How's this budget build?

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Insania

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Jan 19, 2007
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I'm going to build a computer, hopefully in the $600-700 price range and looking to play games on high settings for a while to come.

BFG GeForce 7600 GT OC
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0 GHz
Asus M2N-E AM2 mobo
OCZ DDR2 PC2-5400 667MHz Gold Extreme XTC 1GB (2x512MB)
Western Digital Caviar SATA II (WD1600JS) 160GB 7200RPM

I know it's not the greatest build out there haha, but whatever. Any suggestions, quick tips/tricks from an experienced builder? I won't be overclocking the CPU or RAM, just OCing the video card a bit.

How do TV monitors compare to computer monitors? I'm going to be using a little 15" TV for a while until I can get more cash. I can really tell the difference in pixel size, will it make games look like rubbish?

How about speakers? I love to blast metal. :twisted:
 
rivalneighbour

rivalneighbour

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OCZ S.O.E 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227120&CMP=BAC-HardOCPGuide0406&ATT=OCZSOE

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012&CMP=BAC-HardOCPGuide0406&ATT=Gigabyte

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115013

COOLER MASTER Centurion RC-534-KWN1-GP Black Aluminum/ SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119110&CMP=BAC-HardOCPGuide0406&ATT=Centurion

GIGABYTE GV-NX76T256D-RH GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Silent Pipe II, Lead Free Video Card (I have one sitting in my closet after I upgraded to evga 8800gtx) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125025

you'll need a power supply
 
apt403

apt403

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A DS3 is overkill if the OP isnt oc'ing, a vanilla P5B or S3 would be a better choice. This is the psu you should get, more then enough power for a 7600gt, and its only $50.
 
zenmaster

zenmaster

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The RAM is a bit of over-kill for a budget PC as well.
Simple DDR-533 will let you OC the 4300 to 2.4GHZ.

EVGA also has a 7600GT that is about $25 cheaper after rebate, though it is not fanless. The card you selected is a nice card for a quiet minded system. The EVGA is nicer to save money or to give some over-clocking headroom on the card itself.
 
stan116

stan116

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Go with tywo vidio cards and dump the HDD for a 150Gb Raptor.it makes all the diff in the world if your playing online.
 
apt403

apt403

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Go with tywo vidio cards and dump the HDD for a 150Gb Raptor.it makes all the diff in the world if your playing online.
Click to expand...

This is for a $600 build, SLI is pretty much worthless unless your gaming on a huge monitor and have a huge budget. Raptors are too expensive for this guy, even my $1300 build uses regular 7200.10 RPM drives.
 
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Insania

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Hahah, I should have mentioned that I'm Canadian, so I can't get stuff from newegg unfortunately. :x I'm going to be buying most of my parts, if not all of them from www.canadacomputers.com. There is a nice rebate on said video card and memory, and I'd like to take advantage of that. Here are the links in case you are interested.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=009601&cid=999.243.390

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=010868&cid=RAM.475

I might be going out today to buy those two parts. I don't think they deal with Intel processors, but I'll take a look into that. What's the huge advantage of the E4300 or E6300 vs. the X2 3800+? I'm not even sure if I need dual cores right now, I'm either browsing the web and listening to music, or playing games and listening to music haha. Maybe one core is enough for me, but it seems like everyone is getting dual cores so I should try to keep up to date so I have the option of upgrading later.

I might get 2 gigs of RAM later (for DX10 etc), it's not a big issue for me right now. I have 768 MB of ram and it seemed to work fine with my Radeon 9800 Pro (before it broke -- I'm using a GeForce2 MX400 now, thus why I need to upgrade) and Intel 1.6 GHz CPU.

How long until AM3 comes out? I doubt I can wait that long to build myself a computer. :)
 
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Insania

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akhilles

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The ocz ram may not work on the m2n-e.

http://configurator.ocztechnology.com/result.asp?mn=M2N%2DE&modelid=58918

Most of the store's corsair ram will work with m2n-e.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProdList&cmd=pl&id=RAM.475&mfg=CORSAIR

CM2X1024-5400C4 DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 1GB 4-4-4-12-2T
CM2X1024-6400 DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 1GB 5-5-5-15-2T
CM2X1024-6400PRO DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 1GB 5-5-5-15-2T
CM2X512-5400C4 DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 512MB 4-4-4-12-2T
CM2X512-5400C4PRO DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 512MB 4-4-4-12-2T
CM2X512A-6400 DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 512MB 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X1024-5400C4 DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X1024-8500 DDR2-1066 (XM2S-8500) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X1024A-6400 DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF DDR2-1250 (XMS2-10000) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-18-2T
TWIN2X2048-5400C4 DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X2048-5400C4PRO DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X2048-5400C4PT DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X2048-6400 DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-6400C4D DDR2-800 C4 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X2048-6400PRO DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-8500C5 DDR2-1066 (XM2S-8500) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-8500C5D DDR2-1066 (XM2S-8500) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF DDR2-1111 (XMS2-8888) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2XP2048-6400C4 TWIN2XP2048-6400C4 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
VS1GB533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 1GB 4-4-4-12-2T
VS1GB667D2 DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) 1GB 5-5-5-15-2T
VS1GBKIT533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 4-4-4-12-2T
VS1GBKIT667D2 DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 5-5-5-15-2T
VS256MB533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 256MB 4-4-4-12-2T
VS2GBKIT533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
VS2GBKIT667D2 DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
VS512MB667D2 DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) 512MB 5-5-5-15-2T
VS512MBKIT533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 512MB Kit (2 x 256MB) 4-4-4-12-2T

M2N-E hands down. Low price & some overclocking.
 
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Insania

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I just bought the OCZ memory. :lol: The Corsairs didn't have any rebates, so that would have ran me up another $15. The total on the RAM came to $138 after rebates.

The store I went to today didn't have the BFG 7600 GT in, so I'll have to buy it off of their website. I'm going to browse around other online sites, so do you guys know of any good Canadian based sites? TigerDirect's rebates are garbage (so I've heard).

Any other mobo suggestions?
 
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