beaumoi

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ 2.8GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core black edition Processor & BIOSTAR TForce TF8200 A2+ ATX AMD Motherboard
$160.99

CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Memory: $47.50
Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive: $41.99
BFG Tech GeForce 8800 GT BFGE88512GTOCE Video Card: $149.99, $30.00 Mail-in Rebate

Grand Total:$400.47 - 40.00 mail-in rebate

This will be a gaming PC only that I'd like to get for $400.00 or under, my original limit was $90.00 to upgrade my old sys to just a nice AGP card then I decieded to just overhaul and go with $300.00, now I'm at $400.00 .

Hard drive space does not matter, only performance. I personally would've like to have gone with a Gigabyte mobo and another HD for RAID 0.

It will be used to play strategy games mostly like Supreme Commander, Starcraft 2, Spore. It might be used to play a shoot em up game here and there and I'm curious how good Crysis would be on it. I plan on overclocking where possible, but haven't built a PC from scratch in quite a while.

Let me know what you think and if you have any recommendations or links by all means send them along. This was speced out at newegg.com. I have everything else that isn't included here including a nice Antec PS.

cky2k6

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822210001 160gb hd x2= $83.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150315 xfx 8800gt= $135 ($20mir=$115)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141366 4gb pqi ram= $71
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128078 gigabyte g31 mobo $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116052 e2180 cpu $70
for a total of $400 including the rebate. you get a better cpu, raid, 4gb of ram and the same video card for 40 bucks more. if $420 up front is too much, then just get 2gb of ram. i know this is amd section, so if you still want to stay with amd, replace processor with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103211 and mobo with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135075

__________________


I'm a performance fanboy.

beaumoi

Thanks for the info. I've always been an AMD fan due to prices and performance, but for the price of the Intel config, mainly the RAID0, 2GB more RAM, and better CPU, it looks like a deal.

beaumoi

After poking around with prices and performance for basically the whole day and finally getting pissed off and saying screw it, this is where I have ended up:

2x EXCELSTOR Jupiter Series ESJ8160 160GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...N82E1682221000
$83.98 for both ($41.99 each)

Open Box: GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-DS4 AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX Ultra Durable II AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813128075R
$85.99

EVGA 512-P3-N862-AR GeForce 9600GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130328
$119.99 - 20.00 MIR


COMBO:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103211

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103211
$148.00 - 20 MIR


$437.96 - 40 MIR = $417.96

Would you go with this or the Intel? I plan on going either way by tomorrow as I'm kind of sick of looking and being a cheapo.

cky2k6

i'd say the intel is better... nicer video card and cpu, and cheaper.

__________________


I'm a performance fanboy.

beaumoi

I figured you'd say that. I've seen a lot of comparisons of AMD vs Intel dual chips and performance and price always seemed to end up in AMD's hands. I imagine the Intel is a little better at overclocking and I'm more then sure that you say Intel for a reason. I'm going to order it up tonight and see how it goes. Might poke around for a non-Micro atx version of the mobo or something a bit bigger then that, it's going in a full tower.

Again, thanks

sccr64472

Before you order a Pentium chip for gaming, make sure you're making the right decision.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3051&p=6

cky2k6

those benches do look interesting, but theres only two games tested... from my overall experience, even the pentium series still has an advantage over k8 clock for clock, but you won't go wrong either way. if you want an atx mobo, you can go with the gigabyte ds3l http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128337. go down to 2gb of ram, and one hard drive, and you can get a really nice cpu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115052

__________________


I'm a performance fanboy.

beaumoi

Those results and others like that were the reason I was thinking AMD. Can o' worms.

Whatever it may be, hoping my Thermalright SI-128 from my old box (http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_pa...50aHVzaWFzdA==) will work with it. My power supply in my old box is an Antec True Blue 480 watt, I think that should be sufficent. I put a Vantec Tornado fan on top of the thermalright and vent it right out of the box.

beaumoi

I never realized this, but the HDs you posted were IDE Should've noticed, damn newegg and their 15% restocking fee.