Building a computer: Please Help

S

sailoholic

New Member
Hello, my old optiplex 170L died on me recently so i am now in the market for a new one. I wanted something a little more high end then the optiplex and so far i have this:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ 2.8GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor – OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103242
Price: 99.99

Sony NEC Optiarc Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM IDE 20X DVD±R DVD Burner – OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118003
Price: 23.99

Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YD 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136010
Price: 59.99

BFG Tech BFGE85256GTE GeForce 8500GT 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card – Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143104
Price: 74.99 29.99 after rebate

GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128014R
Price: 69.99

CORSAIR XMS2 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=N82E16820145034
Price: 74.99 34.00 after rebate

I originally wanted to keep the price below 250 but as you can see i am at 318 without a case or PSU. If anyone could help me lower the price without much performance loss it would be much appreciated! I plan on overclocking so if anyone knows of a budget case with good cooling - preferably without lighting - that would be great as my room runs a tad warm! Same goes for a budget PSU as well! Thank you!

P.S. Sorry for the long post
 
first off dont buy AMD!! they are terrible overclockers. buy the pentium 4 at 3.0 Ghz. yo can OC that to like 4Ghz. this is the mobo im buying http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128079
its a good OCer so your good with that and the P4. also you wont need to buy a video card because it has the onboard video with the 7050. not great for gaming but you can buy a video card later on.
also you said your computer died. that most likley means the PSU is fried so if your planning on using that as your PSU you cant probably.
this is the case im buying and it comes with a 450W PSU. thats all i can suggest. plus a gig of RAM that has good OC capability.
good luck:)
 
First of all, the P4 is based on horrible Netburst Architecture...and uses higher operating frequencies to make up for it. Intel is the way to go right now, however the X2 5400+ he had selected is way better than a 3.0GHz P4.

Second of all....we have no way of knowing that his PSU died, so don't just assume his PSU died because his computer stopped working.

Lastly, I wouldn't recommend a PSU that comes with a case. They tend to be cheaply made.
 
long story short my desktop won't boot discs so the PSU is enough fine, i just don't know if its powerful enough.

Morton: my optiplex had a p4 and it just wasn't enough and i multi task frequently (encoding a video while watching a movie etc.)
 
well you could try the pentium dual core but a P4 at 4 Ghz seems like it would be fast. i doubt your inspriron was close to 3 ghz... was it? idk, athlons are bad OCers. thats what i heard at least.
 
morton

i switched the 5400 to the 5000 black edition which has an unlocked multiplier. Therefore you could run it at 3.1 stable, or 3.4+ with very good cooling. And the P4 on the optiplex was a 3.0 ghz
 
sailoholic said:
i switched the 5400 to the 5000 black edition which has an unlocked multiplier. Therefore you could run it at 3.1 stable, or 3.4+ with very good cooling. And the P4 on the optiplex was a 3.0 ghz
Click to expand...

Yeah, the AMD X2 series overclock pretty good - better than the P4 you originally picked. You'll need a good heatsink/fan if you want to overclock. The stock fan won't get you very far...
 
i decided to use my old hard drive temporarily and choice the following cooler, PSU and case:

Thermaltake CL-P0371 92mm Enter CPU Cooler – Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106086
Price 26.00

Rosewill R230-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147075
Price: 25.00

ENERMAX PEG365AX-WFMA ATX12V 350W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, cUL, TUV, CB – Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194014
Price after rebate: 24.99

i used the eXtreme PSU calculator and set it for 100% load and TDP as well as an extra sata drive for later on and i calculated 265 watts, will the 350 be sufficent, i heard that enermax was a pretty decent brand
 
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