I am getting ready to build a new system for school...yeah right. I've been looking at newegg and I'm wanting to build a gaming computer for $1300.00 I'm wanting to build a pc that should kick some ass for a while and will work great with the new technology coming out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Heres what I've been looking at so far.
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Asus A8N-Sli (not really sure if I need deluxe or just the regular one)

Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply (or something similar for the price)

2 GB Ram (not sure if I should go Corsair Value Select? XMS? or OCZ)
i need 184 pin instead of 240 pin ... correct me if I'm wrong

AMD 64 4000+ or AMD 64 X2 4200+ (NEED HELP ON THIS...)
also heard about the new Conroe/Core 2 but won't that be too expensive

Graphics....
A lot of people were saying how much the 7900gtx is but now its actually dropped quite a bit. So I dunno if I should go with 7900gtx, 7900gt, x1900xt(x) or dual/sli 7600gt

2 DVD drives (one rom and one burner)

SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2504C 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive... how important is the 1000rpm hard drives?

again keep in mind I wanna spend around $1300. Thanks for the help

No Conroe processors won't be too expensive, although you would have to wait to build a PC based around one. July 23 they should be available assuming they are created in enough volume for all of us . There should be some Conroe supported motherboards out real soon, and you could stick a cheap pentium d in there (805 for $120) until July. For that system above yes you need 184 pin DDR RAM, but if you go with AM2 or a pentium d/conroe system you'll need 240 pin DDR2. For around $300 (less than the 4200+) you can get the E6600, which is noticeably faster than any FX out right now.

Aweosome thanks for the info. I don't really mind waiting until July to build my system. I have a laptop I need to get rid of I'm probably gonna put in on Ebay if I can't find someone else to buy it.

Just keep in mind that they are being "released" on July 23. You may not see one on store shelves until late august, maybe even september. :?

Great config :-D

Corsair anything is good :-D

A single 7900GT or GTX will be way better than 7600GTs in SLI.

Everything else looks great!

con-roe[TM] may not be available for 2-3 months.

While S939 is still a good deal.

Good luck :-D

I agree X2 4200 and 2GB if possible :-D

X2 4200 was an option on the list btw. :-D

If you want the best performance out of AMD, and also if you
have any plans on overclocking, then don't even consider value-RAM. I
know you are on a budget, but RAM can pretty much make or break a
gaming system.If you can swing it, go for CAS 2 RAM, or at least the tightest timings you can get, and also make sure the RAM will run 1T.
Just about any OCZ RAM, even their Premier line, has pretty decent timings, compared to Corsair or Kingston Value RAM.

If this is of interest to you, here's a good comparo of cheap RAM(not completely up-to-date now,as these use 1GB sets, but close).


http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2392

GL

These 2 sets of 2 GB (2 x 1GB) ram are on sale at newegg for $150.00... are either of these good enough?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145575

http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6820227210
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How are these Intel Pentium D processors compared to the AMD's I have listed above and the E6600 thats coming out...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819116211

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819116240
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Also... is the 7900gtx worth the money? I've heard mixed reviews. When I left school a month ago it was $520 now its $430-450. I figure the price will keep falling like it has.. especially since the 7950gx2 is out.

Sorry for all the questions I just really wanna do this right.

Definetely grab the OCZ...That's a great set of RAM, and a great price.

I would suggest that you stick with the x2 4200+.


I think you would be happy with the 7900GT, and save some money vs.

the 7900GTX.

Definetely grab the OCZ...That's a great set of RAM, and a great price.

I would suggest that you stick with the x2 4200+.


I think you would be happy with the 7900GT, and save some money vs.

the 7900GTX.



Indeed :-D

I agree!

OCZ + X2 4200+

What type of motherboard will I need if I want to go conroe. How much would it cost for an SLI and how much for one without it... if they even do that.

A nice con-roe[TM] motherboard the 975XBX will cost you about $250.

You may be able to find cheaper motherboards but they may cripple the CPU.

Right now we have no idea how good or bad con-roe[TM] and the motherboards that will support it are going to be.

hold on what?

1,000 rpm??? LOL!!! OMG I saw NEOs that go faster....

I hope you ment 10,000RPM....

From what i know neways i have always used amd. and i am not a fanboy or anything. i would personaly go with the AMD athlon dual-core 4200+ because amd is made for gaming but it is good at office work. and if you go wtih the AMd dual-core get it in the Socket AM2

I would say buy an AMD now or wait for con-roe[TM] and the 65nm AMDs and decide based on their performance.

:-D

He said he wanted his computer for school, not when he graduates from school

He said he wanted his computer for school, not when he graduates from school


In that case buy an AMD now.

If Conroe isn't in supply at the end of July then you can do what I plan on doing, which is to build an AM2 system with a $160ish 3800 x2 after the price drop on July 24. I'll need it to be built by mid-August for school so sadly I cannot wait for Conroe if it's going to be in short supply.

You could also get a reasonably priced Conroe mobo at the end of July and stick what will be an even cheaper 805 in there for a while.