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Help Me Build The BBFYB System Under $1000

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 7:29 pm
by NeRve
Mission: To build the Best Bang For Your Buck (BBFYB) system that can play next-gen games, such as Unreal 3, do video production, music production, office work, as well as everything else... Im using this future computer for everything!

Note: This is a college computer system btw....

Budget: $1000 (preferbly below)

Things I already have (I dont need to buy) - DVD Burner

Things Im waiting on - Better priced next-gen graphics

Must Have List: 64-Bit Dual Core, dirt-cheap pci-express graphics card (Ill use it as fodder and wait for the next gen WGF 2.0 cards, 1 gig RAM, The best bang for your buck performance harddrive (I dont care how small it is), Possibly Gigabit, and finally a pretty good integrated audio solution (ex Azalia)...

Bottom Line: Must be able reach or even beat Windows Vista recommended specs!!

Thanks guys in advance, this is possibly my first PC build... (BTW Do you think I should get it pre-built from sites like iBuypower.com or Dell)?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:00 pm
by liquidsquid
Problem being is after the X2 (OEM to get the fan and warranty), you will only have $450 to work with for the rest of the system. So get a non SLI 939 MB ~$100 + PCIe-x16 vid ~$150 + 1G Ram ~$80 + large SATA $100 and you should be very close. Of course you still need power supply and case.

-LS

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:07 pm
by NeRve
liquidsquid wrote:
Problem being is after the X2 (OEM to get the fan and warranty), you will only have $450 to work with for the rest of the system. So get a non SLI 939 MB ~$100 + PCIe-x16 vid ~$150 + 1G Ram ~$80 + large SATA $100 and you should be very close. Of course you still need power supply and case.

-LS


Im currently waiting on the lowered priced X-2's like the 3800+, ALSO currently I want the cheapest PCIe-16 graphics card available, so I dont need to pay so high for the graphics card - I'll use this temporarily until Longhorn comes out and the WGF 2.0 graphics card come out....

Re: Help Me Build The BBFYB System Under $1000

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:11 pm
by Flying Fox
NeRve wrote:
Bottom Line: Must be able reach or even beat Windows Vista recommended specs!!
This is not quite possible. Hardware requirements for Vista are not final yet. And you never did say you want low-end, Aero or Aero Glass specs.

Also, Microsoft has a habit of understating even their recommended specs. To run it "smooth" you usually need more.

If you were to ask me I would have to say by mid-2007 (and that is provided that Vista will be on time for late Q4 2006), you will know the "recommended" specs. And by then:
- AMD will be on M2 socket with DDR2 at a minimum, possibly a new socket with DDR3 if things progessed good
- 3 grahics card generations have already passed and the previous gen will not run the latest games by then
And then all these predictions will be completely thrown off if there were delays and stuff. So your guess is actually as good as mine.

Futureproofing has died at least 5 years ago. :-? It's not quite possible to do it. A better approach is to figure out what really you want to do with your computer now, and go from there. By the time Vista comes out, you may just want to have a working computer and play games on XBox 360/PS3 anyway. :wink:

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:35 pm
by JustAnEngineer
It sounds like he really wants to buy the Dell. Let's see what we can do for an AMD-based system.

$ 470 Motherboard+CPU+HSF bundle from MonarchComputer
$ 93 MSI RS480M2-IL ATI RS480 socket-939 micro-ATX motherboard with integrated video and PCI-Express X16 slot
$ 0 Integrated DX9 Video
$ 0 Integrated 5.1 sound
$ 0 Integrated 10/100bT ethernet
$ 0 Integrated USB 2.0
$ 0 Integrated IEEE-1394 Firewire
$369 AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2.0GHz dual-core, 2x512KB L2 cache, Socket-939 processor
$ 8 AMD-certified no-name heatsink & fan
$ 0 Far Cry game on DVD
$ 0 Half-Life2 and CS:S license on Steam
$ 0 Four months of Napster downloads

$ 88 2x512MB Corsair Value Select PC3200 CAS2.5 unbuffered DDR SDRAM
$ 84 160GB Western Digital CaviarSE WD1600JS 7200rpm 8MB cache SATA2 hard-drive
$ 47 NEC ND-3540A dual-layer DVD burner, black
$ 23½ Mitsumi 3½" floppy drive and card reader, black
$ 41 Linkworld 435-10 C2228 ATX mid-tower case with 430W ATX 12V 2.0 power supply, black
$ 21 PowMax keyboard + optical wheelmouse + crappy speakers, black
$ 60 Sennheiser PC150 stereo headset with retractable microphone

$360 to $430 Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW 20.1" 1680x1050 wide-screen LCD monitor, black

That's around $1200, without WindowsXP. Add $250 for a good 3D graphics card.

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:49 pm
by Flying Fox
I am sorry I feel like doing a mattsteg and call that Vista requirement ludicrous. :P

May be we should also subtract the prices for the games to make the number look better?

Seriously, even the Dell deal will not guarantee you can run full Aero Glass. Most likely Cedar Mill (the 65nm version of current Smithfields) will require a new socket. You are pretty much screwed anyways.

Edit: I meant new chipset, not socket. In any case we are talking about a new MB.

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 11:58 pm
by NeRve
JustAnEngineer wrote:
It sounds like he really wants to buy the Dell. Let's see what we can do for an AMD-based system.

