Help me complete a CHEAP homebuild, please!

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Help me complete a CHEAP homebuild, please!

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Author	Thread : Help me complete a CHEAP homebuild, please!

Chihlidog

Profile: journeyman

More Information

10-01-2008 at 05:20:23 AM

Hey all,

I am trying to build my wife a system that will run whatever game I throw at it. I have some leftover components I plan to use, and I am trying to keep this as CHEAP as possible.

I was looking at the following components.

Motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131249

ASUS M2N-MX SE Plus AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103211

AMD Athlon 64x2 5000+

RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231098

2x 1 gb GSKILL DDR2 800

And I am lost for a video card. I was thinking about an ATI 2600 pro I can pick up for around 30 dollars but understand they kinda suck.

This wont be used at higher than 1024 by 768, and the monitor is old-school so I dont need huge power here.

Like I said, I am trying to keep this as cheap as possible, currently it is under 200. I have a hard drive with XP on it I intend to use, the CD burner, the case, and the power supply. All I need is what is listed above.

Any feedback is appreciated!

Thanks!

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megamanx00

How could I go from the king of RockN'Roll to this
Profile: old hand

More Information

10-01-2008 at 05:54:04 AM

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Yeah, I think that's cutting it a bit slim. That motherboard is not really an AM2+ board so you won't be able to upgrade to a phenom. You know that "running whatever game I throw at it" and the word "cheap" don't go together don't you? The CPU and RAM is fine if you're going to use XP. As for a video card you really shouldn't get anything less than a Radeon 4670 or Radeon 3850. The 2600XT is fine for old games and mighnt allow you to run most modern ones at the lowest settings, but you'll look at it and know it's running on the lowest settings.

megamanx00

How could I go from the king of RockN'Roll to this
Profile: old hand

More Information

10-01-2008 at 06:08:22 AM

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Well 4670s are a little hard to find right now other than the $100 HIS one with dual slot cooling. On the other hand thanks to competition from the 4670s the 9600GSOs have greatly dropped in price (the big N has to be loosing money on this one) so you may want to take a look at this card which has a nice mail in rebate.

ASUS EN9600GSO TOP/HTDP/384M GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121251

and is generally a little faster than the 4670.

dirtmountain

Profile: Honorary Poster

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10-01-2008 at 06:23:05 AM

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No reason not to spend a little bit more to get a motherboard that can be upgraded in the future. $54 or $6 more..... 2 cups of starbucks coffee
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813186143
This RAM at $20 after rebate will pay for it with $14 left over.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227124
This 9600GT overclocked for $75 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814162007
or wait for the 9600GSO for $50 after rebate comes back into stock
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130356

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