neezee

helping someone build a budget system, below is what i have so far... any suggestions on what shuld b changed? system to be used for gaming (source games, WOW) and photoshoping

Processor - Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 Dual Core Processor LGA775 2.0GHZ 800FSB 1MB Retail Box
-Heatsink - Stock
-Thermal Paste - Tuniq TX-2 (if possible)
cost = ~88 (ncix)

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L ATX LGA775 P35 1333FSB 1PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN Motherboard
cost = ~87 (ncix)

Memory - Crucial Ballistix 2 x 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
cost = ~75, MIR 25 (newegg)

HDD - Western Digital 250GB Caviar SE16 7200rpm SATA II w/ 16MB Cache
cost = ~78 (ncix)

Optical Drive - Liteon DH-20A4P
cost = ~27 (ncix)

Video Card - HIS Radeon HD 3850 256MB 256BIT GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I Hcdp HDMI HDTV Out Video Card
cost = ~183 (ncix)

Sound Card - N/A (on board)

PSU - Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU ATX 12V 2.0 500W Power Supply
cost = ~50, MIR 25 (newegg)

total = ~588+tax/shippin... less MIR = ~538+tax/shippin...

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Vikingod

For a few more bucks, you could pick up a much larger hard drive. As far as a GPU goes, both ATI and Nvidia have some decent offerings in the budget line, either would do just fine.

jp306

What are you building this system for? If it's just basic use(web browsing and office apps) then get a good Motherboard with built in Audio&Video and a cheap budget CPU that can be had for under $50, If that's all they're going to use it for. If it's a build for anything else let me/us know...And then I/we could make a better recommendation.

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"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet."
Rodney Dangerfield.

neezee

^would that be the...

ATi 2600 XT
or
Nvidia 8600 GT

???

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neezee

system to be used for gaming (source games, WOW) and photoshoping

added...forgot to put that in...

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kris23

forget about the 2600Xt or the 8600GT go for an HD 3850

for a REAL budget processor, go for the Pentium Dual-Core E2160, E2180, and E2200

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neezee

^then i might as well switch to an X2...

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kris23

allendale cores suck in general man...

best to get an e6550 or nothing at all.... go AMD but theres no upgrade path there....

besides, the Dual-Cores are known to reach 100% OCs on decent hardware

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neezee

e6550 = ~1/2 of budget...

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kris23

thought so.....

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jp306

I disagree with you, the allendale core is great for the $ if you're willing to OC it. Most will hit 3Ghz and would smoke that e6550 at stock speeds. Of course if you don't plan on OCing then get nothing less than the e4500.

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"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet."
Rodney Dangerfield.

kris23

the thing is that this thing is going to be used to play source games and WoW. while not that intensive for the most part.... the CPUs down to budget levels can run them with little stress.

so the best choice is to use that money and put it to an extremely powerful budget card, the HD 3850 is only a few dollars more than the 8600s and packs more than double the force.

if needed later, overclock the thing to powerful levels.

allendale cores are the general budget processor but the E4000 series is overpriced in my opinion. they are Conroes with disabled L2 cache so they lose some of their performance to clock ratio.

the E2000 series is an EVEN more disabled chip with another minor cut down, this point though, the chips are almost half the price of the E4000s

its a tiny drop in cost to a somewhat big drop in performance. it takes OCing till the thing almost breaks to topple an X6800 at stock.

Conroes are untouched in dual-core performance , but its that price premium that makes them unaffordable.


a simple Dual-Core should work unless the person tries to run Crysis or something....

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jp306

I agree with you for the most part, but the allendale chips with the 2meg of L2 our good chips especially when OCed. With the DS3L board I would use the onboard sound and the 3850 is the best bang for the buck video card(I've seen them for $169). if I had an extra $30 though I'd lean towards the 8800GT 256mb card tough, but either way both are great cards as long as you don't game in resolutions above 1280x1024.

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"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet."
Rodney Dangerfield.

Matth

Didn't see a case in that list, so unless an old case is being re-used, that either means a PSU-less case (or junk PSU case) and the suggested PSU, or a decent case/PSU combo such as an Antec.

A decent PSU is an investment, but a Corsair 550W is an uncomfortably large slice of the budget for a system that will not be carry the most exotic & demanding components.

Looking at newegg...
Newegg.com - Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU ATX 12V 2.0 500W Power Supply 115/ 230 V UL, CUL, TUV, FCC, and CB certification - Retail
Thermaltake 500W for $24.99 after rebate! - now that is a steal for any midrange system, a non-junk PSU for a junk PSU price.

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Mary had a little lamb,
Her father shot it dead
Now Mary takes her lamb to school,
Between two crusts of bread

jp306

IMO the best budget cases without PSUs are from Cooler Master. I have a Cooler Master 534 and its a great case and can be had for about $50.

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"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet."
Rodney Dangerfield.

kris23

coolermaster 690 man, best case ever made for the price

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OldBuzzard

QFT!!!

