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New system on a budget. I would appreciate your comments

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - New system on a budget. I would appreciate your comments

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I have a limited budget. I am not an overclocker. I want to buy this new computer for my wife (that means scrapbooking, downloading music on an ipod...) and for me (that means gaming). My most wanted game in the future is Total War Medieval 2 (but no specs yet annonced).

Reading some site (Sharky, Anandtech), I decided something like this :
Athlon 64 3200+ 939
Motherboard : MSI K8N-NEO4f
Memory : 1-GB (2x512-MB) Corsair Value PC3200
Videocard : GeForce 6800 GS 256MB

Now, if I wanted to put just a little bit more money (an that means very little), should i go for a 3500+ (remenber, i do not do overclocking), or upgrade the videocard for something like the xfx 7600gt ? In that kind of system, where would be the bottleneck ?

Would this system be obsolete too soon ? It seems that there is a lot of new technology around the corner, but for a budget restricted gamer, are those new technologies be out of price anyway for the first few years ?
Should I wait a few months ?

Also, Vista is coming. I do not intend to turn to Vista soon, but surely in one year, Microsoft will do everything to make us need this new OS, even if we dont want it. Does my config will be able to run this OS and the programs ?

Thank you for your time

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There is always something new around the corner. Don't worry about it.

I'd say put your money into the graphics card. After that I'd up the ram before worrying about a faster cpu.

BTW, don't forget a quality power supply.

Rob

Reply to Albireo13

As my first post at these fabulous forumz, I would recomend spending the extra cash on the cpu now. DirectX 10 is just around the corner so get a doable vid card now and upgrade down the road to DX 10. The 3500+ or even a 3700 if you can afford it will last a year or two if you really need it to.

Reply to Jinx13

Quote :

Now, if I wanted to put just a little bit more money (an that means very little), should i go for a 3500+ (remenber, i do not do overclocking), or upgrade the videocard for something like the xfx 7600gt ? In that kind of system, where would be the bottleneck ?

I just want to point out to you that the 6800GS and the 7600GT are selling at the same price point.

6800GS Prices

7600GT Prices

As of now all 6800GS are sold out. Also some 7600GT have mail-in rebates making them cheaper than the 6800GS.

Got extra cash? Put into both the 3500+ and a spend a little extra on a premium power supply you can depend on. I vouch for the Seasonic S12 330. A little pricey? Yes, but it is silent and the voltage rails are of superior quality. A real good buy for $66 shipped. A reliable 330 watts PSU is more than enough to power an Athlon 64 X2 4800+, 7900GTX, 3 hard drives, 1 DVD-ROM, & Soundcard. It is very quiet and efficient as well.

$66 is too much? Fortron AX400-PN - Not as efficient, quiet or reliable as the Season S12, but it is dependable, and is only $47 shipped.

Reply to jaguarskx

I would put the extra money in the graphics card. You will get more results in gaming with the better GPU than a better CPU. Since you are building a budget system anyway, there is no reason to wait a few months. Sure the prices for your components MAY drop a few dollars, but I don't think they will go "rock bottom" by any means. I wouldn't worry about Vista. Who knows, it could be delayed another year or two Plus, a lot of people are still using Windows 2000 now so I'm sure XP will be around for years to come. There will always be new technology that looks really cool. You just have to ask yourself "is it necessary for what I want to do".

Reply to techtre2003

I'm not familiar with your favorite game but if it is anything like battlefield 2 in sucking up ram you will see a noticable improvement going from 1 gig to two gigs of ram. That way you stick with the A64 3200 and the 6800gs or 7600gt and have a nice upgrade path for your cpu later. If you get a 3500 or higher A64 you may not feel good about the percentage of improvement over your cpu and you will still need 2 gigs of ram down the line forcing you to yank your old ram and replace with two one gig sticks or use all four memory slots and have lousy ram timings. By the time you feel like upgrading your cpu on this system you can go with a A64 4000 or better or a 4800 duel core at a cheap price. I am in the ram trap right now and it sucks.

Reply to zoridon

get the 3200 and 7600gt and if you can it would help immensely for you to get two gigs of ram

Reply to sandmannight

Buying a new 6800 would be a waste. As jaguarskx said, the 7600 are same price, and much better.

As stated, I'd spend a bit more on ram than on the cpu. Having more ram in your rig can go a long way...

Reply to smedlin

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