XFX 7600GT 256MB - 119.99 (-20 MIR)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro - 29.99
Cooler Master Elite ATX Case - 39.99 (-10 MIR)
Samsung Spinpoint 200GB 7200Rpm SATA HDD - 55.99
Lite-on DVD-RW SATA Optical Drive - 25.99
Hiper 480W PSU - 49.99

Grand Total: $545.92 dollars + Shipping - 30 Dollars in Mail-In Rebate's. And, if you're cool you can get another 15 dollars off of that with a promo code on the ram.

You can easily overclock that processor to 2.5Ghz with no worries, you have a brand name powersupply and case, solid graphics and a great motherboard, quiet effective hard drive, and you've gotten a SATA DVD burner to boot. And, you're under budget! You can spend another 55 dollars elsewhere, maybe in the PSU, or probably a bigger hard disk, whatever. If that were a C2D build with a similar quality motherboard and processor, you'd be paying another 100 dollars easily, probably more. And if you have a case, optical drives, hard disks, etc to bring over to the new build - that's even MORE savings.

Would it be better to get 8500GT?
 

Saurian

Member
I would still go with the Hiper PSU, unless I were interested in SLI. But, that is my opinion. EITHER unit is good and a worthy 50 bucks. But, lets not argue semantics - either way they're both better then cheap 30 dollar PSU's people try to build on top of.
 
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