Another... building a new... AM2 thread.

[j0hn00]

So, I've got a S754 3400+ that I've been itching to upgrade. Here's what I've picked out so far:

Processor $304
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor AM2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103735

Motherboard $136
MSI K9N SLI Platinum Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130048

Video $270
eVGA Geforce 7900GT CO 256MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130281

Memory 2 x $113
Patriot eXtreme Performance 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820220142

Hard Drive $130
Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148140

CD/DVD $39
NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Silver IDE Model ND-3550A
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827152060

With shipping and taxes (NJ), the total comes to $1,186.08 I wanted to keep it under $1000, but I can give up smoking for a few weeks to cover the extra $200. As for the case and power supply, I'll be salvaging my Lian Li case and Antec TruePower II 430W (dual 17A) from my current rig. I've also got 2 80GB SATA HDDs that I'll be moving over. I plan on using stock cooling.

Just noticed no cooling with the CPU. I guess I'll be adding an extra $50 or so for something Zalman.

FYI: I won't be overcloking and I'm a very light gamer. I play BF2 for about 1 hour per week. Any suggestions or comments would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Clutch]

Honestly, I would wait another month or so until the Core 2 series hits the market.

The Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz, 4MB L2 cache) is right up your price alley (projected to be $316 at launch), and will perform better than the Athlon 64 X2 3800+.

Even if you don't want to buy the Core 2 Duo, I would still wait another month, as AMD is going to be having drastic price cuts on their processors as the Core 2 series is released, to be able to remain profitable in this upcoming time of performance defecit which AMD is going to be experiencing.

 

[Geoff]

Even if you don't want to buy the Core 2 Duo, I would still wait another month, as AMD is going to be having drastic price cuts on their processors as the Core 2 series is released, to be able to remain profitable in this upcoming time of performance defecit which AMD is going to be experiencing.

Pure speculation. However you are most likely correct in saying that AMD prices will go down, you cant wait a month hoping that they will go down dramatically, since they may in fact only go down no more than 5-10%.

 

[Clutch]

Pure speculation. However you are most likely correct in saying that AMD prices will go down, you cant wait a month hoping that they will go down dramatically, since they may in fact only go down no more than 5-10%.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2800

* AMD Athlon 64 price cuts will receive price cut up to 30%
* AMD Athlon 64 X2 will receive price cuts up to 50%
* AMD Sempron processors will receive price cuts up to 15%

The article speaks for itself.

 

[j0hn00]

I guess I can wait another month or two if the prices do fall that drastically. Thanks for the info.