This post is mostly for new builders on their first machine, or for those who haven't read up on every possible aspect of systems already.
There's all kinds of refined advanced advice on optimizing, and overclocking is one way to get more for less, with C2Duo 6400 a good Intel choice, and Opteron 1212 on the AM2 side.
But....for the more average budget conscious person that wants to finish quickly and start playing games, at a low budget in time and money and learning curve, overclocking is not needed, and doesn't even matter much. Here are a few rules of thumb meant to be very general. If anyone can help add to or refine these, I'd be pleased.
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Great Performance for Little Time and Money
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1. For general overall system performance on a budget, pay almost as much or even more (some systems) for your hard drive setup as for your cpu! Examples: If you are spending above $1400 (sans Monitor), I feel you absolutely should get either a 150GB Raptor OR the new 74GB version Raptor, and perhaps a 2nd drive for video storage and even game storage. Below $1000 and I'd go Seagate 7200.10. In between, the new 74GB Raptor (not the old version, but the newer one) is very attractive for $150, and I think it's the way to go. Even near $1000 I'd personally think about that 74GB Raptor, but..... the Seagate 7200.10 is still a nice performer for budget builders..
Let me emphasize this! --> Low end cheaper dual cores are fine for now, and upgradable to quad later some day when games finally need them (not yet!). For budget with the possibility of great upgrades in late 2007, I'd go AM2, and I'd feel good about a AM2 4200, 4400, or Opteron 1212 (overclocked if you need it, but few really do). The X2 3800, and Opteron 1210 are fine on a tight budget. I have nothing against the C2duo 6300, but motherboard costs should be included.
2. For great Game Performance on a budget, pay 1.5 to 2.5 times as much for your graphics card as for your cpu. It's quite reasonable to buy a cheap dual core and the most expensive graphics card right now, for a gamer. The idea is you save money on the cpu, and then upgrade the cpu later when you finally need to. This balances things and gives you the maxium bang for buck ratio. This is important, and not widely appreciated.
3. Make your power supply 30% too big just in case you might change your mind about your graphics card or overclocking and such. Easy way if you don't like to read: add the total design power of the cpu and the graphics card (these are on the "specs" at NewEgg for each item) and add 200W. If you know you always want low end graphics cards, just add 100-120W, although top quality power supplies don't need as big a buffer. If you know you want a future upgrade to big time graphics like a 8800 GTX, then read up on the options, and also visit the Nvidia website, where Nvidia has a list of approved PowerSupplies.
4. DRAM. If you're not overclocking, the top speed DDR2 800 isn't price efficient right now IMO. Memory speed isn't nearly so important as the hard drive, for example. So long as you have enough! 2 Gigs is a good rule for now, although the extreme budget builder can do with 1 Gig, and add more later. Read Tom's Hardware on Build It Yourself re memory speeds. One upgrade path avenue for someone who does only moderate multitasking (and not lots of gaming) and wants extra future-proofing but for less $ is 1 Gig of the DDR2 800 (future proofing), and wait to add the 2nd Gig in time, but this 800 speed is less important than the hard drive.
Final Note: RAID and Overclocking. These strategies are beyond the scope of this guide, and Tom's Hardware and other sites have very good overview articles on them that you can and should read if that's your cup of tea. I did. And I choose not to do either one. They don't pay off enough for my time and money vs the high performance that I have without them.
But....they are well respected and well developed strategies. You could build with a low end dual core, and plan to eventually overclock it someday 6 or 12 or 15 months from now when software you like arrives that actually needs that kind of cpu power. Video editing is an example of something few of us do, but that needs big cpu horsepower. If you want to do video encoding everyday, and while you wait (instead of overnight), then, yeah, a faster dual core will pay off. But current games don't need that extra power, because the human eye cannot percieve higher framerates in games or video above 60 to 65 fps, and even the most demanding game can get up close enough to 55 or 60 with just barely noticible choices in the graphic options for the game.
