Page 1 of 1
System for my friend. Advice?
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:15 pm
by bitWISE
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:16 pm
by shiznit
Maybe a 6800? Looks good besides that.
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:18 pm
by Foo
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.
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:29 pm
by bitWISE
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.
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:36 pm
by Foo
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.
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:19 pm
by shiznit
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
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:24 pm
by SOAPboy
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
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:37 pm
by Foo
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.
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:31 am
by ajerara
looks overclockable, though.
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:44 am
by Psyche911
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 = $516.49
http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20051014/index.html
Good parts all around. :icon14:
But I'd go with 2x512MB. And a 6600GT instead of just 6600.
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:55 pm
by SOAPboy
Foo wrote:Yeah or that... mind you that is the exact opposite of my point about buying with a view to what you do with it down the line... That rig offers jack shit in terms of upgrade potential.
But in terms of a cheap reasonable speed machine it's ok.
oh boo fucking hoo faggot..
CPU can be upgraded, Video as well, OH NOES its a 70$ motherboard which could be dumped at basicly no loss..
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:23 pm
by Foo
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.
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:03 pm
by Giraffe }{unter
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.
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:37 pm
by shiznit
For a $500 system I wouldn't worry about upgrades, just use it for a year or two. Then get another $500 system, maybe reuse some stuff.
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:15 pm
by ShortTexas
i'd dump that case and get an antec p180 (your gonna lose the riced out window sorry but gain silence)
get rid of the refurbed wd 10k drive and raid two not so noisy drives.
swap out the mb for a ASROCK 939Dual-SATA2 great upgrade path
pci-e/agp/dual sata/II ide/sata raid and an a future upgrade port for the new amd M2 cpus
upgrade your cpu to a athlon 64 x2 3800+ with the money you save.
in other words turn it into the pc im building
im using 2 gigs kingston hyper-x and will hold on to my 6800gt for a month or so.
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:48 pm
by bitWISE
The asrock seems like a decent board.
Giraffe }{unter wrote:In the original post I would dump the WD Raptor and grab the 400GIG sata drive from Seagate. I doubt your friend will notice much difference in speed... He will however notice all the disk space.
The Aspire case is also crap, I was gonna say trust me on this, but the new egg reviews also say the same. Grab a slightly less exciting, but more stable Antec case. The antec Sonata is pretty sweet and silent.
He isn't even using the 80gb he already has.
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:35 am
by ajerara
yeah, in a year or two you'd probably want a new mobo and stuff anyway. My comp is only a year old and I already want new stuff.
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:47 am
by SOAPboy
Foo wrote:SOAPboy wrote:
oh boo fucking hoo faggot..
CPU can be upgraded, Video as well, OH NOES its a 70$ 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
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:54 am
by bitWISE
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.
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:04 am
by Foo
SOAPboy wrote:Its your additude..
Fuck you
Well thanks for the shining example of the attitude I should be adopting :icon27: