Cheapest A64 system... suggestions

[yo4444]

you actually make sense, if he wants it cheap, fast and cool, why don't he just try a socket A system, get a 2500 and oc it 3200 or more, that will cost him less......

Ummm, again.. no Ocing. He is a regular user.. basic noobalicious. I'm thinking socket a semperon as well, but want to give him a few options so he can make the decision himself and deal with the consequenses himself as well.

 

[Quailane]

Ummm, again.. no Ocing. He is a regular user.. basic noobalicious. I'm thinking socket a semperon as well, but want to give him a few options so he can make the decision himself and deal with the consequenses himself as well.

Socket 754 sempron is not much more money and is definately a lot more performance while running cooler with less power.

 

[yo4444]

Socket 754 sempron is not much more money and is definately a lot more performance while running cooler with less power.

If I were to do that.. it would run roughly the same.. maybe 15$ more. Would I still be able to run same components.. maybe 350 watt psu?

 

[yo4444]

and if I were to go 939, what mobo would be cheapest and still ensure future upgradability?

 

[brakezone]

okay i've revised this with a better set of options.

amd 64 2800 from newegg= 109$
kingston valueram 1gb duel channel kit newegg=108$
asus K8N=87$
antec solutions super midtower with 350w psu= 60$
leadtek 6600 agp8x vannila= 152$

all this comes to 516$ and it even sounds nice enough I'd want to take it out for a spin!

The real bonus I would imagine with a setup like this would be having 1gb of ram and the full 64-bit. The thing that makes a system really feel nice I think more than anything is having a good amount of ram. geforce 6600 vanilla is not a bad card either and can score almost 2000 in 3dmark05. That aint bad. I have that same antec case for my athlon xp system and it is a nice clean case and the psu does a good job. the asus K8N motherboard is not the most popular board but it does pack good value. I use it in the system in my sig and it can run 300mhz perfectly stable.

oh and if thats too much since you probably wnat a dvd burner and hard drive too, downgrade to 512mb of ram and a geforce 6200 (not the turbocache kind they suck). The 6200's hit about 1500 in 3dmark03 which aint bad at all for the low price. You can also keep knocking off cash by downgrading the cpu to a sempron 2800 or 2600. That should provide a good system and keep the price down... I would try to keep the 1gb of ram at all costs though as he'll hate waiting on the hard drive alot more than waiting on the cpu.

For my last and final project I will develop a system that is totally revolving around what it means to be cheap!!!

okay okay *pumped up* lets think cheap

words like sempron come to mind! turbo cache! Sis! valueram! sparkle!

ECS "755-A2 v1.0" Sis 755= 52$
amd sempron 2600 socket 754= 79$
kingston 184 pin 512mb ddr pc-3200= 55$
rosewill value series black atx mid tower super case with 350w psu=25$
leadtek agp 8x geforce 6200 , 128mb ddr, 128-bit = 129$ (i cannot bring myself to reccomending turbocache)
samsung 80gb 7200 rpm ide hard drive=57.55
rosewill 16X double layer dvd = 50$


Okay so that is a complete system and it comes to 440$

I would spend the 60 bucks on ram.

 

[yo4444]

O.K.... got some good suggestions there!! They will surely help with final build.
This is what I came up with, and he seems to be leaning that way..
A64 3000+, roughly 150 shipped
gigabyte or similar nforce 3 250 754 board. Roughly $77-80 shipped
512 corsair or gskill value.. (2x256) roughly $75 shipped
120 gig WD 8Mb cache.. $ $88 or so shipped
Floppy drive $17 shipped
16X dual layer DVD burner$55-60 shipped
9500 pro or 9550 128 MB $60 shipped
Windows XP Home. $90 shipped
then case and PSU... looking at around $695 or so? Plus a little for my time...

Is that antec with 350w shipped? also, will 350 watts cover this system? I was thinking more like 400w.

 

[Super Nade]

Mate,

You could pick up all your components from the Classifides. Quality is almost assured and your components are burnt-in.
You could put together a decent S939 rig for <$700.

Example:-
Winny 3000 $110
MoBo <$90
ATi 9600 $100
HSF $35
HDD's $75 (2 x 80Gb)
RAM $150 a gig for top quality stuff. $100 for value RAM.
PSU $40
Case $30

Total $630

Spend the rest on a monitor

 

[brakezone]

looks good to me except I might opt for a 2800 as you can get one from newegg for 109$, the 3000 is 50% more cost but only 200 more pr points! so the best bang for the dollar is the amd64 2800. Its all up to yiou guys though. Then i'd get cheaper ram amd put the savings into the video card as that is what will really supercharge the system.

btw the pr points and stuff are decieving a bit... the amd64 2800 will blow away the xp 2800 in everything especially games and memory intensive applications.

supernade's idea would give you the best performance for the dollar though.

To tell you the honest truth, you could probably get a PCI express nvidia 6600 or 6200 cheaper than a AGP version, so if you did go the socket 939 route,

amd64 939 3000= 150$
ECS nforce 4 board =76$
leadtek geforce 6600 = 109$
cheapo case w psu= 40$
512mb geil value 2X256= 57$
dvd burner =50
hard drive=80

562$

 

[yo4444]

looks good to me except I might opt for a 2800 as you can get one from newegg for 109$, the 3000 is 50% more cost but only 200 more pr points! so the best bang for the dollar is the amd64 2800. Its all up to yiou guys though. Then i'd get cheaper ram amd put the savings into the video card as that is what will really supercharge the system.

btw the pr points and stuff are decieving a bit... the amd64 2800 will blow away the xp 2800 in everything especially games and memory intensive applications.

supernade's idea would give you the best performance for the dollar though.

