Overbudget--Need help lowering costs!

[ajsellaroli]

Hey, it's me again. Ok, so I started buying parts, right, and I think I've gotten in a little over my head. I know some of you suggested the sonata III case/psu, but I had to jump at the great deal on the (beautiful) Antec 900 case. Silly, I know. Then, I bought a good (cheap) psu, but I still spent much more than the $60 the case/psu combo would've cost me.

Anyway, those are the least of my problems. I have to buy an operating system, which throws my build way up there, totaling $927 . Not good. I really need some advice on how to lower costs for the rest of my build.

My budget: $800, give or take about $50 With tax, the $927 dollar build would be above $1000, which I can definitely not do.

I already have a PSU, 22 inch monitor, keyboard, case, and dvd/cd burner.
So far I have spent about $160. I only have about $640 left.
With that $640 I have to buy a processor, mouse, operating system, motherboard, ram, graphics card, and hard drive.

Is there anything at all that you can see in my build that I could cut down on without giving up too much performance? please help, and thank you very much for taking the time


MY BUILD

Processor
E2180
$90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116052

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
$100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059

Case
Antec 900
Already Own: $89.89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021&Tpk=Antec%2b900

Ram
Crucial Ballistic 2gb
$50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

DVD Burner
LITE-ON Black DVD/CD Burner
Already Own: $35.71
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106057

Graphics Card
Radeon hd 3850
$180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121100

PSU
Antec earthwatts EA430
Already Own: $34.94
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006

Hard Drive
Western Digital Raptor 150gb, 10,000 rpm
$170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136012

Mouse
Logitech G5
$37
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104037

Operating System
Windows XP professional w/ sp2 – OEM
$140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116400

 

[WR2]

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB @ $70
OS: MS XP Home SP2 OEM $90
Thats about $150 saved and probably zero difference in performance.

If you need to reduce more leave the mouse off for now and buy a gaming mouse later.

 

[rgeist554]

Unless you need the extra features from XP Pro, I would also recommend just going with the XP SP2 OEM.

Most other items can't really get much cheaper (sans scrapping the raptor as said above)... the whole thing is pretty much as budget as you can get.

 

[zenmaster]

Get XP Home OEM - Save $50.
There is not really anything in Pro vs Home that are of use for a Home User.

E2160 - Save $8

Different HDD - Get 7200.11 w/32MB of Cache. Save $30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

They are about as fast as Raptors in many things.
Extra Cache and Perpendicular Recording speed things quite a bit despite lower RPM.

ZZF a Few Dollars Cheaper on the Mobo.

 

[rockyjohn]

I agree with WR2

 

[4745454b]

To help everyone else, he wants/needs to buy $803 more stuff, but only has $640. This means we need to shave $163 from the build.

The first thing that goes is the raptor. The $/GB is to high to be included in a low budget build. Grab a 500GB harddrive for ~$110, only another $100 to go now.

Next up is the Mouse. Get a better one once you have the funds again. They are simple enough to swap out. Walmart or other such store should have a mouse for $10, or re-use one you already have. You should now need to cut out about another $70.

Next up is the OS. You can grab vista for $110, which would put you overbudget by about $40. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116202)

After this, the choices get harder. You can get a smaller harddrive, the 320GB tend to go for ~$80, which would put you overbudget by about $20. You can get a cheaper motherboard, but it won't be as nice as the one you have. You could also drop down to one of the lower speed CPUs, but that only saves $20, and they aren't as easy to upgrade as a mouse.

Hopefully someone else can suggest a way to save that last $40, that or you can be a bit overbudget.

 

[rwpritchett]

^Agreed^

Lose the Raptor, get XP Home OEM

Maybe then you can spend the extra $7 and get the E2200 with an 11x multiplier (more OC-able)

 

[lord_kld]

Get
CPU:AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Brisbane 2.2GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103243

-65$

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128014

-100$

RAM:Crucial Ballistic 2gb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

-50$

Graphics Card:GIGABYTE GV-RX385512H Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125084

-200$

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

-120$

OS: MS XP Home SP2 OEM

-90$

Total=625
Cheaper and faster.

 

[ComputerCustomizer]

I would go with Kubuntu. It is a totally free version of Linux that looks kind of like XP. It is free for the download at kubuntu.org I use it on my computer, and it works fabulous. The only problem is that the wifi support leaves little to be desired.

 

[rockyjohn]

I would go with Kubuntu. It is a totally free version of Linux that looks kind of like XP. It is free for the download at kubuntu.org I use it on my computer, and it works fabulous. The only problem is that the wifi support leaves little to be desired.

Will it support all of his applications as seemlessly as XP?
Does he need to learn a new interface and where does he go for support?

 

[loosscru]

What are you using this computer for (gaming, any special programs, just SOHO stuff?) Because that would change my recomendations.

And stick with XP if you know it, while Linux is cheaper it may cost you lots of time trying to figure it out or trying to get your software to work with it.

