Building a new system - need advice

[thegreatgreek]

Hello all,

First off, I'm pretty green when it comes to this stuff, so I need some expert advice.

I am building a new system, have a budget of approx $1000 (Cdn) or approx $900 US.

Here's a list of factors to consider:

1) I want to use it primarily for gaming, surfing the net, watching TV (TV tuner card would be nice if gaming performance doesn't suffer too much), and playing music and movies. Not sure whether to go with an integrated Video/Tuner card or get a dedicated video card with a separate tuner card.

2) Portability would be nice (ie - Micro ATX) although not a necessity. In other words if going micro would raise the price and/or lower the performance I don't need to go that route).

3) I would like to try going with AMD since from what I read it kicks Intel's ass in almost all respects.


Basically, I want the best bang for my buck when it comes to gaming and of course I don't want to break the bank.

If you could suggest a basic system build that would satisfy these criteria as much as possible (ie: Case, PSU, Mobo, CPU, RAM, Video Card, etc...) it would help me out.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Cheers

 

[melarcky]

well first of all i would go for an Intel Core 2 Due... right now my friend its intel that is doing the ass kicking.. i am not an intel/AMD fan boy.. from what i have seen intel is in the lead for now...

 

[waylander]

I agree that intel cpu's are better right now but since the cheapest c2d is $250 paired with a $150 motherboard, it's pretty expensive. Since the price drops on the X2's they meet or exceed the price/performance of the c2d chips...

If he gets an X2 3800 for $175 and a $120 motherboard, he can afford to get a kick ass video card.

My suggestions are:

Case: Antec Sonata II (comes with a decent psu so saves you money) $115
CPU: AMD X2 3800+ $175
Motherboard:Asus A8N-E $120
Ram: 1GB OCZ Gold (2-2-2-5) $200 (can get a cheaper kit or 2 gb kit at much slower timings)
Video Card: NVidia 7900GT $320
Hard Drive: 200GB SATA II $80

Total is $1100 before tax and shipping.

 

[melarcky]

yes that does sound like a good idea only except 1 thing you are about $200 over his budget unless you did that with Canadian dollers.?