Newbie what to do?

[gasman336]

Well I never built a computer before so I looking for some help here form you pro's. I would like to build a system that I can use two 19" CRT monitors to do some CADD 2d drawings with very little 3D but would love to play Medal of Honor Air Borne game with out running into problems plus the normal use of business software like microsoft office 2003. Now i have a disabled child so money is very tight. Could you help me in reccomending what hardware to purchase to meet these needs.


Thanks.

 

[Jim_L9]

Can you be more specific on your budget?

 

[gasman336]

how about around $700.00 no monitors needed.

 

[SuicideSilence]

What about the OS, keyboard, mouse,speakers. Any of that needed?

 

[gasman336]

opps yeah i do need windowx xp pro sp2 and mouse and keyboard lol sorry .. what is a good anti-virus and spy-ware software?? thank guys.

 

[SuicideSilence]

Avg Free edition is what i use for antivirus, and its FREE. I like it , it not as easy to use as say, somthing you pay for, buts if free and serves me well.

Sorry, one more question. Do you mind to overclock? It can save you ALOT of money.

 

[gasman336]

no i don't mind overclocking if it going to be stable and someone tells me what to do... this will also be used by my kids too.

 

[gasman336]

I do know I want just a 100 gig hard drive and a light scribe dvd burner.

 

[oushi]

Case: Antec Sonata III w/ 500W PSU: $129.95 - $30 rebate + free shipping
CPU: Intel Dual Core E2160 $67.99 + free shipping (and free Lost Planet game with code on webpage)
MB: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L $87.75 + $1.99 shipping
GPU: eVGA 8800GS 384MB: $139.99 - $30 rebate + free shipping
Memory: A-Data 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800: $42.99 - $10 rebate + free shipping
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache OEM: $79.99 + free shipping
Optical drive: Samsung Black DVD±RW Burner with LightScribe - OEM $26.99 + free shipping
OS: Windows XP Home SP2B OEM $85.99 + free shipping
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total = $593.63 -$70 rebates + $1.99 shipping = $525.62 + tax

Throw in another $20 for a basic keyboard/mouse. Note that with this system, you would really need to overclock the cpu. However, I've gone much lower than your intended budget. If you're willing to get to $700, you could either upgrade your CPU to a Q6600/E8400, or upgrade the cpu to a lesser Conroe/Allendale and upgrade the GPU to a 8800GT.

 

[Rip181]

Case: Antec Sonata III w/ 500W PSU: $129.95 - $30 rebate + free shipping
CPU: Intel Dual Core E2160 $67.99 + free shipping (and free Lost Planet game with code on webpage)
MB: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L $87.75 + $1.99 shipping
GPU: eVGA 8800GS 384MB: $139.99 - $30 rebate + free shipping
Memory: A-Data 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800: $42.99 - $10 rebate + free shipping
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache OEM: $79.99 + free shipping
Optical drive: Samsung Black DVD±RW Burner with LightScribe - OEM $26.99 + free shipping
OS: Windows XP Home SP2B OEM $85.99 + free shipping
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total = $593.63 -$70 rebates + $1.99 shipping = $525.62 + tax

Throw in another $20 for a basic keyboard/mouse. Note that with this system, you would really need to overclock the cpu. However, I've gone much lower than your intended budget. If you're willing to get to $700, you could either upgrade your CPU to a Q6600/E8400, or upgrade the cpu to a lesser Conroe/Allendale and upgrade the GPU to a 8800GT.

Not meaning to call you out so I am appoligizing before I start.

This is a good build but I just wanted to say you will not HAVE to overclock in order to do 2D CAD work and the occasional metal of honor. I work at a company that designs mulitmillion dollar skylights and curtain wall systems all running AutoCAD 2006 (soon to be 2008). almost all the designers are using old 3.4 single core P4 and the best computers are to the guys that use inventor and they are the old Pentium D 3.0 dual cores. a E2160 easily outperforms all the processor that my company uses. To bad our IT guys are not the smartest and keep buying the old Pentium D's from Dell.

This will show you even in 3d which will be more CPU than in 2d the 2160 beats the 3.4 pentium D that my company uses.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=888&model2=883&chart=435

Yes they will get more performance if they overclock but I just get tired of everyone saying that people will HAVE to overclock in order to run things all the time.

 

[oushi]

^ I'm not familiar with CAD work, so it's good you could offer some insight. I guess it was bad wording on my part as I didn't mean to imply that the system would be useless without overclocking. Rather, it was because I would recommend a completely different system if overclocking were not considered.

As long as there's something to be learned, I don't mind a slap in the face.

 

[Rip181]

^ I'm not familiar with CAD work, so it's good you could offer some insight. I guess it was bad wording on my part as I didn't mean to imply that the system would be useless without overclocking. Rather, it was because I would recommend a completely different system if overclocking were not considered.

As long as there's something to be learned, I don't mind a slap in the face.

I am sorry if it seemed like i was going after you I have been reading over these forums for awhile and all everyone says is you will HAVE to OC and I think it hit a nerve.

I appoligize once again should have done it more tacfully.