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View Full Version : Less than 400$ Budget PC , Inspired by the Front Pge Article!


ryanmartini
11-03-04, 08:54 PM
Well i read the article on the front page and i was unimpressed with the quality of the article,no links to chart comparrisons, just some gargle about what works ... So i am not a tech guru, but i wanted to try to help people out. Here we go,


The 400$ not including shipping Gaming Value PC

This article is aimed at people who want a second cheap gaming machine, or someone who wants a cheap, descent pc. I hope this helps some people out. One i looked around ocforums and noticed the mobile athlon xp's oc dominance. So i decided to look into one. Here is what i found. I went with newegg on this as because i have had expereinced with no-name companies shipping the wrong cpu's.. And the cpu racks in around 77$
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?submit=Go&DEPA=0&CMP=OTC-Froogle&description=N82E16819103440

And the motherboard i picked is the Biostar M7NCD with the Nforce 2 chipset. For only 48$ you cannot beat it!
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-216&depa=1

For the case, i came acroos this Apex with a 350w psu. I have rocked one of these for 3 years now with no problems what so ever. So i chose with confidence: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=11-154-017&DEPA=1

For the memory 256 wont cut it! So i picked 2 sticks of Buffalo PC3200 with 256mb each @ only 38$ a piece!

linky: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-150-618&depa=1

Now for the hd, i looked around and newegg had the 80gig 8 meg cache at like 59$, unlike the vague article on the site, i wanted something with for sure links. So here is what i have chosen: And btw i didnt even know WD made a 40 gig version of the JB : http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-126&depa=1

The optical drive i found was a STEAL! Liteon is not known to all, but they spend more on R&D than marketing, that is for sure! It is a 52X burner: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-941&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

Right now this thing is clocking in @ $303.74. And we still need a vid card! What will i choose ?
THIS : Refurbed 9600 Pro by saphire. It will give DS9 support and can be flashed to a 9600XT or if flashing is not your thing, oc this baby. : http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-301R&type=Refurbish

This concludes my mini- how to on a budget the final total is $394.74. With only that little we have built a machine with OC headroom on the cpu and video card, and has DX9 support that will actually run DX9 games =p

Also here are some benchies on the 9600 Pro vs some of the other well known cards.

http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/video/Sapphire_9600pro_5.html // to get a base idea of power

A comparable 9600 pro's benchmarks on the OC!

http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review838_perf4190.html // to give an idea, here we see a 4k score in 3DMark, and supporting DX9 !

In 3dmark 2001 the Ti4600 scored stock @ around 10-11k The 9600 pro score around 12K!!! With DX9. And for sure this card has oc headroom. http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/video/Sapphire_9600pro_5.html //9600 pro

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/asusv8460d/page5.asp // Ti 4600

That concludes it all!

I hope this is useful to someone! If you have any ideas on how to improve this or catch spelling errors, tell me, see i dont use MS Office...

-Ryan M.

E_tron
11-03-04, 10:09 PM
When it comes to ultra value i try to find scrapted computers. For example, one of my poorer friends just recieved a machine i resurected out of scrap:

1ghz FSB100 slotA Athlon
Soyo mobo taking SDR memory
two 128MB SDR sticks
Old ISA modem, 56k
like 8x'ish CD-ROM, some PS, and a VERY used case (if that is what you want to call it)

This "FrankenPC" wouldn't run at 100FSB, so i downclocked it to 82. Works fine.

Bought components:

$30 (Used from friend) GeForce4 MX440 128MB
$62 New WD 80GB HDD /w 8MB cashe
$20 New keyboard and mouse
$5 100Mb NIC
$2 New battery for Mobo

I guess we have good scraps around here, but the Athlon was a first. Maybe we will see some XP's turn up soon.

techun
11-04-04, 06:05 AM
none of my friends have old computers, they won't give them to me! lol, except the stupid rich kid has 8..but he thinks he needs all those plll's