Building Friends Comp <$500

[ps2cho]

Check out what I made. I think my choices are really good after doing research on them. First I chose the 7600GS, but after looking at reviews, paying an extra $20 for an extra 15fps I believe is well worth it.

Check it out

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...ber=4978887&WishListTitle=BrandonComp+Updated

He will not be overclocking hard at all, so I chose microatx because with my experience, it looked more coasy, felt really cool to have a smaller case and looked better too!

I will be getting him the same MicroATX case that I have at my home from the local PC Club store as it's cheaper due to shipping costs. And it comes with a 350w Fortron PSU

 

[Memphis69]

looks good to me.. i really like my 76gs so i would think your friend would or should be happy

 

[ps2cho]

Well the GT has a little faster fps. He will be coming from a Compaq socket A 3000+ 1GB RAM and a FX5300 LOL !!

I cant wait to see his face when he is blown away at the performance of it.
His current system can only just about handle Civilization 4!

 

[Tyrinon]

I will be getting him the same MicroATX case that I have at my home from the local PC Club store as it's cheaper due to shipping costs. And it comes with a 350w Fortron PSU

Do you have any links for this case, or is this only from the store?

 

[ps2cho]

Let me see if I can find it...

edit: Its almost hte same as this one: http://www.pcclub.com/product_details.cfm?itemno=A1313157
But its another company...grrr cant remember name.

Oo coolermaster thats it. Let me fnd it now

No no it was Foxconn lol

http://www.digiconcepts.com/casedge_cases_09.htm
There it is. It just says 300w PSU, but When I actually took a look at mine, it was a fortron.
Its a very good case, its not made cheaply. Nothing is broken or flimsy, my Micro ATX board (the Duron system in my comment) runs Very nicely. The airflow is really good and I just love it!

Edit galour !! Here is much better pictures: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13028&vpn=TW-01&manufacture=Foxconn Group

 

[Molester]

the $20 mail-in rebate makes that 7600gt quite attractive...

if he's not overclocking, why not go with a cheaper motherboard? plenty there

also, shop around too, might find some items cheaper at zipzoomfly.com mainly, as well as a few other places

 

[ps2cho]

I thought that $20 was attractive.
Check this OUT !!

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814143049

I'll bag this FOR SURE

 

[adriana]

maybe some of this!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148140
that would be a good investment opposed to the 80g for $41.99.

 

[ps2cho]

Well I thought of getting a bigger HDD...but he wont use 320GB...Maybe 80GB isnt enough though. I'll speak to him and see what he wants to spend.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822144415

$14 more but twice the size. 160GB will be perfect.

 

[jivetrky]

I'd say that 7600GT looks like a winner. And for the harddrive, I'd go with this one:
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

It's only $10 more and has twice the capacity. Also it's sata so you don't have to f around with jumpers and big ole ribbon cables.

Otherwise, looks like a great value to me!

 

[ps2cho]

I'd say that 7600GT looks like a winner. And for the harddrive, I'd go with this one:
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

It's only $10 more and has twice the capacity. Also it's sata so you don't have to f around with jumpers and big ole ribbon cables.

Otherwise, looks like a great value to me!

As you were typing I already edited my post with that HDD. Great minds think alike
Is SATA a B**** to install Windows on or is it ok?

 

[jivetrky]

Well I thought of getting a bigger HDD...but he wont use 320GB...Maybe 80GB isnt enough though. I'll speak to him and see what he wants to spend.

Also I wanted to get ATA so its no hassle with windows and recognizing SATA. They are slower too.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822144415

$14 more but twice the size. 160GB will be perfect.

There wouldn't be any issues with windows recognizing the SATA hard drive. And they are not slower than ATA, if anything they have the potential to be faster.

 

[jivetrky]

As you were typing I already edited my post with that HDD. Great minds think alike
Is SATA a B**** to install Windows on or is it ok?

No, no issues. Unless you have RAID going on or something (which you won't). They are easier to setup and as far as windows is concerned, it doesn't really know the difference. As long as the BIOS tells windows "this is the harddrive" then windows is happy.

 

[ps2cho]

There wouldn't be any issues with windows recognizing the SATA hard drive. And they are not slower than ATA, if anything they have the potential to be faster.

I heard somewhere that when it comes to install it from scratch, it doesn't see the HDD. Am I wrong?

 

[jivetrky]

That wouldn't be the case on one of those Nvidia 6100 boards (Or most boards from the last couple of years). A while back , on older boards, SATA controllers required drivers. But now-a-days they are native and don't have that issue. SATA is the way to go; easier to install, easier to route cables, etc.

 

[ps2cho]

That wouldn't be the case on one of those Nvidia 6100 boards (Or most boards from the last couple of years). A while back , on older boards, SATA controllers required drivers. But now-a-days they are native and don't have that issue. SATA is the way to go; easier to install, easier to route cables, etc.

Thats it, it was a driver issue that I remember now.
Ok that sounds good. I'll go for SATA.

 

[Femto]

Nice choice in components. I'm sure he'll be surprised with the performance gain

 

[ps2cho]

I would have gone Core 2 Duo route, but its a lot more expensive and would have added up to like $650

I think this system will run mostly all games out right now pretty well.
It will be great for him.

 

[AlabamaCajun]

You might consider this ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2108080+1052308476&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=147

Look down at the DDR2-800s (OCZ, GEil, Wintek, GSkill) they are all good sticks. It's DDR800 and don't let the CL5 bother you. I'm getting over 8000Mbs at DDR2-910 and CL5. If this won't do over 820 then drop it to the 667 divider and run it up on CL4 (4.5.4.15) The last number is real important for DDR2 giving a little more time during refresh cycle. Also DDR2 makes use of DQS, the bios should have a setting for it, set it to yes. DQS can improve latency on some ram.

 

[ps2cho]

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145539
I ended up chosing the Corsair XMS2.

How does that look?