$2500 Budget... Lets go!

ChrisUlrich · Jul 11, 2006

I am gonna purchase a PC with a $2500 budget from a private PC Store in town. I want to utitlize every single Penny in this purchase... I definitely want room to upgrade for when that time comes.

If I can buy a more expensive part but can't afford that $110 sound card now cuz it doesn't fit inside the budget... I want that more expensive part!

I was thinking...:

Best Motherboard I can purchase for AMD (Within about $250)
AMD Athlon 64 5000+ X2
500gb RAID 0 16mb Cache @ 10000rpm
250gb Storage Drive (Debatable since I can always throw that in later)
Dual 7900GT
2gb of PC6400 DDR2 (Or would 3gb be better)
Some X-Fi Sound Card... Thinking maybe the Elite or Fatality.
700 Watt PSU
Not sure of case... I want an awesome case obviously but I am soooo case clueless it's ridiculous (Especially considering i'm just about oblivious to hardware in general!).
Nice Pretty Lights!
Some kinda Cooling system. Thinking of Thermaltake water cooling.

No Monitor
No Keyboard
No Mouse

What do you guys think? I think that comes to about $2400 somewhere... prices are from Tigerdirect. I might be off a bit but I did a build last week using slightly different parts and it came out to $2200.

m0nk3ys1ms · Jul 11, 2006

ChrisUlrich · Jul 11, 2006

monkeysims said:
I'll take this one, BRB.

I forgot to mention... I want an AWESOME gaming machine. I do surf the net, download, but that's pretty much it. I use Microsoft Word from time to time but this is MOSTLY A GAMING MACHINE (95% of it)!!

ChrisUlrich · Jul 11, 2006

monkeysims said:
AMD Athlon X2 4800+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103755
ASUS M2N-SLI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131013
Corsair 2*1GB XMS2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034
WD 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache (2 of these in RAID0)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701
WD Raptor 150GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136012
eVGA 7900GT KO 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130034
Antec TruePower 550W PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931
Thermaltake Tsunami
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133132
Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102163
Thermaltake Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835106075

How good is that video card compared to the 7900GTX or the that ATI 1900XTX?

550 Watt PSU... You think that's all i'll need?

What made you go with that SB Audigy Card? I have been reading that the X-Fi cards are amazing and have incredible sound quality!! Would you mind telling me the differences between the two?

Thanks for the research! I appreciate it! Did you get the grand total by any chance?

Mankz_91 · Jul 11, 2006

you NEED Conroe now for performance and with $2500 you could get an
X1900XTX or Xfire if you get a good deal.. a 74Gig raptor for the OS a good 250Gb drive for storage.. and lots of good stuff

m0nk3ys1ms · Jul 11, 2006

ChrisUlrich said:
How good is that video card compared to the 7900GTX or the that ATI 1900XTX?

550 Watt PSU... You think that's all i'll need?

What made you go with that SB Audigy Card? I have been reading that the X-Fi cards are amazing and have incredible sound quality!! Would you mind telling me the differences between the two?

Thanks for the research! I appreciate it! Did you get the grand total by any chance?

I think the total was ~$2300. The 7900GTX is a better card, but it also cost $2xx more than the GT. Same with the x1900xt. You'll still get great performance out of your card, don't worry. It'll handle anything you throw at it. You can go with an X-Fi. I just saw that card had great reviews and went with it. And yes, 550W should be enough to handle everything.

ChrisUlrich · Jul 11, 2006

Mankz_91 said:
you NEED Conroe now for performance and with $2500 you could get an
X1900XTX or Xfire if you get a good deal.. a 74Gig raptor for the OS a good 250Gb drive for storage.. and lots of good stuff

I need Conroe for performance? What? I like my AMD... works great for me!

Do you think I should cancel out that 3rd (Storage only drive) harddrive and put it towards something else? But better ram, sound card, psu, motherboard, etc...? I can always go back and buy this later since it's only there for data. I can partition my Raid until I get my storage drive.

I guess basically I want ultimate performance before I am worried about stuff easily added later. Almost all the mandatory products for a super high performance system (Staying AMD). Then i'll add the Sound Card, Storage Drive, 2nd Video Card, lights, etc... later

How important is the extra 256mb of memory on the video card? Cuz the 256 version is cheaper by like $80. I am gonna go with the 512 but I am just curious.

m0nk3ys1ms · Jul 11, 2006

ChrisUlrich said:
I need Conroe for performance? What? I like my AMD... works great for me!

Do you think I should cancel out that 3rd (Storage only drive) harddrive and put it towards something else? But better ram, sound card, psu, motherboard, etc...? I can always go back and buy this later since it's only there for data. I can partition my Raid until I get my storage drive.

