sudo pudge

Hey everyone, my name's Tim, and my computer sucks.

Staying at or under $1000 including an LCD monitor is pretty important to me.
I've never overclocked but would like to do some.

Here are my thoughts, please help me out because I could really use some real advice. My own advice sucks.

I want an AMD processor, dual core. Here are the options that look the best to me so far:

5000+ Black Edition
5200+ Windsor

The Windsor is 90nm as opposed to 65nm for the Black Edition, but is has twice the L2 cache. Which one do you think would be better for me?

There are combo deals with both of these CPUs with both of these motherboards on Newegg:

Cheaper Asus
More expensive Asus

The motherboards confuse me, but I think I want an Asus one, and I know I want crossfire.

Graphics:
ATI for sure, would really prefer a directx 10 compatible card. Those are the HD ones, right? $150-ish is ideal....an HD2900 of some kind? Also, crossfire sometime in the future.

Memory:
A motherboard with 8Gb max. Probably only get 4GB now though. I found this on the deals section: CORSAIR 4GB DDR2 800

And loose ends:

Power supply
Cooling
LCD Monitor
Case
Hard Drive

Thank you for reading all this I know it was a drag. Any tidbits of advice will be

The Duke

Have you considered any "True" AM2+ MBs, you should?

The CPU choices are both good and oddly enough the Windsor seems to OC rather well. Both will likely hit 3.2-3.4G.

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Locool676

Welcome Tim. While I'm not much of an AMD Guy myself, I can tell you that you can't go wrong with the 5000+BE. The unlocked Multi makes 3Ghz an easy feat. I'm going to nag to you about the Corsair ram, I am going to say stay away and get some Curcial or G.Skill. I have never had one good set of the XMS ram. Hope this little bit helps, and welcome once again, to OCN!

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In response to "How 1337 Are You":

Truambitionz

From what I know the 65nm runs cooler and has alot more overclocking potential becuase of that.

You don't need a motherboard that expensive.
If u want Asus try
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131013

8 gigs is overkill and to have 4 gigs I beleive you need a 64 bit OS.

I have this hardrive. I recommend it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148262

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lemans81

I believe apples to apples as you can get...my friend has a 5200 run on a zalman9700 and I have a 5000be zalman9700 we both run 3.3ghz (same board as well) and he beat me on cpu score on 3dmark06 by about 60 points. Mind you that I was running 52C under full orthos load, and his 5200 was running 61C....if it helps.

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sudo pudge

Thanks for your replies!

What would be the advantages of getting a real AM2+ socket motherboard?

I'm so bad at motherboards, I'll just go with whatever someone says, like Truambitionz's.

So the 5000+ BE, and no corsair ram it is

Spartan8

The advantage of getting an AM2+ MOBO is that you have the option of upgrading your CPU to a quad core Phenom in the future.

sccr64472

You're looking at the wrong 5200+ Windsor. This is the F3 stepping and the one you want. It's a better choice than the Brisbanes and also the older Windsors (ADO versus ADA)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103767

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Comp #2: Corsair 520HX,4870 1gb,XFX 650I, E6750, 2 gb OCZ, Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic,Logitech 560 4.1, 24" Gateway LCD, Antec P180,3 striped 36gb Raptors + 1 500gb, Big Typhoon.

Comp #3: Aspire 600W, ASUS P5K, E6850, 2 gb OCZ, Creative Labs 5.1 speakers, 22" Gateway LCD, Chenming Mid Tower, Liteon DVDRW,Asus 4890, 500 gb Maxtor,Zalman 9700, Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer,74 gb Raptor.

Comp #4: 22" Acer LCD,Raptor 150, Big Typhoon, Gigabyte DS3, 2gb G. Skill,Intel E6750, Antec P180, Antec TruePower 550w,Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic,Liteon DVDRW, 8800GTS 512

durch

$100 - X2 5000+ Black Edition
$117 - ASUS M2R32-MVP CrossFire
$240 - HD3870 512MB
$47 - 2x1GB DDR2 800 Crucial Ballistix (after $35 MIR)
$115 - FSP 700W 85% efficient (after $15 MIR)
$85 - SG 320GB
$35 - ZEROtherm Nirvana (after $10 MIR)
$45 - Cooler Master RC-690 (after $35 MIR)
$29 - DVD Burner
$210 - 22" LCD (after $30 MIR)

$1023 total (after MIR, before shipping)

CPU: The 5000BE is $40 cheaper than the 5200, runs cooler, has more overclocking options, and will give the same overclock and performance.

Motherboard: The M2R32-MVP is cheap, works great, will give you crossfire if you decide on that later, and best of all - tons of people here use it (including The Duke himself) so you'll get plenty of overclocking help.

Video Card: The HD3870 512MB is about as good as they come. You wanted ATI, that's their best offering atm.

Memory: I know you want 4GB (2x2GB) but you need a 64bit operating system to see all 4 gigs, and chances are you don't have one. If you're upgrading to Windows Vista 64-bit, then try these G.Skill and enjoy very overclockable 2x2GB memory. For 2x1GB (like most of us) the Crucial Ballistix are as good as they come, and at that price they're a great deal.

PSU: You said you might go Crossfire soon, so you should have at least 600W of power. This 700W from FSP is a good bargain for the quality you're getting, but you'd be ok getting a quality 600W PSU like this one from OCZ. 600W is enough for CrossFire, even with the 3870's and an overclocked system, and it'd save $35. But 700W keeps you very safe.

HDD: One of the best HDD's out there, and 320GB is plenty for most users.

CPU Cooler: That's an excellent and underbought CPU Cooler. Your 5000BE will stay nice and cool with that, and for a fraction of the cost of other CPU coolers that work as well.

Case: That rebate won't last long, and makes that case a GREAT buy. I've used it before in a build and the airflow is incredible for the price. It's also stylish, no gaudy alien heads or other weird things so many cases come with today.

DVD Burner: Any ~$30 DVD burner will work, but I recommend getting a SATA connection as the cabling is thin and won't block airflow like the older IDE (PATA) drives.

Monitor: With this system, why not get a 22" monitor? This one is one of the best and also one of the cheapest, a great buy.

You can scale down some of the components, but I'd just fork over the extra $50-100 (after shipping total will be closer to 1100). This system will OWN and overclock very well. Wait too long and some of these rebates will disappear, but then again, others will appear

EDIT: The more I think about it the more I say go with the 600W OCZ PSU. 700W just isn't needed, save yourself $35 The most a pair of 3870's can draw is 300W total, and the rest of your system will rarely break 150W. 600W is plenty and that OCZ is quality.

xdaseinx

Good selections for price
The 5000 BE is the best and only options if overclocking on a budget.

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