To tell you the honest truth, you could probably get a PCI express nvidia 6600 or 6200 cheaper than a AGP version, so if you did go the socket 939 route,

amd64 939 3000= 150$
ECS nforce 4 board =76$
leadtek geforce 6600 = 109$
cheapo case w psu= 40$
512mb geil value 2X256= 57$
dvd burner =50
hard drive=80

562$

Looking at retail cpus, so the diff between 2800 and 3000 is only about $25.00. That way, I'm not ordering aftermarket HS + shipping.
As far as classies, I would def. do it for me or a friend, but not for a cust build unless he approved it first. This guy won't, of that I am sure.

 

[Super Nade]

I can tell you one thing. The limited stuff I bought of the classies have served me well. I wish I had built my rig buying stuff from the classifides. You can expect better quality on the classies than out of the box, simply because the components are tested by someone who knows what he/she's doing.

You don't have to listen to customer support BS either. You get to pick excatly what you want and You will be informed of quirks if any beforehand. So, it might be a good idea to press your case with the client.

 

[yo4444]

Understood, as I have bought quite a few thing off the forums here myself.. in fact, I am unpacking one of them now. I will try to convince him, but it will be a hard sell considering he was going to go dell out of the box lowest price possible at first.

 

[brakezone]

yeah thats true it isn't really that much worse of value,

IMO the only reason to go socket 754 right now is if you want to save money by buying a cheap motherboard and cheap cpu. Essentially if your going to get a amd64 3000, you might as well buy a 80ish dollar socket 939 board too! The plus side to this is a pci express 6600 can be had for around 100 dollars which is much cheaper than its agp counterpart and performs great i'm sure with a amd 64 3000 and duel channel mode.

you could get this system all from newegg

amd64 939 3000= 150$
ECS nforce 4 board =76$
leadtek geforce 6600 = 109$
cheapo case w psu= 40$
512mb geil value 2X256= 57$
dvd burner =50$
hard drive=80$

562$

I think that would be a killer system for the price

 

[yo4444]

Keep in mind shipping, and I would need a 939 HS for that OEM cpu. Also, one of those cheap cases with crap Psu would be fine, if I could rely on that PSU living with that power draw. Think it'd hold up? From what I understand, (feedback here basically) nothing less than a fortron 420 or so would do the job.

Also, aren't the 939's dual channel? Or would the single stick 512 be ok? Oh, isnt 754 single channel? I could probably get away with single stick there though.. hadnt thought of that. Had my estimate at 2X256

 

[Jotolicious]

yah i don't think 754 has dual channel.

 

[brakezone]

amd64 939 3200 retail= 191$
ECS nforce 4 board =76$
leadtek geforce 6600 = 109$
antec case w 350 psu= 59$
512mb geil value 2X256= 57$
dvd burner =50$
hard drive=80$

622$ and I think that has everything?

I know its a tad over budget, you could probably drop the price more in a few areas,

1. cheaper hard drives exist that still have a decent amount of storage capacity

2. pci express 6200's can shave off a few more dollars
3. get the amd64 3000 for 150 and buy a 20 dollar heatsink.
4. cheaper case psu combo
That way you could bring it down I estimate to around 540-570 dollars.

 

[Silver]

Get the DFI mobo, hands down at $105 shipped. Hands down best board.

http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/produ...3-136-147&ATT=Motherboards&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch

Keep an eye on Newegg refurbed for WD 80 GB 7200 8 meg cache drives for $38. Bought one there a couple weeks ago (using it now) and they had a bunch of them at that time.

 

[brakezone]

they won't be overclocking the system so I don't know if getting the DFI would really help them. he could get a socket 939 board for cheaper that is made for regular non-oc use. My whole argument is based upon the fact that if he goes socket 939 route he can use pci-express, which will allow him to purchase a card like a 6600 for much cheaper than if he buys a AGP motherboard.

 

[fldrice]

CHAINTECH VNF3-250 Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 -$78.00 shipped
AMD Athlon 64 2800+ Newcastle -$110.00 shipped
Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR400(PC3200) -$110.90
NEC ND-3520A Silver IDE DVD Burner -$60.95 shipped
SkyHawk MSR4610 Silver 1.2mm Aluminum ATX Mini Server Case -$34.99 +ship
SPARKLE FSP350-60BN -$15.99
So far $410.83...all you have to do is add a vid card and a HD.

 

[Silver]

And you are of course so right. My apologies.

they won't be overclocking the system so I don't know if getting the DFI would really help them. he could get a socket 939 board for cheaper that is made for regular non-oc use. My whole argument is based upon the fact that if he goes socket 939 route he can use pci-express, which will allow him to purchase a card like a 6600 for much cheaper than if he buys a AGP motherboard.

 

[Notorious Mike]

BIOSTAR "K8VGAM" VIA K8M800 -69$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-242&depa=0

AMD Athlon 64 2800+, 512KB L2 Cache, RETAIL 120$ (after all u still need a HSF)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-452&depa=1

2 x pqi POWER Series 184-Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail -98$*
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-164&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD800JD, OEM Drive Only
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=22-135-106&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

Product total: $349.00
Shipping & Handling: $11.65
Total (Before tax): $360.65

*- One gig of ram is sorta high end, you can save roughly 50$ buy killing it to just 512

Video card is subjective, 80 gig HD should be enough. Still have to pick out a case, PSU, Vid card, and CD-Drive. I'd recommend takeing a look at the reviews for the motherboard for some guidelines.