What would you do with one grand for a new PC?

slvr_phoenix · Sep 6, 2005

I've been wondering... If you had exactly $1000 USD to spend on hardware (and software) for a fully-legal PC (shipping and handling of parts included), what would you fine folks build? I guess assuming that a monitor already exists, but keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS, etc. all have to be purchased.

:evil:

یί∫υєг ρђœŋίχ :evil:

Deal with the Devil. He buys in bulk.
@ 197K of 200K!

innovan · Sep 6, 2005

This is just one guide that answers that question:

<A HREF="http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MVGSBG/article.php/3521496" target="_new">http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MVGSBG/article.php/3521496</A>

Anyone have a link to other $1000 guides?

Spitfire_x86 · Sep 6, 2005

Processor: Athlon 64 (Venice) 3500+ $219
Motherboard: ABIT AN8 $102
RAM: 2 x 512 MB Kingston CL2.5 DDR400 $96
Graphics Card: Gigabyte 128 MB GeForce 6600GT $155
HDD: 300 GB Maxtor DiamondMax 10 $135
DVD Burner: LiteOn SOHW-1693S $44
Case: Antec Solution SLK1650 + 350W PSU $59
Speaker: Creative Inspire T3000 2.1 $45
Keyboard: LiteOn PS/2 Keyboard $6
Mouse: Logitech Value Optical Mouse $6
OS: Windows XP Professionaal x64 Edition OEM $153

Total cost: $1020 (newegg price)

------------
<A HREF="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox" target="_new">Rediscover the web</A>

mozzartusm · Sep 7, 2005

Its safe to say that socket 775 wouldnt fit in to that plan. Someone is going to argue with me on this one, but I consider liquid cooling to be a must with this platform.

ASUS P5WD2 Premium
Intel 3.73 EE @ 5.6Ghz
XMS2 DDR2 @ 1180Mhz

<A HREF="http://valid.x86-secret.com/records.php?PHPSESSID=792e8f49d5d9b8a4d1ad6f40ca029756" target="_new">#2 CPUZ</A>
SuperPI 25secs

slvr_phoenix · Sep 7, 2005

You won lotto?

I wish!

No, just thinking about how much I should be able to save up by Yule, if I'm really tight with my money, gas prices don't go even higher, and nothing bad happens to drain my bank account yet again.

Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think that any new system I could build will hardly be better than my current system, (P4C 2.6, DC 2x512MB DDR400C2, AGP GF6600GT, etc.) so I might as well just not bother.

...Unless I can win the lotto and/or get a book or two published. :O

I'd still want to keep the old system running after all, so I don't want to canibalize too badly there. (Even if I could, which it isn't looking like there's much I could steal from it anyway.)

:evil:

یί∫υєг ρђœŋίχ :evil:

Deal with the Devil. He buys in bulk.
@ 197K of 200K!

ChipDeath · Sep 7, 2005

What would you do with one grand for a new PC?

Well, my PC is already good enough, so I'd blow it on booze, drugs, women, etc. [/not helpful]

I agree with you - without yanking loads of stuff out of the old box, I can't see you building something that's much better performing, so there really isn't much point if the aim is to 'Upgrade' from your current system. Obviously if a second system would be useful for you then it's a different situation.

Spend a fraction of that $1K on getting some fast ram and cooling ('tho you have a SonicTower do you not?) and just OC your current rig. I know you love silence but you do have a great CPU for ocing, so I would imagine you'll not hit noise problems until you're over 3.2Ghz or so....

Of course, by Chrimbo the situation may have changed sufficiently for it to be do-able, but you're still not going to get a huge increase over your current rig, performance-wise.

---
(") This is bunny's foot. Wingding ate the rest of him. At least he's now a good luck charm.

HardWareBoss · Sep 7, 2005

I'm with you. Still hanging onto my P4 2.4C. Waiting on dual-core for late next year.

slvr_phoenix · Sep 7, 2005

The funny thing is, there really isn't much that I can yank out of the old box. I mean graphics are PCI Express these days, so my AGP card isn't worth putting in a new system, even if I have an old GF Ti4200 to use if I stole it. The 1GB of Corsair XMS 3200 C2 isn't bad, but if I stole it I'd have to replace it with something, which greatly mitigates the advantage there. The hard drives are PATA and only 60GB, so that's not too worth it, even if I could steal one from my RAID1 array if I made it a secondary system. I'd rather not steal the case. (Or more accurately, I'd like a better case and PSU for any new system.) While the SonicTower is a nice HSF, I'd rather have a CPU warranty, so I'd stick to AMD's stock cooler anyway. Blue lasers are about to come out, so I'd rather move to that than keep the old optical drives. Other than the monitor (and maybe I can dig up an old black keyboard and mouse set from my computer graveyard) there isn't really anything worth stripping from my current PC. :O

Spend a fraction of that $1K on getting some fast ram and cooling ('tho you have a SonicTower do you not?) and just OC your current rig. I know you love silence but you do have a great CPU for ocing, so I would imagine you'll not hit noise problems until you're over 3.2Ghz or so....

