System for my friend. Advice?

Post by **bitWISE** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:15 pm

Here are the parts I'm considering so far. Anything you guys would change?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128283
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103539
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145450
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150098
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 822144160R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811144089

I need to confirm that case has atxv2 though.

Post by **shiznit** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:16 pm

Maybe a 6800? Looks good besides that.

Post by **Foo** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:18 pm

What does your friend need it for?

What level of computer ability is he/she?

What's their budget?

What if any existing system do they have?

The motherboard, ram and graphics card look good.

The case seems overpriced but then a good case can last you years. The processor seems overkill for the rest of the components (buy the lower speed chips your motherboard will take, and there's room to upgrade to a faster chip when it's actually necessary... rather than paying double or more for something that's not useful for a year or so.

Post by **bitWISE** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:29 pm

He just wants something kickass for decent money. I was thinking either Venice or San Diego core as far as a cpu goes. The video card can be upgraded depending on how much we spend on the rest.

Post by **Foo** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:36 pm

Yeah see if he wants something kickass for reasonable money, does he want something to completely show off about now (but not actually get the use out of the PC that he needs?) or does he want something that'll run everything right now with loads of headroom for the future? Not to mention if you buy lower spec parts now but allow more headroom, then later down the line you've got cash to spare to bolt in those high performance pieces when the games that need them eventually arrive.

If he wants he latter, change the motherboard to an SLi model and get one of the 6600 SLi versions from xfx. Likewise bolt a lower CPU on it for now so he can slap a faster one in when they're cheaper.

Also save some money on the case front (the case you picked is aluminium which IS good to invest in, but if he's going for looks you'll get a better looking steel case at that price level I think).

If you get a motherboard with SLi chances are you'll also get RAID. If this is the case get 2 smaller hard drives and set them up in a raid stripe. Instant performance gain where it matters, for negligable extra cost.

Post by **shiznit** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:19 pm

Just came across this.

The $500 Gaming Machine

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ - $146
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - $69
Corsair Value Select 512 MB (2x 256 MB) - $52
eVGA 256-A8-N340-TX Geforce 6600 256 MB - $113
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80 GB - $57.50
LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM - $19.99
SeaSonic S12-330 ATX12V 330W - $59.00
Total = $516.49

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20051014/index.html

Post by **SOAPboy** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:24 pm

shiznit wrote:Just came across this.

The $500 Gaming Machine

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ - $146
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - $69
Corsair Value Select 512 MB (2x 256 MB) - $52
eVGA 256-A8-N340-TX Geforce 6600 256 MB - $113
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80 GB - $57.50
LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM - $19.99
SeaSonic S12-330 ATX12V 330W - $59.00
Total = $516.49

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20051014/index.html

Change the 512 to 1gig and make it 550 and you have a winner for budget

Post by **Foo** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:37 pm

Yeah or that... mind you that is the exact opposite of my point about buying with a view to what you do with it down the line... That rig offers jack shit in terms of upgrade potential.

But in terms of a cheap reasonable speed machine it's ok.

Post by **ajerara** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:31 am

looks overclockable, though.

Post by **Psyche911** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:44 am

shiznit wrote:Just came across this.

The $500 Gaming Machine

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ - $146
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - $69
Corsair Value Select 512 MB (2x 256 MB) - $52
eVGA 256-A8-N340-TX Geforce 6600 256 MB - $113
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80 GB - $57.50
LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM - $19.99
SeaSonic S12-330 ATX12V 330W - $59.00
Total = $516.49

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20051014/index.html

Good parts all around. :icon14:

But I'd go with 2x512MB. And a 6600GT instead of just 6600.

Post by **SOAPboy** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:55 pm

Foo wrote:Yeah or that... mind you that is the exact opposite of my point about buying with a view to what you do with it down the line... That rig offers jack shit in terms of upgrade potential.

But in terms of a cheap reasonable speed machine it's ok.

oh boo fucking hoo faggot..

CPU can be upgraded, Video as well, OH NOES its a 70$ motherboard which could be dumped at basicly no loss..

Post by **Foo** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:23 pm

SOAPboy wrote:
oh boo fucking hoo faggot..

CPU can be upgraded, Video as well, OH NOES its a 70$ motherboard which could be dumped at basicly no loss..

Man why do you have to turn this into some kind of penis contest? Like I said, in terms of a cheap reasonable speed machine it's ok.

You have some issues which I think you need to work on outside of the Internet.

Post by **Giraffe }{unter** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:03 pm

In the original post I would dump the WD Raptor and grab the 400GIG sata drive from Seagate. I doubt your friend will notice much difference in speed... He will however notice all the disk space.

The Aspire case is also crap, I was gonna say trust me on this, but the new egg reviews also say the same. Grab a slightly less exciting, but more stable Antec case. The antec Sonata is pretty sweet and silent.

Post by **shiznit** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:37 pm

For a $500 system I wouldn't worry about upgrades, just use it for a year or two. Then get another $500 system, maybe reuse some stuff.

Post by **ShortTexas** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:15 pm

i'd dump that case and get an antec p180 (your gonna lose the riced out window sorry but gain silence)

get rid of the refurbed wd 10k drive and raid two not so noisy drives.

swap out the mb for a ASROCK 939Dual-SATA2 great upgrade path
pci-e/agp/dual sata/II ide/sata raid and an a future upgrade port for the new amd M2 cpus

upgrade your cpu to a athlon 64 x2 3800+ with the money you save.

in other words turn it into the pc im building

im using 2 gigs kingston hyper-x and will hold on to my 6800gt for a month or so.

Post by **bitWISE** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:48 pm

The asrock seems like a decent board.

Giraffe }{unter wrote:In the original post I would dump the WD Raptor and grab the 400GIG sata drive from Seagate. I doubt your friend will notice much difference in speed... He will however notice all the disk space.

The Aspire case is also crap, I was gonna say trust me on this, but the new egg reviews also say the same. Grab a slightly less exciting, but more stable Antec case. The antec Sonata is pretty sweet and silent.

He isn't even using the 80gb he already has.

Post by **ajerara** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:35 am

yeah, in a year or two you'd probably want a new mobo and stuff anyway. My comp is only a year old and I already want new stuff.

Post by **SOAPboy** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:47 am

Foo wrote:
SOAPboy wrote:
oh boo fucking hoo faggot..

CPU can be upgraded, Video as well, OH NOES its a 70$ motherboard which could be dumped at basicly no loss..
Man why do you have to turn this into some kind of penis contest? Like I said, in terms of a cheap reasonable speed machine it's ok.

You have some issues which I think you need to work on outside of the Internet.

Its your additude..

Fuck you

Post by **bitWISE** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:54 am

We ordered it a little while ago. Changed the board to the asrock, changed the raptor to two 80gb cavairs (in raid), changed the 6600 to an x850pro, and added a thermalright si-120 and a blue led fan.

We stuck with that case design because we both really like the looks but changed to a black/green color scheme.

Post by **Foo** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:04 am

SOAPboy wrote:Its your additude..

Fuck you

Well thanks for the shining example of the attitude I should be adopting :icon27: