16 hours of researching and I still need your guy's help

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Brodie

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Oct 3, 2004
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Hey guys, I need some help, I'm losing my mind

I'm looking to build a new budget gaming box, I have $700 to spend. Right now I'm basically stuck between going with a Pentium D 820 or C2D E6300, the AMD 3800+ has also caught my eye. The catch is, if I go with the E6300 I'm going to have less RAM (probably 1GB), no SATA setup, and most likely a video card that's going to bottleneck the system anyway, so I have been leaning towards either the Pentium D or 3800+. What would you guys suggest?
 
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nobly

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Dec 21, 2005
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Give us a list of your stuff and what you want. We may be able to find you better deals and recommend you better stuff.

C2D is the killer processor on the block right now. However, if you're a total gamer and gaming's the only thing you're going to do with this rig, the most important part of your system is your video card. CPU is secondary.

If you're planning on using your system for things other than games, tell us.
 
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Brodie

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Sorry I didn't explain better, my minds a mess today. This box will only be for gaming, I'll be using my old one for everything else.

As for stuff I want, I'm truthfully open to anything at this point. From what I've narrowed down in my attempt to find a decent box for my budget I've seen the Pentium D 805/820/920, and the AMD 3800+. I'm not sure if there is anything better for around that price range, I was hoping you guys could help me out with that. As for everything else in the box, I'm really not sure, I know I would like SATA and eventually 2GB RAM, but I will probably start with 1GB. I've kind of planned on buying the 2nd HD and 2nd RAM stick at a later date.
 
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bazza

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May 9, 2004
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if $700 for just the PC, no monitor etc....

then you best getting an AMD CPU, a decent GFX card, 2G ram, 320G SATA2

PentiumDs are poo for gaming and run hot

C2Ds are fast for everything but cost more to build

So for decent gaming performance go for a 939/AM2 system
 
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Brodie

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Oct 3, 2004
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Ya it's $700 for just the PC.

Is the MSI P965 Neo-F a decent mobo?

And bazaa, what 939/AM2 CPU do you think I would be best off with?
 
toasty2

toasty2

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You might consider the X2 4200+ over the 3800+, it's a better price/performance CPU for not much more. The X2 3800+ is still a great CPU tho..
 
purdueguy

purdueguy

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I'm sorry, recommending a 4200+ over the e6300 for the same price is foolish.

If you don't plan on overclocking, then the MSI mobo is fine plus save yourself another 20 bucks and get some DDR2 533 ram if no overclocking is in your future, here.

Make sure to get a 1GB stick. You may lose dual-channel for the moment but it'll be better to get another 1GB stick when you save up another hundred. Getting 4x512MB is not recommended.

Better hurry, this deal expires today. The Antec Sonata II is only 75 bucks after shipping and MIR. With the 20 savings in memory and 25 less than what apt403 mentioned, this brings the total down to 702.93.

I'd recommend the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 series. The 250 or 320GB versions. This will bump up the cost by 16 or 36 dollars but well worth it.

Btw, the 3800 Venice is not worth it. The 3700 San Diego is a much better chip. You can OC that bad boy to 2.8GHz by buying a better heatsink/fan plus it has a full 1MB L2 cache whereas the 3800 Venice only has 512MB.

Get the C2D system. It's 3 bucks over your budget. Anything less would be uncivilized. 8)
 
Dahak

Dahak

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I lean heavily towards the AMD system as it has a wide assortment of support and will still let you buy that decent video card and extra gig of ram.But I'm a bit of an AMD fan only because compared to INTEL,they are still the small guy.And I support small business.Goodluck.

Dahak

AMD X2-4400+@2.4 S-939
EVGA NF4 SLI MB
2X7800GT IN SLI
2X1GIG DDR IN DC MODE
WD300GIG HD
EXTREME 19IN.MONITOR 1280X1024
ACE 520WATT PSU
COOLERMASTER MINI R120
 
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Brodie

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Oct 3, 2004
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Hey thanks purdueguy, I bought that Sonata as soon as I read your post. At least I have one part decided on so far, I guess that's a start. :p
 
apt403

apt403

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Get the C2D system. It's 3 bucks over your budget. Anything less would be uncivilized. 8)
Click to expand...

more than seconded

i think you should go for the HDD & RAM that he recomended too, i put the 160GB drive because i didnt see the MIR on case and 533 ram should be fine as long as you arent OCing.
 
geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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Look on E-bay. I saw a $599 (+$49 ship) mini PC with 1g ram, 160gb drive, athlon x2 3800+, upgradeable to better vga cards. The apevia(aspire) x-pack case would be a nice portable gamer's system. This one is from user magic-micro. It will need the OS you have. There are certainly others out there. At the prices I saw, you can not build your own as cheaply. Find a basic system you like, and upgrade it with the best VGA card you can afford. Unless you want the latest technology in a high end system, or the satisfaction of building your own PC, it does not pay to build your own.
 
zenmaster

zenmaster

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The Poster could also get a 7600GT for about $50 less after rebate to get him under $700. The 7600GT is still a very nice card. Personally I would find an odd job to make the xtra $50 and go for the more expensive card since the performance is much greater. I only suggested this option to get under the stated $700 mark.
 
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lurk3r

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Jul 11, 2006
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Always skimp on the CPU first, The prices fall much faster on CPU's than anything else, pick a good MB, get as much RAM as you can afford, and the best hdd you can live with (2 GB fast ram, 320 Gb WD drive if it was me). From that point, look at the high end CPU's and find a sweet MB that supports the one you eventually want, then grab the cheapest CPU you can live with. Personally I'd go either intel 805 and OC the hell out of it, or AMD 4000+ single, Tiger just had one for $29. You are much better off to swap out $100 cpu's every 6 months than to drop $400 on a cpu today.
 
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shabodah

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Apr 10, 2006
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Here's a decent setup for just a hair over $700. It's got more than most setups in this range, but the CPU and Hard drive are definately things you'd look to upgrade, even though they'll get you buy just fine. And that extra 1GB of memory later will be good, too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813127013
$97.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811144162
$69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827136091
$29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820231099
$114.99 (Ignore the review, guy didn't have a clue about memory voltage)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822135106
$43.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103029
$115.99 (The 3700 is nice, sure, but with the board above's overclocking ability you'll have no problem getting this over 3.0ghz, and the speed will overide the additional cache at that level)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130033
$225.99 (The Asus 1950pro and Saphire 1950pro's can be had for less and are great cards, but are rather large and don't match the MB's nvidia chipset, not that that really matters)

Total= $698.93 before shipping.
 
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