c49

So, I decided on Christmas that I needed to replace my old Dell and so I ordered a few parts from Newegg to build what I thought was going to be an extremely cheap budget PC for the "bare essentials." I started out with an ASUS M3A78-EM, Phenom X3 8450, and a 2x2GB kit of OCZ Platinum Series DDR2 PC8500. The rest of the parts (psu, hdd, optical drive, etc) I could scavenge from my old computer and some parts I got from a friend. Cut forward a few weeks, and the wondrous UPS dude arrives when I'm already a 6-pack or two into the afternoon and I decide to assemble my "budget computer." But wait! I'm intoxicated and in no state to build a computer, but somehow I do it anyways. After a hazy half-hour of slamming circuitry and gizmos together, I have what appears to be a computer. I hit the power button, and nothing at all happens. In my drunken stupor I somehow slammed the CPU on there crooked and when I fired it up the whole thing fried. Only the RAM was salvageable. /cry

Now it's about 2 months after that fiasco and I've been saving up paychecks from work and the "budget pc for bare essentials" has bloated into a monster. I started out by making a trip to Fry's and getting virtually the same mobo because I was still on the "budget" kick and wanted the integrated graphics and HDMI-out. Then I look at processors and see the brand-new (at the time) Phenom IIs and I absolutely have to get a 720BE. Then I get another paycheck and dash back up to Fry's and what do you know, they have the 9800GTs on sale so I get one of those and on the way out I grab a Silent Knight II. So now after like 3 months and a grand total just under $1k, I have my sig rig. And now I'm selling it to fund a new project that involves a 940BE, 790fx chipset, liquid cooling, and some 4890's

ps: what do you think would be a fair price to sell the 'beasto for? really just trying to sell it through craigslist/facebook to whoever is interested.

gunsmoney

well cool story to start off. My question to you, would be r u at all looking to part this or just sell it as is? Its a pretty solid system overall. I would probably want to know what size hard drive you have in there. And what stuff is new, what did u get off a friend? My estimated price for the PC assuming ur not selling the monitors, would be around $500. Hope that helps ya out a little.

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c49

Everything in it now is new and all purchased from Fry's. Hard drive is an old Seagate Barracuda 160GB IDE, that's actually the only part that I recycled cuz it was laying around and I didn't feel like buying anything else for this computer lol. Total cost of parts was $725+tax, and it's only been in use for about two weeks, most of that time was spent getting the overclocking tweaked just right. I've been browsing craigslist (Dallas) and it seems like systems of lesser capabilities (lots of stock Q6600s and a few i7 920s, most of them have an 8800GTX or something similar and 4-8GB of PC6400) are going for anywhere from $850-1500, just as a reference.

gnolnats

Title is misleading. None of the components are 'beastly' IMO.

Quote:
"I've been browsing craigslist (Dallas) and it seems like systems of lesser capabilities (lots of stock Q6600s and a few i7 920s, most of them have an 8800GTX or something similar and 4-8GB of PC6400) are going for anywhere from $850-1500, just as a reference."
---What are you using to base this reference on? Price aside, the i7 920 completely dominates the phenom in every benchmark. What are you talking about when you say 'lesser'? Value I hope.

Have another drink, LOL.

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3DmarkVantage.v1.01=P15,434::17022:12059(stock, no PhysX)
3DmarkVantage.v1.01=P24,155::20817:46545(690|1466| 1073MHz,PhysX on)
3DMark06v1.1.0.Pro(PhysX=disabled)=22,564::8526.11 642.5660@1280x1024

Q9650 Club

Monkey92

So....you wanted a budget computer....you broke it.....you bought another "budget" computer.....it's more expensive than a budget computer (and looks like it would perform fine ).....you want to sell it to buy a more beastly computer.

Right?

If so, you're crazy. That CPU is fantastic, I don't know what you're doing, but that build should be fine for anyone that originally wanted "a budget PC."

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The Possum Van

c49

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Superbeasto <-- I picked the name out of nowhere, I happened to be reading about it when I was typing out my sig rig. I'm not claiming it to be "beastly," I just think it's a cool name. Furthermore, I don't really care what your opinion of my computer's beastliness is. It's my first build and I built it to my specifications and I'm proud of it. I don't have enough money to throw at a computer to make it absolutely rape everything forever, so I built something affordable and it's still total overkill for my applications.

tl;dr: I don't care. I'm more than happy with it and it does me just fine.

c49

Honestly, my original plan was to just have the 720BE on that board and use the integrated graphics just to play blurays and hd-dvds because I wasn't into gaming at all and I needed to save money. Then my friend introduced me to FarCry 2 and Fallout 3 and I got a nice fat paycheck so I grabbed the 9800GT so I could play them. Then I got into overclocking and learned a lot more about computers so now I just want to upgrade to something a bit more future-proof (ddr3 support, more than 1 pcie slot would be nice, better chipset) so I can get the most out of my computer in the long run. Yeah, maybe the building bug got me, who's to say.

@gnolnats: Uhh I'm not too sure about exactly how one computer stacks up to another, but I think it's safe to say that my system can definitely outperform a stock Q9300 on a P5N73-AM with 4GB of PC6400 and no graphics card, which sold for $750. I just saw a stock Q9550 on a PQ5-SE with 4GB of PC6400 and an 8800GTX that was listed for $1500 (with a 22" monitor and other goodies). Whether these prices are fair or not (and i don't think they are at all), I believe I can offer a system with as good or better performance capabilities for a far lesser price than the competition in the same market. I'm really just listing it for sale out of curiosity to see what someone would pay for it, so if it doesn't sell i'm not gonna get all butthurt about it. But I like to prove my point, so that's why I'm writing all this nonsense. Also, http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...i_720_810_am3/. I have my 720 clocked to the exact same settings ATM and the review seems to suggest that the overclocked 720 performs on par to slightly behind the i7 920 on benchmarks and is on par to exceeding the i7 in gaming capabilities, depending on the situation.