 

[aevm]

Does Crysis run on Kubuntu, for example? I know there are some decent emulators out there, but are they good enough to play serious Windows games properly?

Edit: I also agree with WR2.

 

[ajsellaroli]

I'm sorry I haven't responded until now, I've been sort of busy. I would like to thank you all for your help thus far.

WR2 - That is some great advice, I'll take it. I didn't realize, I guess I don't really need XP pro, and I heard from some other people that a 7200 rpm drive with perp recording will be just as good as a raptor at 10,000rpm. Who knew? Apparently I didn't Thanks wr2

Zenmaster - I really like that HDD, I think I'll get it. The major problem I've been having with my current computer (A 2003 Dell latitude c840) is hdd space. Lots of space, and some of the reviewers on newegg said it was as fast as a raptor!

4745454b - thanks man, I'll do all that, but I think i'm going to get xp, I want to get the most out of my system. And don't worry about the extra $40, it's close enough, thank you very much

Lord - I know nothing at all about amd, I'm just not familiar with it..is there any sort of comparison system out there? I've been researching intel for a couple months now, so i feel comfortable with it. Oh, but on to what really caught my eye about your proposed build - the radeon hd3850 with 512 mb. i didn't know I could get the 512mb version for only $20 more than the 256mb version -- I'll definitely do that! one question though - Why do different brands make the same card? I thought this was Radeon's card? Why are different brands different prices?

Computercustomizer, rockyjohn, loosscru, and aevm - I think to be able to decide whether a free linux processor would be right for me I should tell you What I'm Going to be Using this Computer For:

Video Editing: Sony Vegas 7
Image Editing: Photoshop CS2
Gaming: CounterStrike Source, not much else, I'm not a heavy gamer, I might buy a game once and a while
Word processing: lots of college papers to write!

It is very important that photoshop work on the computer, I don't care as much about video, I am mostly a still photographer. That is why the huge hard disks seem so tempting to me. I have to limit the amount of photos I take right now because of hard drive limitations, I currently have about 60gb of good pics on an external hard drive, there is no room to keep a backup on my latitude, which scares me alot.

Ok, here are all my replies. I thought since I took so long I should make sure and address everyone, it's the least I could do, you were all very kind to respond, I appreciate your advice.

thanks in advance

 

[Loser777]

This build is definitely good enough to handle what you have listed. I would go with the AMD build but that's just me. The E2160 is an excellent choice of price/perf because it can be easily overclocked to match E6XXX.
On your question about the Graphics card, the chipsets are ALL manufactured by ATI, part of AMD, and under the codename "Radeon". The chipsets are then used by the different "Brands" of cards-which have negligible differences, as most of them use the same reference design and performance depends on the graphics chipset 99.9% anyway. Prices for cards with the same chipset usually vary because of core clock, memory clock, memory, and interface differences (AGP/PCI-E).

 

[random1283]

Whats with the amd build posted it would perform far worse than the intel

 

[Sarcastic]

If you are in college check with your book store to see if your school is part of the MSDN academic alliance. If you are you can get XP Pro SP2 for free (Download) or about 15bucks if you need the CD.

 

[blotch]

Yeah the Raptor is a waste. The seagate looks nice but i would definitely
recommend this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073
its better then a raptor except for access time.

 

[random1283]

Raptors are really only good for raid so just get a normal hdd

 

[aevm]

Yeah the Raptor is a waste. The seagate looks nice but i would definitely
recommend this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073
its better then a raptor except for access time.

Or even better, get the WD7500AAKS rather than the WD5000AAKS. The WD7500AAKS has perpendicular magnetic recording and it's faster than the WD5000AAKS. I have the WD5000AAKS myself, and it's fine, but the benchmarks on the WD7500AAKS look so much nicer...

 

[Shadow703793]

Video Editing: Sony Vegas 7
Image Editing: Photoshop CS2
Gaming: CounterStrike Source, not much else, I'm not a heavy gamer, I might buy a game once and a while
Word processing: lots of college papers to write!

If you don't game a lot you can drop the graphics card for now and just get a cheap $30 graphics card. The graphics will not impact the vid. editing software. I personally have Vagas Studio 8 and CS3 running perfectly with a 8400GS that i got for $20. I can play Crysis @ 800*600 with mid quality once OCed. :lol:

I agree with what the guys before me said about the HDD, etc.
Here is OCing help for the DS3L + E2800
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=29&post=245679&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=3&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0

 

[ajsellaroli]

You guys are Amazing!! Sarcastic, you are a lifesaver! That MSDN Alliance is the best news I've heard all day! I checked their website today, and my school is apart of it, this is great! Now I just need to decide which operating system to go with. Seriously, I found Windows Vista Business 64 bit for free! or should I get XP professional 64bit? Is it even worth it to go 64bit? both are free!

xp pro 64bit: http://msdn07.e-academy.com/elms/Storefront/ViewProductDetails.aspx?campus=coc_comnet&np1=112&p=916

vista business 64bit: http://msdn07.e-academy.com/elms/Storefront/ViewProductDetails.aspx?campus=coc_comnet&np1=112&p=1180

There is also XP pro regular version, I guess, 32 bit. Here's where you can find what they offer: http://msdn07.e-academy.com/elms/Storefront/Storefront.aspx?campus=coc_comnet&np1=112

Is Vista worth it yet? I hear you can have more ram when you use a 64bit processor, other than that I don't really know the difference.

