A New Budget Gaming System

[jacobdrj]

I have just built a new system on a tight (HARD CAP) $1000 budget.
Here is the rig:

Athlon II 465 X3 3.1 Ghz - $85
GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 - $110
HIS Radeon 5870 1GB - $350
CoolerMaster CM690II - $60
Antec EarthWatts 650W - $60
4GB G.Skill RipJaw 1600 DDR3 Kit - $90
Sony IDE DVD-DL 18x - $15
500GB WD Caviar Blue - $42
Windows 7 Home Premium x64 - 80
Total approx $900

I basically came out with 100 bux to spare. (More save = More good)
What do you think?

I kind of skimped on a hard drive, basically built everything around that video card.

 

[goalguy876]

Use that extra 100 bucks for the 955 Black edition and spend 18 dollars more for a samsung spinpoint f3..

 

[aebome]

I agree with goalguy. Those are both good changes, especially pairing the Radeon 5870 with the 955. If you haven't bought the DVD writer yet, spend an extra $4-$5 for a SATA drive. IDE is dead.

 

[jacobdrj]

IDE is dead. It is a DVD DL writer. I don't really see a need to change from an IDE to an SATA, particularly since that would use up one of my SATA ports, for no reason. If I ever do expand my storage to crazy RAID levels (much like my main workhorse system) than this is 1 less port I have to worry about.

I would have liked to get the 955, but I decided to take a chance and see if I could just unlock the current chip from 3 to 4 cores. Part of the fun I suppose. Had I gotten a 955, I would have reasonably had needed to get a better after market heat-sink too, which might have pushed me over my budget.

Why the Spinpoint over the WD Blue? The price was right on the Blue.

I haven't finished tweaking my system yet, I might have to spend 30 dollars on fans still... I'll keep this thread up to date with that...

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[goalguy876]

The Spinpoint is much faster. The athlon 3 core doesnt have the l3 cache and wont be as fast as the 955. The 955 comes with a perfectly good heatsink if your not overclocking.If you have the money, the 955 is well worth it.

 

[jacobdrj]

Well, I am hoping my x3 is just a 965 with a disabled core. And I still have to buy a monitor/keyboard/mouse