There's all kinds of refined advanced advice on optimizing, and overclocking is one way to get more for less, with C2Duo 6400 a good Intel choice, and Opteron 1212 on the AM2 side.
But....for the more average budget conscious person that wants to finish quickly and start playing games, at a low budget in time and money and learning curve, overclocking is not needed, and doesn't even matter much. Here are a few rules of thumb meant to be very general. If anyone can help add to or refine these, I'd be pleased.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Great Performance for Little Time and Money
-------------------------------------------------------------
1. For general overall system performance on a budget, pay almost as much or even more (some systems) for your hard drive setup as for your cpu! Examples: If you are spending above $1400 (sans Monitor), I feel you absolutely should get either a 150GB Raptor OR the new 74GB version Raptor, and perhaps a 2nd drive for video storage and even game storage. Below $1000 and I'd go Seagate 7200.10. In between, the new 74GB Raptor (not the old version, but the newer one) is very attractive for $150, and I think it's the way to go. Even near $1000 I'd personally think about that 74GB Raptor, but..... the Seagate 7200.10 is still a nice performer for budget builders..
Let me emphasize this! --> Low end cheaper dual cores are fine for now, and upgradable to quad later some day when games finally need them (not yet!). For budget with the possibility of great upgrades in late 2007, I'd go AM2, and I'd feel good about a AM2 4200, 4400, or Opteron 1212 (overclocked if you need it, but few really do). The X2 3800, and Opteron 1210 are fine on a tight budget. I have nothing against the C2duo 6300, but motherboard costs should be included.
2. For great Game Performance on a budget, pay 1.5 to 2.5 times as much for your graphics card as for your cpu. It's quite reasonable to buy a cheap dual core and the most expensive graphics card right now, for a gamer. The idea is you save money on the cpu, and then upgrade the cpu later when you finally need to. This balances things and gives you the maxium bang for buck ratio. This is important, and not widely appreciated.
3. Make your power supply 30% too big just in case you might change your mind about your graphics card or overclocking and such. Easy way if you don't like to read: add the total design power of the cpu and the graphics card (these are on the "specs" at NewEgg for each item) and add 200W. If you know you always want low end graphics cards, just add 100-120W, although top quality power supplies don't need as big a buffer. If you know you want a future upgrade to big time graphics like a 8800 GTX, then read up on the options, and also visit the Nvidia website, where Nvidia has a list of approved PowerSupplies.
4. DRAM. If you're not overclocking, the top speed DDR2 800 isn't price efficient right now IMO. Memory speed isn't nearly so important as the hard drive, for example. So long as you have enough! 2 Gigs is a good rule for now, although the extreme budget builder can do with 1 Gig, and add more later. Read Tom's Hardware on Build It Yourself re memory speeds. One upgrade path avenue for someone who does only moderate multitasking (and not lots of gaming) and wants extra future-proofing but for less $ is 1 Gig of the DDR2 800 (future proofing), and wait to add the 2nd Gig in time, but this 800 speed is less important than the hard drive.
Final Note: RAID and Overclocking. These strategies are beyond the scope of this guide, and Tom's Hardware and other sites have very good overview articles on them that you can and should read if that's your cup of tea. I did. And I choose not to do either one. They don't pay off enough for my time and money vs the high performance that I have without them.
But....they are well respected and well developed strategies. You could build with a low end dual core, and plan to eventually overclock it someday 6 or 12 or 15 months from now when software you like arrives that actually needs that kind of cpu power. Video editing is an example of something few of us do, but that needs big cpu horsepower. If you want to do video encoding everyday, and while you wait (instead of overnight), then, yeah, a faster dual core will pay off. But current games don't need that extra power, because the human eye cannot percieve higher framerates in games or video above 60 to 65 fps, and even the most demanding game can get up close enough to 55 or 60 with just barely noticible choices in the graphic options for the game.
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