good "best-bang-for-the-buck" system build

[enhanced]

my brother wants me to build him a decent gaming system for fairly cheap. all he needs is the tower, he's got a monitor/keyboard/mouse/etc from his current setup.

my idea was to get a 3800+ X2 and OC it. i should be able to get close 2.7Ghz if im lucky. throw in a gig or 2 of ram, a pretty quick sata drive (120-160GB or so maybe more depending on price) and something like an x1900 PCIe video card.

what should i do with the motherboard, what kind? whats good for a setup like this?

this is what i was looking at from newegg. what do ya think?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+(65W) Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO3800CZBOX
OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2G8002GK
HIS Hightech H195PRF512DDN-R Radeon X1950PRO 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card
DFI LANPARTY UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

i'll need to get some aftermarket HS/F as well. price without the HS/F is almost $600 + shipping. i can knock that down some by getting an OEM cpu, but hows that look? good, bad? is 2.7Ghz do-able? will it run games ok?

thanks

 

[JamesXP]

I'd go for a seagate 320GB HD and skip the lanparty board and get a biostar 7025 chipset board. Thats ram ain't the best crucial ballistix/G.SKill ram will do you well alos have you got a PSU?

 

[enhanced]

no, i hadnt looked at a PSU just yet. is the 320gb seagate faster or just better for the money? i picked the DFI just because i knew it was good, even if its got way more features than he would ever need/use. the biostar is probably a better option.

 

[White_Pawn]

E2140 or E2160. The E2160 will generally clock to 3.2ghz while the E2140 will clock to 3.0ghz.
Gigabyte P35 DS3L. Very good budget mobo.
your ram. prolly try to get some D9 ics.

That system, will overclock higher and perform way better than your X2 3800.

 

[shirker]

I'd also recommend against getting OCZ memory; they aren't as reliable and don't have the same quality as they used to. much better alternatives would be memory from crucial, patriot, or g.skill

If you want to go with an Intel build (personally, I would), the above parts are about equivalent to the AMD parts you picked in terms of price, but will definitely run faster than any comparably priced AMD system if you overclock

 

[PrometheuSBoxeR]

If Bang for Buck is your slogan,

Intel is definitly the way to go, I also agree with everyone you can get some really nice 2GB memory kits for under $80-90 these days. Fan boy or not, bang for buck has no bias Go with what preforms the best.

 

[enhanced]

alright, so i'll go with the intel for him.... whats a good psu for that cpu? does it need a lot of power? i've always been an AMD guy so i know little about Intel.

also what about a fast HDD? 160-200GB is about all he needs, but more speed is always nice.

 

[shirker]

alright, so i'll go with the intel for him.... whats a good psu for that cpu? does it need a lot of power? i've always been an AMD guy so i know little about Intel.

also what about a fast HDD? 160-200GB is about all he needs, but more speed is always nice.

you should be looking for a 450w-550w power supply from a reputable brand/manufacturer. I can't stress that enough. A budget intel dual core or core 2 duo and a x1950 will run stably on a good 450w PSU, like the corsair 450vx (although that just got pricy, there was a great deal before for $65). If you can stretch your/his budget, you can get a 620w Corsair 620HX from ClubIT for $110 that will last him through an upgrade to a quad core and a new nvidia 8800 or future 9800 card

I'd recommend a 250GB seagate 7200.10 for the HDD. it's a new revision of the 7200.10 drives and is rated to have faster transfer speeds. look for model number ST3250410AS (and only that model)

 

[1cem4n]

I'd also recommend against getting OCZ memory; they aren't as reliable and don't have the same quality as they used to. much better alternatives would be memory from crucial, patriot, or g.skill

If you want to go with an Intel build (personally, I would), the above parts are about equivalent to the AMD parts you picked in terms of price, but will definitely run faster than any comparably priced AMD system if you overclock

i've never heard of anybody having any bad experiences with OCZ Memory. could you link me to any proof?

 

[shirker]

i've never heard of anybody having any bad experiences with OCZ Memory. could you link me to any proof?

me, unfortunately
Had two kits both with one defective stick (read not working at all, wouldn't boot), RMAed them both, figured I'd give them one more go and I lucked out in getting a working kit. The catch? the third set they sent me couldn't run even .1v over their rating, let alone allow me to overclock. It's safe to say it was pretty crappy luck, but I'm not going to buy OCZ memory anytime soon

 

[White_Pawn]

i've never heard of anybody having any bad experiences with OCZ Memory. could you link me to any proof?

My memory has died on me. OCZ VX EL cold pc 3200. They really wouldn't do very much w/o 3.0v running through them. Kinda made me angry, as it killed on of my mobos.

However, i never learn my lesson, and i got a new pair of OCZ sysetm 1337s for my new conroe rig.

 

[djrussell]

i've got a set of 2x512 ocz platinum ddr2 pc-6400 that's running great. they're rated at 2.1v 4-5-4-15. i've set them to 4-4-4-12 (fully memtest-ed, zero errors) and am not done yet. they have a lifetime warranty that stays in effect even if you take them to 2.2 +5%. i wish i had gotten the 2x1024 set but they were too expensive not long ago.