$ 470 Motherboard+CPU+HSF bundle from MonarchComputer
$ 93 MSI RS480M2-IL ATI RS480 socket-939 micro-ATX motherboard with integrated video and PCI-Express X16 slot
$ 0 Integrated DX9 Video
$ 0 Integrated 5.1 sound
$ 0 Integrated 10/100bT ethernet
$ 0 Integrated USB 2.0
$ 0 Integrated IEEE-1394 Firewire
$369 AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2.0GHz dual-core, 2x512KB L2 cache, Socket-939 processor
$ 8 AMD-certified no-name heatsink & fan
$ 0 Far Cry game on DVD
$ 0 Half-Life2 and CS:S license on Steam
$ 0 Four months of Napster downloads

$ 88 2x512MB Corsair Value Select PC3200 CAS2.5 unbuffered DDR SDRAM
$ 84 160GB Western Digital CaviarSE WD1600JS 7200rpm 8MB cache SATA2 hard-drive
$ 47 NEC ND-3540A dual-layer DVD burner, black
$ 23½ Mitsumi 3½" floppy drive and card reader, black
$ 41 Linkworld 435-10 C2228 ATX mid-tower case with 430W ATX 12V 2.0 power supply, black
$ 21 PowMax keyboard + optical wheelmouse + crappy speakers, black
$ 60 Sennheiser PC150 stereo headset with retractable microphone

$360 to $430 Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW 20.1" 1680x1050 wide-screen LCD monitor, black

That's around $1200, without WindowsXP. Add $250 for a good 3D graphics card.


That looks great JustAnEngineer, the integrated graphics is a pretty good idea - however, I want motherboards with PCI-Express X1 slots for the rest of the expansion slots instead of standard PCI slots for the board... Which is one like that configuration, minus the DVD-Writer (I already have one).... I would also like to have Gigabit capability on the mobos... And how does that Western Digital drive compared to the drives with NCQ?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:05 am
by Flying Fox
May be it's late night, but I don't see that Dell saying it has all PCIe x1 slots for expansion?

IMO, when you want expansion, then it will not be BBFYB. Same goes for any remote dream of future proofing, especially on an OS that is 1.5 years away and that's not even a definite timeframe.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:37 am
by JustAnEngineer
NeRve wrote:
JustAnEngineer wrote:
MSI RS480M2-IL socket-939 micro-ATX motherboard with integrated video and PCI-Express X16 slot
That looks great JustAnEngineer, the integrated graphics is a pretty good idea - however, I want motherboards with PCI-Express X1 slots for the rest of the expansion slots instead of standard PCI slots for the board..
Maybe you'd rather have the Jetway version, then?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:56 am
by DragonFli
Personally, with things like less expensive X2-64's (Hey and don't forget about Morom/Pentium 5?) R520, the Geforce 7800GT (7600 series could also be nice) and even minor things like Creative X-Fi sound cards on the horizon, I do not think it is the time to be building a Bang For The Buck machine...
But thats just my position....

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:51 am
by Illissius
I assume you don't need a monitor, and other peripherals... ? (would put quite a dent in the budget)

Processor: Athlon 64 X2 3800+ - $350-400 (not on newegg yet)
Cooler: Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu - $33 (optional)
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI - $125 [1]
Memory: 2x Crucial 512MB PC3200 8T - $91
Graphics: MSI GeForce 6200TC - $58
Sound: Chaintech AV710 - $25 [2]
Storage: Seagate 7200.8 250GB - $123
Power: Thermaltake 420W - $37
Case: Lian-Li PC-7 Plus - $90 [3]
---
$900-980

[1] I'm not impressed with it or anything, but for $125, it's a steal.
[2] This uses the same Envy24 chip as the M-Audio Revolution, and a DAC with a signal-noise ratio only 2db worse, for something like a quarter of the price. The trick is the the good DAC is on the 7-8th channels, but the drivers let you route the front ones through it instead.
[3] Or just get some random beige case if you don't care.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:34 am
by mikehodges2
Power: Thermaltake 420W - $37
Case: Lian-Li PC-7 Plus - $90


Perhaps consider an Antec Sonata? It's pretty damn quiet, and for the price of the Lian-Li case (in the UK at least), you get a 380W Antec PSU aswell. Moneysavaliciuos! :wink:

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:23 pm
by NeRve
Just saw in the benchmarks on the 3800+ X-2 on TR, one word - Im SOLD! To hell with Intel's 8xx series! :lol:

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:26 pm
by Hance
my thoughts exactly now i just have to get a new mobo . i have a socket 939 NF3 and they basically dont support the x2 . atleast my board doesnt :x

Re: Help Me Build The BBFYB System Under $1000

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:48 pm
by mattsteg
NeRve wrote:
dirt-cheap pci-express graphics card (Ill use it as fodder and wait for the next gen WGF 2.0 cards
Ok, one comment on that. "next-gen WGF 2.0 cards" and "dirt-cheap pci-express graphics cards" serve extremely different markets. It's not a matter of limping along, it's a matter of hardware that simply won't do what you want it to do. If you want to game at all, get a card that's at least minimally competent. If you don't care to game, WGF 2.0 isn't really going to matter a whole lot anyway. Get at least a midrange card, and don't worry about the requirements of an OS that's not due out for a long time. Just buy stuff that does what you need now as well as possible within your budget and you'll be set.