Help me cut costs here

[Ryeguy_24]

If I game occasionally and am sufficing now with a Geforce4 MX 420 will I be ok with a geforce4 6800gs instead of the 7800 gt. Planning on using it for dual monitors.

I'm trying to cut costs in my proposed system. I need to drop a few hundred dollars. My main activity is heavy multitasking. Can you guys help me out? What items are not necessary?


Current Proposed System:

AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ ($400)
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium ($166) (how necessary is this mb, am I overdoing it?)
Geforce4 7800 GT ($300)
1GB corsair xms ram ($100)
Antec Truepower 2.0 550W ($90) How necessary is this big guy.

1 SATA 80 gig hd
1 IDE 160 hd
16x DVD-ROM
52x CDRW
External usb sony dvd-rw
Ipod firewire

Thanks so much ....

 

[Heyyou27]

If I game occasionally and am sufficing now with a Geforce4 MX 420 will I be ok with a geforce4 6800gs instead of the 7800 gt. Planning on using it for dual monitors.

I'm trying to cut costs in my proposed system. I need to drop a few hundred dollars. My main activity is heavy multitasking. Can you guys help me out? What items are not necessary?


Current Proposed System:

AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ ($400)
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium ($166) (how necessary is this mb, am I overdoing it?)
Geforce4 7800 GT ($300)
1GB corsair xms ram ($100)
Antec Truepower 2.0 550W ($90) How necessary is this big guy.

1 SATA 80 gig hd
1 IDE 160 hd
16x DVD-ROM
52x CDRW
External usb sony dvd-rw
Ipod firewire

Thanks so much ....

Well if you don't plan on playing games get the GS. I myself have two Geforce 7800 GTs and an X2 4800+. I play games and multitask so it's a good setup. I'd get either a dual core processor with a GS or a single core processor with a 7800 GT.

 

[dfrustynails]

Okay the power supply and mobo are good as the motherboard is one of the most important parts and since you do heavy multitasking you need the ram and i'm not even going to get started on the cpu mostly cause i'm an intel fan and i feel that the cpu choice is up to the builder. now for your video card i would look into ATI's X800 family as most of them can outperform a 6800 and there almost half the price if I were you i'd go with a radeon x800 gto or an X850 but those are some other cards you can look at.

 

[Ryeguy_24]

I'm only picking the dual core 4200 or 4400 because it outperforms any of the dual core intels for multitasking and encoding. If i'm not correct, let me know. But that was my main driving force in picking an amd. (toms hardware cpu charts)

 

[dfrustynails]

Oh no there good at multi tasking and gaming. There great cpu's it's just I don't buy AMD because i've been going to intel for so long and they haven't let me down yet. But both are great cpu's only the AMD's use les energy and are a little cooler then the dual core intel's so again it's more of a prefernce with cpu's

 

[Vascular]

If I game occasionally and am sufficing now with a Geforce4 MX 420 will I be ok with a geforce4 6800gs instead of the 7800 gt. Planning on using it for dual monitors.

I'm trying to cut costs in my proposed system. I need to drop a few hundred dollars. My main activity is heavy multitasking. Can you guys help me out? What items are not necessary?


Current Proposed System:

AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ ($400) (X2 3800+ $322 minimal performance diff)
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium ($166) (how necessary is this mb, am I overdoing it?) (Abit KN8-sli $110 or if you like asus there are cheaper models)
Geforce4 7800 GT ($300) (good card for the price IMO)
1GB corsair xms ram ($100) (if you multitask more ram will help)
Antec Truepower 2.0 550W ($90) How necessary is this big guy. (You dont need 550W just make sure you pick a quality one)

(Are the items below being reused??)
1 SATA 80 gig hd
1 IDE 160 hd
16x DVD-ROM
52x CDRW
External usb sony dvd-rw
Ipod firewire

Thanks so much ....

 

[Ryeguy_24]

yeah the items are being reused, (except for the sata hd)

 

[Vascular]

I just noticed the geforce4 7800gt is not a card lol.
Geforce 7800gt is all.
How much do you need to cut out of the price??

 

[Chenmaster]

I would get an Opteron 165 instead of the X2. The Opteron is also a dual core, 64-bit processor but are server-class. The 165 was low 300's last time I checked. You can easily overclock this to 2.4Ghz and more if you are good, which would outperform the X2's. I also agree that the ATI X800 series would be a good choice. ATI is selling refurbished X800 Pro's for $150 if you are willing to buy refurbished. Not sure if they have any left but I got 2 and both perform like new. For the other parts, Newegg, Tigerdirect, and Zoomfly are the best places to shop for low prices.

 

[Crashman]

Buy the eVGA 7800GT from www.zipzoomfly.com or www.tigerdirect.com and get a free eVGA nForce4 SLI motherboard. It's a good board, the card is less than you're looking to spend, and you'll save around $180 this way.

 

[tylerthedruid]

Agree with the earlier poster about the power supply. Go with a reliable power supply with the SLI brand over a higher wattage. I'm not sure how much more you need for a dual core CPU...

 

[mdd1963]

"now for your video card i would look into ATI's X800 family as most of them can outperform a 6800 and there almost half the price "

A 6800GS nearly keeps up with a 6800GT, and the former sells for $209 at Newegg....

Can you find any X800 variants for $104.50?

 

[phonicsmonkey]

Buy the eVGA 7800GT from www.zipzoomfly.com or www.tigerdirect.com and get a free eVGA nForce4 SLI motherboard. It's a good board, the card is less than you're looking to spend, and you'll save around $180 this way.

I agree with Crashman, get the eVGA combo. I did and I can tell you it's a great deal. Here's direct links:

zipzoomfly eVGA 7800GT

tigerdirect eVGA 7800GT

newegg eVGA 7800GT

 

[fedude]

I looked hard at the combo deal. There are lots of bad problems with the mobo in this combo deal. Are the comments on newegg reflective of the quality of the board?

No USB 2.0 connectors on the como mobo?

 

[godlyatheist]

For PSU, get the Aspire 500W for $40 or that Thermaltake 430W for the same. I got the ASpire and it is nice!! They won't do Sli but enough for your needs.

Links:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148027

 

[phonicsmonkey]

I looked hard at the combo deal. There are lots of bad problems with the mobo in this combo deal. Are the comments on newegg reflective of the quality of the board?

No USB 2.0 connectors on the como mobo?

It does have internal USB connectors. I haven't had any problems at all out of mine. eVGA has a pretty good website and some message boards that are the best source for help. This thread is pretty good for explaining the board:

eVGA Nf41 (SLI) Guide

 

[Crashman]

I haven't had any problems with my eVGA board, it works so well I use it in reviews.