Lots of room for the newer LONG vid cards, damned good cooling stock with provisions for more fans, including one for the back of the MB. Tooless installation. Plus it just looks good sitting on my desk.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

neezee

updated... many thx to the ppl who gave their input so far... he already got a case...

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neezee

isnt toledo>presler ???

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kris23

im not talking presler man...

im talking the ULTRA CHEAP allendale core "Pentium Dual-Core" (thats the actual name) on newegg its called "Dual-Core" sold at around $74


it is based on the Core architecture, not netburst.

Newegg.com - Intel Dual-Core E2140 Allendale 1.6GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Dual-Core Processor - Retail

the little CPU that can topple giants, has more bang for buck than any chip besides the Q6600

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neezee

thats wat i thought, i was thinking pentium D...thx

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kris23

your memory choice is not a good one, poor chips means bad OCing and stability.

Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

thats my recommendation, Quality D9GMH at the budget price. budget OCers dream man....

EDIT: seeing how you are shopping at ncix.com, the price of the Crucial memory is a little high, if you can fit it into the budget however, it will be a good choice.

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neezee

wats wrong with the OCZ Platinum XTC REV.2 PC2-6400???

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kris23

lower end chips.... just because they look cool doesnt mean they perform for the money, cooler is good but chips suck, the OCZ platinum 1066mhz sticks are the better choice if you want OCZ and D9s but i dont think they can match the Crucial sticks

with the crucial sticks, you can probably pump out DDR2 800 at 3-3-3-8

only memory i know to beat the Crucial sticks at times are the super binned items from Corsair, Patriot, Kingston, and certain OCZ sticks

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neezee

so just the memory used for the ram sucks on the OCZ's, cuz i think the timings are the same? so the same logic could be applied to...

Patriot Signature DDR2 2GB PC2-5300 SODIMM > Transcend 2GB JetRam DDR2 667MHz SODIMM

cuz i hope i didnt pay the extra $10 for nothing (store just got the transcends in a week after i got the patriots)... know next to nothing wen it comes to memory...-_-

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kris23

ehh.... so it does look like you dont know to much about the memory chips used on DDR2

well not to worry, ill show you the difference man

THE FIRST, BIGGEST, AND MOST IMPORTANT THING TO LOOK FOR IS THE MEMORY CHIPS BEING USED.

there are tons of different chips from different manufacturers. Samsung, proMOS, Hynix, Alpida etc.

the ONLY company that matters really is Micron. Micron is THE biggest and best manufacturer of memory ICs on the planet

there are many different grades and models of Micron ICs. the type to look for in DDR2 is D9.

the two main D9 variants are D9GMH and the rarer D9GKX

both are EXTREMELY powerful memory ICs capable of pumping upwards of 1300Mhz at 5-5-5-12 2T

D9GMH is very common and is what you would normally get if you buy a quality 2x1GB 1066mhz kit and select 800mhz kits

D9GKX is what you would find in narly every extreme kit that doesnt come from Corsair with a few exceptions, a company like Cellshock puts out memory running 1300Mhz with D9GKX


the differences between them are minimal as both chips are very powerful, either one is good.

if you want, i can give you a list of memory that uses D9s off the top of my head....

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neezee

^a list would b much appreciated for future reference... so how can you tell wat kind of memory IC's they use in a module, aka were can u find out which IC's are being used?

many thx...

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kris23

yea.... thats the thing, it takes alot of research to figure out which sticks do have D9s.

firstly, the Crucial sticks i showed you have D9GMH chips

Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800
Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 800
Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1066
Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 1066

OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066
OCZ Reaper DDR2 1066
OCZ Reaper DDR2 1150
OCZ FlexXLC DDR2 DDR2 1200
OCZ FlexXLC DDR2 1150
OCZ FlexXLC DDR2 800 cas 3 (possible)

Kingston HyperX 1066

Corsair Dominator DDR2 800 3-4-3-5
Corsair Dominator DDR2 1111 4-4-4-12
Corsair Dominator DDR2 1142 5-5-5-15

Patriot Extreme DDR2 800 CAS 3
Patriot Extreme DDR2 1066 CAS 5
Patriot Extreme DDR2 1150 CAS 5
Patriot Extreme DDR2 1200 CAS 5
Patriot Viper Extreme DDR2 800 CAS 3-4-3-5
Patriot Viper Extreme DDR2 1066 CAS 5-5-5-15
Patriot Viper Extreme DDR2 1150 CAS 5-5-5-12
Patriot Viper Extreme DDR2 1200 CAS 5-5-5-12

G.Skill DDR2 1000 CAS 4-4-4-5

TeamGroup Team Extreem 1066
Teamgroup Team Extreem 1200
Teamgroup Team Extreem 1300

CellShock (all sticks)

and thats all i can get out today..... my head is numb

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kris23

heres a list of ICs in certain sticks of RAM some i have not listed

List of DDR3/DDR2/DDR IC Chips on various RAM brand Modules ! ( Updating 01/10/07 ) - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

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neezee

many thx for the info again... much appreciated

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