Hi all!
Ok, my old computer has had it (as, i'm sure most of these posts start) and it's time for a new one. I built my old one about 5 years ago. I don't really want to build another but it seems to be my only resort, once again. I'm very out-of-the-loop on the new computer technology now so i'm not sure what all is good or works well together. My old comp. is an Athlon 2200+, Gigabyte GA-7VA, WD 60G, Audigy, Win XP Pro, 768 RAM PC 2100, and formerly an ATI x1550 512 that went poof.
My budget is real low (in comparison to others here) I've never gamed with full graphics so anything close or medium will be great for me. I don't understand the dual channel ram and AMD Hyper Transport enough to discern any bottlenecks that I might create with the different parts. So anything that could be reduced to save $$$ would be good. (ie. Do I need 800 Mhz ram, or just 667? etc.) And i'm completely lost as to which Mobo to get, and it's one of, if not the, most important parts.
So, here's what I have so far: ABIT KN9 SLI AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $99.99
Ultra 2048MB Dual Channel PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB) $69.99 + shipping = $77.48
Antec Sonata III Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply - Retail $148.94 (with shipping)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM 69.99 free shipping
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail $119.00 free shipping
I can use my XP Pro for now and would like to have the option for Vista in the future if necessary. The case appears to have a good PSU; efficient w/ 500 watts and 30a on 12v. But, i'm so new to this 12v rail business and having to worry about PSUs. I have a Lite-On CD-RW and Toshiba DVD already that I could use to save more money on the build. I wanna trash my current Antec case due to low amperage on PSU and fear of damaged PSU, among other things. The motherboard above is SLI which i'm not really concerned with, unless it proves to be helpful at all in my future. Total of above with shipping (and Artic Silver, extra 120mm fan, and undecided good heatsink) is just below $700; about $680+
My other concerns are heat. It seems that the 5200+ is hotter than some of the lower ones, but has double the cache. My comp. is always in the hottest room of the house it seems, so will be over 72 degrees F. The motherboard above, and most others (if not all) have new systems without fans. Is this system more efficient than a fan, or will I run into trouble in a hot room gaming? And what's a good, reasonably-priced PSU heatsink/fan? And Do I need the extra core (or may need in the future) for gaming? Might be just as cheap as a single core - I dunno.
Opps, forgot to post the GPU:BFG Geforce 8500 GT OC 512 somewhere for cheap.
Thanks.
Ok, my old computer has had it (as, i'm sure most of these posts start) and it's time for a new one. I built my old one about 5 years ago. I don't really want to build another but it seems to be my only resort, once again. I'm very out-of-the-loop on the new computer technology now so i'm not sure what all is good or works well together. My old comp. is an Athlon 2200+, Gigabyte GA-7VA, WD 60G, Audigy, Win XP Pro, 768 RAM PC 2100, and formerly an ATI x1550 512 that went poof.
My budget is real low (in comparison to others here) I've never gamed with full graphics so anything close or medium will be great for me. I don't understand the dual channel ram and AMD Hyper Transport enough to discern any bottlenecks that I might create with the different parts. So anything that could be reduced to save $$$ would be good. (ie. Do I need 800 Mhz ram, or just 667? etc.) And i'm completely lost as to which Mobo to get, and it's one of, if not the, most important parts.
So, here's what I have so far: ABIT KN9 SLI AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $99.99
Ultra 2048MB Dual Channel PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB) $69.99 + shipping = $77.48
Antec Sonata III Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply - Retail $148.94 (with shipping)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM 69.99 free shipping
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail $119.00 free shipping
I can use my XP Pro for now and would like to have the option for Vista in the future if necessary. The case appears to have a good PSU; efficient w/ 500 watts and 30a on 12v. But, i'm so new to this 12v rail business and having to worry about PSUs. I have a Lite-On CD-RW and Toshiba DVD already that I could use to save more money on the build. I wanna trash my current Antec case due to low amperage on PSU and fear of damaged PSU, among other things. The motherboard above is SLI which i'm not really concerned with, unless it proves to be helpful at all in my future. Total of above with shipping (and Artic Silver, extra 120mm fan, and undecided good heatsink) is just below $700; about $680+
My other concerns are heat. It seems that the 5200+ is hotter than some of the lower ones, but has double the cache. My comp. is always in the hottest room of the house it seems, so will be over 72 degrees F. The motherboard above, and most others (if not all) have new systems without fans. Is this system more efficient than a fan, or will I run into trouble in a hot room gaming? And what's a good, reasonably-priced PSU heatsink/fan? And Do I need the extra core (or may need in the future) for gaming? Might be just as cheap as a single core - I dunno.
Opps, forgot to post the GPU:BFG Geforce 8500 GT OC 512 somewhere for cheap.
Thanks.