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Trying to put together a dirt cheap machine - will it work?

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G

grs

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Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Location
Dublin, Ireland
I bought Call of Duty 2 well over a year ago but I have never had a PC able to play, in fact I've only ever played the game for about 10 mins on a friends machine. So, now I want to make a PC to play COD2 and not the latest high spec games. So far I've priced the following items:-

Graphics:- Gainward GeForce 8400GS 256MB DDR2, PCI-Express, DVI/Tv-Out, SilentFX
Power:- Black Diamond Power Supply 12cm Fan, 20/24 Pin, SLI 2x6pin, 500Watt
HDD:- Western Digital Caviar SE16 160GB SATA2 8MB 7200RPM
CPU:- AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0GHz Socket AM2 2MB, BOXED w/fan
RAM:- A-DATA DDR2 PC6400 2048MB CL5 Kit w/two matched DDR2 800 1024MB CL5
MOBO:- Asus M2A-VM HDMI, AMD 690G+SB600, HDMI, Socket-AM2, m-ATX, DDR2, Firewire,PCI-Ex16

I already have Keyboard, mouse, Windows XP PRO, Case, Monitor. I know most of the items are rubbish but give the game is a few years old I don't think I need the best technology.
Can anyone see compatability problem or anything left out?
Can any of that hardware be overclocked?

All that comes in at €446 Euro from www.Komlett.ie which I don't think is too bad and more importamtly I can afford within a few weeks. Also makes the bases for later upgrades.
 
looks good for what you want, with proper cooling you could probably OC the video card and cpu, maybe even ram.

black diamond makes power supplies? i thought they only make cheese.
 
I also meant to ask is that hardware good for overclocking? If not what else is there near the same price range that is?
 
Ok, got a couple suggestions.

Get this cpu instead:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=337507

It'll save you 30 bucks and will OC to the same speeds as the 6000+.

That mobo is a poor overclocker (no pci lock I believe), go with this one:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=335582

Or one of these even:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=324367
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=335666

COD is graphics intensive, don't cheap out on the video card. If you are going over budget, you would be better off saving on the CPU instead and getting something like this (which won't oc quite as well, but will hit close to 3ghz, plenty for COD):
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=331491

At the very least, you want a GPU like this:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=336749

Or this:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=318798

The 8400GS is really weak and will not play COD smoothly at any reasonable resolution.
 
Ok so I looked over the hardware again and am thinking the following:-

CPU:- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.6GHz Socket AM2 2MB, BOXED w/fan
MOBO:- Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H, AMD 690G+SB600, HDMI, Socket-AM2, ATX, DDR2, PCI-Ex16
Graphics:- Sapphire Radeon X1950GT 256MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, HDCP, 2xDVI-I, Lite-Retail
RAM:- OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC6400 2048MB KIT, w/two 1024MB PC6400 XTC, CL4-5-4-15

As I was going over it first time I did think I was cheaping out too much on the graphics.
The new total cost, including a PSU and some extra cooling items is €534. The HDD arrived this evening, so I'm stuck with that! but I'm not planning on using this machine for mass storage I have a NAS for that.
 
Thats all well and good if your in the US but most if not all US companies will not ship to Ireland.
 
ben333 said:
500rig.jpg
I think thats the best way to spend $500.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, have you done research on that board? Can it do the required FSB speeds for that chip to do 3ghz? Because thats the only way that system will be faster than the 5600+ chip oced to it full potential (3.2-3.5). The Pentium Dual Cores don't really have a clock per clock performance advantage in games (proof: http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3051&p=6), although they do have it in everything else.
 
That Gigabyte board is only capable of around 275 FSB, from my past experience with it. Definitely not enough for an E2140.
 
ancalime said:
That Gigabyte board is only capable of around 275 FSB, from my past experience with it. Definitely not enough for an E2140.
Click to expand...

This is what always happens in one of these budget build threads. Someone will come in with a cheap AMD system, and without fail somebody will be like omgz AMD suxx, buy this Intel system with a pos motherboard that can't even overclock that CPU far enough to be faster than the AMD system. Another mistake people make is to assume that the Pentium Dual Cores are still 20% faster than the X2s, they aren't. The lack of cache really hurts their performance, and they aren't faster in gaming as the anandtech link earlier proves.

If you really wanted to build a budget Intel system, this is really the cheapest board I would get:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=323508

And then get a Pentium Dual Core like this one:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=336551

Actually thats cheaper than the X2 5200+ and Gigabyte 690 combo, so you might want to consider it since performance will ultimately be similar when both are oced to their max.
 
OK so I've just all the parts today in the post they are as follows:-

CPU:- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.6GHz Socket AM2 2MB, BOXED w/fan
MOBO:- Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H, AMD 690G+SB600, HDMI, Socket-AM2, ATX, DDR2, PCI-Ex16
Graphics:- Sapphire Radeon X1950GT 256MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, HDCP, 2xDVI-I, Lite-Retail
RAM:- OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC6400 2048MB KIT, w/two 1024MB PC6400 XTC, CL4-5-4-15

Plus a PSU, CPU cooler, RAM cooler with a final cost of about €520, not exactly dirt cheap but it will do. I've never assembled a brand new machine from scratch whats the best order?

Assemble all the hardware
Install Windows
Install Mobo, and graphic drivers
Run software updates

I've put together a few machines from scrap parts and with those I didn't mind the order.
Any other advice?
 
I went with the Black Diamond 500W, it looks nice and shiny!! I think it'll be ok. But I think the RAM cooler might not fit once I have the CPU and ATX power cable attached.
 
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