I noticed Krazed's wishlist, help me with one...please

[TeHFoOoL]

Think, if you have time, you'd be willing to put together a nice list together?

So far I've been lookin @ AMD 64 x2 3800 or 4400...like $160 difference, 3800 ought to be more than enough.
Also have been lookin at 1gb sticks for ram.
A decent video card to game (I dont game much) on & watch videos with decent quality.
160 or so gb hard drive maybe..maybe 200 or so

An exact quote or approximation of how much money you're going to drop would be helpful.

[CrAz3D]

doo dah doo dah doo.......lets say $700? minus the operating system & monitor?  would that be a decent machine?  maybe more, there is no concrete amount, I dont want to spend the down payment on a new house though

+ something that looks cool, I'm superficial that way
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1178032&CatId=0

[Joe]

I've found the pieces to get myself a decent machine minus the harddrive for around $200, give or take $10. If I do good at this garage sale this weekend it will be mine~.

Of course, I need a hard drive still. Keyboard, mouse, monitor, OS, etc, will all come from this current box.

[CrAz3D]

...old mac?....how much do you plan to get for that?

[CrAz3D]

$297 AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 939 Socket
$76 ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard
$92 Kingston HyperX 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
$38 LG Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATAPI/E-IDE 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With 5X DVD-RAM Write
$20 LG Black 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE CD Burner
$90 ASPIRE X-Navigator ATXA9NW-AL/500 Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
$117 MSI NX7600GS-T2D256E Geforce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card
$28 Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card
$90 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

That all look decent?  Will the CPU/mobo/RAM combo work?


I've run $200 over my original amount...but I think it'd be worth it.

[Chavo]

CPU: Personally I think 64 bit processors are a waste of money if you don't have a need for a 64 bit processor If you are just doing games/word processing/internet browsing/etc, you can probably get more bang for your buck with a Pentium D (the AMD dual cores aren't quite as good imo, but that could be biased .

Mobo: good pick!
Memory: hard to go wrong with memory
Optical drives: I could care less
Case: If you can, its usually better to get a PSU-less case and buy your PSU seperately.  A lot of the stock PSU's are crappy, especially with a cheaper brand like Aspire.

VideoCard: I have a hard time agreeing with getting non-ATI/NVidia manufactured cards simply because they tend to not be supported nearly as well for cutting edge games.  MSI is a good choice if you must though.

HD: decent, but if I remember correctly its one of the noiser drives (if you care)

If you are looking to cut down on costs, Its easy to find hard drive and memory deals on slickdeals.net

[CrAz3D]

Yeah, I'm gonna check into a pentium setup w/64bit support & no dual core.

uhm, the vid card is nvidia chipset.

[Chavo]

Right, the chipset is nvidia, not the board

If you DO want the 64 bit, stay with AMD.  I suggested the Intel over AMD for the dual core arena.

[CrAz3D]

Right, the chipset is nvidia, not the board

If you DO want the 64 bit, stay with AMD.  I suggested the Intel over AMD for the dual core arena.

with the amd 64 dual core processor I found, I'm $16 cheaper than with the p4 64 processor (not dual).

the amd 64 x2 is 2.0ghz 1.5mb cache, the p4 651 800mhz fsb 2mb cacheis at 3.4ghz

I'm gonna assume the pentium would be faster???

[MyndFyre]

2 things.

1.) Don't make 64 bit your selling point IMO.  I think it's not supported well enough to warrant it.
2.) A dual-core AMD is the same as a single-core P4 with Hyperthreading.  That's what "HT" means at Newegg.

I tried explaining that to you yesterday, but you apparently didn't listen.

[CrAz3D]

You mentioned that HT was logical dual processing while dual core was physical dual processing, I dont recall you mentioning that AMD's dual core was actualling single...sorry.


But I do remember the talk about dual core not being mainstream yet & you talking about AMDs melting (which scares me cause I've heard about it a few places) so I looked at a P4 w/HT too.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116005
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131578



EDIT:
hmm, wow, while taking someone else's advice I looked at a prebuilt customized Dell system...nicer, more stuff, & cheaper than the same if I built on my own it appears.  Also has Dell's customer support ...thats always a plus

[Sidoh]

Yeah, as these two have already mentioned, I don't recommend pivoting your entire purchace around the existance of 64 bit processors.  Incidentally, the last time I checked, Intel's 64 bit processors sucked.

[CrAz3D]

Yeah, as these two have already mentioned, I don't recommend pivoting your entire purchace around the existance of 64 bit processors.  Incidentally, the last time I checked, Intel's 64 bit processors sucked.

mk, so just Pentium D?

[Chavo]

I assumed you had a reason for wanting to build your own computer.

If you just want the most bang for the buck, Dell can definately do you cheaper than building your own (especially if you watch the sales at slickdeals).  Just make sure you get something with a good video card if you plan on running Vista.

Pentium D is my current recommended processor for *most* general-use, desktop users, yes.  I'm hoping that changes soon though!
I have this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116212

[CrAz3D]

I was wanting to build my own for a few reasons.

Cheapness, experience, customization.

Dell can give me everything but the experience & more...Dell wins   They're pros @ computer building, I are t3h sux0rz @ it...so I pay them...plus I can finance it & build my credit !