I guess basically I want ultimate performance before I am worried about stuff easily added later. Almost all the mandatory products for a super high performance system (Staying AMD). Then i'll add the Sound Card, Storage Drive, 2nd Video Card, lights, etc... later

Don't listen to that guy. The memory I picked is excellent, as is everything else. I think using the Raptor as a game drive and using the 250GB WD as a OS/Storage Drive would be good enough.

ChrisUlrich · Jul 11, 2006

monkeysims said:
Don't listen to that guy. The memory I picked is excellent, as is everything else. I think using the Raptor as a game drive and using the 250GB WD as a OS/Storage Drive would be good enough.

Where do you think I should sink the other $200!!

m0nk3ys1ms · Jul 11, 2006

Case Fans. Wow, now you'll still have about $175 left after you buy 5-6 of those, lol.

ChrisUlrich · Jul 11, 2006

monkeysims said:
Case Fans. Wow, now you'll still have about $175 left after you buy 5-6 of those, lol.

Think it's worth dropping the heatsink and getting a water cooling system with the fans?

Or maybe upping the Processor? More ram? Better Sound Card?! The possibilities!! haha

m0nk3ys1ms · Jul 12, 2006

ChrisUlrich said:
Think it's worth dropping the heatsink and getting a water cooling system with the fans?

Or maybe upping the Processor? More ram? Better Sound Card?! The possibilities!! haha

If you wait till 7/24 to buy, you'll have about $500 total to work with. I would get a water-cooling system.

ChrisUlrich · Jul 12, 2006

monkeysims said:
If you wait till 7/24 to buy, you'll have about $500 total to work with. I would get a water-cooling system.

That's when the Conroe's are coming out?

How overkill are dual 512 7900 GTs?

Sorry for being a pest... I don't want money unspent!

I really want the best gaming machine possible for $2500 since I know damn well it'll suffice for an internet surfing machine.

m0nk3ys1ms · Jul 12, 2006

ChrisUlrich said:
That's when the Conroe's are coming out?

How overkill are dual 512 7900 GTs?

Sorry for being a pest... I don't want money unspent!

I really want the best gaming machine possible for $2500 since I know damn well it'll suffice for an internet surfing machine.

Your not pestering me one bit, I enjoy helping people out.

ChrisUlrich · Jul 12, 2006

monkeysims said:
Your not pestering me one bit, I enjoy helping people out.

Sweet! Thanks! I can't wait to get this PC! I kinda don't want to wait 2 weeks! I'm sooo impatient!

I think i'm going to go with the wrig you said but with a different sound card, better Processor, and fans.

m0nk3ys1ms · Jul 12, 2006

ChrisUlrich said:
Sweet! Thanks! I can't wait to get this PC! I kinda don't want to wait 2 weeks! I'm sooo impatient!

I think i'm going to go with the wrig you said but with a different sound card, better Processor, and fans.

The only two better processors are the X2 5000+ and the FX-62. The only difference between the X2's is that the 5000+ is 200mhz faster. The price of the X2 4800+ should be around $350 on 7/24.

ChrisUlrich · Jul 12, 2006

monkeysims said:
The only two better processors are the X2 5000+ and the FX-62. The only difference between the X2's is that the 5000+ is 200mhz faster. The price of the X2 4800+ should be around $350 on 7/24.

Damn! That's like a $200 drop! Maybe I should wait... I dunno? Maybe I could strike a deal with Jimmy from IceE PC (Place where i'm getting everything from). I don't want to wait but I guess I'll have for $200... that's a big drop especially I'll have $500 of unspent cash that could go to a better CPU! WooT haha

m0nk3ys1ms · Jul 12, 2006

ChrisUlrich said:
Damn! That's like a $200 drop! Maybe I should wait... I dunno? Maybe I could strike a deal with Jimmy from IceE PC (Place where i'm getting everything from). I don't want to wait but I guess I'll have for $200... that's a big drop especially I'll have $500 of unspent cash that could go to a better CPU! WooT haha

The 5000+ is going to only be $50 more, and the next expensive CPU, which is the best, is the FX-62, whos price is going to remain at $1,031.

ChrisUlrich · Jul 12, 2006

monkeysims said:
The 5000+ is going to only be $50 more, and the next expensive CPU, which is the best, is the FX-62, whos price is going to remain at $1,031.

Why are you so sure that the drop is gonna happen on 7/24? They announce something or is that just a hypothesis?

m0nk3ys1ms · Jul 12, 2006

ChrisUlrich said:
Why are you so sure that the drop is gonna happen on 7/24? They announce something or is that just a hypothesis?

http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=48010&highlight=amd+price+cut+plan

$2500 Budget... Lets go!

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