I'm kind of stuck. I made a post last time around with my ideas and saw the error in some of my suggestions. As a recap, I am building my girlfriend and I "upgraded" PC's re-using as much as we can to cut costs. We're both upgrading from P4 3.0's, 1GB of DDR400 RAM, AGP video cards (9800XT and an... 8600? I think), and ready to move on. Both have power supplies sub 400w.
So after the last thread I did some revision, kept researching, but of course have had a harder time finding deals. Here's what I have so far:
One of the 4850's on sale, I am expecting $139.99-$149.99.
This alone tops me out at $300 without tax or shipping (shouldn't be an issue), but I'm still missing RAM. Really thought I'd see some cheap in a combo or rebate deal, but no avail yet. Any parts I can sub out for reasonable quality while maintaining the price? Any bad parts in my equation? And which 4850 manufacturer do you guys suggest or have experience with?
Keep in mind our main goal is just to get us functional again for gaming and not get stuck in the loop of having to replace 90% of our PC's innards in 1.5-2 years again. Thanks for your help as always!
Looks good and I can't see getting any lower without sacrificing quality. The OCZ Stealthstream is a good power supply at a great price. I've always had good luck with Biostar motherboards. To save money maybe going with this 2x1 GB of DDR2 800 1.8v 5-5-5-15 OCZ memory at $17 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227124 you can always drop more in after a few months if you want to.
*EDIT* you could always go with a HD4830 graphic card. Lower performance, but still decent and budget friendly right now at $100 after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131129
Message edited by dirtmountain on 11-09-2008 at 12:22:30 AM
I ordered the power supplies today, so I have that going for me.
I've looked at downgrading the video card, but the value between a 4850 and anything else dollar per dollar makes it seem kind of trivial, especially with the potential for crossfire in future upgrades. I'm still considering it though, holding out for a good 4850 combo or Black Friday deal.
I did have another question. I have been looking at CPU's and saw this ram/CPU combo
That would help solve the RAM dilemma, but then I'd be looking for a cheap/stable Intel mobo which seem more expensive than the AMD mobo's. Any suggestions here?
And I am not the MOST tech-savvy person on earth, I was trying to compare the AMD 5200+ to the E2200 2.2 and it seems that the Intel chip is benching higher while having a much lower clock speed... what gives?
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