That is tempting. That's why I didn't go higher than a 2.6C at the time I built the system. I figured when I finally needed more performance I could OC it. I almost went down to a 2.4C just for that reason. And the SonicTower is a good HSF. I have a spare low-noise 120mm fan that I could put on it if I wanted to OC a little. I wonder how far I can OC my gig of Corsair XMS 3200 C2 with a little extra voltage and looser timings...

It's just annoying that no one is making AGP 7800s.

یί∫υєг ρђœŋίχ :evil:

Deal with the Devil. He buys in bulk.
@ 197K of 200K!

slvr_phoenix · Sep 7, 2005

I'm with you. Still hanging onto my P4 2.4C. Waiting on dual-core for late next year.

That's a thought. If I can save up enough, I should be able to get a decent X2 in another year. I've gotten so used to the smoothness of the P4C's HT that it'd be hard to go back to a pure single CPU box.

:evil:

یί∫υєг ρђœŋίχ :evil:

Deal with the Devil. He buys in bulk.
@ 197K of 200K!

jammydodger · Sep 8, 2005

I thought most of the 2.6c's sucked ass for overclocking, I know mine did. Never made it past 3.2 on water

slvr_phoenix · Sep 8, 2005

Okay, what do you folks think of this file/print server? (All prices from Newegg except for the case.)

<pre>ECS K8M800-M2 S754 mATX, 10/100LAN, 6ch sound $49 $3
(2xDDR400, 3xPCI, 2xPATA 2xSATA 4xUSB2)
AMD Sempron 2600+, 1.6GHz, 128KB L2, S754 (retail) $63 $0
Wintec Ampo 2x256MB DDR400 CL2.5 $45 $4
Antec Overture II w/450W PSU $108 $0
Promise SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA Controller Card $67 $4
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B250S0 250GB 7200RPM SATAII NCQ $103 $3
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B250S0 250GB 7200RPM SATAII NCQ $103 $3
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B250S0 250GB 7200RPM SATAII NCQ $103 $3
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B250S0 250GB 7200RPM SATAII NCQ $103 $3
NEC ND-3540A IDE DL DVD Burner (silver) $50 $4
Samsung Floppy Drive (white) $8 $3
Windows XP Home OEM License + CD $92 $1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: $894 $31 = $925</pre>
I can mod WinXP to support software RAID5. And I can even dig up my old AGP8xGFTi4200VIVO and a black keyboard and mouse from my computer graveyard to go into it. The Antec Overture II should just barely house all of these drives in a nice small form factor. I think it'd make a cute little file/print server. It's definately not for gaming though. **ROFL**

:evil:

یί∫υєг ρђœŋίχ :evil:

Deal with the Devil. He buys in bulk.
@ 197K of 200K!

* edit/P.S. Upon looking at prices for other NAS devices (thinking that an actual specific device instead of a PC should be cheaper), I'm flat out stunned at the prices people will pay for these things!Edited by slvr_phoenix on 09/08/05 09:55 AM.

slvr_phoenix · Sep 8, 2005

<pre> ∩_∩
Ω Ω
(=¥=) - Cedrik says that SP should build and sell NAS PCs! They have killer margins!
_Ū˘Ū_</pre> :evil:

یί∫υєг ρђœŋίχ :evil:

Deal with the Devil. He buys in bulk.
@ 197K of 200K!

slvr_phoenix · Sep 9, 2005

Oh com'on, what sort of crap is that? Just get a single stick of generic 512MB DDR400.

Sometimes Newegg's search engine comes up with funny results and I'd just chosen the cheapest. But then I redid the search and must have typed in things differently (and/or turned the old squishy grey thing on) and came up with a 512MB TwinMOS DDR400 stick. It still sucks, but at least it's a little better ... and cheaper.

And would you believe that I can't find a simple kit to mount a hard drive in a 5.25" bay on Newegg? What's up with that?

<pre> ∩_∩
Ω Ω
(=¥=) - Cedrik says that Newegg didn't have an Antec Overture II
_Ū˘Ū_ either. Sometimes Newegg sucks eggs.</pre> :evil:

یί∫υєг ρђœŋίχ :evil:

Deal with the Devil. He buys in bulk.
@ 197K of 200K!

slvr_phoenix · Sep 9, 2005

I was looking at <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820218060" target="_new"> this stick</A> specifically, but then keep in mind that this is more a proof of concept spec. If the stars are aligned right, I'll probably be building it in January. So specific parts will likely change a bit between now and then.

:evil:

یί∫υєг ρђœŋίχ :evil:

Deal with the Devil. He buys in bulk.
@ 197K of 200K!

slvr_phoenix · Sep 9, 2005

If you mean research well ahead of time and stay on the lookout for new and interesting things so that you can make the most educated purchase possible, then yeah.
<pre> ∩_∩
Ω Ω - Cedrik says maybe he means wait and wait and pray to god
(=¥=) for any tiny little bit of money to blow on shiny new
_Ū˘Ū_ bits and bobs once on a blue moon, SP you peniless loser...</pre> :evil:

یί∫υєг ρђœŋίχ :evil:

Deal with the Devil. He buys in bulk.
@ 197K of 200K!

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What would you do with one grand for a new PC?

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