Can You beat this hardware setup @ this price?

Ok, so in another thread I had mentioned my little brother had asked me to get with you guys about getting him some equipment for a computer upgrade...He has given me a budget of $340.00 This has to go towards MB, CPU, DDR and PS. Nonetheless, after talking with some of you and taking his input these are the 4 items that I have come up with. We are trying to get the most bang for the buck and want to hopefully unlock the cpu....If you can find a more reliable/trusted item that is faster than the current please advise: Thank You

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz $89.99
CORSAIR Builder Series CMPSU-600CX 600W ATX12V v2.3 $79.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 $42.99
ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI USB 3.0 Motherboard $102.99

Thanks for your opinion....

Where are you located?

Terre Haute Indiana....Home of corn fields and snow sir

Does he already have a video card? Will you be using the on board video? In either case a decent 400-500 watt psu will be plenty and might save you a few $$$.

Yes will be using onboard video..... Newegg has that corsaid 600w for 49.99 with the rebates...which I don't think were gonna find a better deal than that but I could be wrong!

this motherboard is cheaper. Although lacks USB 3.0

BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G - $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138283

with the saved 40 dollars, you can then spend on a cheap dedicated.

ASUS EAH5450 512mb - $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121377

also as stated above, you can save more by getting a cheaper PSU.

Antec Earthwatts 500W - $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035

Does it still have core unlocking capability?

straight from biostar.

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=492

thank you pawn....you got me into check there

also, i'm not sure what exactly this PC will be used for, but if you do end up getting a cheap dedicated graphics card like the 5450, you can hybrid crossfire with the onboard 4250 on the 880G.

LOL....Which does what?

I think it gives you a little performance gain/

I'm just excited about getting to use the new 25" monitor I have.....this 15" sucks, I'm old but I shouldn't have to squint already

Hybrid is an amd thing where they get the onboard gpu to cooperate with the dedicated card. Its useful for low-end systems. Trust me with that 35 dollar card and hybrid you might just have a little fun with your screen.

Well....with currently only having a mx400 32meg video card anything is an upgrade at this point lol

Bigsmooth1081 said:

Well....with currently only having a mx400 32meg video card anything is an upgrade at this point lol

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Build the system on the cheap AM3 board suggested then find a used 8800GTS or maybe even a 4870 if someone's feeling generous, used, and get some reasonable gaming performance.

Boy that picture makes me look old!

Yeah try ebay. You're likely to find an 8800 for 40 bucks, used of course. That should give you plenty of performance to play all the games you want, at least with medium settings.

Bigsmooth1081 said:

Boy that picture makes me look old!

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That model of IBM keyboard will be our egyptian pyramids. When they look at our ruins in five thousand years, there will only remain two things:

Twinkies, and IBM classic keyboards. And they'll still work.

Obviously they'll assume the two were related.

Makes me look old too. Don't worry. I remember when the Mac II was "HOLY CRAPP!!!"

At the OP...


This is how I would do your setup... In fact; this is how I did my very first "home built" computer right after I joined this nice site..

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H --> It does have core unlocker capabilities, so provided the cpu you get is unlockable this board will do it. - $89.99

CPU: AMD 555BE -> I have this chip as well; it is a decent little chip and for that price you can't fault it for anything. If you MUST be within a budget this low this is the way to go. If you have a few bucks to spare, I suggest you at least try to get a Phenom II X4. - $89.99

Ram: Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1600MHz CL 9 --> I have this particular ram on one of my computers and it runs smoothly at 1600 MHz CL8 so you can get a bit better performance out of it for cheap. - $49.99

PSU: Corsair CX500 --> I run a 955BE and a HD6950 on a Corsair VX450 without any problems. The CX series is the replacement of the VX series which was discontinued, but it seems as though they are not as efficient as the VX units. Still; the 500W unit will be more than enough to power your computer even if you do decide to add a graphics card to it in the near future. - $39.99 after rebate.

I think I barely beat your build by like $20, but every little bit helps.

Hope this helps,
Sebastian

Theocnoob said:

That model of IBM keyboard will be our egyptian pyramids. When they look at our ruins in five thousand years, there will only remain two things:

Twinkies, and IBM classic keyboards. And they'll still work.

Obviously they'll assume the two were related.

Makes me look old too. Don't worry. I remember when the Mac II was "HOLY CRAPP!!!"

Click to expand...

Pfffttt.... Atari 130XE and Commodore 64 is what I got my first lines of code into... That's old.