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Budget Build 800-900$ need suggestions/commentary

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Last response: in Systems
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July 13, 2008 4:24:42 AM

Hello,

I have been looking at these boards for a little while and it seems like a good place to ask for some help

I'm a student at Virgina Tech :D  and I had to buy a tablet PC when I was a freshman due to a school requirement, as you may know, tablet PC's are basically a business style overpriced laptop. well, after 2.1 years of having said laptop, the AC adapter port on the back has broken off the motherboard. I was considering building myself a PC for a while. I asked a friend who has been a little more up to speed than me on current desktop stuff what I could get for about 800. He came up with this

Page 1
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3901276&CatId=3508

Barebones Kit, 2GB RAM, Phenom X4 2.20 GHz Quad Core, Asus M2N-SLI - $419


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145215
Hitachi 500GB HDD - $79.99


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109042
Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - $24.99


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136149
DVD Burner - $24.99


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821103203
Floppy Drive - $7.49


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3536725&CatId=12
21.6” Widescreen LCD - $179.99


Total (without shipping): $736.45


Now, I'm on a budget, and I already have a keyboard/mouse, so I probably wont get the cheapy microsoft one he suggested, and I pry wont get a floppy drive now that you can pretty easily boot from a flash drive.

I was wondering, is the processor he suggested halfway decent, and should i get more ram, I happen to have a copy of vista ultimate 64, so I'm not worried about an OS or anything

Also, I would like to play games with this PC, so I need suggestions on a graphics card, I think he mentioned an ATi 3870 or the like, I looked at a couple of those on newegg and they seem nice enough. I play the occasional Wow and some Supreme commander, HL2 and I would like to be able to play Spore when it comes out. (and any other games for the next few years)

I also do the occasional CAD work, and I'm fairly proficient with Inventor, so I would like it to be able to render that kind of stuff as well.

If anyone has suggestions or comments on the components, I would really appreciate any help I could get. I'm taking summer classes right now and I would like to order stuff/ get it together in the next 2 weeks, so I will finally have a functioning computer again

Thanks guys,

- Risknc

More about : budget build 800 900 suggestions commentary

July 13, 2008 4:58:05 AM

well i think a 4 core cpu will be the best for you
this barbone is $60 more but it has a better processor and motherboard. nvidia chipsets are bad. plus this one comes with a hard drive
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite...

for a good video card i would look at a ati 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

if your running cad software and vista ultimate 64 i would get 4 gigs of ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
i have ran cad software on my pc and the 2 gigs fill up fast with vista
July 13, 2008 5:03:29 AM

Start here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/System-Builder-Marathon,1962.html

Then start making adjustments.

Instead of two 8800GT you can get by with one 4850, save some there.

Better deal on a monitor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009127
Save yourself a little space, 19" is still plenty big. You get those larger monitors and you'll just end up needing more graphics card to push them.

Try to shoot for an intel e7200 CPU on a less expensive board

!