That WD7500AAKS looks pretty good, I'll probably need the 750gb, the way I chew up space.

You know shadow, you're right. Once school starts up again, I won't have any time to play games anyway - my ultimate priority is image editing. So which would you go for around $30? the 8400gs?

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

I would get vista, I use it and am having zero probs. I know XP still outperforms it, but it will get better as time goes on and they release updates. Myself, I still prefer 32 bit OSes though, just seems like less compatiblity issues with hardware, etc. Example is printers.

If it was me, I would consider this on graphics if you are on a really tight budget

Gigabyte ATI radeon 2400xt, 256mb ddr2 memory=47.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125076

I think this is about 10 bucks more than the 8400, but I think it'd perform a little better for ya.

You are showing paying 75 bucks for crucial memory, that's all fine and good.

How about this??

OCZ Platinum 2gb set(2x1gb)=$45.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227089

Taking a quick look at the Latency of that memory and what not, seems to be the same as the crucial you want. I'd get the OCZ, similar performance, almost 29 bucks saved, same amount of memory. If you want, they have wintec ampo memory, 2gb for 35.99, which would shave almost 40 bucks, but cas latency 5.

Oh, AMD side, if you are not overclocking, then very good choice on a budget, would let you save on motherboard and chip and go better on drive space and memory/video.

The way AMD works is like this....

Sempron is their value line, kind of like if you got an intel celeron.

Athlon is their main line, like core2 duo on intel, or pentium.

Currently, not quite as fast in pure performance as the core 2 duos in pure performance, but still very fast and very capable.

The way it works is this, they use a ratings system...

So if I'm looking at say a 3600 x2 then it's equivalent to running a 3.6 ghz pentium with dual cores, hence the x2.

So if you look at say a 4200, then that equals 4.2, 6400=6.4 ghz, etc etc. At least thats how the logic is supposed to work. Look around, usually the mobo can be had cheaper as well.

Like me for example, I'm using a an AMD Athlon 5200 x2, which is like 5.2 ghz dual core. On my vista experience index, if you are familiar with that, the 5200 on my machine is rated at 5.2, without overclocking. So it's definitely quick. I have been using a core 2 duo on a mac at work, and I am currently impressed with both. So even if you went AMD, I think you would not be dissapointed.

As far as everyone reccomending seagate, definitely agree, have a SATA seagate drive, very nice.

By the way, don't know if you already factored this in, but you may want to add this......

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7903003&productCategoryId=abcat0404007&type=product&tab=1&id=1149206642856#productdetail

It's a media reader, I have one in my machine, and it will take just about any flash card or sd card you have, and since you do a lot of photography, I think it would be a useful tool for you and make things much more convenient.

 

[CNeufeld]

I wouldn't go with XP 64 bit. There was a lot of driver problems. And unless you're going > 2GB of RAM (well, 3GB actually), there's not much of an advantage.

Vista 64 bit should be better. I've been running Vista since it came out last November, and wouldn't go back. SP1 should be out soon, and that should help with some of the remaining pain points.

Clint

 

[zenmaster]

You guys are Amazing!! Sarcastic, you are a lifesaver! That MSDN Alliance is the best news I've heard all day! I checked their website today, and my school is apart of it, this is great! Now I just need to decide which operating system to go with. Seriously, I found Windows Vista Business 64 bit for free! or should I get XP professional 64bit? Is it even worth it to go 64bit? both are free!

xp pro 64bit: http://msdn07.e-academy.com/elms/Storefront/ViewProductDetails.aspx?campus=coc_comnet&np1=112&p=916

vista business 64bit: http://msdn07.e-academy.com/elms/Storefront/ViewProductDetails.aspx?campus=coc_comnet&np1=112&p=1180

There is also XP pro regular version, I guess, 32 bit. Here's where you can find what they offer: http://msdn07.e-academy.com/elms/Storefront/Storefront.aspx?campus=coc_comnet&np1=112

Is Vista worth it yet? I hear you can have more ram when you use a 64bit processor, other than that I don't really know the difference.

That WD7500AAKS looks pretty good, I'll probably need the 750gb, the way I chew up space.

You know shadow, you're right. Once school starts up again, I won't have any time to play games anyway - my ultimate priority is image editing. So which would you go for around $30? the 8400gs?

You will have the fewest problems with XP Professional (32-Bit)
You can always upgrade to Vista-64 bit later.

 

[Sarcastic]

I would go with XP Pro 32bit. I am not very familiar with the modular way that vista is eg home premium has one side of the spectrum, Vista Business has the other and Ultimate has both. I am not sure what functionality you may lose going with Vista Business.