budget pc

[Guest]

AMD Athlon 64 LE-1640, Orleans Core, Socket AM2, 2.6GHz, 1MB Cache
1GB Micron Major, DDR2 PC2-6400
Abit AN52V, NF520, S AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 800/667/533MHz, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
300 psu
seagate Barracuda 80gb hd sata I

Wondering which graphics card would be best with this build?
Only games I would be playing would be mainly strategy games e.g. medieval 2 (how would this run on this build

Other uses would be software development e.g. visual studios

Is this system suitable for my needs?

Other question graphic cards seem to come out in 3 ranges e.g. NVIDIA 8400, 8600, 8800. is say a 9400 better then an 8400 or is there not much difference?

Can a sata I hard drive be used on a motherboard with SATA II requirements?

Appreciate any replies

 

[slomo4sho]

ASUS M3A78-EM has great on-board graphics. This board is ideal for a budget build.

You can also pick up a AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.1GHz for $62 using the promo code "AMD112410"

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) is only $24.99 after rebate for 4gigs of ram!

BTW, what is your budget?

Sata I drives can be used on Sata II

 

[Onus]

What is your total budget? If you can't fit a discrete GPU into it, consider a 790GX board. They're full sized ATX boards, with a better IGP than the 780 boards.
One of the big rebate processors just shut down, so you may or may not want to risk the rebate game: http://blog.slickdeals.net/index.php/2008/11/14/major-rebate-processor-files-for-bankruptcy-a-number-of-recent-deals-with-rebates-may-be-affected

 

[Guest]

im from the uk so not as cheap. motherboard looks good, is 1gb mem ok with on board graphics, does it use system memory? ill be using windows xp. Around £1oo my budget.
using some parts of an old build. but need a new motherboard, cpu and ram

 

[slomo4sho]

Asus M3A78 AMD 780G

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.20GHz

Corsair 2GB DDR2 800

Total: £98.97. No rebates to worry about. This is the best I could do for a sub £100 budget.

jtt283, the 790GX usually costs a tleast $40 more than the 780G. With that $40 you could actually add a HD 4350 and have better graphics performance than the 790GX.

 

[lunyone]

The problem with the X2 4200 that you listed is that it's an OEM version, so no CPU HSF comes with it. You'll have to add a CPU HSF, unless you already have one.

 

[slomo4sho]

Yep, he should be able to pick up a CPU heatsink/fan for around £5-8. There isn't much you can do with a budget of £100

 

[lunyone]

No I agree you can't do much with 100 pounds, just wanted to point it out so there wasn't any surprises.

 

[slomo4sho]

I was going to mention that and include a CPU cooler as well but I figured he would be able to pick one of his liking.