Need opinions on my new low budget

[jackey]

Hi,

Help would be appreciated to reduce the price down and yet still have good performance.

I am not a gamer anymore; in fact, I have not played games for quite a while now because using laptop. but would love my new comp to be able to play decent games.

I am buying it from www.ncix.com which they are having sale.

Here is my spec:

CPU: E2160 $74.99
RAM: Patriot EP 4GB CL4 $119.99
MB: GA-P35-DS3L $92.99
Case: Antec 900 $98.98
GPU: Diamond Vip HD3850 512MB $179.99
PSU: Corsair TX650W $99.99
HDD: SG 500GB 32MBCache $99.99
DVD: Samsung SH-S203B $25.99
FAN: Arctic Cool Freezer 7 Pro $25.39

Total: 818.29 - 80 MIR = 738.29

I would OC everything I could!

Basicly the most expensive item is the GPU which I don't know if it's worth the money, but if you think this system is good and no better alternatives then I will probably go with it.

Another question: do you think having only one big HDD will be slower than having two smaller because it has to search longer?

Comments are appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[chuckm]

What OS are you going to use?

 

[amd_fanboi]

this is a very good build... you could save on the case, and on the GFX, but then you sacrifice cooling and future gfx power... i say go with it... but if you really want to save money, go for like a coolermaster elite 330, and a more basic card... ie, 8600GT - but again, you lose gfx power for them games...

apparently 2 drives in raid0 are faster than 1 big one...

 

[jackey]

I will be using XP & unix. May switch if Vista can get more power out of this CPU.

Do you think Vista will perform better on this system?
Vista is the only reason I am getting 4 GB of ram.

Thanks amd_fanboi.

 

[mlaporta]

I have heard this is better more reliable memory for 4-4-4-12
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

I think you have a great build and can go with a E8400 when you can afford it, I would look a little closer at your video card and budget as you are ordering some very good items that don't quite fit, like case, psu & memory unless you plan to upgrade which is great.

But if you want to be able to play "decent" games look at the 8800GTS (G92) 512MB and also look at this psu CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 520W Power Supply.

 

[mlaporta]

Also look into getting a smaller drive for the OS and a bigger one for Games, Video, mp3's, Data, etc:

Seagate Barracuda ST3250310NS ES.2 250GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Seagate Barracuda ST3500320AS 500GB 7200.11 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

 

[jackey]

8800GTS is the same price as HD3850 so you think i should go with 8800GTS?

EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS 500MHZ 320MB 1.6GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV HDCP DIRECTX10 $159.99

 

[jackey]

Same price but 8800GTS has 320MB RAM

HD3850 has 512MB